THE AMPHIBIAN MAN, EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA Series: From Tsars To Stars: A Journey Through Russian Fantastik Cinema October 20, 2006

Double Feature:

THE AMPHIBIAN MAN (CHELOVEK AMFIBIYA) 1961, 95 min. Dir. G. Kazansky & V. Chebotare. One of the most beloved of all Russian films (65 million admissions in 1962, which roughly translates into 520 million current American box-office dollars), this tall tale of a handsome, gilled mutant named Ichtyandr (Vladimir Korenov) whose father has replaced his faulty lung with the gills of a young shark, unfolds in a very oddly conceived coastal locale among pearl divers, rogues and old salts. When Ichtyandr saves a local fisherman’s daughter (Anastasiya Vertinskaya) from a shark attack, he falls in love with her and wants to give up the water for a life on land. Perhaps the ultimate product of the late 50’s-early 60’s "thaw," this enchanting hybrid of The Little Mermaid and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON surreally brims with Latin song-and-dance numbers and Russian stars in brownface (shot on beautiful Cuban locations) that must be seen to be believed. Korenov and Vertinskaya (who went on to play Ophelia in Kozintsev’s HAMLET and the Princess in Bondarchuk’s WAR AND PEACE) both became huge Soviet stars as a result of his film’s massive success.

EVENINGS ON A FARM NEAR DIKANKA (VECHARA NA KHUTORE BLIZ DIKANKI), 1961, 69 min. Dir. Aleksandr Rou. This glorious excursion into Technicolor fantasy (with cartoon elements) is one of the most beautiful in the rich strain of Russian cinematic fantasy, and it is also very true to the spirit of the Russian/Ukrainian master Nikolai Gogol. The tale of a blacksmith (Aleksandr Khvylya) from a darkened village sent on an endless quest on Christmas Eve by his beloved Oksana (L. Myznikova), ending in St. Petersburg and with a stop along the way for a conference with the devil, has been filmed a few times throughout Russian film history, but never with so much charm and such a rich feeling for the satiric, folkloric power of the source material. A classic.

Official Website: http://egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2006/RussianFantastik.htm