1967
Directed by Kostantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov
I really did try to watch this earlier. I asked my sister to watch it with me but somehow, when she found out that it was a Russian 1967 folktale, the viewing of the film kept getting rescheduled. Finally, I settled down to watch it yesterday. While I would have liked to have proved my sister wrong by being blown away by this film, I am afraid that wasn't the case.
Three monks are on their way home when they got lost. It is hard to sympathize with these characters since they torture goats and attack women beforehand. In any case, they stumble upon a house owned by a sexually aggressive old lady. She rides one of the men to...wait, for clarity's sake she climbs on top of him...ugh.
Anyway, she magically transforms into a beautiful young woman and one of the monks is forced to stay with her corpse for three nights to read her last rites. Shit gets weird.
The special effects in this film were impressive for the time, but still pretty laughable. I felt like the middle of the movie was building up to an ending that really didn't deliver. No spoilers here but Jabba the Hut makes an appearance.
So a good movie to watch if you want to see the development of special effects but otherwise, quite forgettable.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Based on a Ukranian folk tale.
Perhaps its just because I like fairy tales and folk tales, but I really liked this one. For me it was a unique film, and I really enjoyed the effects. I also have a fondness for the special effects from this time period in the history of film, so maybe that contributed to my enjoyment of this film as well. By your rating, I am glad you somewhat enjoyed this anyways.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it a bit but weren't you disappointed by the ending?
DeleteHonestly, it's been a while since I watched this, but I don't remember having any specific problem with the film, or the ending.
DeleteAlso rather a long time since I saw it, but one of those you sit through bemused thinking What??.. and 'is it nearly over yet?'
ReplyDeleteExactly, Ray! Especially when the old lady was mounting him.
DeleteOkay, I will be controversial and say that I liked the ending. It was abrupt and did not explain anything but it was also mysterious and eerie and not what you would have expected.
ReplyDeleteWilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge through Mem Monk – Your heartwarming guide who charms the significance in storytelling collected from one of new release to a higher. https://imgur.com/a/vR7vEoj https://imgur.com/a/Q4CP0nm https://imgur.com/a/gp5MqWm https://imgur.com/a/5LEDaop https://imgur.com/a/83MBMXg https://imgur.com/a/CaBh0xJ https://imgur.com/a/KPwKG5a
ReplyDeleteAs to above.. Wha'??? No way am i clicking any link...
ReplyDeleteI was about to say "Go on, Ray, click it!".
DeleteBut maybe the fate of the monk in this story serves as a warning of what might happen to you if you did.
It's often discussed how books don't translate perfectly into films. And I saw recently Amanda mentioned how stage dramas don't translate well either, which got me thinking as I hadn't really considered that before.
ReplyDeleteBut here's another format which I notice doesn't always convert smoothly to cinema: East-European folk stories
(Even though this wasn't actually a real folk story)
Still, it was an interesting example of something, wasn't too long, and the the climactic summoning sequence was very imaginatively rendered.
On the subject of which, am I the only one astonished that the book contains no examples of Ray Harryhausen's work? No Seventh Voyage of Sinbad? No Jason and the Argonauts?