October 06, 2003
Egads
There's a tv programme I vaguely remember from my childhood. The only details I actually recall are that it featured a Princess (with a large nose), it was badly dubbed from an indeterminate foreign language, and that is was shot in this really vivid, oversaturated technicolour process. Oh and I think there was a bush that featured into the plot somehow (actually, from what little I recall, I couldn't even really guarantee that there was a plot). Along with a whole host of other childhood memories, this pops up in my mind every once in a while, when my brain doesn't appear to have better things to do.
I gave up trying to find out any information on it long ago... so I was slightly surprised to find out that "The Singing, Ringing Tree" is available for order on Amazon. Truth be told, I can't be absolutely certain that this is what I've been remembering...
...except I am.
I'm really quite tempted to order it, but I think I'll resist - I'd rather not sully any more of my childhood memories than I absolutely need to.
Anyway, does anyone else remember it?
No, but I did hear a documentary about it on Radio 4 about a year ago, that was absolutely marvellous. It was made in East Berlin during the Soviet era; the programme tracked down the author, the princess, and a few random others including some of the original costumes. It wasn't a great hit in the East at the time (a monarchist heroine? Come on!), and they never really understood why it was such a success over here. Certainly, it was the only film of its type to be sold to the West.
Most of the interviewees were extremely amusing, and indeed flattered that anyone should remember their work after so long. The actress who'd played the Princess, however, was a screamingly unreconstructed communist, who's never quite forgiven herself for taking such a bourgeois rôle. Which was tragically funny, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Jonathan Sanderson at October 7, 2003 12:41 AM