ABSTRACT
For its 2009 New Year’s episode, the Channel One comedy show Bol’shaia raznitsa [Big Difference] aired a parody of Nikita Mikhalkov. Billed as a “New Year’s address to the Russian people,” the short segment mocked the Oscar-winning director’s celebrity status. The actor Aleksei Fedotov, who played Mikhalkov, appeared dressed as a medieval tsar complete with the Cap of Monomakh (Shapka Monomakha). First wishing “the people” hello and asking God to bless them, “Mikhalkov” commented that the past year had not been a good one for Russian cinema because there were “very few good films, mostly because I took a break.” Even worse, the American Academy had failed to award “our Russian film” 12 an Oscar, clearly a blow to Russian national pride and a slight that led “Mikhalkov” to threaten in English, “I will break your smelly asses” if “you don’t give me an Oscar.” Filmed against a Kremlin backdrop, Mikhalkov’s “address” to the people resembled a Soviet-era broadcast despite the director’s autocratic costume and shameless promotion of his post-Soviet film to his fans.2 The parody neatly packages all the contradictions within Mikhalkov’s celebrity status.
