Tag: movies

Films with Different Dubbings — Part 2

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It seems the first post about films with different dubbings was received quite well — and even back then I promised there would be a second part.

Although by now I’ve realized that calling it just “different dubbings” wasn’t quite accurate. It would have been more precise to call it “different versions.”

3. Rock’n Roll Wolf (1976)

Ever since childhood, I remember those TV “film concerts” — long compilations of songs from various animated films and movies. And almost always, one beautiful song would appear in those programs: “Mama” from the 1976 film of the same name (because in Russian the film was released under the title “Mama”, not “Rock’n Roll Wolf.”). Curiously, the film itself was shown on television quite rarely.

And yet it’s simply a costumed musical (we didn’t even use that word back then), loosely based on the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats (in English it is usually translated as The Wolf and Seven Kids.) At the same time, there was another wonderful Soviet musical, Wolf and Seven Kids in a New Way, which was released both as a vinyl record and as an animated film.

The movie Rock’n Roll Wolf was directed by the Romanian filmmaker Elisabeta Bostan and was a co-production between three countries: the USSR, Romania, and France. The main roles were played by well-known Soviet actors — Lyudmila Gurchenko, Mikhail Boyarskiy, Saveliy Kramarov, Natalya Krachkovskaya, and even the clown Oleg Popov as the Bear — alongside Romanian actors (how famous they were at the time, I honestly don’t know). The screenplay was a Soviet–Romanian collaboration, while the music was written by French and Romanian composers.

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Films with Different Dubbings — Part 1

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Many people enjoy watching films — some prefer the original audio, others like the dubbing tradition that has existed in the Russian-speaking world for nearly a century. But few people realize that some films were released with multiple different dubbings. The reasons varied, but the fact remains. And today I decided to talk about a few such films — all of them made in the Soviet Union.

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Musical “Les Misérables”

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When I wrote my review of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables, I admitted that what pushed me to read it was the Hollywood adaptation of the musical based on the same book. Before the musical, I only knew the broad strokes about the novel. The musical interpretation, though a bit on the superficial side, turned out to be very engaging. I rewatch it from time to time, and many of the songs have made their way into my playlist.

At some point I got interested in the history of the musical itself. And it turned out not to be some little-known production. So I’ll try to give a brief overview.

The first staging of a musical based on the famous book was in France, in 1980—and of course in French. But that production ran on stage for only three months. And perhaps no one would have heard of it if, in 1983, a recording hadn’t been passed to Cameron Mackintosh, the producer of the Broadway version of the great musical Cats, with a proposal to create an English-language version. The text was rewritten for an English audience; a prologue and several new numbers were added; and most importantly, all the non-musical spoken dialogue was removed. This version premiered in London in 1985.

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Dirty and Politically Incorrect ’80s

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I remember that in my childhood in the USSR, there was a craze for aerobics that came from the ‘decaying’ West. Various courses were released, special programs aired on TV, even records were issued with music and exercises. But even back then, as a teenager, I had my doubts that everyone was getting into this sport purely for the sake of sport—especially the men.

Time passed, the craze faded, but it was replaced by yoga, CrossFit, and other things like Pilates, which shall not be named.

What’s interesting is that even today many still perceive aerobics as an excuse to watch attractive women—not exactly with sporting intentions. But if in the 1980s this was seen as a manifestation of self-expression and liberation, now such views and videos could very well get you charged with harassment. O tempora! O mores!

And back then they even made movies—with young John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis. And no one went to jail, surprisingly. Even though it reeks of objectification of women, disregard for African Americans, and a bunch of other things.

So maybe the USSR was right about the decaying West after all.

MyShows: How to Keep Track of TV Shows (and Movies)

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There was a time when I didn’t watch any TV shows at all, because I had a strong impression that all series were basically soap operas. (Too many of them were being shown on TV during the final years of the USSR—things like Santa Barbara and Simple María.) But then someone persistently recommended a space series called Firefly. Eventually, I gave in and watched it. And I was absolutely blown away by how powerful a well-made show could be—both in terms of writing and acting.

That’s where my love for TV shows began—as well as my appreciation for actor Nathan Fillion, who played the lead role in Firefly. He later starred in the excellent series Castle, currently appears in The Rookie, and, in my opinion, would have been the perfect choice to play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie (though for some reason they cast Tom Holland instead).

For my wife and me, watching good shows has become a favorite way to spend our evenings together. But at some point, keeping track of what we’d seen and when new seasons were coming out started to get tricky. So I went looking for a good tool to help with that. A coworker recommended the service MyShows. I’ve been using it for many years now, and recently the developers added a new feature (still a bit rough around the edges, but promising)—tracking not only TV shows but also movies. So I figured I’d write a bit about this platform.

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“Highlander”: The Soundtrack

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Yesterday I talked about the two MacLeods from the Highlander series, but since I’ve already brought up this franchise, it would feel incomplete not to mention the film’s music.

True fans know, but many people never even stop to think about what music played in Highlander or who performed it. And yet, the soundtrack definitely played a big role in the film’s popularity, since it was created by none other than the mega-popular band Queen. In fact, based on songs written for a couple of films (including Highlander), they released the album A Kind of Magic.

It included the following tracks featured in Highlander:

  • A Kind of Magic
  • One Year of Love
  • Who Wants to Live Forever
  • Gimme the Prize
  • Princes of the Universe

All of these songs were written specifically for the movie, which is clearly reflected in their lyrics. Among them, two tracks gained the most widespread popularity.

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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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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: Irina Otieva “The Last Poem” — What You Haven’t Thought About

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Today, I want to talk about the song “The Last Poem”—a song many people know, but few truly understand its real meaning.

I’m sure many remember the Soviet film “Love and Lies” (a literal translation of its Russian title is “You Could Never Have Dreamed”)—a story about two teenagers in love, whose cruel parents prevent them from being together. As a child, I saw this film one way, but now, as a father of many children, I see it very differently. The girl convinces the boy not to pursue his education, claiming that learning is unnecessary—just drop everything, and we’ll simply live. It’s a compelling theme if you don’t dig too deep. And suddenly, the so-called antagonists don’t seem so bad anymore, while the supposed heroes reveal their own flaws and peculiarities.

But what I really want to focus on is the song—one that many know even better than the film itself. “The Last Poem” features the brilliant music of Alexei Rybnikov and was performed for the movie by Irina Otieva. However, in the USSR, it was also sung by other artists, including the band Yalla (whom I personally associate more with one song—“Uchkuduk, Three Wells”).

The song is deeply lyrical, and many perceive it as an anthem of youth and love. And that would be fine—if not for its origins. I had heard this story several times before, but for many, it’s a revelation (just as it was for me the first time).

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