Although at the end of the Karlovy Vary film festival filmmakers from Hollywood took priority, 40-year- old Oleg Menshikov didn't get lost among them. The hero of Nikita Mikhalkov's "Burnt By The Sun" and "The Barber Of Siberia", as well as the Russian part of the French film "East-West", arrived for a short time: before the closing ceremony he named the most elegant actress of the festival - Teresa Brodska - and yesterday left for Moscow.

- Is it true that the second part of Oscar-winning "Burnt By The Sun" is planned to be shot? Did that Oscar award influence your career?
- The project "Burnt By The Sun II" really exists, the events will take place during WWII. Nikita Mikhalkov is writing a screenplay. As for me, I get the variety of offers, but 80 percent of them don't interest me - those are films, neither cinema nor me need. And about the Oscar award received for the best foreign film, I really don't know whether I gained anything from it.

- However, people must have been jealous, haven't they?
- I got used to it. If they are jealous, that's their problem. And everyone should solve his problems all by himself.

- Regis Wargnier, the director of "East-West" called you a true type of a star - mysterious, unapproachable, delicate, reserved. Are you really like that or is it just a way to protect your privacy?
- I guess, I am really like that. I don't intend to spend my life on creating an image. If I did it, I'd stop being an actor. I don't do anything just to show off, I try to be honest with myself, at least as much as I can. I don't demonstrate any mystery or make up any myth. My life is my and my relatives' business; I don't want everybody to meddle with it.

- This time you arrived not to present a film, now you are a representative of the Longines Company. Aren't you reproached that being such a famous actor and the Laurence Olivier award winner you give you name and face for advertising?
- I won't say I don't care at all about other people's opinions. However, I think the most indignant ones are those who would love to trade places with me. Certainly, everyone starts thinking about money immediately. One friend of mine joked that for the first time in her life she envied an actor. Nevertheless, it is not a usual one-time advertising action; I became a representative of this company in several countries for a certain period. I wanted to do it - this is my life and I handle it myself.

- After the film "The Barber Of Siberia", which was partially shot in Prague, director Nikita Mikhalkov was reproached for idealizing Russian history. He defended himself saying he portrayed not the real Russia, but Russia the way it should be. What do you think about it?
- I agree with Mikhalkov, and not because I acted in the film. He had a goal to create the Russia of his dream and he made it, and he made it well, which is very important. Artists should be criticized in accordance with laws of art and the tasks they've prescribed themselves. In Mikhalkov's case, everyone forgets about it. He wanted an opera - he made an opera. To cut it short, I am on his side, and he can defend himself much better.

- What do you think the Russian cinema needs more than anything else now? Movie theatres? Money? Ideas? Viewers?
- The first answer to come is money, but I think, we need ideas more. Money is important, of course, but it is not enough to have only money. I can confess you about myself - if I, Oleg Menshikov, wanted to invest in the Russian cinema now, I am afraid, there would not be even five directors I could entrust my money to. Yes, new ideas are necessary, but I don't know when they'll appear.