From the Tsars to the Stars:
A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema
“This is why we have retro houses--to unleash the secret cinemas of the global past. Few high-powered legacies are as alien to us as the rarely screened fantasy cinema of the Soviet kingdom.”--Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
From May 5 through 30, the Gene Siskel Film Center presents From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema. The eleven features and two shorts in the series span almost a hundred years, encompassing pre-Revolutionary Russia, the Stalin era, the Cold War, the Sputnik-spurred space race, the glasnost period, and, finally, an ironic look back from a post-Soviet perspective. The series’ variety is as broad as its chronology, ranging from folklore to fairytale to animation to commercial blockbuster to art cinema. Many of the films have never been shown before in the U.S., or shown only in hacked-up, English-dubbed versions.
Although the series contains excursions into other forms covered by the broad Russian term “fantastika” (the Gogolesque EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA, the Tolkienesque RUSLAN AND LUDMILA, the Kafkaesque ZERO CITY), the main emphasis is on science fiction. One could say that the Soviet Union itself was science fiction--speculative fiction written as a political system, emerging at around the same time as the literary genre and passing from the utopian to the dystopian to the entropic. Now, since the demise of the USSR, it has become the mythic (in film critic J. Hoberman’s phrase, “the Red Atlantis”), a Lost Continent evoking nostalgia, camp, and retro-fantasy. This dimension is shrewdly mined in the most recent film in the series, the 2005 mockumentary FIRST ON THE MOON, which recycles the tropes of Stalinist ideology while imagining a 1938 trip to the Moon.
Distinctively different from their Western counterparts, Soviet science-fiction films are concocted from a mixture of the mystical, technocratic, propagandistic, philosophical, and just plain goofy. That last quality should not be underestimated--a touch (or more) of the absurd runs through most of the films in this series, more self-aware in some than in others. Examples include the Qbert-like low-gravity hops of the Moon explorers in COSMIC VOYAGE, the glittery Esther Williams-appropriate swimsuit of THE AMPHIBIAN MAN, the grumpy octopus-alien of TO THE STARS BY HARD WAYS, and the surreal sights that confront the baffled traveler in ZERO CITY. Russian fantastik cinema may often be didactic, but it is rarely less than enchanting.
This series was curated by Alla Verlotsky, Robert Skotak and Dennis Bartok and is presented by Seagull Films, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the American Cinematheque in collaboration with Concern Mosfilm, Russian State Archive Gosfilmofond, and M-Film Studio. Generous support is provided by the Russian State Agency for Culture and Cinematography, George Gund III and Iara Lee and Titra California Inc. Special thanks to Brandon Maurice Williams, Gwen Deglise, Robert Dekker, Karen Shakhnazarov, Sergey Lazaruk, Nikolay Borodachev and Mikhail Kosirev.
-- Martin Rubin
THE AMPHIBIAN MAN
(CHELOVEK-AMFIBIYA)
1962, Gennadi Kazansky and Vladimir Chebotarev, USSR, 95 min.
With Vladimir Korenev, Anastasia Vertinskaya
The title makes it sound like a cheesy Hollywood B-picture, but this punchy, poignant fantasy-romance is one of the revelations of the series, anticipating EDWARD SCISSORHANDS in several respects. Set in colorful Cuban locations and filmed in a dynamic tropical-expressionist style, it tells of a scientist who dreams of a utopian underwater civilization, starting with his own son, the handsome Ichtyander, whose faulty lungs have been augmented with shark gills. Venturing into our bright, guilty world, Ichtyander quickly runs afoul of the authorities and falls in love with a beautiful señorita who is being forced to marry an evil pearl-dealer. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Friday, May 25, 6:00 pm
Tuesday, May 29, 7:45 pm
COSMIC VOYAGE
(KOSMICHESKIY REIS)
1936, Vasili Zhuravlev, USSR, 70 min.
With Sergei Komarov
A renegade scientist, chafing under the restrictions of the Soviet space establishment, launches his own rocket to the moon, with a pretty professor and a spunky lad on board. Impressive constructivist sets mark this lively, ambitious production, whose look might remind American viewers of Flash Gordon serials. COSMIC VOYAGE is an overtly fictional predecessor to the 2005 mockumentary FIRST ON THE MOON (see below), which incorporates footage from the earlier film.
Preceded by THE CAMERAMAN’S REVENGE (1912, 12 min.), Wladaslaw Starevich’s stop-motion animation classic about an adulterous beetle; and INTERPLANETARY REVOLUTION (1924, 9 min.), an animated sci-fi spoof inspired by the hit AELITA, QUEEN OF MARS. All in 35mm. In Russian with English intertitles. (MR)
Silent films with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin.
Sunday, May 20, 3:00 pm
EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA
(VECHERA NA KHOTORE BLIZ DIKANKI)
1961, Aleksandr Rou, USSR, 70 min.
With Aleksandr Khvylya
This freewheeling comic fantasy is based on a tale by caustic Russian fabulist Nikolai Gogol and filmed in rich Technicolor hues. Christmas is coming, and village blacksmith Vacula has his hands full. His fiancée refuses to marry him unless he fetches her a pair of shoes belonging to the Tsarina herself. On top of it, the Devil is peeved because Vacula painted a caricature of him so hilarious that all of hell can’t stop laughing. Knowing the blacksmith’s predicament, the Devil offers to get those shoes, if Vacula will sell his soul. . . In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Sunday, May 20, 5:00 pm
Tuesday, May 22, 8:30 pm
FIRST ON THE MOON
(PERVYE NA LUNE)
2005, Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia, 76 min.
With Boris Vlasov
Forget Neil Armstrong; newly unearthed footage from secret Soviet archives indicates that cosmonaut Ivan Kharlamov reached the Moon in 1938, before crash-landing in Chile and being swallowed up by the vagaries of history. A recent film-festival favorite, this ingenious alternative-history mockumentary combines real and expertly faked archival footage (much of it taken from hidden spy-cameras) to tell a clever and disturbing tale rooted in the conflict between two irreconcilable forces in Soviet Russia: utopian experimentation and paranoid surveillance. In Russian with English subtitles. Beta SP video. (MR)
Friday, May 18, 6:00 pm
Wednesday, May 23, 8:15 pm
THE HEAVENS CALL
(NEBO ZOVET)
1959, Mikhail Karyukov and Aleksandr Kozyr, USSR, 80 min.
With Ivan Pereverzev
Noble Russians and nasty Americans race to be the first on Mars. When the Yanks crash-land on an asteroid, the selfless Soviets decide to help their ideological opponents. The spectacular launch scenes and space-scapes set a standard for science-fiction films that was unsurpassed until 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Roger Corman bought the film, removed the ideology, added some monsters, and gave it to newcomer Francis Coppola to reedit as BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Monday, May 7, 6:00 pm
Thursday, May 10, 8:30 pm
PLANET OF STORMS
(PLANETA BUR)
1961, Pavel Klushanstev, USSR, 83 min.
With Vladimir Yemelyanov
Intrepid cosmonauts land on Venus. The cold equations of mathematical logic, represented by a massive robot named Iron John, are pitted against the warm caprices of the human heart, represented by the lone woman on the crew. They find volcanoes, dinosaurs, underwater life forms that resemble aquarium fish, and a creature that looks like a giant stuffed pepper with tentacles. But is there intelligent life? Roger Corman cannibalized footage from this gaudy fantasy for three 1960s AIP epics: QUEEN OF BLOOD, VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Saturday, May 12, 6:30 pm
Tuesday, May 15, 8:30 pm
RUSLAN AND LUDMILA
(RUSLAN I LYUDMILA)
1972, Aleksandr Ptushko, USSR, 159 min.
With Valeri Kozinets, Natalya Petrova
The celebrated fantasist Aleksandr Ptushko, often compared to Harryhausen and Tolkien, was given a Film Center retrospective in 2002, but we were not able then to include RUSLAN AND LUDMILA, Ptushko’s last and most ambitious film. Based on a Pushkin poem with dialogue in verse form, this fairy-tale epic begins in medieval Kiev. The brave knight Ruslan marries the spirited princess Ludmila, but, before they can reach the nuptial bed, the bride is kidnapped. Ludmila’s distraught father offers her hand to whomever rescues her, and Ruslan races three rivals across a spectacular fantasyscape containing enchanted forests, wild tigers, crystal palaces, a cave full of chained titans, a villainous dwarf with a 50-foot beard, and much more. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
There will be a five-minute intermission.
>Sunday, May 6, 3:15 pm
SOLARIS
1971, Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR, 165 min.
With Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk
This legendary science-fiction film, based on Stanislaw Lem’s great novel, is frequently compared to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, although Tarkovsky’s approach is more philosophical and humanistic (Tarkovsky reputedly loathed Kubrick’s classic for its coldness). Strange phenomena are experienced by the crew of a space station circling a planet whose inexplicable nature challenges the very basis of human science. As he struggles to penetrate the unknowable, the astropsychologist Kelvin finds only a mirror that reflects back his own memories, fears, and desires in distorted and sometimes terrifying forms. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm widescreen. (MR)
Monday, May 28, 3:00 pm
Wednesday, May 30, 6:30 pm
STALKER
1979, Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR, 161 min.
With Alexander Kaidanovsky
Tarkovsky’s second venture into science fiction extends the intermingling of speculation and subjectivity previously explored in SOLARIS. An alien object striking Earth has created an off-limits area known as the Zone--an eerie hybrid of industrial wasteland and primeval forest, where mirages and mind-bending traps await the unwary traveler. A guide known as Stalker leads an illegal expedition into the Zone’s interior, which is rumored to contain a Room that grants one’s innermost wishes. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)
Sunday, May 13, 3:00 pm
Monday, May 14, 6:30 pm
TO THE STARS BY HARD WAYS
>(aka THE THORNY WAY TO THE STARS)
(CHEREZ TERNII K ZVEZDAM)
1981, Richard Viktorov, USSR, 118 min.
With Yelena Metyolkina
Newly restored and reedited, this Soviet box-office smash remains a cult favorite in Russia. Investigating a derelict spacecraft, Soviet explorers find a lone survivor: Yeena, an out-of-this-world female with saucer eyes, telekinetic powers, and a catwalk figure. Yeena’s brain has been engineered for obedience, making her a potentially dangerous weapon in the hands of anyone who knows how to push her buttons. She guides her Soviet saviors to her home planet, which is suffering from massive pollution at the hands of a profiteering midget. STARS was given the MST3K treatment as HUMANOID WOMAN, but the film is more imaginative than campy, and the space-vixen is genuinely cool. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mmm widescreen. (MR)
Saturday, May 5, 5:30 pm
Tuesday, May 8, 8:00 pm
ZERO CITY
(aka ZEROGRAD and CITY ZERO)
(GOROD ZERO)
1988, Karen Shakhnazarov, USSR, 103 min.
With Leonid Filatov
Arriving on a seemingly routine business trip, the engineer Varakin (Filatov in a terrific deadpan performance) is greeted by a secretary calmly typing away. . .stark naked. Welcome to Zero City, a Soviet branch of the Twilight Zone, with embellishments by Kafka and Buñuel. At a restaurant, Varakin is served a cake in the form of his own head, and, when he declines to eat it, the crestfallen chef kills himself. Or was it murder, with a motive dating back to when the victim became the city’s first rock ‘n’ roller? Unpredictable, unsettling, and hilarious, this bizarre satire is one of the key films of the tumultuous Perestroika era. In Russian with English subtitles. 35mm. (MR)