REVIEWS 345 layperson alike. It would have enriched the experience of a visitor to the sensitive and imaginative exhibition at the Walter'smuseum. For those who could not be there, it offers an intellectuallyand artisticallysatisfyingwitness to the glory of medieval Novgorod. FiveColleges, University ofMassachusetts PRISCILLAHUNT Beumers, Birgit. NikitaMikhalkov: Between Nostalgia andNationalism. KINOfiles Filmmakers'Companion i. I. B.Tauris, London and New York, 2005. iX + 146 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography. I (paperback). IT is not an easy task to write a study on an artist who is still living and productive, and consequentlyreviews of any such studywill usuallybegin by defining it in terms of 'a worthy introduction'.Birgit Beumers'smonograph, the first in English on a figure who is undoubtedly one of the key Russian actors and directorsof the last thirtyyears, coincides with Fedor Razzakov's much more voluminous biography (NikitaMikhalkov: Chuzhoisredi svoikh, Moscow, 2005). Razzakov's is a standardchronology, an extremely detailed day-by-day account of Mikhalkov'scareer. Beumers'sbook is a much more concise but analytical study that focuses on the themes and motifs of Mikhalkov's films, especially those he has directed. It is, moreover, much more than any worthy introduction,as it offers so many penetratinginsights and conclusions that this reviewer can confidentlypredict that it will remain the definitive study for years to come (regardlessof whether Mikhalkovever directs another film). No stone is left unturnedas BeumerssurveysMikhalkov'scareer,beginning with his early acting roles as a teenager in the late I950S,and his firstmajor role in Daneliia's I963 film Ia shagaiu poMoskve, with his subsequentpopularity as an actor 'embodying the optimism of the late Thaw period' (p. i6). In her subsequentexplorationof his acting and in particularhis directingcareer, the authorjudiciously traces the evolution of Mikhalkov'sthematics. This is articulatedas the political ambivalence of his early films set in the Civil War years, the respectful'aestheticizationof life' in his literaryadaptationsof the late 1970s, the socially engaged pictures of modern urban life in the early I980s, the exploration of Russian identity through confrontation with a foreign culture that dominated his films of the glasnost' period and, finally, the unabashed nationalismof his post-Soviet films. Throughout this creativeevolution Beumersidentifiesa dominant, abiding theme: Mikhalkov'sneed to mythologize the realityhe recreates,whether this be the ideals of the Revolution, the Russian landscape of nineteenth-century literature, the superiorityof the Russian spirit over Western values, or the reinvigoratedpatriotismhe sees as essentialfor Russia'sfuture.Moreover, the author makes a telling point in identifyingthe shift in Mikhalkov'spatriotism in the post-Soviet period, where the concern for the 'Motherland' in his earlier films gives way to the concept of 'fatherland',with 'the filmmaker's obsession with himself as a father', and Mother Russia is replaced with 'a more masculine model of his homeland' (p. 121). 346 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 Beumers succeeds, therefore,in not only providinga thorough exploration of Mikhalkov's work, but also in getting to the heart of Mikhalkov as a filmmaker (if not exactly a thinker).In quoting both foreign and domest.ic reviewsof his films, she quietlydebunkshis self-appointedstatusas saviourof the nation. This is, therefore, an excellent study of one of Russia'smajor filmmakers, and provides not only a clear-eyed analysis of Mikhalkov's themes and preoccupations,but also castsmuch revelatorylight on Soviet and post-Soviet film production. There are also some entertainingconclusions about Russian intellectual snobbery, especially with regard to the critical rejection of his films:'it [Burnt bytheSun]is not made for an elite audience, and thereforeit is despised by the Russian intelligentsia'(p. II4).A few factual errorsmay jar (theformerPrimeMinisterStepashinis referredto as Stepanov,and it was the Supreme Soviet of the RussianFederation,not the Duma, that was disbanded by El'tsin in 1993), but they take nothing away from what is otherwise an exemplary study. Department ofEuropean Studies andModern Languages DAVID GILLESPIE University ofBath The 'Histoy'of LeotheDeacon: Byzantine Militay Expansion in theTenthCentury. Introduction, translation and annotations by Alice-Mary Talbot and Dennis F. Sullivan with the assistance of George T. Dennis and StamatinaMcGrath. Dumbarton Oaks ResearchLibraryand Collection, Washington,D.C., 2005. xix + 264 pp. Notes. Genealogicaltables.Maps. Bibliography.Indexes. $45.00. HISTORIANS of the Middle Byzantine period have long been aware of the importance...