RT America video: From Russia with Lust, November 26, 2010.
Alyona & Co. - Whether "From Russia with Love" or "From Russia with Lust," the world's fascination with Russian women shows no end in sight
Almost 50 years after the worldwide release of "From Russia with Love," the second of the James Bond films -and one of my two personal favorites- despite all the 007 films that have come and gone and become part of our everyday experience and pop culture, despite all the beautiful actresses who've played their parts to the hilt to advance the narrative of the world's favorite espionage agent, the number-one-rated all-time "Bond woman" among James Bond fans remains the first Russian femme fatale, Tatiana Romanova.
Or, rather, the faux Russian, since actress Daniela Bianchi was actually Italian.
No matter!
She was Russian in the film!
We love us our Russian femme fatales!
Above, an amateur remakeof the trailer for "From Russia With Love" and one of the better ones you'll find on YouTube, too.
,
From Russia With Love - 1963 (Theatrical Trailer)
Before there was a Tatiana Romanova to distract MI6's James Bond from the task at hand of preventing the Russians from getting their hands on high-tech gadgets, there were other Russian femme fatales of one sort or another, some stoic and others smoldering.
There was director Ernst Lubitsch's 1939 romantic comedy "Ninotchka" starring Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo -"Garbo laughs" was part of the film's famous marketing campaign. Garbo's the stoic visiting Russian official who meets dignified schemer Douglas in Paris and whose personality evolves as she comes to spend time with him.
Moral of the story, as always, is that 'Opposites attract.'
Eventually.
Ninotchka - 1939 (Original trailer)
Ninotschka - Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo's characters meet for the first time and it's far from instant attraction, as she makes clear her disdain for the West.
Then there was smoldering Russian streetcar driver Theodore (Hedy Lamarr) slightly skewing newspaperman Clark Gable's view of Russia in King Vidor's film "Madame X" a year later in 1940. Her he likes, Russia, not so much.
I'm a longtime Hedy Lamarr fan.
And why do Western consumers, especially men, immediately get a certain mental image in their heads when they hear the word, "Natasha"?
No, not this one...
Boris & Natasha, Russian Spies
something sorta like this one...
Clip from NBC-TV's "My Name is Earl": Jasper's Russian mail order bride says "Moose and squirrel."
And where was Irina Shayk, the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model that's melted hearts all over the world and quickly became one of the most-followed women in the world from? One guess.
Yes, Mother Russia.
From 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special video:
Irina Shayk - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2009
From 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit special video:
Anne Vyalitsyna & Irina Shaykhlislamova strut their stuff in St. Petersburg, Russia's front-window to Europe.
My favorite Irina?
Irina Rodnina, the female Russian pairs figure skater who, along with partner Aleksandr Zaitsev, were the most dominant pair in the world, and the template for future generations of a certain refined Russian figure skating style that was pure magic and radiance on the ice.
Irina Rodnina & Alexander Zaitsev - Pairs Figure Skating, Long Program, 1978 European Championships, Strasbourg, France.
Guess who Rodnina's daughter is?
Really.
That just absolutely floored me.
Above, a screen grab I did of Alyona Wednesday night on her show, talking about the U.S. economy with a guest.
I didn't know that amazing fact until THIS summer!
It's actually hard for me to look at her the same way knowing that information.
This is the fourth post of mine that has mentioned RT's Alyona Minkovski, and my last post on her in April was one of the five most-popular posts since the blog was born in early 2007:
1. APRIL 22, 2011
Beguiling Alyona Minkovski zeroes-in on TIME's "100" list and fillets some particularly dubious celebs we're supposed to admire -but DON'T!
2. OCTOBER 19, 2010
Shockingly age inappropriate or simply base marketing hucksterism? The Taylor Momsen example staring us right in the face
3 SEPTEMBER 30, 2010
Alyona Minkovski interviews Wired Sr. Editor Kevin Poulsen about Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and the group's immediate future
To close this Russian-centric tangent, I've got the Russian-language version video of Belarus-born Norwegian singer/violinist extraordinaire and 2009 Eurovision Song winner Alexander Rybak's "Europe's Skies," one of the handful of go-to catchy songs I've been singing and humming -a lot- in the car this year when stuck in traffic.
I prefer the English-language version because I've heard it so many times, but this one is okay, too.
Александр Рыбак - Небеса Европы (Русская версия)
Alexander Rybak - "Europe's Skies" (Russian version)
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