Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 144: Thu May 25

Viy (Ptushko/Ershov,/Kropachev, 1967): Barbican Cinema, 8.45pm


This 35mm screening from the excellent Cigarette Burns crew is part of their 'Into The Woods' season. You can find all the details here.

Chicago Reader review:
Russian director Alexander Ptushko is known for his special effects, which have an appropriately low-tech charm in this 1967 folktale. Three traveling seminarians, needing a place to stay, stop at the home of an old woman. After one of them angers their hostess, she reveals herself to be a witch and compels him to pray over the corpse of a young woman for three nights in a row, beset by increasingly monstrous demons. The imagery resembles animated children's book illustrations, and while it's not particularly innovative as cinema, it works well here. Ptushko shares the directing credit with Konstantin Ershov and Giorgi Kropachyov.
Fred Camper

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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