Crappy film

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

after its end, the only strange remains the source of his seduction. sure, it is a Mikhalkov film, the meeting between Mastroianni and Smoktunovsky is a happy event, the favorite of Fellini does an admirable job, the old text of Chekov has new nuances but each new explanation is far to be enough. the secret could be the strange status of story. it seems be well known. it could be a story about yourself. the emotion becomes profound scene by scene. the feelings about poor lead hero are ambiguous more and more. the virtue of film - it presents not only a touching story but an expected one. a film about life, errors, hopes and regrets.confession of an Italian full of authentic Russian states of soul. and that is the key - except Mastroianni, nobody can act his character. except Mikhalkov, nobody can give the air of familiarity to a strange story like that. a seductive film. but the roots of its seduction are so profound presented in its viewer experiences....

I wouldn't add anything more than what these brilliant reviewers above have already written about this stunning film.Here are a few words to say that despite incomprehension I have seen in several Western European countries — but Italian — movie theaters, I do think that "Очи чёрные / Occhi neri" is one of the three best films Mikhalkov has ever directed, together with "Utomlyonnye solntsyem" and "Urga" — if I can judge fairly, as I have seen absolutely all (but one: Утомлённые солнцем 2 - предстояние) his films (sometimes in different versions), including the short films he wrote and shot during his studies.And, of course I wouldn't like to forget to mention the performance of those marvelous actors: Innokentiy M. Smoktunoskij, Marthe Keller and Yelena V. Safonova.

An Italian who cannot afford to take anything seriously (as by now he is little more than an ornament in the life of his countess wife) meets a young, married Russian woman at a spa, where she is alone (and living on short funds). Not meaning to, he causes her to fall in love with him (rather than simply to bed him, as would be the usage at the spa). He realizes this when she returns to Russia and her husband. He then sets out on the one serious undertaking of his life, meeting her again in Russia. For her part, she has realized that he could only be what he is, and in any case she lives as a correct married lady. So the enterprise leads to nothing -- except that the Italian loses the taste for standing for his wife's husband, and winds up, appropriately, as a waiter on a ferry. Extremely memorable.

At first it seemed a terribly slow start. This was exacerbated by our mistaken notion that "Oci Ciornie" was just another title for "Urga" - we kept wondering when and how they would ever get to Mongolia in that boat!However, once we'd determined the actual story line the dilatory beginning seemed somehow apropos. Did Mikhalkov really mean to show us the emptiness of adultery? Or is he just an astute observer of the human condition? The parallels to the 1960 B&W "Lady with the Dog" (Russian) were striking. Especially the watermelon scene. But "Dark Eyes" takes the story further and carries the theme to its logical conclusion. My daughters hated it - they prefer stories of fidelity. But I did think it was refreshing for a film to come nearer the truth for a change. Adultery is not that fulfilling.