Les zazous

HIPSTERS or STILYAGI is simply a sensational new century musical. I want to rave about it because I had such a great time watching it. I sincerely hope it gets a wide release in the West because it manages to be both political and effervescent and spectacular to watch. It is everything I wished a 2009 musical - and from Russia - to be and I was not disappointed. STILYAGI is a pop soda blend of these other musicals: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE with HAIRSPRAY with some CRY BABY and MOULIN ROUGE. It is everything the terrible botched IDLEWILD tried to be. STILYAGI means HIPSTERS in English and this dazzling funny and terrifically engaging 50s style dance musical is running across Australia in the 2009 Russian Film Festival. The casting is ideal and the four main leads....especially the 19 year old teen who plays Mels is wonderful.... he looks a lot like Matthew Modine. One early musical number sung by Mel's dad as he slowly wanders through their community apartment hallways (with his accordion) sets the tone for some sly communist life satire and very funny location jokes... and some hints at the 1955 political climate.

The girl from LILYA FOREVER is the gorgeous taffeta clad tease Polly and someone's future wife. This film is also reminiscent of the 1980s Disney musical SWING KIDS as it deals with the political breakout statement of teens rebelling against a dark authority who deem their music to be counter productive. STILYAGI is a huge and dynamic musical production, superbly designed and filmed with a sensation soundtrack of Russian pop tunes and some written for the film. The premise and outcome is unbelievable given the 1955 setting but it does allow some latitude as a 'what if' scenario. What if kids did rebel in 1955 Russia and adopted Rockabilly outfits and skiffle music? Run to see this film if it comes your way. If you have been wondering where all the Russian musicals are... STILYAGI will answer your question with a swing kids beat. The astonishing finale in the town square is a cast-of -thousands emotional sensation of glorious happiness! Overall the film takes a loving humorous tone to every dilemma...especially the hilarious outcome of someone's very unusual baby. STILYAGI deserves the Oscar in 2010 for best foreign film AND best musical if an award for that exists. You will be as delighted as I am, and I hope you get to see it. What a major cinematic surprise! Yippee! If you are a fan of the 1986 Brit musical ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS or even just admire its setting style and tone, then here is the Russian equivalent. Maybe even very reminiscent of Cliff Richard's 1959 dazzler ESPRESSO BONGO. This new film STILYAGI is the hipster update. Yes, it is as good as all the films above. Combined!

To the numerous movies about generation gaps we can now add Valeriy Todorovsky's "Stilyagi" ("Hipsters" in English). It focuses on an assortment of youths in 1950s Moscow who are really into western music and fashion, to the disfavor of Soviet authorities. I particularly liked the scene where Fred plays Mels the boogie woogie song: it's gotta be the first time that anyone's ever heard an old-style rock 'n' roll song entirely in Russian.

The movie emphasizes that the authorities considered jazz a form of western imperialism. While I was in grad school, some students from Russia co-rented a house with me and the other US students. One of them noted that this was in fact the case, but that the authorities still allowed Frank Sinatra's music. That sounds counter-intuitive to me, but who knows what the reasoning was. The point is that ever since popular culture arose, the younger generation has gotten into the new stuff while the older generation turns its nose at it. There was one scene in "Hipsters" that reminded me of the scene in "A Hard Day's Night" where the Beatles get into an argument with a man on a train and Ringo* has a snarky comment.

Anyway, really fun movie. And remember, he doesn't need an American wife!

*Today is in fact Ringo's birthday.

A wonderful movie! Not just entertainment, but also a deep philosophical meaning!

I saw this last month at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 23 films I saw there this year I would put this at the top. The time is post Stalinist era Moscow 1955 and Mels (Anton Shagin) is a typical 20 year old member of the local youth Communist party where his girlfriend Katya (Eugeniya Brik) is one of the youth leaders. Co-existing in the gray cold war world of the USSR are the Stilyagi, an underground youth movement of no-conformists who wear outrageous bright colored black market western fashions and wear high pompadours and listen to underground subversive jazz and rockabilly music. Mels is attracted to the Hipsters and in particular the lovely Polza (Oksana Akinshina) who has westernized her name to Polly. Mels adopts their lifestyle and westernizes his name to Mel. He is eventually accepted as a Hipster by Polly and her friends Betsi (Ekterina Vilkova), Bob (Igor Voynarovsky) and their leader Fred (Maksim Matveev) a dashing young son of a wealthy diplomat. The scene for all the Hipster action is out in the open in an uptown district called 'Broadway' where the Pompadour Club is located and where underground records, clothing and musical instruments can be bought in dark alleys and safe houses. Directed by Valery Todorovsky and adapted for the screen by Yuri Korotkov, the author of the novel 'Boogie Bones' about the hipsters and bootleg western recordings this film blends drama with sly comedy and wraps them around a bright colorful musical that is indeed a cinematic event. Fantastic music score from Konstantin Meladze that is reminiscent of the music of the group Manhattan Transfer with wonderful clothing costumed by Aleksandr Osipov that are reminiscent of the Stray Cats and West Side Story this is a lavish production with a beautiful production design by Vladimir Gudilin and richly photographed by Roman Vasyanov. Lots of veteran Russian actors in supporting roles like Sergey Garmash, Oleg Yankovskiy, Alexsey Gorbunov, Irina Rosanova and Leonid Yarmolnik. A very original film chronicling a movement that would lead the way to the acceptance of jazz and rock and roll and future movements like hippies, punks and hip hop rappers. These counter-culture Hipsters of yesterday are the ultimate round pegs in a square world. I would hope this gets distribution in American art house theaters. The story itself isn't all that compelling but I don't think it's meant to be. It's more of a visual and auditory experience and it's a cinematic event. I would highly recommend it and give it a 10 out of 10.

This movie really has 1 thing going for it, which is the unusual cultural element presented. The Russian style and music movement this film is about is extremely eye opening, and the crew did an specular job visualizing it. It follows a typical Russian youth's discovery of and assimilation into a movement to expel the monotonous, monochromatic lifestyles of Soviet Moscow by extremely obsessing with Western fashion and music. Imagine Happy Days interpreted by someone on the other side of the world. The film features some musical elements and some modern songs.

From my older Russian relatives comments, sets and wardrobe were not extremely over the top. Stilagi means something like "stylish obsessed people" - it comes from the word stil' meaning style.

The film was not written for a western audience for the most part, but it could lead to some interesting discussion afterward. For instance, vinyl records were really bootlegged on x-ray sheets and certain musical instruments were extremely illegal!

I thought the actors did a nice job especially the young leads. But they did not sing the songs, nor were the songs from the proper era. The film felt more like a story with musical elements thrown in like Miike's Happiness of the Katakuris - except no zombies, claymation, etc.

However, unless viewing the film with some Russians you probably won't get the full potential presented here. Many of the older actors are extremely famous. The lead female is an actress with some Western recognition. Also some cultural elements like communal living, youth groups, social status, and relevance of characters' names were not explained for Western viewers.

On the negative side, the story itself is at times predictable and other times just absurd. Granted, this is a musical! The writers could have easily set up a straight forward love story set in troubled times, but they chose to extend the third act too far. If the film ended 40 minutes earlier, maybe I would enjoy it more. The plot has multiple loop holes, but addressing them would not help the narrative.

Overall, this can be equated to one of those weird Asian cinema offerings where since you can't get much of the language you ignore the ridiculous story and just focus on the vivid, excellent visuals. It also helps that there are some creative intimate scenes.