Devil's Bride

The Devil's Bride is the long awaited film version of the classic folk tale Baltaragio Malunas, by Kazys Boruta. Lithuania's most popular film and first movie musical, its catchy melodies combine traditional folk motifs with a rock-and- roll rhythm that dazzles and enchants. Spirited and emotional, The Devil's Bride tells the supernatural story of an impish devil who used to be an angel but got tired of singing Hosannah and so was condemned to live on earth. From his home in a windmill, he pursues love and happiness in a hilarious and sometimes tragic turmoil that affects the whole countryside.

I saw this film for about 4 times , and it is the best ever made movie. It can't be added to any of movie types there are a lot of fun, drama, some fantastic scenes. This movie is one of such as You can not just see it for one time, You must see it for couple of times and it gives to You a lot of joy...

Movie is fun, has some great and funny scenes, good soundtrack. However this is no masterpiece as some tend to make it. Film has no depth, characters are one noted, some scenes are very repetitive, draged on and maybe even random - without much connection. In other cases there are big time jumps that are not explained or motivated by anything - audience is just suppose to go with it.

In short, this is a great movie for Lithuanian standards and taking into account when it was released. However, in the whole movie industry context this is just above average.

God and His angels are spending eternity together, Him on His throne and the angels singing and dancing around, but the angels are getting bored and have developed an interest in things like eating, drinking and dancing along with all the singing. Cue the angel who decides to change things and suddenly he's on Earth, along with many other fallen angels; the latter are happy to just sing and dance, but he's interested in meeting with humans and, perhaps, playing with them. Soon he finds a peasant who spies one of the fallen (female) angels, makes a deal to give her to him in return for their daughter later, she falls pregnant, dies in childbirth and the peasant is stuck with the devil who's going to take his daughter in due time. Cue the handsome man who the now-grown daughter spies and loves, much mayhem ensues and eventually true love prevails....

Did I mention that this is a musical? *No* dialogue, everything is sung. And it's Soviet Lithuania, a very different time and place. There are, perhaps, some folk elements (I don't know Lithuanian folklore) but mostly this is a fairly bad ripoff of "Jesus Christ Superstar," which was some 8 or 9 years earlier if memory serves. Gediminas Girvainis plays the devil here, and he's delightful - very prancy and gleeful, I'd love to see him in anything else. But the love object is usually brilliantly blonde (but sometimes brunette) with a winning smile (but sometimes discoloured front teeth) and the suitor (who looks like Richard Chamberlain I'd swear) is variably sullen and ecstatic, but seems to give up whenever a bit of fog (courtesy of the devil) impedes his progress toward her home.

As an artifact of a time and place, this is quite interesting. As a movie, however, it's pretty awful; at something like 85 minutes, it could have been more impactful at 60. Still, I'm glad I saw it if only for the fact that I can now say I've seen a Soviet Lithuanian musical!