Category: Videos

Movies and music videos

MacLeod — Duncan or Connor?

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Yesterday, I ran a little social survey on my Facebook page, and the result was pretty much what I expected. I asked a simple question: “When you hear the surname MacLeod, what first name immediately comes to mind?”

As I thought, the majority of answers were “Duncan.” In fact, some people even asked what other answer I could possibly have expected. And that’s exactly what makes it so interesting.

Connor MacLeod
(illustration from IMDb.com)

Of course, when we talk about MacLeod, we immediately think of the story of the Highlander — the near-immortal warrior who can only die if his head is cut off. The whole bit about transferring power between immortals after such a victory isn’t really important in the context of what I’m saying here.

What is important is this: it turns out that many people don’t realize there were actually two Highlanders! Yes, both were called Highlanders, and both carried the MacLeod name.

It all began with the release of the film Highlander in 1986. According to the story, the MacLeods are a Scottish clan, and in 1518, Connor MacLeod (played by Christopher Lambert) was born. In 1536, Connor was killed in battle — only to resurrect, learning that he was one of the immortals. The film follows his life, his training with the immortal mentor Ramirez (played by Sean Connery), and his constant battles with other immortals, all the way up to the modern day.

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Book: Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”

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The first time I read the books about Ostap Bender was in my teenage years. I don’t think that’s the best age for such reading, but the book was on our shelf, I had heard a lot about it, and I already liked the film version of The Twelve Chairs directed by Mark Zakharov. Probably because of the songs — but still, I liked it.

I remember that I read both The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf back to back. I really enjoyed the first book, while the sequel left me with a feeling of melancholy. That impression of the duology stayed with me for years. However, I recently decided to reread them as an adult, to see how my perception might have changed.

Looking at the editions currently available, I came across an expanded version titled “the most complete edition.” That piqued my interest, so I chose to read that one.

In case someone out there either doesn’t remember or has never heard of this book (which would be hard to believe), here’s a brief summary. The setting is the 1920s. A former nobleman, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, lives a modest life as a registry office clerk when he suddenly learns that during the revolution, his mother-in-law hid the family jewels inside one of the chairs from their noble furniture set. He throws himself into a frantic search — and is unexpectedly joined by a stranger, Ostap Bender. In reality, it’s Ostap who takes the lead in the hunt. Thanks to his wit and the skill of a “great schemer,” he masterfully navigates even the trickiest situations. Poor Ippolit Matveyevich is hardly a match for him.

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My scariest movie

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Many people love watching horror movies, although these days I often find them amusing because of the idiocy of the events and the characters. However, there are still films that genuinely scare me.

Today, I found myself thinking about which horror films scared me the most—those that truly frightened me, even if they weren’t necessarily made with that intention. I quickly remembered three such movies, but the top one became clear almost immediately, with a huge lead. But let me start with the “weaker” ones, if you can say that.

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Song: Beautiful Far Away… Far Away, But Not There

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Today, I learned something completely unexpected about a childhood song that everyone knows—”Prekrasnoye Dalyoko” (“Beautiful Far Away”). Yes, the one from the movie Guest from the Future. And the revelation shocked me so much that I decided to dig deeper, do a little investigation, and prove that we’ve all been deceived. Turns out, we have been—but not entirely. So, here’s what I found.

I don’t know about you, but as a kid, I absolutely loved Guest from the Future. And like most Soviet boys, I had a bit of a crush on Natasha Guseva, who played the main character, Alisa Selezneva. I also read Kir Bulychev’s novella One Hundred Years Ahead, which the movie was based on—but it was completely different. Not the point right now, though.

After the movie, the song that played at the very end of the last episode became a massive hit. “Prekrasnoye Dalyoko” exploded in popularity—it was performed by various state and school choirs, released on vinyl records with children’s songs, and practically overshadowed every other song on the charts at the time. Probably the only real competition came from “Krylatye Kacheli” (“Winged Swings”) from The Adventures of the Elektronic.

“But what’s the big deal?” you ask. And here’s where things get interesting—something often called the Mandela Effect. That is, when many people collectively remember something that never actually happened. With this song, everyone remembers and sings the lyrics as: “I hear a voice from the beautiful far away, it calls me to wondrous lands…” (This research is about the Russian lyrics, but I am providing them in a literal English translation.) Sometimes the lands are far away, sometimes beautiful, sometimes something else. But in every breakdown of this phenomenon, in every reference to the Mandela Effect, they say that these lyrics never existed. Because in the actual song, the words are: “It calls me not to paradise lands.”

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Song: “Burn Butcher Burn” from the series “The Witcher”

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On my Facebook, I wrote about how much I disliked the series “The Witcher,” and I found the second season to be far worse than the first. However, in the first season, everyone was blown away by the bard Jaskier’s song “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher,” which unexpectedly became far more popular on the internet than the series itself for a while. And that was true for both the original English version and the Russian adaptation.

In the second season, there was another song performed by Jaskier—“Burn Butcher Burn.” The Russian version sounds rather bland, while the English rendition is far more powerful, almost as if they were two completely different songs. This is unusual because Russian dubbing is typically excellent, owing to decades of experience from the Soviet school of dubbing.

At first, I wanted to feature only the English version in my blog, but then I found a video that compiled the scene in multiple languages with different audio tracks. It starts with the English version and then includes many others, such as Russian and Ukrainian. I must say that in most cases, the voice chosen for the character fits quite well. The Czech and French performances are on par with the original. I’m not as confident about the others. As for my personal playlist, I’ve added the original version.

Songs of a Second Chance

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In September, I already wrote about remarkable songs from rather mediocre films. But since songs and films are now inextricably linked, today I want to write about a few songs (or melodies) that received a second chance (and sometimes an even stronger one) compared to their original versions. Sometimes it’s just an interesting cinematic arrangement; other times, it’s an entirely new “reading.” I’ll share examples of what I believe are very successful adaptations. And I mean specifically movie (or TV series) adaptations, as there are plenty of amazing covers out there, but we won’t count those today, or we’d simply get lost in them.

So, my criteria were simple:

  1. The melody or song featured in the film existed long before the movie’s release and was already well-known.
  2. It was released as part of the film (soundtrack).
  3. To me personally, it seems very interesting and, in some ways, even better than the original.

I’ll start with a film that is truly rich in such “second winds” — Hipsters by Valery Todorovsky (oh my goodness, it’s already been 13 years since its release, but it feels like it was just yesterday!). Every musical number in the movie is outstanding, so I’ll highlight just three of the absolute best.

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Who Needs Credits?

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Recently, there’s been another heated debate on the internet about the rules that certain game companies use to decide whether to include or exclude employees from the credits of their games. And this is indeed a fascinating topic!

Games weren’t the first to come up with credits. Movies come to mind much earlier. However, even in films, credits have undergone massive changes. I remember absolutely hating the credits in Soviet children’s films, especially when they were placed at the beginning of the movie. You’d sit down in front of the TV, all ready to enjoy your favorite film—perhaps one you’d been waiting for all week (this was before you could just hop onto Netflix and watch anything). And then you’re hit with “film director,” “cinematographer,” “director”… I couldn’t care less! I wanted to watch the movie, not read their names!

That said, I have to admit that sometimes creators managed to make this part interesting. In some films, they would show the actor in their role alongside how they looked in real life. That, I loved to watch—it didn’t make me want to switch off. Off the top of my head, I can recall this approach being used in New Year’s Adventures of Masha and Vitia and the later Don Cesar de Bazan. In those films, the actors in their everyday appearance looked nothing like their characters on screen.

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Masterpiece Songs from Flop Films

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Recently, I was playing some of my favorite songs for the kids in the car. At some point, I caught myself thinking that many of these songs are far more famous than the movies they appeared in. Usually, it’s the other way around: the soundtrack (music and songs) fades into the background as we get absorbed by the story. Sometimes, both the film and the songs are great, and we end up happily humming the tunes afterward—or they even become hits.

The latter category includes “Prekrasnoye Daleko” (“The Beautiful Far Away”) from the excellent film “Guest from the Future“ (which deviates significantly from Kir Bulychev’s original story, but as kids, we were glued to the screen, and Natasha Guseva—the lead actress—became every boy’s favorite girl in the USSR for years). Or “Krylatye Kacheli” (“The Swinging Swings”) from “The Adventures of the Electronic“. There are plenty of other examples too.

But let’s think about cases where we remember the songs, but the movies didn’t leave much of an impression. Of course, I can’t name them all, so I invite you to add your examples in the comments. I’ll share a few from my own playlist, and I’ll add any suggestions from the comments to the post.

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Book: Robert E. Howard “The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane”

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Today, there are probably few people who are unfamiliar with the character of Conan the Barbarian. Even if they haven’t read a single book about him, they are likely to remember the iconic image of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger portraying the character. However, in the Soviet Union, the author of the Conan series (and many other works), Robert E. Howard, was virtually unknown until 1989. Although Howard himself didn’t write a large number of works, several of his characters became cult figures, Conan being the foremost among them. The series about this hero, which many other authors have continued, now includes not just dozens but hundreds of stories.

Personally, I first encountered Robert E. Howard’s work back in the distant year of 1990, when the Minsk publishing house Eridan released a collection of the author’s works titled The Hour of the Dragon.

A year earlier, in Krasnoyarsk, a thin booklet of just 52 pages had been published, containing two of Howard’s short stories translated by Alexander Bushkov under one cover. Eridan, in its full-length book, used both of these stories in the same translation. The Eridan collection included works about various characters, including the titular novel about Conan the Barbarian. However, one of the stories translated by Bushkov was Wings in the Night, featuring a protagonist named Solomon Kane. At the time, this character didn’t leave much of an impression on me. The story was the only one about him in the collection, and for a 13-year-old, his image clearly paled in comparison to the ruthless, muscular barbarian Conan. It was read and forgotten, in short. Two years later, the same Eridan began publishing a four-volume collection of Robert E. Howard’s works, but even in this, Solomon Kane appeared in only two stories—Wings in the Night and Red Shadows. You’ll agree, that’s hardly enough to develop any strong feelings for the character.

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Book Adaptations (Akunin and Beyond)

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Today, I would like not just to make a post but to invite a discussion on the topic of book adaptations. However, I will focus only on the adaptations of one specific series: The Adventures of Erast Fandorin by Boris Akunin.

Boris Akunin is one of my favorite authors. I have not read all of his works, nor do I enjoy all of them equally. However, the Erast Fandorin series is, in my humble opinion, the best he has written. Today, I will not discuss which novels I like more or less. Instead, I will share my thoughts on the three existing adaptations.

It all began with the film (and later mini-series) Azazel, an adaptation of the very first novel in the series. In fact, I watched the film before I started reading Akunin’s books. At the time, everyone around me was talking about this new and trendy writer, Boris Akunin, and I dislike following trends just because they are popular. But I really enjoyed the film, and almost immediately after watching it, I read the book and became completely immersed in the series, devouring one novel after another.

The series currently consists of 15 books, plus an additional one about Masa, a Japanese servant and partner of Erast Fandorin. Adaptations have been made of the first novel (Azazel, or The Winter Queen in English translation), the second (Turkish Gambit), and, somewhat surprisingly, the sixth (The State Counsellor).

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