Tarantino is crazy about the Soviet movie hit. Found in him the ancestor of superheroes

“In the USSR they didn’t save on filming.”

Quentin Tarantino hosts the Video Archives podcast, where he talks about his favorite obscure films from the past. Kinopoisk published an article about the latest release of the podcast: in it, the eminent director spoke about the Soviet film classic Amphibian Man. We chose the most important.

Playing out the Resident Evil 4 remake in our pro games cart. Subscribe and win!

“The film was definitely filmed in Cuba!” Tarantino was struck by the work of artists

The director believes that the action of the tape takes place in Cuba, and the shooting was carried out there: because “streets, cars, sombreros.” In reality, the events of “Amphibian Man” are developing in Buenos Aires, and the film was shot in the Crimea.

What we know about “Cinema Criticism” – Tarantino’s latest film

The movie fan was delighted with the work of production designers and costume designers. I also liked the details in the doctor’s underground lair, such as the human-shaped door and the futuristic elevator that added just the right amount of sci-fi to the romantic story. 

Most of all, however, Tarantino was hooked by the costume: “The Amphibian Man costume is one of the main successes of the film. It is so beautiful that the production designers could not bother with anything else. Look at his shiny helmet! At first it was not even clear to me whether it was a helmet or a head. In general, Amphibian Man looks like a proto-superhero!”

For the first time the director saw “Amphibian Man” at the age of 6

The Soviet hit was never shown in American cinemas, but was often shown on cable TV in the late 60s and early 70s. Little Quentin was 6 years old when he first saw a movie about “a guy with gills who can breathe underwater.” The unusual hero fell into a romantic triangle with the daughter of a fisherman and “a very energetic and sexy villain, almost Russian Paul Newman from the film” Wrath “”.

46 rubles for an erotic scene. Collected the fees of Soviet actors

Before recording the podcast, Tarantino watched Amphibian Man on VHS in a two-tone version, which was all he could get his hands on. Moreover, “poor image quality surprisingly emphasized the strengths of the film.” It is a pity that he saw only a shortened version of the melodrama (with a happy ending) and does not know the true ending.

“In the USSR they didn’t save on filming.” Maestro enjoys special effects in Soviet sci-fi

Tarantino noted the pros and cons of state funding for cinema: “The downside is that you can’t really expect strange copyright films that would be created outside the studio system. The plus is that with state funding, no one has ever made a movie on ######## [leave me alone]. 

The best specialists of Mosfilm worked to the fullest extent of their abilities on “Amphibian Man” [in fact, the tape was filmed at the Lenfilm studio]. In the United States in 1961, no one would have put so much effort into a science fiction story. Maybe only Forbidden Planet was filmed with such a serious approach to work.

Tarantino recalled that the famous genre film producer Roger Corman bought the rights to Soviet epics about space in order to use impressive special effects scenes from them in his projects. For example, scenes from “The Planet of Storms” by Pavel Klushantsev appeared in two sci-fi films at once – “Journey to the Prehistoric Planet” by Curtis Harrington and “Journey to the Planet of Prehistoric Women” by Peter Bogdanovich.