Customer Reviews

Barbara The Fair With The Silken Hair

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent example of a Russian fairy tale movie. It was directed (in the 70's or so) by a famous director, Alexander Rou. He, and his pupils, made a number of great fairy tale adaptations for a big sceen. His movies have always been very popular among Russian kids. I still remember them from my childhood. I bought this recent DVD release for my son and I enjoyed watching it with him again.

The movie is neither too fast, nor slow. It has a very nice way of conveying a sense of mistery. Excellent actors. Barbara is a beatifull and good-natured daughter of an old and ugly-looking ruler of the underworld , chudo-yudo ("a freak of nature" is a close direct translation, though in Russian it has somewhat positive connotation). Chudo-yudo wants to find a worthy suitor for his daughter and he looks for one among the princes of the underworld, who are mostly some sort of "freaks of nature" like him. Barbara, however, dreams of a normal ordinary guy from the real world above. Of course, one day she meets one, who gets into the misterious underworld by mistake...

Technically speaking, this is another great DVD release from RUSCICO[...]. The quality of picture (anamorphic wide-screen transfer) and sound is very good. Three languages
to choose from (original Russian, dubbed English and French) and
many more languages for subtitles. I am really thankful to RUSCICO for bringing back to life many great movies of my childhood ("Viy", "Morozko", "Aladdin and his magic lamp", and many others). They are also available on DVD from amazon.

This is an old-fashioned fairy tale, so it appealed to me very much. It would probably seem odd to kids who are used to sophisticated special effects, and it's definitely campy. But I can recommend Barbara The Fair With The Silken Hair to adults who are interested in Russian folk music -- this move is full of wonderful songs. Without those songs, I would have just considered it an interesting oddity. Because of them, it earns five stars from me.

Got into these Alexander Rou directed Russian fairy tale movies because of "Jack Frost" on Mystery Science Theater 3000 years ago. The DVD transfers are excellent, with plenty of options for languages and subtitles, even some nice extras. This one is a "Prince and the Pauper" style story about babies switched at birth, one the son of a fisherman, the other the son of a czar. Barbara is the daughter of the underwater czar Chudo Yudo, who is one of those "gray area" is he bad is he good kind of characters. Georgi Millyar, who played the witch Baba Yaga in "Morozko" aka "Jack Frost" plays Chudo under heavy makeup and is a highlight in this movie. If you are a fan of Russian folklore, pick this one up. Doesn't have the repeat viewing value of "Morozko", but it's a fun watch.

Alexander Rou has done many fairy tales/folk tales but, to me, he is a poor director. This film is overacted and overproduced. It is part fairy tale, farce, musical and vaudeville. It just doesn't jell. For Russian audiences only.