A Beginner's Guide to Soviet Fantasy Cinema
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ก.ค. 2024
- This video serves as a beginner’s guide to fantasy films made in the Soviet Union. Filmmakers discussed include Aleksandr Rou, Aleksandr Ptushko, and Lev Atamanov.
You can watch my beginner’s guide to Soviet animated cinema here:
• A Beginner's Guide to ...
or my video on Soviet science fiction films here:
• A Beginner's Guide to ...
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0:00 Intro/Aleksandr Rou
9:37 Aleksandr Ptushko
15:51 Mark Zakharov/etc.
18:17 Tolkien
19:35 Animation - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
A little sidenote: mockery of the elite, although most likely endorsed and influenced by the communist/socialist culture at the time, was mostly taken 1 to 1 from the source material - the fairy tales and folklore, and parallels with, for example, Pushkin's fairy tales' characters could easily be seen.
Слабые и глупые цари или короли не такая уж сказка. История знает примеры когда изза вырождения корону получали больные, слабовольные и глупые представители монархического рода.
@@user-nm1gj4qn6w обстоятельства, когда власть в обществе получают не отборные люди, а случайные, сами по себе способствует вырождению. И Советы эту базу поменяли на "равные возможности для всех" - в итоге из сельскохозяйственной страны, дважды разрушенной, создали передовую космическую сверхдержаву. Так что правы были и большевики, и народ, которые высмеивали "элитку по праву рождения"
I will add that "The Golden Key" is sort of based on Pinocchio, but not exactly. It's based off of a 1936 book called "The Golden Key" but also known as "The Adventures of Buratino". The book was written by Aleksey Tolstoy as a kind of retelling of Pinocchio for a Soviet readership. I do remember enjoying the 1939 version however, it was fun.
Who do they call him?
Bu!
Ra!
Ti!
No!
Buratino!
where "burattino" is Italian word for "puppet"
It's funny that so many classic pieces of literature of the 20th century were not just translated, but adapted with many different changes in the USSR. Pinocchio became Buratino, The Wizard of Oz was adapted as The Wizard of Emerald City, and Dr. Dolittle as Dr. Aibolit. What's even more interesting, is that the majority of Russian speaking people know these adaptations very well but may have no clue about the source material. Everyone in post-USSR countries knows the story of Dr. Aibolit, but almost no one has heard anything about Dr. Dolittle
There's also "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp" (1967 film), an absolute jem and one of my favorites.
I come from East Germany and Russian/Soviet fairy tales were very popular there. It is still a tradition for me to watch old fairy tales from there at Christmas. I really like the well-designed stage set and also the special effects, even if they are now outdated.
"Mach mit, Mach’s nach, Mach’s besser!" - I'm really miss that show, that spirit. Adi was great! Best wishes from Siberia!
Интересно а в ГДР снимали какие то свои фильмы в жанре фэнтези или экранизации народного фольклёра ?
@@user-nm1gj4qn6w точно видел какой-то фильм, то ли советско-немецкий, то ли советско-норвежский - уже не сказка, а фэнтези. совсем плохо помню, но там по-моему у героя вырезали деревню и он пошёл путешествовать по свету. сняли где-то в 80х
@@user-nm1gj4qn6wконечно, очень много фильмов-сказок от студии Дефа, например Госпожа Метелица.
@@ThelIHTCIl"И на камнях растут деревья" называется. Но это драма. Достойный фильм, советую посмотреть. Сам недавно пересматривал. Помню в детстве смотрел, название в голову врезалось как устойчивое выражение.
The fun thing is that the live action version of the Astrid Lindgren Mio my Mio from 1987, was shot in Soviet, it was actually the first acting job of Christian Bale as JumJum, and Christoffer Lee himself played the main villian, the evil knight Cato, who litteraly had a heart of stone.
История создания этого фильма не менее захватывающая чем сам фильм.
In terms of special effects, The Golden Key (1939) is mind blowing. Not only do you have a variety of effects used like masks and costumes, stop motion, forced perspective and more, they’re also incredibly well done for the time.
The scenes with stop motion characters interacting with live action ones are especially mind boggling. As an English speaking animation fan and aspiring animator, it was nailed into my head from so many animation history books, video essays and documentaries that Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) was the first full length animation/live action hybrid movie to truly perfect cartoons interacting with real people. Meanwhile, in Golden Key, you’ve got stop motion characters seamlessly interacting with live actors with matching eye-lines and all like it’s nothing! In the 1930s!
How this film isn’t at least a prominent footnote in the history of animation as special effects in cinema is a mystery to me. It deserves way more attention from English speaking cinephiles.
I recommend you to watch Mystery of the third planet (Тайна третьей планеты), Adventures of captain Vrungel (Приключения капитана Врунгеля) and Treasure island (Остров сокровищ). They are the most iconic soviet animation films and they are very unique and inspiring.
Потому что его сделали русские, поэтому и не занял.
@@Nevazno463 да... советское наследие тщательно вычищается из памяти, *история переписывается.* До сих пор помню, как пару лет назад что-ли, день космонавтики (в честь первого полёта Юрия Гагарина в космос) поздравляли в НАСА, а на обложке был скафандр с американским флагом. Натянули сову на глобус... Всё равно что евреям на Хануку дарить открытки с Гитлepoм
@@Nevazno463 Ерунды не неси. Броненосец "Потёмкин", Человека с киноаппаратом, из анимации - Снежную Королеву и Ёжика в тумане знают и изучают во многих странах. Кстати, срежиссировал его украинец Птушко, а музыку написал еврей Шварц. Это к вопросу о "русских".
You must watch the Soviet Jungle Book called "Mowgli". Bagheera's character animation is incredible. Soviet animators managed to show femininity (in the Soviet version Bagheera is a female character, which is caused by the perception of the name Bagheera in Russian) and even some sexuality in the cat's movements.
Когда я впервые смотрел американский мультфильм про Маугли я не сразу мог понять в дубляже, Багира там самец или самка. В мультике есть эпизод где Багира пытается втолковать весельчаку Балу почему Маугли нужно вернутся в свою стаю. Багира говорит; Ну ведь пантеры не выходят замуж за медведей. На что Балу отшучивается; ну мне пока что ни одна пантера предложения не делала.
One of the most beautifully animated cartoons imho
It's also one of the bloodiest Mowgli adaptations, which is kinda crazy for a cartoon. But I loved it as a kid
Soviet furries
And of course this comment comes from a poster with a fox avatar.
Так необычно смотреть видео про те фильмы, которые я смотрела будучи ребёнком. Даже не знаю, что думают все те, кто не рос в странах СНГ, и не смотрел эти произведения.
Это может показаться странным, но именно благодаря версиям, дублированным во Франции (следовательно, на французском языке), я смог посмотреть некоторые из этих фильмов в Канаде. Конечно, у нас, взрослых, другая точка зрения, если бы мы смотрели эти фильмы, когда были маленькими, но они остаются прекрасным кинематографическим наследием!
(спасибо Google Translate за то, что я могу писать по-русски!) 😉😊
Я в детстве пропустил большую их часть и впервые увидев некоторые отрезки в этом видео был поражён качеством постановки, эффектами и актёрской игрой. В детстве воспринимал это как примитивные спектакли для детей, а на деле многие их этих фильмов даже сейчас могут удивить, как минимум с технической точки зрения.
I never knew how good Soviet cinema was. Thanks.
Thank you for shining light on the world of Soviet fantasy and folklore cinema, which is mostly unknown in the West! A few additions/clarifications:
02:52 - Baba Yaga was Georgy Millyar's most iconic role which he played in many movies, and which as you might have noticed a rather rare at the time case of a man playing a female character (that was surprisingly more common in the USSR for some reason). Millyar was a very talented actor but unfortunately did not have a pretty face (to put it politely). Instead of lamenting that fact, he made it his signature and played the villains in numerous adaptations of Russian folklore, which ironically made him a much-beloved actor of Soviet children - far better known and loved than the main characters of these movies.
11:14 - The reason that the Golden Key is quite different from other adaptations of Pinocchio, is that it is not a direct adaptation of Pinocchio. I know most sources in English state that it is, but that's wrong. The movie is an adaptation of a popular soviet fairy tale called "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino" by Soviet author Alexei Tolstoy, which is itself a "literary treatment" of Pinocchio; a sort-of adaptation of the fairy tale for a soviet audience with numerous changes. Such literary treatments were not unusual in the Soviet Union; another famous example would be "The Wizard of the Emerald City" by Alexander Volkov - a literary treatment of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".
15:48 - Some of Mark Zakharov's films mentioned here like "An Ordinary Miracle", "To Kill a Dragon" and a movie that wasn't mentioned "The Shadow" are adaptions of plays by the probably most underrated soviet author in existence - Evgeny Schwartz. His works are really hard to categorize as fantasy; they are more of a deeply philosophical political satire that uses the vehicle of fairy tales. If you can only take one thing from my comment, please read a translation of his play "The Dragon" or at least watch Zkharov's movie adaptation "To Kill a Dragon", as it is the most insightful and thought-provoking political satire I have ever read/watched. "The Very Same Munchhausen" and "The House that Swift Built" are also works of philosophical and political satire. "Formula of Love" is also very similar but a bit more down-to-earth, still being very much a satirical comedy but slightly less philosophical. So, I really don't know about categorizing any of those movies as fantasy. Either way, they are all very solid recommendations if you can find a translation, and especially if you know Russian as much of the wordplay, wit, and humor in those movies is very difficult to translate.
I'd also like to mention two fairy tale authors whose works were frequently adapted into both live-action and animated features in the Soviet Union since none of those were mentioned in the video. One is the obscure 19th-century German author Wilhelm Hauff who wrote Arabian Nights-inspired fairy tales. Live-action adaptions of his works include "The Legend of the Icy Heart" (1958), "Kalif Storch" (1968), "Little Longnose" (1970), "A Fairy Tale Told at Night" (1981), "The Adventures of Little Muk" (1984) and others. The second author is the Italian Children's author Gianni Rodari, well-liked in the Soviet Union for being a prominent communist with a lot of communist propaganda included in his fairy tales. His two most famous works adapted into live-action are "Chipollino/The Little Onion" (1973) and "The Miracle Voice of Gelsomino" (1978). A very popular animated version of Chipollino was produced as well.
For the heck of it, I'll also mention the 1966 movie "The Three Fat Men" which is an adaption of a fairy tale by Yury Olesha. It has some similarities with Chipollino, both being very unsubtle communist propaganda for children yet also fun fairy tales which I have a strange nostalgia for.
Great references indeed! Отлично сказано!
I don't agree that Evgeny Schwartz is an underrated writer. Many of his plays were staged in theaters and screened during the Soviet era.
I disagree with term propaganda, it’s the way we lived, chose to live, in equality and friendship with the people of the world. Communism isn’t propaganda it’s a way of life!
13:30 Tugars are a reference not just to the Mongols, but to nomads in general. Polovtsians, Pechenegs, Khazars, Torks. The inhabitants of Rus experienced frequent raids from the great steppe by various nomadic peoples
Cossacks too?
@@dubuyajay9964 no. Cossacks were semi-independent armed settlers, which lived on the southern border of Russia and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They appeared in 16th century and weren't nomads.
@@dubuyajay9964 Cossacks are rather people who got out of the feudal system, becoming an intermediate class, adopting the lifestyle of nomads(partially while maintaining the features of a sedentary lifestyle, depending on the territory), while being a considerable number of Slavs and a bunch of other nationalities including the Turks.
The Cossacks were a kind of inhabitants of poorly controlled territories, so they led a lifestyle atypical for the feudal era. Therefore, serfs or even nobles often fled to the territory of the Don Cossacks because here you can hide from old enemies or friends and it is unclear who you had to fear more
If look for comparison in Western hemisphere, cossacks were buccaneers of the steppes - a community of outlaws settled at the edge of established states under a crude constitution of their own
Cumans, not "polovtsians"
It's funny when you show "Jack Frost" you use the version that airs every Christmas on Czech commercial TV Nova.😅
and "Mama" aka "Rock'n'roll wolf" is a thing in Norway, somehow
It looks more like Santa Claus than a Jack Frost
One of the finest episodes of MST3K.
@@shirleymaemattthews4862Дед Мороз - наш Санта Клаус
@vinnynj78 my first experience with both Mst3k and russian cinema. Glorious
You also need to know that this is not all of the Soviet fairy tale movies and cartoons, but this is a very good basis for immersing yourself into the genre.
Funny thing about Sadko was that it was presented in America as Sindbad. 😂 Im not joking this was a real thing.
Может Роджер Корман украл своетский фильм "Садко" и переозвучил его в Синдбада. Читал я что Корман и Коппола в молодости занимались таким. Украли советский фильм "Планета бурь" и переделали его в "Планета доисторических женщин".
Me: know these films by heart since childhood.
Also me: watching the beginner's guide.
(excellent video essay!! It’s interesting to see the history of this genre from the beginning. And your immersion in a foreign culture is impressive)
Glad you enjoyed it!
same!
You should add "the magic lamp of Aladdin" and 1947 Cinderella to your list. Both are fantastic, with lots of wit and grace.
The Russian version of "The Snow Queen" was *excellent* in my never-to-be-humble opinion. I thought it was superb, _vastly_ superior to that dumb "Frozen" movie and for years I've wished that Criterion or somebody would do an 'official' restoration of the movie, re-release it on BluRay or 4K or whatever, with a decent translation with subtitles. I would *_LOVE LOVE LOVE_* it if they ever did.
I also loved the Russian animated version, when I saw it in a movie theater around 1960.
And the art style of this version Snow Queen kinda influenced anime a lot. Hayao Miyazaki even said that was the catalyst for him to became an animator.
@@stepmi Yeah, I can see that; the title character alone definitely has an 'Anime' look to her.
@@Sassyjass2012 I remember watching it on TV a lot when I was a kid. One of my local stations would often show it around the holidays (usually Thanksgiving or whatever.) That & "Alakazam the Great" (or "Saiyuki" to use its original title) were 2 of the more offbeat animated films that I always looked forward to around the holidays.
I always loved this actor playing the Baba Jaga (Georgi Milljar).
Если бы Александр Роу снимал "Властелин колец" то Георгий Милляр сыграл бы там Голлума.
Без сомнения ! 😄@@user-nm1gj4qn6w
It's insane to think about how the insanely crude and low budget Lord of the Rings adaptations of the Soviet Union are still more enjoyable than the Rings of Power that had *ONE BILLION DOLLARS* poured into it.
Это было шоу для ТВ, так называемый телеспектакль.
Because they were made with love, while DEM RANGZ OF POWAH were made with a bad political/ social message.
I wish people would stop talking about it. It was a filmed theatrical play that was shown once on one regional channel. I guarantee to you that more foreigners know about it than anyone in the former USSR.
Hobbit adaptation is not even a movie in a full sense. It's one issue of a weekly TV show for children. I liked this show a lot when was a child. Its point was not a cinematography, but theatrical presentation of the story.
Thanks very much for this video that brings back memories! In the 70s a few of the films of Aleksandr Rou were shown on tv in Canada (originally they were dubbed in french for France’s audiences). Ten years ago I was able to find on dvd some of those films. It’s interesting to note that they had multi language options. For Aleksandr Ptushko I only saw the film from 1966 (Skazka o tsare Saltane). All those movies have a value if you like Russian folklore.
Great video. The golden key was based on a book of the same name, and had an animated movie as well as another live action adaptation in the 70s which had a lot of singing and was by far the most popular of all. Despite being a retelling of Pinocchio, thematically its practically the opposite of it as Buratino's rebellious attitude and dislike of authority is what saves his father and wins him friends, which was in line with soviet writers agenda, as they saw treatment of kids as incomplete adults as bourgeois, and sought to celebrate childhood and portray kids as heroes.
I loved "To Kill a Dragon", especially the character of the Mayor. He was the perfect sleazy self serving politician.
Thank you for this! I only know the movies from MST3k...so I guess the algorithm is kinda working for once. It's so great to learn more about these films not just as a joke. You have a new subscriber from me.
This looks mad interesting.
I watched a lot of films you are talking about as a kid but I never ever heard about Soviet Tolkien adaptations 😮 That's something to explore further!
Ты наверно и не слышал об украинской адаптации Толкиена в фильме «Кольца Всевластья» (на Украине шёл под названием «Сьомий перстень чаклунки») 1998 г.
If you are into Sci fi you have got to read some Soviet Sci Fi. TH-cam has an Audio book version of Roadside Picnic which is an absolute masterpiece 👍
Could you make a video analysis on the movies/films and TV series/shows by Václav Vorlíček? I loved "Arabela" (1979) and lots of his other works and it seems so underrated and unknown still in english areas.
Fascinating introduction to a heritage too little known among Anglophone audiences. Most of the titles and directors cited here were new to me, and I'm impressed by how many fantasy films were produced in the Soviet Union, given the strictures of Socialist Realism that governed the arts there for so long. Even with their ideological agendas, these films come across as some of the most directly appealing productions from the era, colorful fantasy and even folklore often transcending cultural barriers.
The one Soviet fantasy film I've actually seen from beginning to end (via TH-cam), was a 1947 version of Cinderella ('Zolushka'), directed by Nadezhda Kosheverova and Mikhail Shapiro to a script by Yevginiy Shvarts, and it's remarkable how even in the depths of Stalinism, such a bright and delightful creative vision could have been brought to Soviet screens. This is clearly an area that looks very rewarding for future exploration.
You can't imagine how pleasant these words. Thank you so much:)
Man oh man, you, as most of your western colleagues, have zero knowledge about so called "soviet realism" and all the stuff. You were preconditioned your whole life and still think you know about soviets more than soviets themselves. Don't you ever tried to overcome narratives and educate yourself independently? Have you ever tried to learn the very basics of russian language and their culture?
They're mostly fairytales with morals used to teach growing up generations morals and culture. Their primary target audience is kids at the age of about 7-14 years. The USSR produced lot of high quality professional made culture especially for kids as a target audience. If it wasn't for planned economy, we would never see anything close made not for "family use", but for primarily, kids.
Stalin actually called extreme realists who denied the importance of fairytale idiots and promoted the use of folk culture a lot. You see folk culture of different soviet republics in films and even more in cartoons, also as decorative elements in fashion or architecture.
Stalin also preferred things traditional, decorated and festive, not plain, his aesthetics are definitely compatible with fairytale/fantasy. I believe that there are actually fairytale/fantasy plots that can be filmed around actual Stalinist architecture, no one would notice anything wrong.
The main principles of social realism is comprehensibility of the things depicted to an average Joe and socialist commentary on social problems and morals. Fantasy isn't necessarily against them. Think of depicting an evil lich king as your villain. He's obviously evil and overthrowing a tyrant is socialist.
12:35 The bird with a woman's head is called a Sirin Bird, it's a traditional mystical Russian folk creature, borrowed from the siren of the Greek mythology
I remember seeing Ruslan and Lyudmila at a film festival around 1973. The giant talking rock was very impressive on the big screen and the whole film was vividly colourful, something not evident in this collection, since a lot of fading seems to have occurred in the ensuing decades.
I suspect Russia doesn't make the finances available to provide restoration to its archival works or perhaps just lacks the inclination, which is a shame. That said, Mosfilm (which has a TH-cam channel) does have a good selection of historic films that are worth viewing, most of which are subtitled.
The 1970s seemed to see better funding for historic, folkloric and fantasy screen tales and consequently there were films of much higher technical quality emerging. I cannot remember the titles of them now, but do remember enjoying a number that received screenings at film festivals throughout the Seventies. All sumptuously coloured and costumed and well acted with superb cinematography.
The country has a huge wealth of folklore to draw on and with writers like Gogol, Pushkin, Chekhov, and folklorist Alexandar Afanasyev, and the artistic talents of illustrators such as Ivan Biliban, there is certainly no lack of creative inspiration.
One of the most important Soviet fantasy movies is "The Story of Voyages" by Alexander Mitta (1983) which features beautiful music of Alfred Schnittke. This movie is really dark and traumatised me as a kid but it's beautiful, nevertheless. The main character is played by ingenious Andrei Mironov.
Я понимаю ваши впечатления. Этот фильм режисёр явно снимал не как сказку для детей а скорее как философскую драму. А вообще в 80х годах при Горбачёве много снимали мрачного кино которое обыватели прозывали "чернухой".
I love your channel so much, I always get new stuff to watch
Thanks for all the detailed information on Soviet Fantasy Cinema. I have the 1957 Snow Queen DVD, and remember a movie where a wind demon blows all the tables and benches out of a banquet hall.
That's probably from the Ilya Muromets movie. The character isn't really a wind demon, it's a character called Solovey Razboynik (literal translation: Nightingale the Robber) who is a notorious and dangerous bandit in Russian folklore and epic poetry. He is a man but he does have some clearly supernatural powers, like controlling the wind with his whistles.
Only here thanks to those Mystery Science Theater 300 episodes that riffed some of these films like "Jack Frost", The Day the Earth Froze and "The Sword and the Dragon". Great to learn the history of these amazing fantasy films.
20:22 I used to love the animated Snow White series. It was my first introduction to Gerda's journey to save her ice pricked love. A pity too many now love Frozen more. I don't mind Frozen, but too many don't know the original tale.
Great summary, thanks for this video!
I'm a long time movie nerd. Since childhood. The two biggest films that I watched when I was a very young child and had the most impact on me. Made such an impression on me were Gremlins and Terminator 2: Judgement day. Around 97 I began to get more and more into horror movies and overall exploring more and more movies that I had never seen before. Going through my grandfather's Beta and VHS collection. For 2 decades, I've largely been in a retro bubble; specifically 70's and 80's movies. I've also become a fan of italian cinema; Italian horror cinema more specifically. Was never really too big into asian cinema but I've enjoyed a few. More recently I've gotten more and more into exploring French cinema, silent films from the 1920's, and Soviet cinema.
So far, I've only seen Viy, Savage Hunt of King Stakh, Carnival night, The night before Christmas, Jack Frost, and The snow queen.
Next year I plan on watching Solaris.
So cool to see somebody made this and actually cares about these movies.
Viy, I was very disappointed by. Watched it while eating Russian/Ukraine candy. Was just far too comedic, which is fine. I like horror comedies, but this was far more comedy then horror and overall was very disapponted. I liked Savage hunt of King Stakh. I didn't love it, but was still good. Carnival night....the comedy didn't work for me. Loved the 1960's Soviet aesthetic. The songs were good. The comedy was hit or miss. Mostly miss. The best joke in the movie is when the party organizer simply doesn't get the appeal of clowns lol. In that movie the party organizer is heavily mocked. Seen by everyone as "The guy who is gonna ruin everything." The night before Christmas. Again, was not a fan. Jack Frost, was alright. The snow queen, the live action movie, that was pretty damn good.
Thanks for your life story
Hot damn that unearthed so many buried memories from my childhood 😅
Wonderful as always
Mark Zakharov's films are absolute gems, especially That Very Same Munchausen and To Kill a Dragon. The dialogue is full of iconic phrases that are endlessly quotable.
"Smile, gentlemen. Most of the greatest stupidities in the world are done with serious faces. So smile, gentlemen."
"All love is legal if it's love".
"He left his wife alone with a kid!" - "Who are you calling a kid? I'm an officer!" - "He left his wife alone with an officer..."
Zolushka (1947) by Nadezhda Kosheverova and Mikhail Shapiro is my favorite 😍
Thank you SO MUCH for this!!!
A lot of these older and especially for kids made Fairy tale Movies were widespread all over the "behind the iron courtain" countries in the past. And in Germany at least, some of these Movies are shown on a regular basis.
The Dragon with the 3 heads is named Gorinych which is a legendary floklore figure like the Baba Yaga and the never dying Skeleton dude.
Змей Горыныч, баба Яга, Кощей Бессмертный
Damn, all my childhood memories came back, maybe i need to rewatch some of them, thanks man
I was watching this on my tv and my cat started to watch the tv as well. This channel is cat approved.
Oh, that's a good video. But it's a pity that you missed the great movie "A Tale of Wanderings\Skazka stranstviy" 1983 About a girl who tries to save her brother who feels gold from bandits
Этот фильм не относится к сказкам а скорее авторское кино.
I want a video about soviet horror films.
There were almost none. The most famous films that I know are the closest to the concept of horror in the USSR
this is "viy" 1967. briefly, a student of the theological seminary is forced to sing a funeral service for 3 days by a witch who was killed and who is trying to take revenge on him in the process. Another film is "dogs" 1989. briefly, a film in the genre is also a post-apocalypse. People are fighting man-eating dogs in conditions that are more like Western movies near the drying sea
Savage Hunt of King Stakh is one I've seen. I liked it more then Viy, Viy was too comedic. Savage hunt is a serious soviet horror film.
"Господин оформитель" or "Mister Decorator" 1988 is a good example of mystic horror movies.
Советских фильмов ужасов совсем мало. Но я тебе могу посоветовать некоторые. К примеру "Господин оформитель" , "Слеза князя тьмы", "Голова профессора Доуля", "День гнева".
Oh. Childhoods memories:) These films are called Fairy Tales in Russian btw;)
amazing video!!
I just realised that "fire, water and brass pipes" is a lyric in the chechen war era song "a light flashes in the dark"
It's a common expression. "Brass pipes" mean brass musical instruments, such as trumpets and horns. The point of this expression is that someone must go through 3 tests - test by water, fire, and then glorifying
Wow! It is so awesome to listen about movies of my childhood but on English ❤❤❤ thank you 🙏
2:47 this is very reminiscent (in a good way!) of Die Nibelungen from FritzLang, 1924. Loved this movie, makes me want to check out Rou! great vid :D
Fascinating background to the genre.
I find that the best way to describe Alexander Rou's style to a foreigner is this: take Tim Burton, strip him of all his dark and Gothic sensibilities and replace them with whimsy and bright colours.
Would be fun to see some of these at a film festival weekend
Oddly enough, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 introduced me to some of these films via their riffing and inspired me to find the originals to watch on my own time. Sampo ("The Day the earth Froze"), Morozko ("Jack Frost"), Sadko ("The Voyage of Sindbad"), and Ilya Muromets ("The Sword and the Dragon"), all got made fun of mostly cos of the usually terrible dubbing and badly translated titles and names of the english language versions, ad the surreal (but sometimes pretty impressive for the time and place) vfx, unfamiliar fairytale logic and fantastical sets. However, the creators say that these are some of their favorite films they've seen unironically because they're so strange and beautiful, and at the end of the day who doesn't love a fairytale?
It is sad that Sampo is based of the Finnish folklore legend Kalevala but we Finnish people have not made a Kalevala movie. Sampo was controversial movie because it was Russian film about Finnish folklore. I wish one day the most talented film makers from Finland would create a Sampo movie.
You'll better learn basics of russian language and slavic culture. Then you can get kinda deeper into soviet movies and animation.
@@Pehmokettu Pray they wouldn't put too much "diversity" into that. You'll better stick with soviet version then 😀
The creativity here is astounding. Any recommendations on where they can be seen.
You can find some of those here on YT. On russian social networks as well, but without english subtitles. You'll better learn basics of russian language then.
I watched this because you had an image of the Snow Queen in the thumbnail, and I thought it was from Lightyear, and I wondered why that was included. However, there were many interesting things, so I'll not be mad.
Kubricklynch means taste.
If you haven’t already, a look at “Red Westerns” would be very interesting. Plays a lot into the similar place in Russian culture that Central Asia plays that the West does in American culture.
I saw jack frost as a kid. I had no idea it was soviet till this video. That's cool
It's so weird to see a video essay on a niche facet of cinema that I'm familiar with.
Dear Kubricklynch i was wandering if you can do a video about Greek Cinema if you have the time to make that of course
I'd love to at some point!
@@kubricklynchoh ok after all i’m a very patient person
Спасибо
Speaking of the Russian folklore based fantasy movies, you could have also mentioned "After the rain on Tuesday" (1985) by Mikhail Yuzovskiy and "Sitting on the golden porch" (1986) by Boris Rytsarev. Made in the late 80s, in "Perestroika" times, they have a little freer manners, bits of satire, parody, genre deviation etc., and a little more mature acting than the traditional "fairy tale films", being closer to the aforementioned Mark Zakharov's movies.
Фильм "После дождичка в четверг" как крылатое выражение не выполнимого обещания. Кстати есть забавное сходство с фэнтези фильмом Варвары 1987 г где снимались братья Питер и Дэвид Пол. Там тоже два брата отправлены выживать на каторгу. Но это их не убивает а делает сильнее.
Honestly, being a teen-aged mythology and folklore nerd when they first aired, the various MST3K episodes featuring Soviet-era fantasy were some of my favorites! I was also just getting into anime around that time (late '90s), so I learned first-hand how an otherwise decent work could be tarnished by a bad editing and dub job yet still show traces of its original sparkle. I really should track down and watch the original versions of these films sometime!
Thanks algo!
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kewl
Finally this gets a Attention
Thanks a lot for the effort to illustrate Soviet cinema history.
Even by the mere listing of plot and direction choices, one gets an idea of a distinct approach to the novel medium of film making.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of Soviet cinema and television to Russian production.
Has visual language shifted along more accessible film making technology, was it 'Westernized' in imitating typical Western tropes - or is there a cultural continuity even in the way, how to frame storytelling ?
As a person living in Russia, I will say that it has become worse
@@konstantinfromkrasnoyarsk5941
"(...) it has become worse (...)"
As in more superficial ?
I cant speak for every film ever as I dont watch every russian film released. But there is a trend within recent years of "remakes" of classics, but the remakes are worse. And some movies feel like they want to be Marvel.
@@shinigamisougiya1576 In my opinion, the remakes are not just worse - they are no good at all, it's a shame. :(
About where it came from in Slavic folklore: A example of a forest animal (bird) that speaks in human words: th-cam.com/video/1NaZKJjn9lk/w-d-xo.html
At least the Soviet version of LoTR had Tom Bombadil and Lady Goldberry
Слышал Питер Джексон долго обсуждал, стоило ли вырезать Тома Бомбилу из Властелина колец. Но хронометраж надо было уплотнять.
good work you shuld make more indepth analysis
16:04 Ah, yes, the Soviet Alan Wake.
❤
Смотрела в детстве, но всё равно посмотрела видео "для начинающих😅 интересен свежий взгляд иностранцев на нашу классику.
😍
Here in western germany we loved watching soviet fantasy stuff and kids tv in the 80s. So much better than the western stuff.
One thing I am still struggling with is how you found out about this films and how we as viewers can see them for ourselves. I did find Vasilisa the Beautiful on Internet Archive but I don't know of any other sources. If you or anyone else can help out that would be great. Thank you in advance!
Most of them are on youtube!
@@kubricklynch Alright thank you so much!
👍
(Not counting the low budget adaptations near the end) I feel sad that the first two filmmakers on this list never adapted Tolkien's books. The visuals would have been awesome, but I understand that the ideologies would have clashed too much.
На книги Толкиена были авторские права. Если скажем театральную ТВ постановку не обратили внимания то за экранизацию книг в кино пришлось бы платить в валюте что в СССР было не допустимо.
@@user-nm1gj4qn6w да не скажи, регулярно платили валютой - откуда бы иначе взялась наша великая школа *дубляжа?*
I would also recommend Yugoslavian fantasy movie "Čudotvorni Mač". 😁
Yugoslavia wasn't a part of the Soviet Union.
Now for Eastern Europe’s favorite cartoon. Worker and Parasite!
…
What the hell was that?
the ambition to adapt lotr in a week is just something
Did not realize Joe Walsh moonlighted as a Soviet actor.
Who else remembers these from MST3K?
I remember the Morozko episode well!
SAMPO!!!!!
Em... Some voice from Russia.
It is not "soviet trope" aboud defending Homeland. If you read original - it is already there.
That narrative always was in our culture.
I never said it was a "soviet trope"
Я слышал какой культурный шок испытали американцы от просмотра советского фильма "Морозко" который упорно переводят как Джек Фрост. Ясно дело что у американцев нет такого явления как народный фольклёр и русские народные сказки им показались совершенно не понятны. Ну и по справедливости сказать в этом фильме Роу есть некоторая доля как это говорят кринжа. Помню сам в детстве ужаснулся от сцены где у Ивана голова стала медвежья. А ещё в был эпизод где бабя Яга вызвала на помощь леших которые схватили Ивана и потащили в избушку чтоб в печке изжарить.
The first multiverse
Сколько же наших замечательных фильмов упустили западные зрители из-за холодной войны, навязанной тем же западом🥲
I just saw this movie thxs to mst3k.
11:22 Bruhh.... 😨
Не пересказывай мне древнюю магию, ведьма. Я присутствовал при её написании
Это какая-то цитата? Звучит как-то неуместно.
It's a quote from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
@@kubricklynch Aaaaah. Thanks for the explanation.
And then there’s Russian opera Dragonlance.
В СССР все фильмы снимались только за счёт государства. Поэтому во всех фильмах и даже детских была так называемая Повестка. Были художественные советы которые следили и давали рекомендации режисёрам и сценаристам продвигать патриотизм и презрение к капитализму и монархии. Это напоминает современную Повестку в США которую я слышал ещё называют WOKE. Теперь в современном американском кино в фильмах фэнтези стараются показать даже вопреки здравому смыслу 1)расовое разнообразие , 2)представительство ЛГБТ и 3) женщин феминисток.