Sumptuous Trailer For Russian Bio-Pic VYSOTSKY: THANK YOU FOR LIVING
It's a good thing I don't speak Russian. Because if I had known what the full title for Peter Buslov's bio-pic of Soviet era entertainer Vladimir Vysotsky was before watching the trailer I probably never would have bothered, the sheer degree of saccharine in the name having sent me running elsewhere.
But I don't. And I did. And what I saw is a fantastic bit of film making packed to the gills with gorgeous art design and shot by an enormously talented DP, with a cast of players so strong that even a relative neophyte to current Russian film such as myself can smile and say "Oh, good. That guy," more than once as it plays out. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the subject of the film seems to be a genuinely fascinating character.
Vysotsky is pretty much the prototypical example of an artistic flame burning bright and ultimately burning itself out. The man dropped out of university - he was studying to be an engineer - to pursue a career as an actor and ended up not only being phenomenally successful at that but also as a singer and musician.
It's the way his musical career played out that makes Vysotsky particularly interesting. His work was laced with social and political commentary and - for most of his career - was never authorized by the Soviet authorities and, therefore, never recorded and released to the mass market. Instead his work spread underground, through home made cassettes and concert bootlegs, until he was firmly entrenched as one of the most popular singers in the Soviet Union.
His personal life was turbulent as well, the man cycling through three wives and one well known mistress - his final spouse being a popular French actress he met on a film set. Spending time together was, to put it mildly, a challenge. An alcoholic and abuser of narcotics Vysotsky died of heart failure at the age of just forty two in the middle of the Moscow Olympics and tens of thousands of fans lined the streets to see his coffin.
Buslov's film covers the latter years of Vysotsky's life and while I certainly can't comment as to whether or not it's accurate - though it was written by Vysotsky's son Nikita - I can sure as hell say it's attractive. Check it out below.
But I don't. And I did. And what I saw is a fantastic bit of film making packed to the gills with gorgeous art design and shot by an enormously talented DP, with a cast of players so strong that even a relative neophyte to current Russian film such as myself can smile and say "Oh, good. That guy," more than once as it plays out. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the subject of the film seems to be a genuinely fascinating character.
Vysotsky is pretty much the prototypical example of an artistic flame burning bright and ultimately burning itself out. The man dropped out of university - he was studying to be an engineer - to pursue a career as an actor and ended up not only being phenomenally successful at that but also as a singer and musician.
It's the way his musical career played out that makes Vysotsky particularly interesting. His work was laced with social and political commentary and - for most of his career - was never authorized by the Soviet authorities and, therefore, never recorded and released to the mass market. Instead his work spread underground, through home made cassettes and concert bootlegs, until he was firmly entrenched as one of the most popular singers in the Soviet Union.
His personal life was turbulent as well, the man cycling through three wives and one well known mistress - his final spouse being a popular French actress he met on a film set. Spending time together was, to put it mildly, a challenge. An alcoholic and abuser of narcotics Vysotsky died of heart failure at the age of just forty two in the middle of the Moscow Olympics and tens of thousands of fans lined the streets to see his coffin.
Buslov's film covers the latter years of Vysotsky's life and while I certainly can't comment as to whether or not it's accurate - though it was written by Vysotsky's son Nikita - I can sure as hell say it's attractive. Check it out below.
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