Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 6, 2012

Corrado Farina's "Baba Yaga" a.k.a. "Kiss Me Kill Me" (1973) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Blue Underground. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailer for the film; video interview with co-writer/director Corrado Farina; short featurette focusing on Guido Crepax and his work; deleted and censored scenes; comic book-to-film comparison; and a gallery of posters, stills, VHS and DVD covers. In English or Italian, with optional English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Baba Yaga

Valentina Rossilli (Isabelle De Funès, Raphael ou le debauche) is a fashion photographer with a long roster of clients who lives in the beautiful city of Milan. One night, while walking home she meets an elegant woman driving an expensive black automobile. The woman, Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker, Paranoia), is a powerful sorceress who offers to give her a ride. When they reach Valentina’s house, Baba Yaga takes one of her garter clips and promises to return it on the next day. That night Valentina begins dreaming strange erotic dreams.

As promised, Baba Yaga returns on the following day and attempts to place the garter clip she borrowed on the exact same spot it came from – even though Valentina isn’t wearing stockings. Before she leaves, Baba Yaga also puts a death curse on Valentina’s camera and invites the already seriously confused photographer to visit her home.

In the following days, Valentina’s dreams begin to overlap reality -- she sees Nazi soldiers punishing naked women, herself firing at the women, etc. Seriously perplexed and disturbed, she attempts to focus on her work. In downtown Milan, she takes a picture of a young man participating in a rally and he immediately dies.

Eventually, Valentina visits Baba Yaga’s home, a massive dark house with squeaky doors, holes in the floor and dusty old furniture. There, a beautiful blonde doll wearing a bondage outfit comes alive, chains Valentina and begins playing with her body for Baba Yaga’s pleasure. Out of nowhere, Valentina’s lover, Arno Treves (George Eastman, Anthropophagous), an ambitious film director, appears and confronts the doll.

Inspired by Italian artist Guido Crepax’s Valentina series of books and comic strips, Corrado Farina’s Baba Yaga blends elements from classic European horror and erotic cinema as well as ‘60s psychedelic culture. It was shot in English but also dubbed in Italian for the Italian market. (Baba Yaga was funded by Italian and French producers, who at one point decided to recut and reedit it without Farina’s approval. The scandal that ensued after Farina discovered that his preferred version of the film was compromised was widely covered by the Italian media).

The film is slow, very moody, and at times somewhat confusing. While Valentina’s dreams are easy to separate from reality, her attraction to Baba Yaga is puzzling. When the two women meet, they utter lines that make little sense, and when later on the sexy doll comes alive, she does not speak at all. Naturally, there is plenty throughout the film that is left to the viewer’s imagination.

This vagueness, however, is what makes the film so fascinating to behold. There are numerous long and beautifully lensed sequences, for instance, that feel like acid dreams, and elegant erotic sequences that are also surprisingly intense. The atmosphere that emerges from them, which is further enhanced by an outstanding soundtrack courtesy of the great maestro Piero Umiliani (Five Dolls for an August Moon, The Body), is truly special. (Another similarly fluid and quite kinky film that is very much worth seeing is Piero Schivazappa’s The Frightened Woman).

Despite many critics insisting otherwise, Baker is excellent as the mysterious Baba Yaga. However, the film clearly belongs to the stunningly beautiful and elegant De Funès.

Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Blue Underground.

Aside from the occasional harshness, which is a byproduct of the scanning that is done in Italy (and noticeable on quite a few Blue Underground Blu-ray releases of older Italian films), I like the high-definition transfer a lot. Detail is very good, even during the nighttime sequences (see screencapture #9), while clarity and contrast levels are stable. Color reproduction is also very convincing - the browns, blues, grays, and blacks are well saturated and looking natural. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern. There are no traces of problematic post-production degraining either. The high-definition transfer is also free of serious banding and aliasing patterns. Lastly, there are no damage marks, cuts, or debris. All in all, if the Italian labs ever update their scanning equipment, a lot of these cult and classic Italian films Blue Underground are bringing to Blu-ray will undoubtedly look quite incredible in 1080p. As far as Baba Yaga is concerned, the Blu-ray release represents a major step up in quality over Shameless Screen Entertainment's old R2 DVD release. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. For the record, Blue Underground have provided optional yellow English SDH, English (for the Italian version), French, and Spanish subtitles for the main feature.

A quick comparison with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track and the lossy track from the R2 DVD release immediately reveals that the former is far superior - the sound is now clearly richer and better rounded. The gap in quality is most apparent with Piero Umiliani's jazzy score - the sax and piano solos are far brighter on the Blu-ray; the PAL speedup is also painfully obvious on the R2 DVD. The dialog is crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. Background hiss is not a serious issue and there are absolutely no audio dropouts to report in this review.

Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview - in this interview, co-writer/director Corrado Farina discusses the production history of Baba Yaga, the scandal that ensued after the producers cut the film, Guido Crepax's work and the casting process, the renewed interest in Baba Yaga, etc. In Italian, with imposed English subtitles. (22 min, 480/60i).

• Feud in Color - Guido Crepax - a short featurette focusing on Guido Crepax and his work. In Italian, with imposed English subtitles. (13 min, 480/60i).

• Deleted and Censored Scenes - a gallery of deleted scenes. Carroll Baker's short 'controversial' nude scene is included here. In Italian, with imposed English subtitles. (10 min, 480/60i).

• Theatrical Trailer - original trailer for Baba Yaga. In English, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080p).

• Poster & Still Gallery - a collection of posters, stills, VHS and DVD covers. (1080p).

• Comparison - comic book-to-film comparison. (1080p).

Baba Yaga Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is a good number of very wild films which American actress Carroll Baker made in Europe during the '60s and '70s that are a lot of fun to watch today. Some of the better ones are Marco Ferreri's The Harem, Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah, Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet...So Perverse, and Vittorio De Sisti's Private Lessons. Unfortunately, they are incredibly difficult to track down. Good thing Blue Underground are still around, and releasing on Blu-ray, because had it not been for them Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga also would have been one of those elusive films. I like Baba Yaga a lot. It is very atmospheric and at times as kinky as Piero Schivazappa's The Frightened Woman. Fans of European cult cinema should not miss it. RECOMMENDED.