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| Images courtesy of Gorky Film |
Aleksander Rou was next to Aleksandr Ptushko one of the top
Soviet Russian fantasy filmmakers of his day, having directed nearly twenty
films between the 1930s through 1973.
With the kindred visual imagination and prowess of Ptushko featuring
multicolored vistas, ornate costumes and innovative set pieces, Rou directed
many Soviet fantasy genre classics including but not limited to Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors and Through Fire, Water, and…Brass Pipes. But immediately following Kingdom of
Crooked Mirrors, Rou set his sights on adapting the Slavic folklore
fairytale Morozko (translated to Father Frost) to the silver
screen via Gorky Film. A film which was
won numerous international awards across Europe but suffered an Americanization
with poor English dubbing and re-editing later catapulting it (perhaps
unfairly) into the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie mocking sphere, Morozko
nevertheless stands out among many Eastern European ice cold frozen fantasy
epics.
Having previously been adapted for the screen as a Soviet
short film made in 1924 as well as the animated short film The Wonderful
Well in 1956, it was a character from Slavic folklore passed on through
oral tradition involving a wicked stepmother who favors her biological daughter
and takes her stepdaughter out to the forest to leave for dead. However, depending on the translation, she
encounters the winter forest spirit Morozko or Father Frost who tests her with
a number of games including hide-and-seek with a bear and help from a mouse
while a grim fate awaits the stepmother’s real daughter. A bylichka or supernatural
meeting-in-the-forest story with the stepmother/stepdaughter dynamic akin to Cinderella,
the exact version of the fairy tale differs from version to version with at
least eleven Belarusian, forty Russian and thirty Ukrainian iterations over the
years.
In the 1964 film by Aleksander Rou co-written by Nikolai
Erdman and Mikhail Volpin with voiceover narration by Anastasia Zuyeva, we
encounter hard-working pretty young woman Nastenka (Natalya Sedykh) living in a
mountain village with her father (Pavel Pavlenko) whose kindness is contrasted
by his second wife’s (Vera Altayskaya) cruelty towards Nastenka and preference
for her own oafish daughter Marfushka (Inna Churikova). Meanwhile in a neighboring village the
arrogant young Ivan (Eduard Izotov) ventures out into the countryside fending
off bandits while in search of a bride before encountering Father Mushroom
(Galina Borisova in a mushroom costume) who initially supplies the boy with a
bow and arrows only to angrily transform the youth into an anthropomorphic bear
after trying to shoot a mother and her cubs.
From here, while Ivan works to redeem himself and restore
his humanity, Marfushka’s mean old mom tries to marry her off dressing her in
fine clothing while mucking up Nastenka’s face, a move which backfires when she
rescues her stepsister from drowning and the mud washes off causing the wealthy
suitor to choose her instead. Enraged,
the stepmother orders her kindhearted father to drop Nastenka off in the woods
to die from the cold but instead fearing retribution against him Nastenka flees
into the icy forest where she soon encounters Father Frost (Alexander Khvylya). Though under his protection, the situation is
complicated by the arrival of Baby Yaga (Georgy Millyar), a witchy female
forest demon who tries to thwart Ivan’s search for Nastenka and ensnare both in
her inhuman clutches.
Playful, delightfully kaleidoscopic and chock full of
innovative visual effects, musicality and wild set pieces, Morozko is
dripping with audiovisual splendor. From
its arresting and beautiful set pieces by Arseni Klopotovsky (effects
supervisor for Rou’s Cinderella adaptation), to its shining period
costumes by Yevgeni Galey, all lensed exquisitely in 1.33:1 by Through Fire,
Water and…Brass Pipes cinematographer Dmitri Surensky, the film is an
overwhelming sensory feast. As with the cameraman
Surensky, composer Nikolai Budashkin’s playful orchestral score invariably
landed him the task of scoring Rou’s next film Brass Pipes, forming a
strikingly multifaceted aesthete that is a bit like gazing at embroidery. Of course despite the strong technical
facets, the film wouldn’t work without the gifted performances of its award-winning
ensemble cast.
Alexander Khvylya as Father Frost for instance achieves a
grandfatherly presence that eventually garnered him a title of Father Frost of
the USSR, eventually even participating in New Year’s parties at the
Kremlin. Natalya Sedykh was a
professional figure skater before landing the role of the film’s heroine
Nastenka and soon after she studied and practice Bolshoi Theater ballet and
eventually toured internationally in several shows, lending a larger-than-life
presence to the character. Inna
Churikova as the mean ugly stepsister Marfushka actually garnered a Silver
Medal from the Czech Ambassador as the film became enormously popular in the
country. Eduard Izotov as Ivan remains
his most notable role to date despite going on to star in renowned director
Georgiy Daneliya’s Mimino years later.
Also fun despite being buried under makeup is Georgy Millyar as Baby
Yaga, a character actor who starred in not only numerous Rou films but also
Aleksandr Ptushko and Leonid Gaidai films as well.
Following its theatrical release, in addition to winning the
Grand Prize at the Venice International Film Festival in 1965 and Best Children's
Film at the All-Union Film Festival, special honors were given to its cast
members (notably Alexander Khvylya and Inna Churikova). Tragically while the film was enjoying
Eastern European audience attendance and accolades, the film was lost in
translation after being bought and distributed in America in 1966 with a poorly
rendered English dub resulting in comedy spoof television show Mystery
Science Theater 3000 as well as a later Rifftrax version.
Despite this, the film nevertheless went on to
spawn a Czech videogame adaptation in the year 2000 called Fairy Tale about
Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya and further still in 2010 the film was remade
into a televised musical for state owned Russia 1 television. It wasn’t until sometime in the year 2000
American filmgoers got a chance through Ruscico DVD and later streaming
platforms to see the original unedited Russian version and judge it for its own
artistic merits. As for myself, it’s
another delightful Russian fantasy folklore tale suitable for children and
adults while dazzling the eyes and ears with its playfulness and delicious
vistas. Perhaps the quintessential
Aleksander Rou film.
--Andrew Kotwicki
