Cinema: Silent Comedy

A SLAVE OF LOVE

Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

Screenplay by Friedrich Gorenstein and Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky

If A Slave of Love had been made in France, it would not hold too many surprises: the movie is yet another variation on that most imitated of film classics, Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. But A Slave of Love comes from the Soviet Union, not France, and that single fact casts the film in a startling light. It isn't often that the Soviets export movies that aim to be lyrical, sentimental and commercial. One could sooner imagine...