 |
| Images courtesy of Gorky Film |
In terms of being a maestro of the Soviet Russian folklore fantasy
fiction fairytale epic with such visually striking fare as The Night Before
Christmas, Jack Frost and Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors, Aleksandr
Rou was arguably the other artistic and creative half of Russia’s still
greatest fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko.
A busy film worker churning out children’s effects heavy escapist pictures
at a fast rate, the Irish-Greek born director took a four year hiatus between Jack
Frost and his next project Through Fire, Water, and…Brass Pipes or Copper
Pipes depending on the translation.
Loosely based on the Russian idiom ‘пройти огонь, воду и медные трубы’
which translates roughly to ‘go to Hell and back’ or ‘through fire, water and
trumpets’, it’s a fairy tale of action, adventure, mystery and all manner of
phantasmagorical splashes of color largely derived from Slavic folklore while
also being a metaphor for overcoming adversities.
Somewhere in the woods coal miner Vasya (Alexey Katyshev) ventures
out to gather firewood when he spies on and subsequently meets up with
Alyonushka (Natalya Sedykh) tending to her talking goat Byelochka. Forming a bond at first sight, the young lovers
romantic mingling is interrupted by the arrival of werewolves who kidnap and
imprison her within the clutches of the evil Koschei immortal of Russian
folklore Baby Yaga (Georgy Millyar). On
a quest to rescue his beloved, Vasya finds himself going through various
missions including rescuing the daughter of Tsar Fedul VI from a fire, passing
through the sea kingdom to renew the spirit of its ruler and finally a test of
the young man’s strengths to resist the “brass pipes” intended to woo him into
marrying the sea king’s daughter.
Produced by Gorky Film which handled the director’s previous
projects, Aleksandr Rou’s foray from traditional 1.33:1 filmmaking to Ptushko’s
preferred Sovscope 35mm ratio of 2.35:1 lensed exquisitely by recurring
cinematographer Dmitri Surensky and scored with orchestral grandeur by Jack
Frost composer Nikolai Budashkin is a bit like entering an effects heavy
carnival. Somewhere between The
Wizard of Oz and The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Rou’s colorful, panoramic
fantasy fairy tale vision co-written by Mikhail Volpin and Nikolay Erdman is
something of a compendium of Russian folklore rather than a straightforward
literary adaptation ala some of Ptushko’s epic poem pictures. Mostly the film is a triumph of production
design by Arseni Klopotovsky who fashions a glittering arena of striking set
pieces gorgeously lit and lensed. Performances from the extended ensemble cast are generally good but the film's real star is Rou and his lively visual sense.
Fun to look at with an almost childlike playfulness, Aleksandr
Rou’s phantasmagorical visual epic fantasy is a delight for the senses which
doesn’t quite achieve the scale of Ptushko but comes pretty close in its own
right. Full of kaleidoscopic superimpositions,
a wide variety of makeup effects, period as well as animal costumes and an
altogether cheery disposition, Through Fire, Water, and…Brass Pipes is a
highly enjoyable Russian children’s fantasy film fans of the psychedelic and
innovative effects movie will delight in.
For Rou, while it might not reach the heights of Ptushko the filmmaker
is clearly in the pantheon of Russia’s all time greatest fantasy fiction purveyors. Yes the saga is a bit of a smorgasbord
drawing from various Russian folklore tales while playing on the titular idiom
which reads like a life lesson, but Rou fashions it with such eye candy we can’t
help but gobble it up on sight.
--Andrew Kotwicki
