Oleg Dal Movies
- 1979
In this stylish reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, the Russian filmmakers stripped the book down to its essence while also devising comic subplots that are not in the original work. Prince Florizel (Oleg Dal), a ruler of some small fictional Middle-European country, finds his stay in London extremely boring. Every night he and his buddy Colonel Geraldine (Igor Dmitriev) go out looking for some adventures and excitement. One night they find themselves under the spell of a suicidal painter who leads them to The Suicide Club, run by the shadowy 'Chairman' (Donatas Banionis). The rules of the Suicide Club are simple: the members, all well-bred citizens with a penchant for death, decide the murderer and victim from a draw of the cards. The Chairman quickly and ruthlessly dispatches with those who do not want to abide by the rules and soon the prince finds himself sucked into real danger. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Dal, Donatas Banionis, (more)
- 1978
This film, rarely seen even in the Soviet Union, was a particular favorite of the intelligentsia of the time, and reveals director Anatoly Efros' trend of involving viewer in a theatrical spectacle with elements of visual/psychological abstraction. Sergey (Oleg Dal) is a young man who, prompted by talk of a coming musical concert, meditates on his life, which has been spent on an idyllic spot, a kind of scientific game preserve. Poetic and symbolic images arising from life in this wilderness add poignancy to his ruminations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya, Oleg Dal, (more)
- 1973
This Russian adventure drama tells of 19th-century explorers in the Arctic region who go in search of a valley where a legendary lost community lives. Some of them are looking for gold. The last report of this paradisiacal community was from the explorer Sannikov, almost 400 years before. After a number of adventures, they discover the legendary warm land they seek. Their presence is resisted by the people's shaman. When one of the explorers, in his greed for gold, accidentally sets off an avalanche, it alters the climate of the region, and it begins to freeze, soon to be lost forever. This film is based on the book by a famed scientist and explorer, Nikolai Obruchev, and was very popular in Russia at the time of its release; its two songs became hits. This subsequently became a cult film, and two of the actors who appear in it, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky and Oleg Dal, died young and became cult figures in their own right. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, Georgi Vitsin, (more)
- 1973
The Russian-language title of this film based on Chekhov's short-story The Duel, translates as "The Bad Good Man." This film is treasured by Russian audiences because it contains one of the very few screen appearances of the beloved star Vladimir Vysotsky (he plays Von Koren). Boasting a fine cast, including Oleg Dal as Ivan Andreevich Laevsky and Anatoli Papanov as Samoilenko, the film concerns two intellectuals: Layevsky, a high-minded individual, full of love and ideals, who is all talk and no action; and Von Koren, a driven, ambitious zoologist who espouses a grim creed of Darwinian eugenics. Their encounters rob them of faith in their creeds, which were shallow enough to begin with. The director, Joseph Heifitz, is probably best known for his film The Lady With the Little Dog. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Dal, Vladimir Vysotsky, (more)
This is a Russian, black-and-white production of the great Shakespearean classic, starring Juri Jarvet. Long-considered one of the greatest and most wrenching tragedies in world literature, King Lear shows that great force of character is not necessarily wise, rude speech is not necessarily unkind, and madness is in some cases a perfectly reasonable response to intolerable conditions. This film's low-key, dark imagery is a fitting match for the dark content of the play itself. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jüri Järvet, Elza Radzina, (more)
