1994 Directed by Aki Kaurismäki
A 57 minute documentary of a Helsinki concert featuring the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet, who collaborate on a number of US Rock songs sung in English (like "Sweet Home, Alabama") as well as more traditional Russian songs like the "Volga Boatman".
Action!: The Deadpan World of Aki Kaurismäki
Cover bands there are many, but none come close to reaching the level of the magnificent Leningrad Cowboys. If in their respective films they showed us that they had the talent and their musical arrangements were excellent, this concert film demonstrates just how exceptional they are. Taking the concept of a small band to a whole new level, this band manages to set an incredibly captivating mood with their staging and presence.
The arrangements of many of these popular songs were among the best I've ever heard, and even in this concert the band didn't fail to impress. It's not everyday that you see a Soviet Russian officers singing rock opera, and if…
The final entry in the Leningrad Cowboys saga is a concert film shot in 1993 at Senaatintori, Helsinki. The Cowboys are joined by Alexandrov Red Army Choir who kick off the concert with the Finlandia hymn. For any Finnish person, this is worth watching just for that alone. The song choices are very fitting to the band's borderline absurd image; a chaotic mix of glorious Russian folk songs and classic rock performed with equal intensity. I had this movie partly in the background while doing other stuff so I can't comment if it's visually arresting all the way through but the sequences I payed more attention to had a nice energy. Probably my favorite film from this trilogy but I wasn't a huge fan of the previous ones so take that how you want.
Right now, what America needs is a Total Balalaika Show
Edit: this may sound like a joke, but I’m completely serious. I will not explain any further for the time being.
Lays the central hook of the Cowboys bare- they’re less a “comedy band” and more one that plays their inherent and obvious absurdities with a completely straight face. The Red Army Choir, traditional dancers and outrageously pompadoured Finns rocking out to Skynyrd & Dylan in between Russian folk songs is ridiculous, but by completely committing to being up there in front of 70k fans and being silly, this goes from something that could feel mocking to something completely earnest and at times even kinda touching. They Went America, they Met Moses, and here they finally get the rock spectacle they deserve.
There is something uniquely interesting about a Finnish rock band, backed by a a Russian military choir, singing “Sweet Home Alabama” for thousands of fans in Helsinki. If there is one thing to be said for Total Balalaika Show, it’s that you’ll never see another concert film quite like it.
Aki Kaurismäki completes the Leningrad Cowboys trilogy with this live concert film of the Cowboys performing with the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet. The contrast of styles couldn’t be more perfect, creating an experience like none other. Musically, the Leningrad Cowboys are much more about their aesthetic and look than their musicianship. Like a Finnish KISS, a live forum is right in their wheelhouse, and their earnest energy and enthusiasm carries the film. Briskly paced, well-directed, and a whole lot of fun, Total Balalaika Show is the perfect capstone on Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys saga.
Perhaps it is the times we are living through, but after my third viewing of Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory Girl (1990) I went to bed last night thinking about Iris (the wonderful Kati Outinen) and woke up this morning still thinking about her. The cure has been to rewatch Kaurismäki in playful mode.
This live concert film, unfortunately, is not the full performance that occurred in Helsinki’s Senate Square on June 12, 1993 in front of a crowd estimated at 70,000. Apparently Kaurismäki could not get the necessary clearances to include the full set list from that one-off gig but there is enough gold here in the 13 songs on the DVD to give you a feel for what it must…
It was very kind of God Herself to create a Slavophile rockabilly heaven specifically for me
(hey criterion might i suggest that the subtitles on kalinka that say "cranberry, my cranberry" are perhaps unneeded?)
Finally got around to the last Aki Kaurismäki film I had left to see (apart from his TV movie "Dirty Hands" which doesn't seem to be available anywhere) and, being a concert movie, it's not much like anything else in his filmography. The personality of the Leningrad Cowboys (and their ludicrous quiffs and shoes) still comes through but this is a far slicker affair than the band from the first two LC films.
It's pretty amazing that this actually happened, a fictional band becoming a real band, then filling a huge Helsinki square for a concert in which they teamed up with a Russian orchestra and choir? It's like something out of another universe.
I can't say that all the…
Seriously one of the most insane things that has ever happened in history. I’m glad 70,000 people were here for this glorious live performance. The energy here is massive.
The colossal following of the Leningrad Cowboys is endlessly beguiling, utterly fascinating, and yet somehow delightfully entertaining.
Around the World in Cinema 2018 - Finland
As was the case years ago, Total Balalaika Show is still a great experience, more so as the late Chris Marker perfectly summed this up, to critic Peter von Bagh, when he said: “When historians will look for a vignette to encompass the brief autumn of utopia that followed the fall of the Empire, I doubt they can find a more significant and poignant one.”
And the curious mix of the Alexandrov Red Army Choir and Ballet with the Leningrad Cowboys is compelling in itself - its bizarre to hear the most American of songs, Sweet Home Alabama, by Finnish musicians and the formerly Soviet choir the US were in a cold…
