Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:52 am
I was not quite sure whether to post this in the Kino or in the Ruscico thread, so I thought of starting a dedicated thread here, as the film is quite intriguing and deserves it in my view. The new Kino disc seems to be a straight port of the Ruscico, and on the pic on the Kino site there is not even the Kino logo on the disc sleeve.
I had never heard about Emil Lotyanu's 1976 film "Gypsies are found near heaven" before, but the director's name was familiar, as Lotyanu (or Loteanu, as his name is also transcribed) was the man who finally directed the film on "Anna Pavlova" in 1983 which was originally designed to be made by Michael Powell, and so I always wanted to see something by that director.
"Gypsies" is a quite striking and unusual film. Based on an early story by Maxim Gorki, its plot is a love story set in the gypsy milieu in Russia around 1900. The film is a curious mixture of adventure, romance and musical. Imagine a Bollywood version of "Shadows of our forgotten ancestors", and you get an idea. Stunningly photographed, and nicely acted, the film was a major success home and abroad. It verges on the sentimental at times (and the somewhat clichéd big orchestra versions of gypsy music don't make it any better), but it curiously managed to grip me in its mixture of the folkloric and magical combined with what is an apparently realistic portrayal of a vanishing culture. Part of the attraction, of course, was the commanding beauty of main actress Svetlana Toma, who was 28 when the film was made but looked like 18 (and who still looks like 40 on the extras, although she must be over 50 now....). Anyway, I would recommend this film to anyone interested in something outside the usual ways of 1970s filmmaking, and would like to hear some comments or other recommendations for similar films from Russia at that time. Yevgheny Doga in the extras talks about the film being an example of a 'romantic trend' in the Russian arthouse cinema in the 70s, a topic I would love to learn more about.
Having seen the announcement on the Kino site, I thought of better looking directly for the original Ruscico disc due to the usual problems of PAL/NTSC conversion with Kino discs, and was happy enough to find the Ruscico PAL version on ebay for a good price. Thus the following comments are about the Ruscico, but even though we go without the usual problems of Kino's and Ruscico's NTSC conversions, the image isn't great. Sharpness and detail are very good, almost no compression artefacts to speak of due to high bitrate on this DVD-9, almost no scratches etc., but the splendid colours seem either washed out or definitely off in places, with many scenes appearing to be too bright. I assume that the transfer suffers from similar problems like Ruscico's /AE's/MK2's "Dersu Uzala", i.e. it was probably made on 70mm stock which now cannot be processed anymore by the Russians, and I assume this transfer was made from a 35mm print which has lost its colours somehow in the last 30 years. It's a shame, really, because this film would deserve better. It still is watchable and hugely enjoyable (and at least the colours remain stable for the most part), but be aware that it is not as good as one wishes it to be. Extras feature interviews with composer Yevgheny Doga and the aforementioned Svetlana Toma, both of which offer some nice, but not very in-depth background on the film. Thankfully, the original Russian mono track is included along 5.1. upmixes in Russian, English and French. The usual amount of subs in different languages is also present. Aspect ratio (anamorphic) is 2.35, not 1.85 as printed on the disc, and it looks correct.
I had never heard about Emil Lotyanu's 1976 film "Gypsies are found near heaven" before, but the director's name was familiar, as Lotyanu (or Loteanu, as his name is also transcribed) was the man who finally directed the film on "Anna Pavlova" in 1983 which was originally designed to be made by Michael Powell, and so I always wanted to see something by that director.
"Gypsies" is a quite striking and unusual film. Based on an early story by Maxim Gorki, its plot is a love story set in the gypsy milieu in Russia around 1900. The film is a curious mixture of adventure, romance and musical. Imagine a Bollywood version of "Shadows of our forgotten ancestors", and you get an idea. Stunningly photographed, and nicely acted, the film was a major success home and abroad. It verges on the sentimental at times (and the somewhat clichéd big orchestra versions of gypsy music don't make it any better), but it curiously managed to grip me in its mixture of the folkloric and magical combined with what is an apparently realistic portrayal of a vanishing culture. Part of the attraction, of course, was the commanding beauty of main actress Svetlana Toma, who was 28 when the film was made but looked like 18 (and who still looks like 40 on the extras, although she must be over 50 now....). Anyway, I would recommend this film to anyone interested in something outside the usual ways of 1970s filmmaking, and would like to hear some comments or other recommendations for similar films from Russia at that time. Yevgheny Doga in the extras talks about the film being an example of a 'romantic trend' in the Russian arthouse cinema in the 70s, a topic I would love to learn more about.
Having seen the announcement on the Kino site, I thought of better looking directly for the original Ruscico disc due to the usual problems of PAL/NTSC conversion with Kino discs, and was happy enough to find the Ruscico PAL version on ebay for a good price. Thus the following comments are about the Ruscico, but even though we go without the usual problems of Kino's and Ruscico's NTSC conversions, the image isn't great. Sharpness and detail are very good, almost no compression artefacts to speak of due to high bitrate on this DVD-9, almost no scratches etc., but the splendid colours seem either washed out or definitely off in places, with many scenes appearing to be too bright. I assume that the transfer suffers from similar problems like Ruscico's /AE's/MK2's "Dersu Uzala", i.e. it was probably made on 70mm stock which now cannot be processed anymore by the Russians, and I assume this transfer was made from a 35mm print which has lost its colours somehow in the last 30 years. It's a shame, really, because this film would deserve better. It still is watchable and hugely enjoyable (and at least the colours remain stable for the most part), but be aware that it is not as good as one wishes it to be. Extras feature interviews with composer Yevgheny Doga and the aforementioned Svetlana Toma, both of which offer some nice, but not very in-depth background on the film. Thankfully, the original Russian mono track is included along 5.1. upmixes in Russian, English and French. The usual amount of subs in different languages is also present. Aspect ratio (anamorphic) is 2.35, not 1.85 as printed on the disc, and it looks correct.