Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | PAL | 4:3 | 720x576 | 7200 kbps | 3.7Gb
Audio: Estonian AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English, Estonian, Russian
01:10:00 | Estonia, Soviet Union | Comdey, Musical
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | PAL | 4:3 | 720x576 | 7200 kbps | 3.7Gb
Audio: Estonian AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: English, Estonian, Russian
01:10:00 | Estonia, Soviet Union | Comdey, Musical
Free interpretation of the story of Don Juan, where the eponymous protagonist - a woman.
Director: Arvo Kruusement
Cast: Lembit Anton, Merle Aru, Ants Eskola, Vello Janson, Eve Kivi, Rein Kotkas, Igor Kurve, Silvia Laidla, Siim Rulli, Tonis Ratsep, Tonu Saar, Julia Sooster, Eero Spriit, Jaak Tamleht, Lembit Ulfsak, Martin Veinmann, Gunta Virkava, Elmar Oun
Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
IMDb
Don Juan of Tallinn is a light-hearted romantic musical by established Estonian director Arvo Kruusement (b. 1928) whose other best-known films include the trilogy Kevade/ Spring (1969), Suvi/ Summer (1976) and Sugis (1990). On the surface, the film looks pretty much like yet another European offering from the 1970s, with the bright solid colors of the costumes, fencing routines on fortress walls, and a lavish display of narrow steep cobblestone streets and other examples of heritage architecture (precisely in the taste of Jess Franco’s films of the period, who also likes to set his films in places which have forests of sorts). What I found striking in this 66-minute long piece of entertainment, however, is that this is actually a Soviet made film, a production of Tallinnfilm. But it certainly did not look one tiny bit like what we are used to seeing out of the Soviet Union at the time. First of all, the jeans, the bright colors of the clothes that the protagonists wear, the smiling faces and excellent white teeth, the modern dancing, it all looks fully in line with any West European culture of the time, not a trace of the frumpy Soviet fashions that dominated the country for decades. The second aspect is the fact that this film is entirely in Estonian language (I am not closely familiar with the intricacies of the Soviet linguistic policy of the time, but I know that most films that were made in the republics had to also have a Russian language version, and this has probably been the case with Don Juan of Tallinn as well; in any case, the DVD I have is only subtitled in Russian but not dubbed; it also has got English subtitles).
The plot is simple: Don Juan and his servant Florestino arrive in Tallinn and soon everything is disarray. Local women realize that this is ‘that’ Don Juan and all begin lining up to be seduced, while the local men decide to defend their honour and challenge the intruder for a duel, which he effortlessly wins. Most of these situations develop into dance and song routines and give opportunity to showcase lovely seaside landscapes or the fortress walls of old Tallinn. At the end Don Juan (who is actually a woman disguised as a man) departs the town with a smile.
The film reveals avant garde inclinations in yet one more respect — it touches on issues of gender identity, even if only probing them. As Don Juan is actually a cross-dressing woman who lives off the reputation of the famous seducer. One of the men in town realizes that he is attracted to him and declares his love (to soon thereafter correct himself, of course, by saying that he would have certainly be in love with Don Juan if he were a woman).
Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
Don Juan in Tallinn / Don Juan Tallinnas (1972)
