{"id":23014,"date":"2024-03-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=23014"},"modified":"2024-03-22T10:42:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T17:42:11","slug":"classic-corner-the-curious-saga-of-the-leningrad-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/classic-corner-the-curious-saga-of-the-leningrad-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic Corner: The Curious Saga of the Leningrad Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first sighting of a Leningrad Cowboy in Aki Kaurism\u00e4ki\u2019s Leningrad Cowboys Go America<\/em> (released 35 years ago) is incongruous, but really, that can\u2019t be helped. All sightings of Leningrad Cowboys are incongruous, thanks to their distinctive hairstyles (a pointy pompadour that sticks out about a foot) and boots (also extra-long and pointy). What makes the first sighting stand out is he\u2019s a corpse, lying in an open field with his bass guitar gripped in one hand, pointing straight up, parallel with his hair and boots. That doesn\u2019t prevent his brothers\/bandmates from taking him on tour with them, though, so he can see the world outside of their isolated Siberian village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to sending the band packing, Kaurism\u00e4ki directed three videos, the first of which \u2013 1986\u2019s Rocky VI<\/em> \u2013 was made the same year he commenced his \u201cProletariat Trilogy\u201d with Shadows of Paradise<\/em>. In contrast with the sober and sometimes deadly serious nature of those films, the Leningrad Cowboys pictures tend to be deadpan larks, leaning into the absurdity of whatever situation they\u2019re thrust into. This is certainly true of Rocky VI<\/em>, a parody of the previous year\u2019s Rocky IV<\/em> pitting a comically scrawny \u201cRock\u2019y\u201d against a hulking Russian named Igor. Both are played by members of the band, but the role of Igor\u2019s manager is taken by Kaurism\u00e4ki regular Matti Pellonp\u00e4\u00e4, who filled a similar function when the time came to make a feature. First, though, came two more shorts, which gave Kaurism\u00e4ki and the band the opportunity to hone their visual aesthetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailing from 1987, Thru the Wire<\/em> takes place \u201csomewhere between ALABAMA and UTAH,\u201d which doesn\u2019t narrow the geography down much, and depicts singer Nicky Tesco breaking out of prison to reunite with his lover. More importantly, it offers the first look at the band\u2019s distinctive hairstyle, which is seen on the drummer, guitarist, and sax player. The whole band is present for its immediate follow-up, L.A. Woman<\/em>, a straightforward performance of the Doors classic without the need for dramatic or comedic embellishment. There would be plenty of that when Kaurism\u00e4ki sent them to conquer America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working from a story concocted with band members Sakke J\u00e4rvenp\u00e4\u00e4 and Mato Valtonen, Kaurism\u00e4ki fashioned a rambling road movie that takes the opposite tack of something like A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em>, which firmed up the Fab Four\u2019s individual personalities in the public\u2019s imagination. Instead, the Leningrad Cowboys are presented as a monolithic collective \u2013 and credited as such. That\u2019s really the only viable option when dealing with a nine-piece band (including the deceased one) where the members all dress alike, speak very little, and are mostly differentiated by what they play. (At the start, they favor traditional folk instruments, but they pick up more rock trappings as they go along.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Filling in the personality gap is manager Vladimir (Pellonp\u00e4\u00e4), who takes advantage of his charges the way most management does when looking after the business interests of creative types. When a local impresario determines they have no commercial potential, Vladimir takes them to America, where he\u2019s been told \u201cthey\u2019ll buy anything.\u201d When they arrive, though, their booking agent, who was talking about Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium before hearing them play, sends them to Mexico to perform at a cousin\u2019s wedding. \u201cYour music will go over big down there,\u201d he says. \u201cHere we have something different. It\u2019s called rock and roll.\u201d Chastened, Vladimir presses a hastily acquired book of sheet music into their hands and instructs them to learn it on the road. Along the way, they stop at roadside bars, playing one-off gigs while expanding their repertoire with such standards as \u201cRock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Is Here to Stay,\u201d \u201cTequila,\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s All Right, Mama,\u201d and \u201cBorn to Be Wild.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like their hair and boots, the Leningrad Cowboys stick out wherever they go, giving Kaurism\u00e4ki license to include as many sight gags as he wants, starting with the coffin on top of their car (bought from a dealer played by Jim Jarmusch) with their bandmate\u2019s hair, boots, and bass sticking out of the lid. There\u2019s also a running gag about Vladimir drinking beer after beer in the front seat and carelessly tossing the empties into the back. This has its payoff when they stop to stretch their legs and, upon opening the doors, dozens of cans spill out onto the pavement. Vladimir gets one more when he delivers the band to Mexico in time for the wedding and wanders off into the desert, but not before getting one last drink from a cactus with a tap stuck in it. \u201cAnd nobody ever saw him again\u2026\u201d reads the caption that follows, but Kaurism\u00e4ki wasn\u2019t finished with Vladimir or the Leningrad Cowboys just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Go America<\/em>, the Leningrad Cowboys toured and released records like any other band, with Kaurism\u00e4ki directing the videos for \u201cThose Were the Days\u201d and \u201cThese Boots\u201d (an obvious pick for a cover). Around that time, Jarmusch set one of the stories of his 1991 omnibus Night on Earth<\/em> in Helsinki, casting Matti Pellonp\u00e4\u00e4 as a sleep-deprived cab driver and two of the other actors from the film as his inebriated passengers. That wasn\u2019t the first time he took them for a ride, and it wasn\u2019t the last since Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses<\/em> came along in 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


The Moses in question is Vladimir, with a long, obviously fake beard, who summons them from Mexico (where they had a top ten hit and promptly went to seed) and promises to lead them home. That\u2019s far from the only Biblical allusion inserted into the script (including a moment where Vladimir walks on pool water), which also finds Vladimir stealing the Statue of Liberty\u2019s nose and being doggedly pursued by a CIA man played by Andr\u00e9 Wilms, Pellonp\u00e4\u00e4\u2019s co-star from Kaurism\u00e4ki\u2019s La Vie de Boh\u00e8me<\/em>. The plot aside, what\u2019s most valuable about Meet Moses<\/em> is the way, like its predecessor, it eschews the picturesque, documenting run-down areas that were off the beaten path and venues on the verge of vanishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaurism\u00e4ki made a different sort of documentary with Total Balalaika Show<\/em> (also 1994), which captures a performance by the Leningrad Cowboys in front of 70,000 fans backed by the Alexandrov Red Army Chorus and Dance Ensemble. With the focus squarely on the music, there are fewer opportunities for the band to goof off, although there are moments during the Red Army Chorus songs where they\u2019re seen lying on their backs, tapping their boots in time to the music, or strutting around the stage kicking up their boots. If Total Balalaika Show<\/em> doesn\u2019t quite measure up to the great concert films like Stop Making Sense<\/em> or The Last Waltz<\/em>, it\u2019s only because of its brevity. They pack a lot into the hour they have, though, including rousing renditions of the Turtles\u2019 \u201cHappy Together,\u201d Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cKnockin\u2019 on Heaven\u2019s Door,\u201d ZZ Top\u2019s \u201cGimme All Your Lovin\u2019,\u201d and Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s \u201cSweet Home Alabama,\u201d while wrapping it all up (appropriately enough) with \u201cThose Were the Days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the one-two punch of Meet Moses<\/em> and Total Balalaika Show<\/em>, Kaurism\u00e4ki took his leave of the band, but continued to cast some of its members as actors in his films. (One, Sakari Kuosmanen, even appears in last year\u2019s Fallen Leaves<\/em>.) As much as he helped introduce them to a wider, international audience, the Leningrad Cowboys returned the favor by providing him with an outlet for visual gags that would be out of place in his more serious-minded work. A mutually beneficial collaboration if there ever was one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeningrad Cowboys Go America\u201d and its sequels can be found in the <\/em>Directed by Aki Kaurism\u00e4ki<\/em><\/a> collection on the Criterion Channel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n