This review will necessarily be long, as it is for a miniseries, not a movie, and it is based on my second favorite book in the world, which I love so much I went halfway across the country to explore the real places on which the setting is based. The book is Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury, and the miniseries is the Russian production Vino iz oduvanchikov from 1997. From what I have heard, Bradbury’s works were translated into Russian many years ago, for which he was never paid, and although he receives screen credit at the beginning of each episode, it’s doubtful he was ever paid for this adaptation as proper channels were not followed.

The movie is entirely in Russian with no subtitles. The extent of my Russian knowledge consists of the words for “Yes,” “No,” and “Dandelion Wine,” and that’s about it. The setting is definitely in America and most likely the same region of upper Illinois as the book, as Chicago is mentioned. The signs in the arcade and on shops are in English and also on Junkman Jonas’s wagon, almost. It reads “Yery Comfis for Use,” then a small indistinct word, maybe “No,” followed by “Spnsp From Buzzard.” Somehow I don’t think this is supposed to be Latin or anything but a failed attempt at English. The time is most likely the 1920s or 1930s (the book is set in 1928). The best indication would be if someone could identify and date the vintage automobiles. The names are preserved exactly from the book, with the possible exception of Helen Loomis, whose name seems to be Parsons, that is if I correctly understood what I heard. Perhaps her name means something unsavory in Russian and so was changed. Also, Great-Grandmother, unnamed in the book, is given the name Mrs. Bentley which is actually another character in Dandelion Wine whose story is not featured in the miniseries. The names are given Russianized pronunciations but not translated, that is, “John” is “John” and not “Ivan.” Obnoxious Aunt Rose is seen reading Karl Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party, which might be a humorous touch for Russian viewers who can read English titles.

I found two copies of this film, one on the Russian site ok.ru and one on YouTube. The ok.ru copy has some Russian phrase pasted into the top right hand corner, not occasionally like a network or channel logo but in every single shot. It is enraging to see a great work of art so defaced and would have been a huge distraction even in bad movie. Some kind soul blurred this out in the YouTube copy so I strongly suggest watching it. The picture and sound are pretty good.

As far as locations, I didn’t notice anything about the architecture of the outside of the houses that would eliminate the possibility of them being in 20th Century America, but I am not an architecture expert. The interiors strained credulity. The houses are huge, beautiful, and lavish. Douglas Spaulding, the main character, and his brother Tom have a spacious bedroom, beautifully decorated and furnished with expensive toys. Large and colorful dandelion murals are painted on glass panels on the door and set into the wall (they cannot properly be called windows as they are on an interior wall) which are beautiful but unlikely. Ray Bradbury’s entire childhood home could very likely fit comfortably in Leo Auffmann’s garage. The houses are simply beyond the means of lower middle to middle class 20th Century Americans but are lovely to look at. The scenery is lush and lavish and beautifully filmed, with many lovely shots of dandelions as there should be. Again, it could pass for taking place in America.

The casting was perfect! Andrei Novikov shines as the thoughtful, dreamy, and sensitive Douglas Spaulding. Sergei Kuznetsov is wonderful as little chatterbox Tom Spaulding, gushing fountains of words on all subjects. Lidiya Dranovskaya is brilliant as Great-Grandmother, who has been named Mrs. Bentley. Liya Akhedzhakova is especially expressive as Lena Auffmann, going from discouragement to overflowing joy to abject unhappiness.

The expressiveness of the acting really helped, as did having read the book three times, with enough other individual story readings and watching and listening to TV and radio adaptations to amount to a fourth time. As my last full reading was 35 years ago, I struggled to remember certain details, but overall found this an accurate adaptation, that is, without being able to understand over 99% of what was said. Besides proper names, the words which are the same in Russian as in English or similar enough for me to catch them were “machine,” “photograph,” “Madame Tarot,” “Mexico,” “Mama,” “My brother” and “Chicago.” I thought I heard “number” and “doctor” but I was very likely mistaken.

This miniseries contains long stretches of dialogue. The hardest to follow is the story “The Swan,” because it consists entirely of Bill Forrester and Helen Loomis (or possibly Miss/Mrs. Parsons) talking. “The Happiness Machine” contains an extreme amount of dialogue and I felt it could have got to the point of the story in less time and left time for something else. Lidiya Dranovskaya obviously gave a powerful performance in “The Leave-Taking” with possibly the longest monologue in the series. Great-Grandmother’s speech in Dandelion Wine is one of the most beautiful passages in all of literature in any language, and it would have been nice to see how closely the Russian followed the original English, but alas no subtitles. I heard a rumor about an English version being released in Canada but I can’t find a copy. It is to be hoped whoever did it consulted the book, as translating from English to Russian and back might well result in disaster.

Douglas and his friends John and Charlie visit Colonel Freeleigh, played by Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, who tells them of the demise of supposed bullet catcher Ching Ling Soo and relates an American Civil War battle so vividly the boys feel trapped in the action.

There were a few changes, such as in “The Tarot Witch,” in the book only Douglas and Tom were involved, while in the miniseries several friends participated. Friend Charlie Woodman has a larger role and many more lines than in the book, particularly in the story “Statues,” in which he is unaccountably switched with John Huff, although John is present, so Charlie takes John’s role in the action and John is sidelined with Charlie’s role. Otherwise the action is pretty close. Not much is made of Douglas’s writing but he is shown with a notebook and pencil. The famous “The Sound of Summer Running” is not dramatized but Douglas is shown wearing brand new white tennis shoes.

Fanciful touches include a sleeping Douglas levitating around the house at the opening of each episode, and Great-Grandmother ascending to Heaven in a hot air balloon, accompanied by a young man wearing a Confederate uniform, which is unusual as the family were from Illinois. Perhaps Great-Grandmother was meant to have lived in the South when younger, which might have been explained in her monologue. By the way, the portrait she addresses at the end of her speech is an actual Civil War image depicting Edwin Francis Jemison, a Confederate combatant who was killed on July 1, 1862, at the Battle of Malvern Hill in Henrico County, Virginia, at the young age of 17, and is one of the most famous images from the American Civil War.

No film can possibly begin to approach the excellence of this wonderful book. Several incidents are included which I have not mentioned, but of necessity many more events are omitted. Overall this film is beautifully done and I would recommend it but it helps to be either really familiar with Russian or with the book or hopefully with both.

Ray Bradbury Theater: HBO in the United States from 1985 to 1986, and then on USA Network, running four additional seasons from 1988 to 1992; episodes aired on the Global Television Network in Canada from 1991 to 1994.

Actors appearing in the Ray Bradbury Theater episodes included: Richard Kiley, Shelley Duvall, Paul Le Mat, Eileen Brennan, Donald Pleasence, Denholm Elliott, Alan Bates, James Coco, William Shatner, Peter O'Toole, Patrick Macnee, Susannah York, Jeff Goldblum,[4] Drew Barrymore, Hal Linden, Michael Ironside, Robert Vaughn, Eugene Levy, Saul Rubinek, Louise Fletcher, Paul Gross, David Ogden Stiers, John Saxon, Timothy Bottoms, Harold Gould, Sally Kirkland, Kiel Martin, Bruce Weitz, Barry Morse, Eddie Albert, David Carradine, Sally Kellerman, Vincent Gardenia, Robert Culp, Shawn Ashmore, Richard Benjamin, John Vernon, Elliott Gould, Tyne Daly, Lucy Lawless, Jean Stapleton, Charles Martin Smith, Marc Singer, Michael Hurst, Magali Noël, Joanna Cassidy, John Glover, Dan O'Herlihy, Howard Hesseman, Leslie Nielsen, Helen Shaver, Ian Bannen, Megan Follows, Michael Sarrazin, Roy Kinnear, John Vernon, Kenneth Welsh, Michael J. Pollard, Pat Harrington, Jr., Carol Kane, Gordon Pinsent, Clive Swift, Len Cariou, Gregory Sierra, Nick Mancuso, Ben Cross, Janice Rule, Robert Joy, Ray Sharkey, Cyril Cusack, Stuart Margolin, Ronald Lacey, Jayne Eastwood, Wayne Robson, Grant Tilly and James Whitmore.

MANY very accomplished and influencial performers took roles in the RBT series. Mr. Bradbury's daughters would now have rights to movie's production. There are still some artful cinematographers who would bring "The summer of 1928 in Green Town, Illinois," magically to the Big Screen!

It is a story that really needs to be painted carefully so as to capture an Historic Era of our American Culture. With the proper screenplay, direction, production, and performers taking on treasure roles, from start to finish, viewers young and old alike would be captivated by their journey back almost a hundred years ago! The themes, ironies, conflicts, friendships, humor, hopes, loves, and losses....fill the pages of the novel. I can just imagine sitting back and watching the pages being painted on to a screen in a comfortable movie theater.

We visited Waukegan several summers ago. We walked into the Ravine. We stood in front of Mr. Bradbury's boyhood home, and we visited his treasured Library. The concept of Dandelion Wine as a well made movie, with inspired accomplished and upcoming performers, has the potential of Academy recognition.