Baba Yaga

Plot synopsis:
Valentina Rosselli (Isabelle De Funès) is a Milanese photographer with a knack for controversial shoots. Her friend and lover, Arno (George Eastman), is a director. One night, on her way home, Valentina gets struck by a car driven by a middle-aged blonde (Carroll Baker). She introduces herself as "Baba Yaga" and tells Valentina their meeting was pre-ordained. After she drives Valentina home, she snatches the clip from her garter belt, saying she needs a personal object from her and that she will return it tomorrow. Intrigued and disturbed Valentina crashes for the night and has a series of strange and vivid dreams. As promised, Baba Yaga returns Valentina's garter clip the next day. She fondles a camera Valentina uses and invites her to her old home to take some photographs. Valentina visits the woman's house where she is given doll dressed in bondage gear. Valentina's life suddenly becomes full of strange occurrences. After discovering Baba Yaga is somehow responsible for that, Valentina decides to go back to her house and confront her.

Tags: haunting

Review:
'Baba Yaga' is a fascinating mess which will appeal to fans of arty Eurotrash like Franco's 'Vampyros Lesbos' and 'Eugenie De Sade' and Bava's 'Lisa And The Devil'..
Corrado Farina seems like an intelligent guy but even he admits that he failed in his attempt to adapt the erotic comics of Guido Crepax to the movie screen.
Farina's initial choices for the lead roles of Valentina and Baba Yaga fell through and so he had to reluctantly make do with Isabelle De Funes and Carroll Baker.
Despite all this behind the scenes drama it is a movie which will appeal to fans of arty Eurotrash like Franco's 'Vampyros Lesbos' and 'Eugenie De Sade' and Bava's 'Lisa And The Devil'.
Valentina (De Funes) is a successful photographer who comes under the spell of a mysterious witch Baba Yaga (Carroll).
Farina complained that Carroll Baker wasn't the right physical type to play Baba Yaga, who in the original comic strip was androgynous and not conventionally beautiful.
That may be so but I certainly enjoy looking at Ms. Baker, an actress who made several left of center movie choices in the '60s and '70s including 'Orgasmo', 'The Sweet Body Of Deborah', 'Bad' and 'Bloodbath'.
Filled with style and inventive camera work that could leave Argento in shame, the movie had a bizarre, interesting story.
The pace was slow and lethargic (similar to Franco's Succubus and Vampyros Lesbos); the music was excellent, including a melancholic jazz tune and a stylish rock score; and the acting was above average: Carroll Baker, as opposite of what many reviewers said, shines in the role of the evil witch (and looks very attractive also), and Isabelle de Funes was a nice revelation.
Apparently inspired by a comic book, "Baba Yaga" is an unusually compelling, surreal nightmare of movie that also is vibrant with the essence of the late 1960s.
The story follows pretty young fashion photographer Valentina (Isabelle De Funes) who runs afoul of seductive sorceress Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker) who proceeds to meddle in her life via a tiny doll in an S&M getup.
Fumetti were also pretty hip in Europe at the time (again in contrast to America where the coolest guy who publicly admits to reading comics even today is "Clerks" director Kevin Smith).There have been a handful of movies based on fumetti.
It was this movie though that has just confused the hell out of everybody since it's based on a comic strip "Valentina" few outside of Italy have read and few in Italy probably understood.
Valentina is a photographer who through the agency of a magic camera falls under the spell of a strange lesbian witch, Baba Yaga.
At one point, for instance, Baba Yaga gives Valentina a doll which suddenly turns into a real-life dominatrix who strips her naked, ties her up, and whips her while the witch looks on approvingly.
The actress that plays Valentina, Isabella de Funes couldn't act her way out of an 8mm porno loop with a German shepherd co-star, but she really doesn't have to in this very visual, non-linear movie.
She saves a dog from a fancy car driver by Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker), a mysterious older woman that insists to drive her home.
Until the day Valentina visits Baba Yaga´s house."Baba Yaga" is a film with stylish cinematography, beautiful music score that becomes tiresome after many repetitions, and a storyline typical from the Italian films from the 70´s (especially from Jesse Franco) with eroticism and cult elements such as references to Goddard and "The Golem".
Pouty-lipped Valentina is smack-dab in the middle of the art house European revolution crowd of the time - photographing nude woman by day and walking the lonely city streets at night alone, which is how she meets up with "Baba Yaga" a mysterious woman who dresses in black (played by the always lovely Carroll Baker).
"Baba Yaga" takes Gothic Horror, stylish pop art, comic books and bondage sex, whirls them in a blender and spews the concoction forth.
Those who are fans of the trippy stylish body-baring Giallo/Horror output from Italy circa 1970 should put "Baba Yaga" on their "must-watch" list..
(Very) loosely based on the erotic graphic novels by Italy's own Guido Crepax, BABA YAGA is a "giallo" movie on acid.
I know nothing about the comic strip so I can't compare Valentina is a fashion photographer being romantically pursued by George Eastman (aka Luigi Montefori, from The Unholy Four and The New Barbarians).
Fobbing him off one night and walking home herself, she finds a puppy lying within a circle of candles and narrowly manages to save it from being run over by a car driven by the mysterious Baba Yaga (Carrol Baker, from The Devil with Seven Faces).
Intrigued in a way only free living seventies people can be, Val goes to Baba's house, takes photos of things, finds a bottomless pit in the hall, finds a strange glove and puts in on, which prompts her to do a bit of invisible banjo playing while the film turns into a comic.
The sets and general execution are very good indeed, involving scenes that turn from reality to comic strip, a nazi trial, a boxing match with a guy dressed like Jesus, and a soap powder commercial that's truly bizarre.
I saw this in my local video store for a while, and only rented it after finally reading the reviews here, and I must say, it was quite bizaare.Valentina is a photographer who, one night, has a run-in with a mysterious woman named Baba Yaga.
Things continue, including a creepy photoshoot at Baba Yaga's home, the gift of a strange leather-clad doll named Annette, all leading up to an extremely bizaare ending.
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).
If you love intelligent artsy horror films like Roeg's "Don't Look Now" you should definitely check this out..
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.
Many of the flaws are admitted by Farina in his interview on the Blue Underground DVD, especially the casting of Carroll Baker as Baba Yaga, which simply doesn't work, but there are other flaws which he doesn't mention.
It's also full of bizarre non-sequiturs, such as Guido Crepax, author of the graphic novels upon which the film is based, appearing as himself, and Valentina even reading pages from them at one point (pages which seem to feature herself) - had they been handled better, these ideas might actually have been very effective.
First, I must say I`m a big fan of the recently deceased Guido Crepax`s work and have readed and studied most of it, including the storyline Baba Yaga for the Valentina saga.
Farina (in "Valentina and I", included in the DVD) tells he was a very good friend of Crepax himself, he really seemed to understand the linguistical narrative that Crepax does in his fumettos, and he had the firm intention of doing the best adaptation posible of the Baba Yaga storyline (trying to avoid bad results as Modesty Blaise and Barbarella).
Tough the plot is faithfull (most part of it, anyway, Rembrant, the long time and true Valentina`s lover, is replaced by Arno Treves, a existing character in the saga but from another storyline), it is rendered in the most boring and unimaginative way a director could.
Sure this isn't the typical horror wanna be film with blood, gore, no plot, etc but this is a very deep movie with multitudes of depth, innuendo and symbolism.
The plot deals with a young female photographer who becomes unwilling struck under the spell of b*tch bondage witch, and midaged woman portrayed by Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker).
Valentina is definitely not sure WHAT to make of this stranger, and relays her suspicions to TV director Arno Treves (Italian icon Luigi Montefiori, a.k.a. George Eastman), her would-be boyfriend.Director / writer Corrado Farina (who also makes a couple of cameos) gives this a valiant effort, even if he himself admits that his film isn't all that successful.
Further harming the film is the fact that Valentina is not a particularly interesting character, and De Funes may be attractive, but her performance isn't all that great.
Picking up some of the slack are old pro Eastman, the lovely Ms. Baker (who does seem to be enjoying herself to some degree) and Ms. Galleani.There's also some nice music by Piero Umiliani, and at least one memorable twist, but "Baba Yaga" may still not appeal to *all* fans of arty Eurotrash.Viewers may be thunderstruck by the questionable taste of a commercial shot by Arno and his crew at one point.Six out of 10..
A fashion photographer called Valentina encounters a mysterious witch called Baba Yaga.
It's a fairly basic narrative but it has been used as a framework here for all manner of stylish madness.Isabelle De Funès plays Valentina and she looks suitably chic in the part, regular Italian genre actress Carroll Baker is the enigmatic Baba Yaga, while George Eastman gets to appear in a role that unusually does not call for him to be a psychopath but instead is a romantic lead of sorts who works as a director of commercials (his effort for a soap power advert really has to be seen to be believed!).
The director here is Corrado Farina who had previously helmed another strange art-horror film called They Have Changed Their Faces (1971).
Piero Umiliani provides a pretty varied musical score which splits itself into three styles – upbeat easy-pop for the fashion shoot scenes, slower orchestral stuff for scenes involving Baba Yaga and jazzy compositions to accompany the more surreal episodes.On the whole, this is quite a strange movie which will not have widespread appeal.
The style of direction, the fashions and the camera-work is also very typical of the period which gives this film a solid grounding as well as making it extremely dated – but hey, isn't that part of the fun of watching?
As another plus, Carroll Baker is effective in the role of Baba Yaga, the witch, even though she isn't given much to work with...she certainly gave me the chills!
Sadly too much of the film is filled with filler material, and it seems that the director struggled to adapt this movie from its comic book roots.
Baba yaga is very stylish Italian horror movie but at the same time it's not as graphic as many movies of the spaghetti cinema.
A somewhat strange offering that is based on folklore and erotic Italian comic books, Kiss Me, Kill Me is a first rate film set in modern Milan.Baba Yaga (played wonderfully by Caroll Baker) is a witch who tries to seduce and control a beautiful photographer, Isabelle De Funès (Valentina Rosselli).
Baba has also fondled a camera belonging to Isabelle which then seems to cause bad things to happen whenever someone is photographed with it.Throughout the movie Isabelle has dreams that are filled with eroticism and violence.
Carroll Baker by this time had moved to Europe to start a new phase of his career,there had more opportunity to make movies like this,worth to remember a Italian star George Eastman who made several spaghetti western,Baba Yaga is an interesting Giallo with some lesbian and fumetti style,that period of time was so popular,using a famous names and appealing to nudes scenes,the fans weren't disappointed for this time,worth each cent!!!!
Beautiful photographer Isabelle is pursued by beautiful witch Baba Yaga in an attempt to seduce her in this mess of a film based on a Italian comic.
It was an accident that I even saw this film - I bought the DVD from Diamond Entertainment under the assumption that the disk, titled "Umberto Lenzi Presents Kiss Me, Kill Me" was actually the 1969 Giallo, which also stars Carol Baker.
Diamond Entertainment made a mistake, and the disk and the cover do not match, which is a huge shame as Baba Yaga is a horrible mess of a film, and I spent eighty minutes bored to tears with it.
The plot supposedly comes from an Italian comic book, and follows a young female photographer named Valentina (Isabelle De Funès), who comes under the spell of an evil witch called Baba Yaga (Carol Baker).
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Baba Yaga is the fact that it's about a relationship between two women, one of them a witch; and yet barely any attempt is made to capitalise on either of these potentially interesting themes.
(aka: KISS ME, KILL ME aka: BABA YAGA)Hip fashion photographer Valentina (Isabelle DeFlines) walks home alone late at night and is almost hit by a blond witch (Carroll Baker) driving a Rolls Royce.
It adds a lot to what is already a dreary film atmosphere.The impeccable widescreen Blue Underground DVD has plenty of extras, one of which explains that this is all based on a comic books of Cepax, a popular illustrator in Italy during the 1960s, plus a 20 minute interview with director Farina who explains why he was inspired by all this.
Lanky, shorthaired fashion photographer Valentina (Isabelle De Funes) takes time out of her busy schedule snapping photos of naked babes to soak up the advances of new boyfriend Arno (George Eastman, from THE GRIM REAPER films).
Out of nowhere appears Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker), a mysterious black-clad lesbian sadist who challenges Arno for the affections of our malnourished heroine and uses her supernatural powers in nasty ways to get her.Oh yeah, she also has an endless pit in her living room that leads to hell and a sexy S&M doll named Annette who comes to life in the form of gorgeous Ely Galleani to do her bidding.
This extremely pretentious (but entertaining) Eurotrash effort masquerading as an art flick was based on a popular Italian comic book (and includes lots of comic stills), is full of female nudity and features an amazingly wooden Baker during her prime weird period..
One day, Valentina catches the eye of Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker), a beautiful older woman who just might be a witch.
With the help of her friend Arno (cult favorite George Eastman), Valentina does her best to resist Baba Yaga's efforts at seduction and domination.Reviewer Theron Neel says, "Farina wrapped his basic tale in bizarre imagery and visual non sequitors that are faithful to Crepax but don't have much relation to traditional film grammar and syntax." This is quite true, I presume.
hmmm.If you do wish to watch or own this film, look for it as "Baba Yaga".
I have just watched Baba Yaga, and i found it to be quite a boring film for most of the time.
I am wholly unfamiliar with Guido Crepax' "Valentina" comic strip, so really cannot say how closely the Italian/French coproduction "Baba Yaga" (1973) hews to its source material.
Director Corrado Farina states, however, in one of this Blue Underground DVD's many extras, that he failed in his intention to produce a film that replicates the feel of a comic strip.
In it, we meet Valentina (Isabella de Funes), a pretty fashion photographer living in Milan, who, one evening, encounters a very strange woman.
She is Baba Yaga, a sensual, echoey-voiced, blond enchantress of sorts who gives Valentina a leather-clad living doll, puts a hex on her camera, and shows her her creepy old house (replete with a bottomless pit in the living room!).
Carroll Baker, older but still very beautiful, is quite good as this "witchy woman"--I just love the way she wraps her mouth around the word "Valentina"--although, Farina reveals, she was far from the director's first choice for the role.
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.
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.
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).
What I didn't care for was some of the acting (Carroll Baker is dissapointingly stiff, and clothed), the ridiculous plot (yes, the film is hallucinatory, but it still makes little sense) and most of all, the music!
Baker's character is named Baba Yaga, which is laugh-inducing the second that she is introduced in the film (who thought that was a good idea?) All in all, "Kiss Me, Kill Me" reminded me of a few of those Jess Franco movies made in the late 1960's, and not just with the jazz music.And, like Franco's films, this one is definitely entertaining.
Isabelle De Funès stars as a fashion photographer in Milan who has a bizarre incident one night with a black-clad woman who calls herself Baba Yaga (played by Carroll Baker).
Definitely worth a look.***** Baba Yaga (9/20/73) Corrado Farina ~ Isabelle De Funès, Carroll Baker, George Eastman.
I expect that these chunks of film that were left on the cutting room floor were sexual.The cast was interesting, and all the women were beautiful whether clothed or not.This movie is worth the time, but try not to waste too much money doing so..
I could never see why he is described as a handsome man but he works in front of the camera better than all the ladies in this movie do.Apparently it was based on an Italian comic strip called a "fumetti".