Figure 1.--Here is a scene from "Electronnaya Babooshka"/"Electronic Granny" in 1985. Many of the children wear tights, several with socks. A Russian reader tells us that this was not very common.

"Electronnaya Babooshka"/"Electronic Granny" is a Soviet/Lithuanian children's movie. The title of the movie is "Electronnaya Babooshka" (Electronic Granny) and the screenplay is based on the famous novel I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury. Filming a Bradbury book in the Soviet Union is interesting in that his most famous novel, Farenhite 451 is about censorship. To my knowledge, the book was not used for a Western film. The movie was made in 1985 at the Cinema Studio of Lithuania. It was directed by Algimantas Pujpa. The cast included Ingeborga Dapkunajte, Ina Rosenajte, Darus Palakas, and Lorentis Sverdiolas. The language is Russian. The costuming was interesting. Some of the boys wear short pants with socks. A Russian reader tells us, "I have seen such a fashion except in wet chilly summer weather. Two times I saw this in the north of Russia--Karelia near the Finnish border."

Filmology

"Electronnaya Babooshka"/"Electronic Granny" is a Soviet/Lithuanian children's movie made in 1985 . The title of the movie is "Electronnaya Babooshka" (Electronic Granny) and the screenplay is based on the famous short story I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury. It was directed by Algimantas Pujpa. The film was shot in the Russian language. The Bradbury book took its name from the title story, "I Sing the Body Electric!". It was fotst adapted into a "Twilight Zone" episode of the same name. Bradbury wrote the teleplay. It was subsequently adapted as a television movie, "The Electric Grandmother", starring Maureen Stapleton.

Ray Bradbury (1920- )

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois (1920). He was the son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a telephone lineman and technician. His mother, Esther Marie Bradbury (nee Moberg), was a Swedish immigrant. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. Ray was te family's third son. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when Ray was a young teenager during the Depression (1934). Ray like most teenagers was fascinated by the movies. He was known to roller-skate through Hollywood, lloking for celebrities. He went to Los Angeles High School where he participated in the drama club as an extra-cuuricular activity. He aspired to become an actor. He did not go on to college after he graduated (1938). As he explained it, he became a "student of life". He read extensively, including the great Russian novelists, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He sold newspapers on the streets (1938-42). He spent his free time His free time was spent in libraries and writing. He was able to get some stories published in magazines. His first success was "Pendulum" published by the pulp magazine, Super Science Stories. Such successes enabled him to beconme a full-time writer (late-1942). His first book was a collection of stories--Dark Carnival (1947). He married Marguerite McClure (1922-2003), who he had met in a book store. They raised four daughters and have eight grandchildren. Bradbury begame an internationally recognized author with the publication of another short story collection--The Martian Chronicles (1950). Several of the stories were inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythological figures. The unifying theme was the first attempts to conquer and colonize Mars. What made the book especially interested was his attempt to deal with the unintended consequences. Then he joined Yevgeni Zamyatin and Aldous Huxley in writing an anti-utopian novel. Farenheit 451 (1953) in which the Goverment struggles to keep books out of the hands of citizens. Revels attempt to salvage their history and culture by hisding books and memorizing entire works. Farenheit 451 became a science-fiction classic and is his best-known work. Frenchman Francois Truffaut directed the film version which was shot in Britain (1966). There was a TV adaptation of "The Martian Chronicles" (1980) starring Rock Hudson. Bradbury was not pleased with it. Many other stories and books were made not only into movies and TV shows, as well as radio, theatre and comic books. Perhaps the best knoewn are episodes for Alfred Hitchcock's popular TV series. Bradbury produced about 600 short stories, more than 30 books, as well as poems and plays.

Soviet Censorship

Filming a Bradbury book in the Soviet Union is interesting in that his most famous novel, Farenhite 451 is about censorship--a totlitarian futuristic government keeping books out of the public's hands. I would not have thought that he would have been that popular an author with Soviet censors. We do not know, however, if Fahrenheit 451 was allowed in the Soviet Union? Perhaps the futuristic society pictured in the book was so extreme that censors did not think that the public would connect it with Soviet censorship. A Russian reader writes, "Ray Bradbury was extremely popular in the Soviet Union. It is often hard to understand logic of communist censors, why they forbade Orwell and allowed Bradbury to be published. But this is the fact - Soviet censors thought Bradbury to be a 'progressive American writer', so his books published in the USSR and even several TV productions were made in the early-80s as part of the series 'This World is Fantastic'. 'Farenheit 451' was popular in that times and it is now even more popular." We suspect that that the scifi format was a factor. Cenors in heneral tend to gice more latitude to sci-fi and humor. We suspect this may have been the case in the Soviet Union as well.

Cinema Studio of Lithuania

The Cinema Studio of Lithuania was the Soviet republic studio. It was established in 1956. This of course was the same year that the 20th Party Congress loosened Stalinist censorship. We do not know much about the studio. It like other republic studios was not precisely a Lituanian studio. There would have been Russians working at the studio as well as Lithuanians. We do not have much information on the studio at this time. We are not sure to what extent there was a Lithuanian influence beyond the people working on the film and cast. Nor do we know how many filns were made in the Lithuanian lanaguage. Of course to do so would have limited the box office appeal in the rest of the Soviet Union. The only evidently Lithusanian influences in "Electronic Granny" are the pretty Baltic landscapes. Costuming is also sometimes a factor. We do know that many in the Baltics by the 1980s were increasingly influenced by nationalist thought.

Cast

The cast included Ingeborga Dapkunajte, Ina Rosenajte, Darus Palakas, and Lorentis Sverdiolas. We think those are Lithuaniab names, but we are not positive.

Plot

The plot of "Electric Granny" is simple and rather close to Bradbury's novel. The girl Agata is badly ill and nobody knows how to cure her. No doctor can help. Friends of Agata learn, that she is ill, because all children have Grannies but Agata does not. They go to the shop "Electronic Granny" and beg the dealer to sell them one Electronic Granny. They say that they have no money but they will cut grass on lawns and will repay him the loan. He agreed - and they select a beautiful and young Electrnic Granny for Agata. The dealer warns them, that her electronic circuits are very sensitive - and this Granny will only work if loved. Agata get healthy and plays with her new Granny and other friends. Granny can invite new games and even fly with all children to the Moon. But later due to the jealousy and bad heabits children forget that they must love Granny, they begin to treat her just as a robot that "must do what they ask". As a result Granny dies. To resurect her Agata and friends must get off their ambitions, rudeness, jealousy and again become loving, cheerful and kind.

Costuming

The children in this film wear casual clothing, some of which was similar to clothing style throughout Europe. We do not fully understand the costuming of Soviet children's films shot in contemporary times. These films were relatively low budget affairs. We think that often the children involved were given some guidelines and wore their own clothes rather than being costumed. We are not sure about this film as the costuming as a little unusual with sevral children wearing tights. Some of the boys wore short pants, tights, and socks. This does not seem to have been very common, especially wearing tights with socks. A Russian reader tells us, "I have seen such a fashion except in wet chilly summer weather. Two times I saw this in the north of Russia--Karelia near the Finnish border."

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Created: 5:13 PM 2/23/2010
Last updated: 5:13 PM 2/23/2010