WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Rock'n Roll Wolf 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:06.439 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:12.920 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.239 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.400 today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:24.040 discussing the nineteen seventy six Romanian Soviet French co produced 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:30.640 psychotropic children's fairytale musical Mama aka Rock and Roll Wolf, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:36.400 directed by the Romanian filmmaker Eliza Beta Boston. And I 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.880 really mean it when I say this movie has everything. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:45.440 It is so much, so fast, and so wonderful, infectiously 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:50.000 lovable music. Russian ballet dancer is dressed up like spiders 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:55.720 and or sparrows. Nearly just NonStop locomotive energy. Maybe flags 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:57.680 a little bit in the second half of the movie, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.400 but at least the first half is like it. It 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.640 is a freight train. It does not stop. It's got 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:08.400 diverse frolicking theeomorphs in a secret village in the deep woods. 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:13.560 It's got rooftop sea saws, bridges over nothing, goat boy, levitation, 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.959 ice based wolf traps, strawberries coated and honeydew, a rainbow 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:25.160 parrot with like mad auctioneer energy, plaintive, donkey, solos, pendulum beds, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:30.800 secret passwords, red squirrel, acorn rituals, A dangerously handsome bad 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.640 boy wolf man, a gorgeous angelic goat mother, and non 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:40.360 stop historical smoking. Yes, this is one of those where 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.440 I am definitely in how have I never seen this before? Territory? 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:47.680 A rock and roll wolf is so so in my 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.440 wheelhouse and I can't recommend it enough, super weird and 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.440 pushes like every single sensory boundary at once. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.240 I showed part of this to my wife at lunch 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.200 after I'd finished watching it, and she thought it like 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.560 an acid trip. And her follow up question was, how 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.200 did Joe find out about this movie? And I don't 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.360 have the answer. Do you have an answer? Can you 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:08.800 answer it? 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.560 For this? I wish I remember? No. I honestly I 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.000 don't know how this movie first came onto my radar. 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:15.760 I've like had it on a list of movies I 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.200 was gonna come back and check out later, and then 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.240 this week I did. I looked at my list and 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.080 I was like, oh, okay, what's the deal with this one? 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.960 So I know one reason I became intrigued this week 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:30.400 is that I started looking into user reviews and comments 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.200 online just how people were reacting to this movie, and 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:39.120 I noticed there were several distinct tranches of audience reaction. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:44.840 One type was pretty similar to how I'm reacting now, like, WTF, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.160 I just discovered this insane movie as an adult. My 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:53.040 senses are overwhelmed and I am delighted and confused. But interestingly, 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.240 another type of reaction was and I think this is 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.000 probably particularly common in people from certain countries in yours. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.680 It was a reaction like I grew up watching this 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.720 over and over on TV, and it is intensely nostalgic 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.760 for me. I couldn't verify this, but I read a 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.240 bit of unsourced trivia online that this movie was played 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.480 every year at Christmas on Norwegian television, where I believe 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.640 it would have been known as a RockA Uven, meaning 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.520 the Rock Wolf. And so I don't know. I guess 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.320 we are in Christmas movie territory, whether whether or not 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:29.320 we meant to be this week. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.000 Yeah, And it's when we get into the plot later on, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.520 it does seem like there is some sort of well, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.360 you know, so there is some winter folkloric magic going 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.640 on here. So it does seem to fit well within 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.160 like the Holiday movie Universe. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.960 Yeah, yeah, we get a winter fairy who comes and 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.360 saves a little goat boy who has gotten lost in 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.040 the in the wilderness. Oh but I should mention the 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.760 third major type of reaction, so we've got the this 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.200 movie is is weird. I love it. We've got this 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.480 movie is anstee for me. I saw it when I 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.760 was a kid. And then the third type is my 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.520 fanatical celebrity crush is a weird pipe smoking wolf or 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:12.360 a heavenly goat mother or both. Uh and this type 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.680 of reaction could overlap with one of the other histories possibly, 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.520 but a lot of people crushing on the main sort 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.039 of lead animals in this movie. 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.120 Yeah, this movie has dare I say, strong furry energy 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.120 to it. If you if you at any point in 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:33.520 your life, you've really gotten into the practical makeup effects 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:38.280 for the cat's musical or perhaps the I finally remember 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:43.680 this show Zublie Zoo starring Ben Vereen. This was a 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.720 like a kid's musical dance show, very Broadway, and all 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:49.160 the makeup was very cats. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.400 I've never seen Zubalizo, but I watched part of this 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:54.680 movie with my wife and she she compared it to 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:55.680 Zublizu as well. 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.440 Yes, strong Zubali zoo energy and uh and yeah, it 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.160 has a a lot of attractive people dressed up as 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:07.120 these animals. So I did have to wonder at times 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.080 like if I was bringing that energy into it with 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.840 other people. We're having that reaction as well, because I 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:15.919 just came off a couple of viewings of nineteen seventy 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.200 six is were Wolf Woman. So I don't know if 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.000 I'm letting like the were Wolf Woman experience taint my 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:27.440 viewing of a family children's Christmas story, you know, from 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:28.880 several countries away. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.599 No, I mean, it's not the only movie of this sort, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.800 but I think from what I can tell, everything explicit 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.240 about it is, you know, very it's very family friendly, 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.159 and it's you know, it's a children's movie. It's a 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.320 fairy tale movie. But there's sort of a second level 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.240 of interpretation that a lot of people I think, look 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.280 back on it with after they grew up watching it, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.520 and in fact, regarding that first type of reaction, like 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:57.440 all the people who were saying, oh, I watched this 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.000 so many times as a child, like maybe on Norwy 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.840 TV or in Norway. Somehow this connects to another interesting 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.880 thing I found online which was a trailer for a 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:15.320 live musical stage adaptation which played at the Norwegian National 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.680 Theater in twenty eleven, and I so wish I could 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:20.719 go back in time and see this. I would fly 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.160 to Norway. If they do a revival, I don't know, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.320 maybe they keep doing this thing. But kind of interesting 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.680 thing about it is the movie I think is firmly 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.839 aimed at kids. It's like a it's extremely weird, but 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.120 it is a family fairy tale adventure. Just from the trailer, 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.400 this stage musical looks to me more explicitly aimed at adults. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.160 It has slight, slight, rocky horror energy. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.200 Yes, yes, soft, but yes, I see what you're saying. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:54.359 Like the little clips in the trailer feel like something 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.839 in one sense, aimed at adults who have passionate nostalgia 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.799 for a movie they loved as children, with a sense 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.640 of irony about the weirder aspects. For example, a few 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.520 of the clips from the stage version really seem to 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.440 press on the sexual tension between Mamma Goat and mister Wolf. Like. 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.840 I pulled out a few screenshots for you to look at. 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.040 Rob This is again, this is not from the movie. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.080 This is from the stage version, where we've got Mamma 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.800 Goat here spanking the wolf them just like making weird 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.760 faces at each other. And then here's this one scene 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.840 where suddenly Mamma Goat has had a costume change and 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.080 she's no longer in her Romanian folk dress and is 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.360 wearing some kind of black leather thing with a bunch 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:35.280 of metal rivets. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:37.200 Yeah, at this point, I feel like we're in a 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:38.040 meat love video. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.360 Yes, yeah, but no. Yeah. Again. To be clear, this 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.840 does not happen in the movie. I think adult viewers 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.200 will find it impossible to miss the weird tension between 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.760 the wolf Titisuru and the goat mother Rada, but it's 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.080 not explicit in the movie, and it's not played for 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.400 laughs like it seems to be here. So technically this 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:05.480 movie is a film adaptation of one version of the 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.320 fairy tale known as The Wolf and the Seven Young 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.680 Kids in the Brothers Grim Catalog. And we'll get to 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.040 the details of that story later on. I'll summarize it 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.000 when we get to the plot, but overall the movie 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.560 is quite loose on plot. Rock and Roll Wolf is, 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.320 like many musicals, more of an experience. It's kind of 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:30.120 hard to communicate how much experience is packed into this 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.480 eighty minute movie, the kind of time I personally had 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.360 with it. The runtime just flew by, especially in the 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.200 first half, with the song and dance number is just 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.560 coming so fast, and the tone and the visual and 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:47.240 sonic texture constantly switching up with this kind of rapid 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.880 shuffling deck of cards kind of feeling. I loved Rock 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.040 and Roll Wolf, and I think it's a real shame that, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.120 as far as I'm aware, there is not like a 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.199 high quality blu ray of the English version available today. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.679 I really really want that, because this is a gem 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.800 of a film. Oh and I guess sorry. That brings 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:11.600 up a second impressive thing about this movie. It is 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.520 a film where the main creative inputs were Romanian and Russian. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:21.080 But there is a native English version of the film, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.040 so not just subtitles, not even just a dub. There 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.600 is a version of the movie where the songs have 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.839 lyrics in English and are performed in English by the cast. Now, 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.960 it might be different voice actors than the people playing 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.720 the characters on screen. I'm not sure, because I did 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:44.040 listen to snippets of songs from the different versions there's 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.960 at least one in Romanian, one in Russian, and one 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:48.640 in English. I don't know if there are any other 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.280 language versions. And the voices sound kind of different to me, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.320 so I think it might be different singers. But like 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.320 one example was that I recall in the Russian version 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.200 the wolf's sound did a lot less suave than in 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.439 the English version and more kind of rascally. 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.440 Yeah, I did notice that the English track was recorded 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.760 in London, so you know, I mean that kind of 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:14.960 leads me to believe it is a different a different 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.079 vocal cast for the English cut. But the English cuts, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.400 the version we watched, that's at least a version that 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.640 as of this recording is floating around out there. I 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:29.120 asked around about this movie at Video Drome here in Atlanta, 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.160 the video rental store, and John, one of the guys 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.600 who works there, is quite knowledgeable. He was looking around 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.040 looking stuff up, and he pointed out there is a 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.000 DVD version of this film, or a DVD R I'm 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.840 not sure I'm the technical specs there, but there is 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.960 some sort of diss you can buy. You might have 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:49.520 to go on eBay to get it, he said, but 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.319 it does exist. But in terms of like a really 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.680 nice like Blu ray edition, which clearly a film like 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.600 this deserves. He said, you know, a good place to 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.880 watch out for it would maybe be the deaf Crocodile guys. 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.360 That company puts out a number of great films, some 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.040 you know, some Russian films for sure, and so that 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.199 those would be the guys to pester with your with 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.840 your requests for rock and roll Wolf aka Mama. 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.240 Well, yes, I fully endorse that please put this out 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.880 because this is you can tell you can just look 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.280 through the core of visual assets here are fantastic. This 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.920 is a movie of beautiful production values. It has these 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.640 great sets. It's set in this fairy tale animal village 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.240 in the middle of a forest with all these you know, 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.280 strain like these Romanian folk cabins and weird sets. But 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.680 it's also got like some disco kind of sets. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:42.800 Oh yeah, for sure. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.880 So yeah, the psychotropic elements dominate as well. The costumes 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.920 and the makeup are just you know, push to eleven. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:56.679 It's almost constantly something something beautiful to behold. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.480 It is definitely a nineteen seventies musical. There's that no 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.400 doubting that. If you have ever seen like the original 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.959 film adaptation of Godspell. Indeed Rocky Heart Picture Show or 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:10.760 a movie if we've talked about on the show before, 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.040 The Apple, which came out in the nineteen eighties, but 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:18.040 he's still a seventies rock musical, like this has all 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.000 of that energy, the rock and rolls there, the disco 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:26.520 elements are there, and also that kind of like bohemian vibe. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.719 You know of these troubadours and bards floating around in 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.080 a troubled decade but still keeping you know, some of 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.079 that energy of the late nineteen sixties alive in their art. 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.520 Yeah, hey, hey, hey, Wolf's on the way. So, like 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.960 I can see that comparison with The Apple and all that, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.079 And another one I saw people a comparison I saw 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:51.120 people making online was Tommy you know, of the Who album. 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.840 So I absolutely see that. Though something about this does 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.760 feel a little it has common esthetic elements, but it 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:05.880 feels less decadent than a lot of your western seventies 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.120 rock operas. It feels more wholesome and kind of forest 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:10.040 magic based. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.920 Yeah. Yeah, it is ultimately angling for children and features 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.280 a lot of child characters. So yeah, it's it's it's 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:18.840 managing to be all these things at once. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.680 But on the other hand, don't want to over sell 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.640 the wholesomeness or make it sound bland like it does 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.880 have strong Mother Goose drops acid energy. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:30.760 Is that your elevator pitch? 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.680 Yeah, that's got to be mother. Mother Goose drops acid 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.000 and joins the spiders from Mars. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.440 All right, you know, I'm not sure we actually have 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:45.720 any trailer audio for this one, given the nature of 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.600 the picture. We'll hunt around a little bit and if 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:50.520 we can find something, we'll throw it in here. If not, 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.280 maybe we can get JJ to sample just a tiny 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.520 bit of the audio. If not, you know, you'll never 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:04.360 hear this part because we'll cut it out. I shall 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:05.480 say like this. 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:14.720 Esse home. Now you can open the door. Don't be 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:29.760 afraid now, not any more. He suits costious pain terrors 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:37.240 of occupation. We let up helping can in sua summation. 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:47.880 He ho ho, I'm the donkeeper treacle he hoy. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.400 All my rather a good care cale. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.320 All right, if you want to see this film for yourself, 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.960 we already discussed ways you might be able to find it, 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.160 and perhaps find it in the future. Who knows, but 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:11.480 this is always the case. We do urge you to 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.240 watch it in the best quality possible in however you 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:26.600 obtain it. All right, let's get into the people behind 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.400 this picture, all right. Starting at the top, we have 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:35.320 Elizabeta Boston born nineteen thirty one, the director Romanian film 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.880 director and screenwriter whose credits include nineteen sixty four's Memories 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.200 of My Childhood, nineteen sixty eight's Kingdom in the Clouds, 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:46.880 seventy twos Veronica, and seventy threes Veronica Comes Back. She's 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.760 been involved in various stage and screen projects over the 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.960 course of her long career, as well as in academia 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:53.880 concerning film. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.200 Apparently, these Veronica movies she did are also sort of wild, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.480 sort of fairy tale fantasies aimed at children, and I'm 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.840 interested in checking those out because oh and we didn't 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.800 I guess we didn't mention this yet. But one of 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.040 the appeals of getting into this movie this week is that, 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.360 of course, every Christmas season, Rob and I get in 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.880 get in mind the mind of Jack Frost or moros 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:22.040 Co the Great the you know, Christmas Tale of the 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:27.640 Russo Finish Taiga. But that one I saw little echoes 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.160 of that in the movie we're talking about today, and 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.680 in the screenshots I saw from the Veronica movies, I 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.120 saw some comparisons one could make to moros Coo as well, 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.480 So those are going to be on my radar. I 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.880 want to come back and check them out. All right. 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.440 As for the writing, here, we have two screenplay credits. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.320 One is a is a Russian and the other is 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:52.400 a Romanian. We have a Yuri Intin born nineteen thirty five, 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.040 Russian author, a musician whose other credits include various other 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.920 children's pictures. And then we have Vasilica is trade Livenin 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.360 teen thirty four through two thousand and two, Romanian producer 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:04.959 and writer who works several times in a writing capacity 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.520 with Bustan. And this is a good a time as 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:12.480 any to add usual caveat my apologies for any mispronunciations 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.439 of the various Russian, Romanian and French names that are 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:21.280 going to be involved in this multi national production here, 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.440 all right, This film, there's no doubt about it, stars 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:31.120 Ludmila Gorchhenko playing Ratra the Goat. This is the titular 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.159 Mama from the versions of the film you'll find with 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:40.240 the title Mama, and she lived nineteen thirty five through 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:41.600 twenty eleven. 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.040 Radiating goodness and light even when the forest is dark. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.600 She has strong you know, she's the paladin, she's the 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.359 heroin character, and she comes off as so good and 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.320 so pure, even when she's like flirting with the wolf 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:57.920 who's going to eat her children. 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.760 I mean, you very well may think that you were 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.800 immune to the wiles of various Satyrs and Baphamets and 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.520 even mister Tumness, but you know, you need to watch 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.280 this film and see how Rada hits for you, because 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.760 her charisma, her brightness or just absolute goodness shines through. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:20.600 And also something about you know, she has this little 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.359 button nose that seems to just work so well with 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.000 the big goat horns and all. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.919 Yeah, yeah, she does have goat horns and they do 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:32.560 the It feels like a very Eastern block style of 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.960 makeup effects. Though I think the makeup in this movie 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.159 might have been done by the fringe. 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:39.000 I'm not sure, but yeah, I think I saw at 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:40.919 least some French credits for the makeup. 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.080 Yeah. Well, anyway, it's something I recognize from Morosco as well, 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.600 that the freckles she has, which are just done. It 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.240 looks like with like a black felt tip pin, just 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.080 black felt tip little freckles on her cheeks well. 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:59.080 Grushenko was a Ukrainian born, Russian and Soviet actress, singer, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.680 and overall in her While she at times was seen 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.480 as too Western by Soviet entertainment tastemakers earlier in her career, 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.239 she went on to be a highly regarded actress in 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.879 Soviet and post Soviet Russia, receiving the highest acting honors 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.720 during both eras she worked well into her seventies on 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.960 stage and in TV and film. She put out several 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.720 albums in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, and her best 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.960 known films include nineteen fifty six's Carnival Nights, nineteen seventy Nines, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.720 Siberi Day, and nineteen seventy six is Twenty Days Without War, 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:38.240 which was apparently suppressed to some degree due to its 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.000 anti war themes and wasn't released until nineteen eighty one, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:47.920 and that was after the success of seventy nine Siberi Day, 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:51.080 so you know, at that point there was no stopping her. 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.320 I was exploring her filmography a bit I have this 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.359 is the only film I've seen starring her, but clearly 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.679 she's a huge name and a number of prestige pictures, like, 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.119 she's not an actress that you find in any like 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:08.240 sci fi and horror pictures. But of note, there's nineteen 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:14.359 ninety one's Sex Kaska, which I think translates to sex story, 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.119 and it's a fantasy mystery picture. It looks like it 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.680 has some like sexy aspects to it, but also seems 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:24.440 to have a very almost kind of noir quality to 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.600 the filmmaking. The only other two films that I think 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.359 fall roughly into a fantasy genre for her were nineteen 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.720 sixty ones The Man from Nowhere in nineteen seventy one's Ten. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.119 So yeah, this is my first time seeing her in 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.879 a film, but it seems based on what I was reading, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.000 and like the oh bit that ran in the Guardian 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:47.840 when she passed, it seems difficult to overstress how successful 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.240 she was as an actress in Russia. 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.320 It seems hard to believe that she didn't do more 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.520 like sci fi and genre type movies. When you look 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:00.680 at some of her press photos, yere one you share 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:02.720 I don't know what this is from, but there's one 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.320 photo you shared with me. It's clearly from some kind 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.960 of magazine shoot or something where she's I guess she's 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.720 having a picnic. She's sitting out in the middle of 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.919 a field with a blanket spread out under her, and 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.720 she's got you know, kind of like a rattan lined 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.960 wine bottle there, but she's got several daggers in ornate sheathes. 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.199 She's wearing one of those like felt mountaineer hats with 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.480 feathers in it. She's got a flask of some guy 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.240 next to her, just some kind of bunches of grapes 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.600 lying around, and then a falcon in her hand like 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:35.800 it's per she's got one of those leather gloves and 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:36.920 just yeah, falconing. 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.719 Between this image and the still I shared with you 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:43.040 from Sex Story, in which she's wearing like some sort 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.679 of like she got crazy makeup on and this big 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.880 furry hat, like both of these images, and i'd really 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.320 to an extent also the screen cap here we have 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.320 from today's movie. If I encountered all of these and 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:56.600 like a Google image search, I would be like, get 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.240 this AI stuff out of here. Nice try mid journey, 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.800 But I'm not believing that this is a real image 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.840 of a woman with a falcon and a ceremonial dagger 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.280 and a big flowery hat out on a pick neck. 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:10.560 Yeah, somebody put into the prompt like a Russian actress 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:12.000 as Edward scissorhands. 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.440 Yeah, but these are all real, These are actual photos. 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.240 I think I found the bird one on a blog 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.840 about like Russian pop culture. All right, so that that 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.159 is our star. That is mama that. But on the 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.919 other hand, this film was also known as rock and 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.840 Roll Wolf, So who is our wolf? Well, the character 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:37.359 is Titisuru, played by Mikhail Boyarsky born nineteen forty nine, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.200 Russian actor and singer, apparently best known for some adventure 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:45.440 films he did, especially a nineteen seventy nine Soviet Three 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.920 Musketeers movie in which he played the lead role of d'Artagnan. 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:51.600 In fact, I think the name of that movie this 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.399 may be in translation or you know, international releases, but 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.600 I saw it referenced as d'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers. 0:22:57.640 --> 0:22:59.680 So he must have stood out from the rest of 0:22:59.720 --> 0:22:59.920 the bum. 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.520 Yeah. Well, wait a minute, No is d'Artagnan one of 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.240 the three Musketeers. I think he might not be. 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:07.320 He's not. It's been a long time sin they've done 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:08.119 Three Musketeers. 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:10.760 But I gotta look this up. I'm not gonna be 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:12.040 able to rest until I know. 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:14.760 Yeah, I haven't. As a kid, I watched at least 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.159 one of the versions that had Oliver Reid in it. 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:19.359 But yeah, it's been a long time since they interacted. 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.720