Russians are losing their shit over this sleek biopic trailer about Vladimir Vysotsky (Russia’s Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, etc.) because the actor looks like a perfect clone of the singer who died in 1980 at 42 from bad alcoholism, Soviet censorship and French mistress-induced heart attack.
The Rusky forums are abuzz about the revolutionary prosthetic make-up and computer sorcery that turned a mystery famous actor into a walking copy of Vysotsky. Apparently, it makes everything the Yanks do look like old school Nintendo. Who said the Cold War was over?
Now if you want to get into the ethics of turning one of Russia’s most soulful, emotional troubadours into a deceptive animatron — or Russia rolling out its most mega-budget, bombastic blockbuster tricks right over this iconic man — I won’t. Nor will I try to figure out why Vysotsky’s son and Vysotsky: Thank You for Living! screenwriter Nikita is ok with turning his dad into a tech-spectacle. All I know is that the story is good and this looks creepy real:
