Headshot of La Cieca

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une folle course-poursuite

“Ein Film, das Sie nie vergessen werden,” says the announcer, and this claim may very well be true. Presenting Das Lied der Balalaika, a 1971 attempt by “opera singer” Ivan Rebroff to cross over into… well, it’s difficult to define exactly the genre here. L’homme qui vient de la nuit (as the picture is entitled, even more confusingly, in French) is a musical; it’s a thriller; it’s a circus melodrama — sort of Yes, Giorgio meets The French Connection meets Berserk! And La Cieca is not even going to try to figure out what the smoking chimps are all about.  She doubts the trailer will give even native German speakers much of a clue, but see for yourselves.

Ah, now this makes sense — of a sort –even in French. Spoilers follow:

Sacha Voronine, célèbre chanteur sur le point d’épouser le top-modèle Nathalie, est victime de John Darow, qui tente de l’assassiner en l’assommant et le jetant à la mer. Sacha est recueilli par des pêcheurs mais il a perdu la mémoire et prend le nom de Samson. C’est à l’occasion du passage d’un cirque que la mémoire de Samson commence à se réveiller, lorsqu’il entend un air qu’il connaissait et qu’il se met à chanter. Décidant de partir avec la troupe du cirque, il finit par être engagé par le directeur d’une radio qui le lance sur les ondes sous le nom de « chanteur inconnu ». Nathalie, entretemps mariée à John, reconnaît sa voix et veut le retrouver ; Sacha la repousse car il est tombé amoureux de Maria. John cherche de nouveau à éliminer Sacha, puis tente de kidnapper Maria. Après une folle course-poursuite [naturellement! - LC], Sacha triomphe de John qui est arrêté par la police.

12 comments

  • Harry says:

    In regard to the above comments to strange connections of various people: A friend told me he met Galina Ulanov the famed Russian dancer , still during the Iron Curtain days,in the West. Who was her ‘political minder’, watching over everything : a big burly aggressive ‘butch’ type. It turned out to be the actor Yul Brynner’s sister!

  • pavel says:

    Rebroff’s range was truly remarkable. I remember being amazed by a recording of the song “Vechernii zvon” (“Evening Bells”) where he started out in the basso profundo range and worked his way up to a very respectable soprano.