Baba Yaga

September. 20,1973      
Rating:
5.7
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Carroll Baker stars in this psychedelic shocker about a mysterious witch who casts a spell over attractive, youthful fashion photographer Valentina Rosselli. Thrust into a world of sadism, Valentina must figure out whether the torture being inflicted on her is because of one woman's twisted agenda … or a curse known as Baba Yaga.

Carroll Baker as  Baba Yaga
George Eastman as  Arno Treves
Isabelle De Funès as  Valentina Rosselli
Ely Galleani as  Annette
Angela Covello as  Toni

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Reviews

Tedfoldol
1973/09/20

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

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Bereamic
1973/09/21

Awesome Movie

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BelSports
1973/09/22

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Ezmae Chang
1973/09/23

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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lastliberal
1973/09/24

Known also as Baba Yaga, this film is in the tradition of Jesus Franco and Mario Bava.Carrol Baker (Baby Doll, The Carpetbaggers) is Baba Yaga, a witch who is definitely a lesbian. She crosses paths with Vanentina (Isabelle De Funès), a fashion photographer.Baba Yaga was also into S&M, and used her lesbian assistant (Ely Galleani - Lizard in a Woman's Skin) to whip Valentina after she captured her.But, George Eastman (The Grim Reaper, Kidnapped) comes to the rescue. He won't let someone like Valentina fall into the clutches of lesbian witches. he was her body for himself.Neat ending.

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matheusmarchetti
1973/09/25

If, judging by the title, you're expecting a film about a cannibalistic old lady who lives in a hut with chicken legs in a Russian forest, than you'll certainly by surprised, for the only similarities between this film and the old folktale is having an old witch who preys on the young. Corrado Farina's "Baba Yaga" is a delirious art-house gem adapted from Guido Crepax's "Valentina" comics, which centers around the sex life of a popular fashion photographer. Though Corrado Farina made only about four films in his career, none of which were very well praised, he really shows his potential as filmmaker in this one, whose unique vision of horror cinema stands out from almost every single genre film made in Italy at that time (most of which consisted of cheap Bava imitations). As a matter of fact, it's much more like something Godard would do had he done a horror film, and not surprisingly, Farina himself admitted that the French maestro was indeed an inspiration for this one. Though reportedly it wasn't an easy shoot, Farina really believed in the project, and one can really see how this film is indeed a labor of love. There's something of an 'extra care' and finesse that lacks in so many films of it's kind that were released around the same time (even the dialog which is usually laughable, is well written). Also, he makes full advantage of comic book motifs in translating the story to screen, with some scenes framed just like a comic book as well as some other interesting editing techniques. Another bonus for the film is a great cast that, though weren't exactly what the direction originally intended, do very well in their jobs. Isabelle De Funés is pretty and very sympathetic as our protagonist Valentina, George Eastman is a likable hero, and last but not least, Caroll Baker is eerily seductive as the titular sorceress, conveying both the creepy and sensual qualities her role requires (even if her performance does borrow something of Delphine Seyrig as Countess Bathory in the equally hypnotic "Daughters of Darkness"). Other highlights include Piero Umiliani's beautiful score which often shifts from haunting piano melodies to funky disco motifs, as well as the very disturbing and spine-chilling nightmare sequences, which resembles a cross between Fellini at his darkest and Roman Polanski. Still, the film is not without it's flaws. For one, I just can't take that dominatrix doll too seriously, and also, the ending felt too rushed and anti-climatic, which is a shame really, considering there was so much suspense build up for what turned out to be not much really. I suspect the ending problem might have something to do with the producers' total butchering of the film before it was released (though Shameless' cut is probably the closest thing we'll ever get to Farina's original vision, there's still lots of stuff that has been cut out or changed). Nevertheless, the film manages to hold up quite well even with it's flaws. It is overall a highly atmospheric, original, often creepy and throughly mysterious piece of artsy fun. 9/10

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Coventry
1973/09/26

Psychedelic soft-erotic exploitation movies were an inexplicably popular trend amongst European directors back in the late 60's and early 70's. This generally pointless sub genre of horror consists of movies that basically don't have any plots, but are stuffed with trendy looking women parading around naked and fetishist escapades that all healthy heterosexual males are supposed to fantasize about. Yeah, right … I don't know about you, but I surely never dreamed of sadomasochistic rubber dolls or Nazi elimination squads. The list of these oddball movies is long and contains efforts from several acclaimed directors, like Mario Bava's "Lisa and the Devil", Jess Franco's "Succubus", Massimo Dallamano's "Venus in Furs", Umberto Lenzi's "Orgasmo" and Piero Schivazappa's "The Laughing Woman". "Baba Yaga" also fits into this category, but here the script was inspired by an eccentric comic books series courtesy of Guido Crepax. Basically this means that "Baby Yaga" is even weirder and more flamboyant than all the other psychedelic sex flicks mentioned here above. During a live and personal presentation of his film, at a festival in my home country Belgium, director Corrando Farina explained that he tried to translate as many comic book elements to the screen as possible, but that it certainly wasn't easy due to budgetary restriction and uncooperative producers and censorship. Still, no matter what Farina claims, nothing can divert the attention away from the fact that "Baba Yaga" is a dull and utterly incoherent movie. I didn't spot any artistic style elements at all and the hallucinogenic footage is just a bunch of randomly scraped together and irrelevant sleaze. Isabelle De Funès (Louis' yummy niece, apparently) stars as a liberated photographer in Milan. Late one night and following only a brief encounter, she reluctantly becomes the object of obsession of the funnily named lesbian witch Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker). The deranged hag turns Valentina's camera into a murder device, transfigures her best friend into an SM-doll, inflicts eerie nightmares on her and eventually lures the poor girl to an abandoned mansion with nasty sewing machines and bottomless pits. In case you're looking for significance, symbolism or possibly even an explanation, I'm afraid I have to discourage you straight away. Everything that happens in "Baba Yaga" happens for absolutely NO reason and the film finishes just as void as it begun. To round up with at least a couple of positive remarks, I really liked the music and both Isabella De Funès and Ely Galleani are stunningly beautiful ladies to look at. George Eastman (as the heroine's clueless boyfriend) is good too, but I definitely prefer the roles he played in his later career as they were practically all villainous.

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Lee Eisenberg
1973/09/27

During the late '60s and early '70s, Carroll Baker expatriated from the United States and made some horror flicks in Italy. Among these giallo movies was "Baba Yaga". It portrays a fashion photographer (Isabelle De Funes) getting involved with an otherworldly older woman (Baker). The title identifies who she is, but people unfamiliar with Slavic mythology may not know who that is. Baba Yaga is a witch in Slavic, especially Russian, folklore. Depending on which story, she can be good or evil, but they usually portray her living in a house standing on chicken legs. We in the west usually mispronounce the second part of her name: we say YAH-gah, but it's actually yah-GAH.But let's not get off topic. I liked this movie. It was sort of half horror, half look at the mod culture in early 1970s Italy (although it seems like all the giallo movies back then showed it). And of course, there's plenty of eroticism to go around; as far as I'm concerned, Carroll Baker embodies (pun intended) eroticism. Quite cool.Also starring George Eastman.

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