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Skazka o tsare Saltane (1966) aka The Tale of Tsar Saltan
Rating: 7.7/10 (60 votes)
Runtime: 81 min
Language: Russian (see below for optional subtitles)
Country: Soviet Union
Color: Color
IMDb Link:
Director: Aleksandr Ptushko
Cast:
Vladimir Andreyev ... Tsar Saltan
Larisa Golubkina ... Tsarina
Oleg Vidov ... Tsarevich Gvidon
Kseniya Ryabinkina ... Tsarevna Lebed (Princess Swan)
a.o.
Description: Based on the poem by Alexander Pushkin (with which I imagine a Russian audience would be rather more familiar than a Western one, though Rimsky-Korsakov's opera version pops up from time to time), Alexander Ptushko's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" is pure unadulterated nonsense from beginning to end, and is all the better for it. In terms of visual style and production values, it's roughly equivalent to the Ray Harryhausen extravaganzas of the 1950s and 1960s ("The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," "Jason and the Argonauts"), and what it lacks in logic it more than makes up for in visual and conceptual wit and a delightful refusal to take itself even remotely seriously.
The title is a bit of a misnomer, as Tsar Saltan doesn't actually do that much except ponce about in his palace or on the battlefield (when he's not indulging in a bit of decidedly homoerotic towel-flicking with his boyars in the communal shower), and he's far from a heroic figure, pitifully open to manipulation from all sorts of schemers, such as his mother- and sisters-in-law. Insanely jealous of the Cinderella-like Tsarina's success at finding a wealthy and important husband, they vow to sabotage her wedded bliss by intercepting messengers, plying them with drink and doctoring letters going in both directions.
Since Tsar Saltan is away fighting various battles and therefore totally reliant on written communication, this causes chaos - he's told that his wife has given birth to a monster, and his boyars are in turn told to drown her and her offspring forthwith. Fortunately, though, the Tsarina and young Prince Guidon manage to survive not only being sealed in a barrel and dumped into the sea, but also the rather bigger problem of spending what must have been at least a decade (judging from the way Guidon ages in that time) without any food or indeed oxygen. Still, I shouldn't quibble too much, as I'll only end up picking holes everywhere else as well, and as this is the kind of film that presents a singing Cossack-dancing squirrel as being perfectly normal, that's a bit futile.
Anyway, when they finally reach land, and Guidon goes in search of food, he just happens to shoot an evil spirit who has been menacing a beautiful swan who, not too surprisingly, turns out to be a princess in disguise. Better still, she has awesome magical powers, and expresses her gratitude towards Guidon by conjuring up a whole city where miracles are part of the everyday fabric. Word of this fabulous place eventually reaches Tsar Saltan, and he decides to pay it a visit...
The plot is mostly pretty twaddlesome, and the ending is particularly weak, but I still found "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" irresistible thanks to the incidental detail. Almost every scene is crammed with witty visual touches, such as the lion-shaped armrests of the Tsar's throne cowering and running off when he gets angry or weeping when he's sad. The copious special effects aren't especially sophisticated: even by mid-1960s standards they're fairly ramshackle (rather closer to Georges Méliès than Ray Harryhausen) - but in many ways their sheer obviousness adds to the film's endearing qualities.
And the costume and set designs are a veritable feast for the eyes, capturing an authentic storybook atmosphere very effectively - enhanced all the more by the dialogue being in verse throughout. None of the performances are what you might call subtle - we're firmly in the realm of thigh-slapping eye-rolling melodramatics, with plenty of extravagantly ludicrous beards on display (plus some indescribably silly bone-waving natives that Tsar Saltan seems to have a thing against) - but this is also very much in tune with the rest of the film.
I can't pretend that children weaned on "Toy Story" and "Shrek" will get much out of it - but it has an immensely winning charm that those nostalgic for the likes of "The Singing Ringing Tree" will pick up on immediately. And the squirrel is worth the price of the DVD on its own!
MIchael Brooke, dvdtimes.co.uk
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