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Russia's Pioneer Director Of Fantasy Films
Reviewed by Amy Harlib
Fantastika! The Films of Russian Fantasy Master Alexander Ptushko. A retrospective screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, NYC, Dec. 28-Jan. 1, 2001-2002.
I couldn't think of a better way, at that time, for fantasy film buffs like me to ring out the old year and ring in the new than by attending the NYC Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater's retrospective screenings from Fri., the 28th of Dec. through Tues. Jan. 1, 2001-2, of 5 seminal works by the Soviet auteur Alexander Ptushko. The American Cinematheque and Seagull Films co-sponsored the new 35mm prints of these rarely seen in the USA (and largely unavailable on video) features by this master (undeservedly nearly unknown outside of his homeland).
He pioneered and perfected visual effects blending animation and live action to transform forever the way tales of the fantastic would be told by motion pictures.
Alexander Ptushko (1900-1973), born in the Ukraine, graduated from Moscow's Institute of Economics and held jobs teaching school, in journalism, acting and stage designing prior to going to work at the Soviet Union's most renowned studio, Mosfilm. At first assisting in stop-motion model making for the short films of other directors, Ptushko soon advanced to directing his own silent animated pictures (most following the expected political, pro-Soviet line), experiments that basically rediscovered stop-motion photography along with his new methods of combining live-action with puppets and SPFX.
This culminated in Ptushko's first full-length (black and white) animated film
antedating Disney's Snow White by four years---The New Gulliver (1935)
which politically updates Swift's classic yarn. In Ptushko's version,
Petya, a young Soviet pioneer (Vladimir Konstantinov), falls asleep while
reading 'Gulliver's Travels' and dreams of being in a surreal Lilliput that,
along with the 17th century style fashions and hair-dos, possesses tiny folk
with high-pitched, 
chattering voices, jazz bands, mechanized vehicles and
tractors and (in true revolutionary spirit), a suppressed underground
proletariat of factory workers who revolt with the help of giant Petya,
against the hypocritical, narcoleptic king!
This labor-intensive hybrid of over 3000 puppets and live-action, while technically impressive, (the 3" high miniatures bear individuated, distinct features and movements), fails to be emotionally involving for the figure design's extreme sylizations prevail over characterization.
Even the human protagonist's character somehow fails to ignite that certain something, yet a great deal of talent and potential can be seen in The New Gulliver.
Next, after world War II, experimenting with
confiscated German 3-color film
stock, Ptushko in 1946 made The Stone Flower, Russia's first full-color
feature. Set in 19th century Ural Mountains, this visually ravishing fable
concerns a young stone carver (Vladimir Drushnikov) who gets seduced away
from his fiancee by the mystical Queen of Copper Hill (Tamara Makarova) and
enticed into her fabulous underground world
where he sculpts an enormous flower out of shimmering stone.
Based on Pavel Bazhov's folktale 'The
Malachite Box', The Stone Flower's hypnotic, almost religious intensity
and inventive use of color effects that portray a magical realm emanating
fluidly out of the equally vivid natural world, made this film Ptushko's
first great artistic and popular success. It is also noteworthy for
starting a characteristic Ptushko trend---the refreshing, presciently
feminist use of resourceful and intelligent women characters who shine with
personality despite their "feminine" roles.
The following 3 offerings (all in color), in the retrospective contain dazzling set pieces, gorgeous sets, scenery, costumes, symphonic scores, song and dance interludes involving famous bravura physical feats, and remarkable SPFX that include ingenious make-up designs.
Sadko (1953), set in medieval Novgorod, follows the eponymous
protagonist, a wandering
minstrel, who, in his quest to bring happiness to his people,
goes on a
Sinbad-like voyage. He sails to the far away lands of the Vikings, India
and even the underwater kingdom of the Tsar of the Ocean
to find that true
joy can only be found at home (and with Lyubava, the girl he left behind).
The scenes in India and the undersea realm are truly wondrous and memorable examples of opulent creativity and whimsical cleverness respectively.
What a privilege to view this film in its meant-to-be-seen form rather than the butchered, re-edited, dubbed version released under the title The Magic Voyage of Sinbad by Roger Corman in 1962 during the height of the Cold War.
Viy (1967), set in a pastoral 19th century Russian countryside and
based
on a short story by Nikolai Gogol can be considered Russia's first horror
movie. It tells the tale of an awkward novice priest (Leonid Kuravlyov)
who, by resisting her advances, angers a demonic old hag.
Taking her revenge in the disguise of the beautiful corpse of a young woman whose last wish was for the priest to pray over her for 3 nights, the witch, by summoning her allies, torments the hapless protagonist trapped in the church with the erstwhile deceased.
The witch's conjurations consist of an astonishingly grotesque parade of gargoyles and demons that seem to literally ooze from the walls, their twisted root-like faces mirroring the muddy natural landscape outside,
while inside---the gorgeous witch whirls around the church in a flying coffin! Viy uses fantasy/allegory to confront the age-old patriarchal fear of female sexuality promulgated in extreme forms by the Judaeo-Christian belief system (exemplified in Czarist Russian attitudes).
Based on a poem by Pushkin, Ptushko's last picture, his epic 2-part masterpiece, Ruslan and Ludmila (1972), features a 13th century Kiev setting for the adventures of the titular hero (Valery Kosints) who struggles to recover his feisty, resourceful bride (Natasha Petrova) kidnapped on their wedding night by the impish sorcerer Tchernovor. This fantasy comes packed with bizarre, surreal characters---
the flying dwarf villain with a 50 foot beard;
his eccentric witch henchwoman; Ruslan's 3 jealous rivals; the antagonist's weird, capering servants---and awesome set pieces, most notably the midget's sparkling crystal palace; tormented statue-like male figures chained in a cavern;
and a decapitated giant's head looming up from the ground like an Easter Island statue.
Read the review of another of Ptushko's films, Ilya Muromets, at SwordAndSorcery.org.
With imaginative vision and technical skill equal to the revered, contemporaneous Hollywood masters Ray Harryhausen and George Pal, Alexander Ptushko, with his career spanning 40 some-odd years, deserves recognition for his genius. How criminal that he should be so undeservedly obscure in the West for Communist-era Ptushko's revolutionary work can also compare with that of modern cinematic wizards such as Terry Gilliam and Jeneut and Caro.
But New Yorkers need not be the only ones exposed to Ptushko's talent. If you'd like to see his work for yourself, Amazon.com is selling Ruscico.org's Sadko, Viy, and Ruslan and Ludmila, in either English subtitles or dubbed, depending on the film. Ruscico is scheduled to release The Stone Fower later in 2006.
If you prefer, seek out a local film library or film society, or just start searching the web. One quick search revealed that the University of Illinois has some of Ptushko's work, including Ruslan and Ludmila. Any large university with both a film library and a Russian department is likely to have one or two Ptushko films on file.
In New York there is, of course, the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
In the San Francisco area, the Pacific Film Archive is next to the UC Berkeley campus, a short walk from public transit.
In Los Angeles the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theater has screened these films before, and might do so again if interested members of the public were to suggest it.
These examples are cited because I happen to be aware of them, but there are similar establishments across the country. A little effort could turn up the one near you, and along with it, a Ptushko prize to share with your friends. Let this outstanding oeuvre be distributed far and wide to enchant and delight audiences everywhere!
in the cinema and on television, go to the
Sword and Sorcery Cinema and Television Page.
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