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Amphibian Man (film)

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Amphibian Man
Soviet poster for Amphibian Man
Directed byGennadi Kazansky
Vladimir Chebotaryov
Written byAlexander Beliaev (novel)
Akiba Golburt
Aleksei Kapler
Aleksandr Ksenofontov
StarringVladimir Korenev
Anastasiya Vertinskaya
Mikhail Kozakov
CinematographyEduard Rozovsky
Edited byLyudmila Obrazumova
Music byAndrei Petrov
Production
company
Distributed byBijouFlix Releasing
National Telefilm Associates (TV syndication)
Release date
  • January 3, 1962 (1962-01-03)
Running time
82 min.
CountrySoviet Union
LanguageRussian
Box office100 million admissions[1]

Amphibian Man (Russian: Человек-амфибия, translit. Chelovek-amfibiya) is a 1962 Soviet science fiction romance film starring Vladimir Korenev and directed by Vladimir Chebotaryov and Gennadi Kazansky. The film stars Vladimir Korenev and Anastasiya Vertinskaya in the lead roles.

The plot is based upon the eponymous 1928 novel by Alexander Beliaev. It focuses on a youth named Ichthyander (Russian: Ихтиандр, Ichtiandr) (from Greek: fish+man) who was surgically altered to survive under the sea. It was given the name of Tarzan des Mers before the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs took exception.[2]

The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1962, with 65.5 million admissions during its initial run that year.[3] It later sold up to 100 million admissions including re-runs,[1] the highest for a Soviet film up until The Red Snowball Tree (1974).[4]

Plot

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The story is set in a seaside port in Argentina (filmed in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR[5]), largely among a community of pearl fishers. The protagonist, Ichthyander, is the adopted son of a doctor-scientist, Doctor Salvator, who saved the boy’s life by implanting him with shark gills, granting him the ability to live underwater. However, Ichthyander must keep this secret from the world. His peaceful existence changes when he rescues Guttiere, a pearl fisher's beautiful daughter, from a shark. Captivated by her, Ichthyander ventures into the city to find her, only to learn that she believes her savior was the greedy businessman Pedro Zurita.

Conflict arises as Zurita, Guttiere's suitor and eventual husband, discovers Ichthyander’s secret and seeks to exploit his underwater abilities to harvest pearls. Ichthyander is captured and kept caged underwater, which damages his ability to breathe on land. Although he is eventually freed with the help of allies, his health deteriorates to the point where he must live permanently in the sea. Guttiere, meanwhile, is freed from her unhappy marriage when her father kills Zurita, but the lovers are tragically separated forever.

Although primarily a lost-love tragedy akin to Romeo and Juliet, the film also critiques greed and the exploitation of natural resources, reflecting the influence of Socialist Realism.[6]

Cast

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Actor Role
Vladimir Korenev Ichthyander (voiced by Yuri Rodionov)
Anastasiya Vertinskaya Guttiere (voiced by Nina Gulyaeva)
Mikhail Kozakov Pedro Zurita
Anatoly Smiranin Old Baltazar
Nikolay Simonov Prof. Salvator
Vladlen Davydov Olsen, the reporter
Sergei Boyarsky Chief Prison Guard
Anatoli Ivanov Ichthyander understudy in the most challenging underwater shots
Stanislav Chekan prison guard
Nikolai Kuzmin sailor
Mikhail Medvedev boatswain
Yuri Medvedev fishmonger
Anna Nikritina Zurita’s mother
Tito Romalio Jr. newsboy
Georgi Tusuzov episode
Aleksandr Zakharov policeman

Home media

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The Amphibian Man made its debut on DVD on August 21, 2001 where it was released by Image Entertainment. It was later re-released by VFN on July 9, 2015.[7]

Western world

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Amphibian Man is little-known in the West, but has become a cult classic.[8][9] Hollywood filmmaker Quentin Tarantino cited Amphibian Man as one of his favourite Russian films, stating that he grew up watching an English dubbed version often shown on American television in the 1970s.[10]

There have been accusations that the 2017 Hollywood film, The Shape of Water, plagiarised Amphibian Man.[11][12][13] Indie Cinema Magazine noted that both have a similar plot, the use of the name "Amphibian Man" in both films, the Soviet connection in both stories, and the 1962 setting.[11]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b "How film flourished in the USSR". Humanities Division. University of Oxford. 6 December 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  2. ^ Sydney Morning Herald "Movies" 25/9/2000 The Guide page 20 accessed via Ebbsco's Australia New Zealand Reference Centre
  3. ^ Sergey Kudryavtsev (4 July 2006). "Отечественные фильмы в советском кинопрокате". Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. ^ Interview with Boris Pavlenok, deputy director of the USSR GosKino
  5. ^ Гизельдонское ущелье — Центральный Кавказ Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Новости NEWSru.com :: 45 лет назад на киноэкраны вышел «Человек-амфибия», собравший 60 млн зрителей
  7. ^ "The Amphibian Man (1961) - Gennadiy Kazansky". AllMovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  8. ^ "Человек-амфибия". Archived from the original on 2012-05-08. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
  9. ^ Шахназаров 2000.
  10. ^ Berkhead, Samantha (8 August 2019). "Tarantino 'Shocked By Moscow' in First Visit to Russia Since 2004". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  11. ^ a b "The Shape of Water - Review: The Shape of Plagiarism of director Guillermo del Toro". Indie Cinema Magazine. 22 January 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  12. ^ "Does a Movie Need to Have an Original Plot to Be Good?". Times of San Diego. 4 February 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  13. ^ Islam, Kaji Enamul (6 April 2018). "How The Shape Of Water End Up Like A Good Movie Not A Great One". Medium. Retrieved 28 August 2019.

Sources

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