The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1966)
Based on a famous fairy tale, in verse, by Alexander Pushkin, this ravishingly beautiful fantasy is about love, magic, betrayal and abandoned family. Driven from the Russian court by her sisters' scheming, the young Tsarina is thrown into the sea in a cask with her infant son. Surviving the storm-tossed voyage, the mother and her now magically-adult son land on a remote island where he falls in love with a Swan Princess in human form, and longs for reunion with his estranged father, Tsar Saltan. Merchants come to the island with news of the tsar, and the prince sends word back to him, but the sisters continue their campaign of lies and trickery to keep them apart.
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Sadly Over-hyped
For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
The Tale of Tsar Sultan was a lovely film, one of the loveliest I've seen in a while. It was a great story to begin with, no surprise as it's Pushkin, but to see it unfold on film is quite a different experience. The film looks stunning with wonderfully vivid colours, it is a truly wonderful feeling when you feel like you've literally stepped into a perfectly illustrated picture book. The costumes and sets are just magical, maintaining that fairy-tale feel from beginning to end. The special effects are not the very best(though there are far worse), but fit within the fairy-tale/fantasy atmosphere beautifully. The music is a feast for the ears, it's lushly orchestrated with rousing and whimsical rhythms and has the feel of part dramatic opera(there's even a song that wouldn't have been too out of place in Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko) and part sweeping fantasy, as you'd gather I love that kind of music. The story personifies Pushkin, Russian fairy-tale and fantasy, and in a thrilling and beautiful way. There are times where it is serious(but not too much), but there is also tongue-in-cheek and whimsical poetry, very similar to Ruslan and Ludmilla. All the elements are there, a swan princess, the sight of giant knights rising from the sea, a squirrel cracking gold nuts, ugly sisters and a wicked mother/step-mother figure, and incorporated in a way that will delight kids and adults alike. The characters serve their purpose in the storytelling faultlessly and are convincingly acted. To conclude, a truly lovely film. 10/10 Bethany Cox
Wow. I've watched a dozen or so Soviet fairy tale movies, but this one beats most, if not all.Of course it's old. 45 years, to be precise. But it has a magic that defies age. The adventures of the young tsarevich and his apparently teenage mother start when they are sealed into a barrel, to travel to a magic tsardom in the sea.There he meets many wondrous things, including a humanoid swan, a squirrel producing gold and emeralds, 33 giant soldiers from the deep blue sea, the young tsar turning into a mosquito...The story is very weird, but ends well in a grand family reunion - I suppose, they are reported to live happily ever after.Thanks to SuperIllu for bringing this DVD to German news-stands today. A very very worthy experience. 9/10.