VIY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/18/19

 

If you ever wondered what a vintage Russian horror movie would be like, look no further than VIY (Severin Films, 1967). This old-country ghost story of a young would-be monk's terrifying supernatural clash against an undead witch with a thirst for vengeance should check that box on your bucket list quite nicely.

In fact, when this well-produced and beautifully-mounted tale really gets cranked up, some scenes easily match those whacked-out Shaw Brothers martial arts/ghost stories such as HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD and THE BATTLE WIZARD for sheer supernatural weirdness.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story begins when a group of rowdy young seminary students are released from the monastery for what amounts to their version of Sprink Break. Three of them, including Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov), get lost walking to the nearest village and ask for lodging in a secluded house.

When the creepy and rather frightful-looking old crone who lives there begins to come on to Khoma in a (yechhh) seductive manner, he naturally rebels. She then mounts him horseback-style and, swinging her broom and cackling all the way, rides him straight up into the night sky for a harrowing lighter-than-air experience.

Upon landing, Khoma grabs a stick and starts beating her with it. As he does, her features change into those of a beautiful young woman.  Khoma flees from the dying figure and returns to the monastery, only to find the next day that he has been ordered to travel to a house and pray for three days at the deathbed of a woman who, for some reason, has requested him by name. 

After a long wagon journey during which he gets drunk on vodka with his garrulous guides, Khoma arrives at the house to discover two things: one, the woman is dead, and two, she's the same one he beat so savagely the night before. And yes, she was a witch, although her devoted and very imposing father refuses to believe such a thing and threatens Khoma with a deadly lashing if he doesn't fulfill her last wish for him to pray over her.

This, then, results in three successive nights of terror for Khoma which are a grueling ordeal for him and a source of pure, hair-raising entertainment for us horror fans.

After a suspenseful build-up that has us keen with anticipation, directors Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov lock us into that shadowy, decrepit old church with Khoma and the young woman's corpse and then methodically start pulling out all the stops one by one.

The first night is when she initially comes back to snarling, eyeball-rolling life as Khoma furiously recites scripture for all he's worth.  Hastily scrawling a chalk circle around his lecturn, he cowers fearfully as the witch struggles to enter it. The camerawork and direction are wonderfully frenetic here and are matched by the intense performances of the two leads.

And that's just the first night.  At this point we're still in for some of the wildest visuals imaginable, all rendered with fine old-school practical and photo-chemical effects as opposed to the sort of generic CGI that would likely be used today. 

There are ample chills and loads of atmosphere, but on the third night things go from lush Gothic scariness to bizarre, practically Lovecraftian surrealism.  Here, we at last meet Viy (pronounced VEE-Yah) and his repellent minions, and--that's all I'm going to reveal.

Leonid Kuravlyov does a marvelous job as Khoma, and, although we're meant to feel as though the callow priest deserves all of this, I can't help but sympathize with him. His actions during that first encounter with the witch are understandable, and it isn't his fault that his faltering faith provides him little protection against the supernatural horrors he faces later on.

We also discover at one point that he's an orphan who never knew his parents, leading me to assume that he ended up at the monastery because nobody else wanted him and was simply making the best of it despite his carnal weaknesses. This, if anything, makes his spiritual ordeal all the more tragic and affecting to me in addition to its potent visceral horror.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is pictorially splendid and a pleasure to look at. Both Russian and English-dubbed soundtracks (with subtitles) are available. Bonus features include an interview with Richard (HARDWARE) Stanley, a featurette entitled "The Woods To The Cosmos: John Leman Riley On The History Of Soviet Fantasy And Sci-Fi Film", a trailer, and three scintillating silent films--"Satan Exultant", "The Queen of Spades", and "The Portrait"--from the early days of Russian fantasy-horror cinema.

In today's world of flashy, noisy, jump-scare-ridden CGI fests, VIY comes as a real old-fashioned horror tale that knows what chills us. It's so finely-rendered and effective, in fact, that when it was over I could only wonder where in the heck it has been all my life.


Buy it from Severin Films


Special Features:

    Viy the Vampire: An Interview with Richard Stanley
    The Woods To The Cosmos: John Leman Riley On The History Of Soviet Fantasy And Sci-Fi Film
    Short Silent Films – Satan Exultant, The Queen of Spades, and The Portrait
    Trailer
    English Track

VIY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF A MUSICAL GENIUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/28/08

 

You can pretty much tell from the title TCHAIKOVSKY: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF A MUSICAL GENIUS (2007) whether or not you're going to be interested in this. If you don't like classical music, you'll doubtless want to steer clear. Me, I love it, and found this BBC production to be fairly interesting, especially the concert segments.

Originally broadcast in 2007, it examines the life and music of 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in two parts, each hosted by conductor Charles Hazlewood. First, "The Creation of Greatness" tells of the fragile boy genius troubled by all the music swirling incessantly through his mind. The loss of his mother at a young age is something from which he never recovers. Later, we see him as a tortured homosexual living in fear that public exposure of his scandalous secret will ruin his career, while at the same time he struggles to gain acceptance for his daring musical ideas in the face of stodgy skepticism.

Part two, "Fortune and Tragedy", tells of his disastrous marriage of convenience to young female admirer Antonina Milyukova, despite the warnings of his younger brother Modest and the knowing ridicule of his friends. We also learn of a mysterious benefactor, a wealthy widow named Nadezhda von Meck, who finances Tchaikovsky for years although their only communication is through the written word. Tchaikovsky's fame and the Russian people's reverence for him grow to stellar proportions, but shortly after the unsuccessful premiere of his magnificent Sixth Symphony, "The Pathetique", he dies of cholera at the age of 53.

While well-mounted and interesting, the dramatic reenactments of certain events in Tchaikovsky's life don't build much momentum as they are intercut with actual concert footage, interviews with concert musicians in whom the distinctively Russian spirit of Tchaikovsky still resides, and narrative interludes with Hazlewood. In fact, the emphasis here is on the music itself as much as the composer.

Watching his First Piano Concerto being performed by the Maryinsky Young Philharmonic with an amazing solo performance by Natasha Peremski is a particular thrill, and it's deftly integrated into the scene in which Tchaikovsky first auditions the piece before his scoffing mentor, Anton Rubinstein, who is shocked to hear such "vulgar" passion expressed in music. Interesting that something we take for granted for its familiarity was once considered, in Hazlewood's words, to be "radical, raw, and shocking."

"Romeo and Juliet", an erotically-charged work composed during an early love affair with a music academy student named Edward Zak, has become somewhat of a cliche these days after having been used for so many movies and spoofs as diverse as TARZAN THE APE MAN and A CHRISTMAS STORY, but its performance here is stirring. This is also true of excerpts from some of Tchaikovsky's ballets, such as SWAN LAKE and THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. Best of all, however, is the climactic performance of the tragic "Pathetique", which is one of the most moving works ever written.

If not for these dynamic musical passages, which the filmmakers obviously staged and photographed with great feeling, the production would be unremittingly dry and somber. The biographical scenes serve mainly to illustrate how the passion and turmoil of Tchaikovsky's personal life was the rich inspiration for his music, and more than anything, the dramatic segments are supportive of and serve as backdrops for the musical passages.

Included as a bonus is an episode of the BBC series "Omnibus" entitled "Who Killed Tchaikovsky?", which effectively challenges the cholera explanation for the composer's death with theories of suicide or even murder, and hints at a mysterious and potentially scandalous cover-up. Biographer Anthony Holden travels to New York and St. Petersburg to do some detective work, uncovering tantalizing bits of evidence amidst a general unwillingness of the Russian people to risk casting aspersions on their revered national composer. The mystery is left unsolved, but raises some intriguing and rather chilling implications.

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF A MUSICAL GENIUS is informative regarding the volatile emotions behind Tchaikovsky's work, and competently acted by THE PIANIST's Ed Stoppard and a good cast. But it's the concert segments that really make it worth watching.

 

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE TRAGIC LIFE OF A MUSICAL GENIUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

9TH COMPANY -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/16/10

 

Joining the hallowed ranks of kickass war movies comes the stunning 9TH COMPANY (2005), which tells its fact-based story from a unique perspective--a platoon of Soviet soldiers fighting in Afghanistan in the late 80s--while focusing on the usual things like brotherhood, courage, and the tragedies of war.  (Not to mention how downright terrifying it can be.)

The basic war-film elements that we expect are all here, beginning with a bunch of raw recruits saying goodbye to their families and sweethearts in Siberia and getting on the bus that will take them to boot camp.  Next comes their encounter with an ogre-like drill sergeant who puts them through hell as they gradually form a close bond with one another.  Then, after they've been toughened up and molded into fighting men, it's off to war where the real hell begins.

Making the main characters a collection of recognizable stereotypes just seems to work for this kind of movie.  There's Lyutyl (Artur Smolyaninov), a cocky hood-wannabe who, in an American war film, would likely be played as a Noo Yawk Italian by some young DeNiro type.  Gioconda (Konstantin Kryukov) is the artist, tough but soulful.  Chugun (Ivan Kokorin) is the joker with the bulldog mug, Stas (Artyom Mikhalkov) is a young husband and father who keeps his kid's crayon drawing close to his heart, and Vorobei (Aleksey Chadov) is the sensitive romantic, saving his virtue for when he returns home to his beloved Olya.

On the other hand, their hulking tormentor, Sgt. Dygalo (Mikhail Porechenkov), bears only passing resemblance to the likes of R. Lee Ermey in FULL METAL JACKET.  Along with a disfiguring facial scar he carries a deep mental one from his own experiences in Afghanistan, which prevents him from being sent back into the action as he desperately wants.  We soon realize that his cruelty toward the men stems from a desire to make them ready for what he knows they will face, and his character is both tragic and sympathetic. 

The men spend a last furtive evening in a shack having sex with the camp nymphomaniac, a nurse's daughter named Snow White (Irina Rakhmanova), and end up united in mock worship of the beaming nude girl after artist Gioconda heralds her as their own beautiful Venus.  More group bonding occurs when, after many defeats, they pull together against another squad during training and finally succeed in taking a hill.  But this hard-won victory is only a foreshadowing of what's in store for them later on.

As with those jarring jump-cuts in both FULL METAL JACKET and THE DEER HUNTER, the story takes an abrupt turn roughly halfway through when the door of their transport plane closes on the world they know and opens on one that is totally foreign and fraught with peril.  One of the film's most spectacular sequences takes place at the landing field in a blaze of death and destruction that's cunningly well-staged and effective (I still can't believe the budget was under ten million).  Our heroes are then assigned to 9th Company whose mission is to protect an isolated mountain pass and the supply convoys which regularly move through it from the dreaded Mujahedeen. 

Here, 9TH COMPANY resembles SAVING PRIVATE RYAN with its long stretches of boredom and paranoia broken by sudden bursts of frantic battle action.  Gone, however, is the jittery, faded-newsreel quality of that film's action scenes in favor of a more contemporary and stylized look, which is nonetheless just as involving.  Talented first-time director Fyodor Bondarchuk pulls no punches and gives his film the same "you are there" immediacy of WE WERE SOLDIERS, placing us in the thick of battle as waves of "Muj" soldiers advance incessantly on the Russians' position with guns blazing.

Maksim Osadchy's cinematography is strangely beautiful, almost impressionistic at times--echoing Gioconda's curious assertion that war itself is, in its own way, beautiful--while still conveying the stark immediacy of chaotic events hurdling out of control.  An outstanding soundtrack and rich, unabashedly emotional musical score add to the overall effect.  Bondarchuk, who handles the direction with the sure hand of a talented veteran, does double duty as actor in the role of 9th Company's battle-weary Sergeant Khokhol.  The script by Yuriy Korotkov contains several dramatic high points and, while conforming to much of the war genre's oldest traditions, still bristles with the unexpected.

The 2-disc DVD from Well Go USA is in 2.45:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 English-dubbed soundtrack and the original Russian in Dolby 2.0 with English subtitles.  (My advice is to pick the Russian version because the English dubbing isn't that hot.)  Disc one contains the movie plus a theatrical promo and trailer.  Disc two consists of three featurettes including the 39-minute "Making the Movie" and two shorter ones, "20 Years Later" (with actual 9th Company vets telling their own riveting stories), and "The Premiere", in which the director's mother and other talking heads opine at length about the film. 

Eschewing the overwhelmingly dark pessimism of PLATOON, APOCALYPSE NOW, and other such films, 9TH COMPANY doesn't get bogged down in politics or depict its main characters as hapless fodder for a senseless war machine.  Their reasons for fighting and dying go beyond politics and what victories they manage to eke out of the chaos are their own.  While the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan ultimately proved futile, 9TH COMPANY succeeds in honoring the men who fought there rather than forcing them, and the viewer, to wallow in defeat. 

9TH COMPANY -- DVD Review by Porfle

Haven't I seen this before: Copyright Infringement in Foreign Films by Ian Friedman

This is a presentation about the issue of infringement in foreign films given by me (Ian Friedman) during an event sponsored by the IP Law Society and the Entertainment and Sports Law Society of Seton Hall Law School on March 9, 2009. It deals with the issue of stolen music, film footage, and plots in foreign films.



This presentation can be viewed in conjunction with this youtube playlist. The playlist contains the slideshow and all video clips as used in the presentation.



If you want to get some of the films featured in this presentation you can get them at HK FLIX.

Lady Terminator (and you get Dangerous Seductress for free!)
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.538996/aid.85597/qx/details.htm

Commando Directors Cut Special Edition
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.535335/aid.545883/qx/details.htm

3 DEV ADAM
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.537631/aid.545883/qx/details.htm

Turkish Pop Cinema Double Bill (features the excellent documentary of the same name about Turkish Cinema)
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.535847/aid.545883/qx/details.htm

Bollywood Horror Collection (the source of the quote from an Indian producer and some great Bollywood Horror)
Volume 1
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.538971/aid.545883/qx/details.htm
Volume 2
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.549268/aid.545883/qx/details.htm

I hope you all enjoy it!

Haven't I seen this before: Copyright Infringement in Foreign Films by Ian Friedman