Snezhnaya koroleva

it is not impressive. old special effects, crumbs of propaganda, minor changes of story, only few special scenes. but it has a great virtue - for many adults from East Europe, it remains a touching souvenir. and, after years, the emotions are not very different. same delicate /cold charm of Natalia Klimova as Snow Queen. same identification with Gerda of Elena Proklova or Kay of Slava Zjupa. the silhouette of Valeri Nikitenko as narrator and, sure, maybe, the flavor of language. it is a Christmas ornament. delicate, gentle, childish, shining. that is its secret. and explanation for who, after years and years, its charm is not lost.

To me this movie is nothing more than the adaptation of the masterpiece written by Shwartz. Since I saw the movie only a few days after reading the play, I had something to compare the movie with, and I must say that it's nicely done.

Even though this story is written for small children (at least I believe that's how Anderson wrote it), Shwartz was able to rewrite it so that adults can also enjoy it.

I liked the few scenes that represent the absurd (for example the kingdom divided into two parts), and this creates a world where everything is understood literally.

The cast for this movie is also great. When I was reading the play, I could not picture myself the king. Yet when I saw Leonov, it became obvious that he is the perfect actor to play the king.

After all, this is not a movie about an adventure, but about people, their reactions, their feelings.

after decades, the same force of seduction. nothing surprising because it remains one of the inspired adaptations of the fairy tale of Andersen and one of the good explanations for the high interest of Russian cinematography for it. the new elements - the presence of narrator as character of story, the impressive Snow Queen, the freshness of humor and crumbs of animation, the nice manner to drive a simple story as gift for the children of each age and the flavor of original text are virtues of a lovely trip in the essence of childhood.

Interestingly just like in 'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' (1964) - another Russian fairy tale movie I just watched yesterday - the king isn't the brightest bulb in the box and secretly is under the command of the kingdom's richest man, a capitalist through and through he made it big as a businessman by selling ice and as is usually the case with people who have handled ice a lot he is as pale as Dita von Teese, his body temperature is 34.2°C and consequently is heartless and spews "Nonsense!" a lot when other people talk about feelings.

He's the story's main villain. Although he makes a lot of trouble for the main character - a girl on the quest to save her brother who has a cold heart after he kissed the snow queen (Nyzzzz!) and is now in her hands - he eventually lacks the courage, the willpower and the strength to ever finish anything he started because he comes to a halt as soon as he is confronted with an obstacle that he can't move out of the way by "throwing money at it" (=figuratively speaking...I suppose one has to make that clear when talking about a fairy tale movie). In one scene he negotiates with a group of thieves and when the head of the thieves asks if they can trust him he puts himself on the same level as thieves by saying: "Nonsense! We are both businesspeople." The message is clear, capitalists are criminals.

The movie starts off with a teller of fairy tales walking the streets who through voice-over explains that he will not only tell but even show us a fairy tale in which he puts himself in. Although not one of the most prominent characters in the tale he secretly makes himself the hero because his character repeatedly saves the day. The "good guys" win their battles almost effortlessly and eventually it is VERY easy for the girl to bring her brother back home and to warm his cold heart again (which takes her two minutes of chit-chat with him).

Visually it isn't too spectacular except for the titular Snow Queen whose appearance is dashing while her persona is positively icy and her impressive ice palace which you only get to see for one scene towards the end doesn't need to shy away from a comparison with "Superman"s Krypton sets.

The Snow Queen in my mind is one of Hans Christian Andersen's best stories. Anybody who loves the story, and as long as they don't mind the omissions and the changes, will love this film. As far as 1960s Russian film adaptations of fairy tales go, The Snow Queen is not quite as good as The Tale of Tsar Sultan and Snow Maiden but it still shares many of the qualities that made those two films as good as they were. It is a good-looking film, though some of the special effects do look as though they were made on a limited budget, with handsome photography and costumes and sets that give a real magical feel. The film genuinely feels like a fairy-tale but at the same time there is something endearingly Russian about which I loved. The music score is beautiful, haunting and dramatic, and while the story is not entirely faithful to the original fairy tale it still has its charm and magic and told swiftly and coherently. The image of the Snow Queen watching through the window is still one that haunts me, and the silhouette of the Narrator is very striking and makes you want to keep on watching it to the end. The acting fits very well within the story, Elena Proklova is a moving Gerda and one that allows her character to grow. But the best performances come from Evgeni Leonov's King and especially Natalya Kilmova's chilling Snow Queen.

All in all, very well done indeed. 9/10 Bethany Cox