Librianna: Bitch of the Black Sea (DVD) Review

Distributor: Alpha Blue Archives Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Comedy, Action Run Time: 68 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1979 Director: uncredited Written by: uncredited Cast: Pezda Vanutcka, Vladick Gaydoy Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Librianna: Bitch of the Black Sea is an odd adult film to have come from the end of the 70s. A crawl in the beginning tells you that this film was completely shot in Russia, in Russian. Later American audio was dubbed, at great expense no less, and the film was brought to the United States. None of this is really true and that fact is rather evident upon watching the production. The film was actually an American production which seems to have some creativity to how it was constructed but unfortunately it is of little use as an adult film or as one to just sit down and enjoy as a feature film.

The film appears to be a combination of footage shot in America (indoors, outdoors, and on sets) and footage that appears to have actually been shot in Russia, featuring one of the actors in the film (Vladick Gaydoy), along with some stock footage filmed in Russia and other locales. The narrative has been pieced together by using narration by Scott (Vladick Gaydoy) and occasional narration by Librianna (Pezda Vanutcka) to tell most of the story. Footage of Scott in Russia (with no natural audio) has been mixed with corresponding stock footage shot in Russia to form the the Russian scenes. This is then combined with outdoor, indoor, and sex footage that was shot in America. A little extra stock footage has been added from somewhere else and that forms the entire film. Interestingly enough the Russian footage was shot during a snow storm and the American footage was shot on a sunny day with no snow anywhere so the footage doesn't mix that well.

Then the dialog that is present in the film had been added, in post production, removing all of the natural dialog from the film leaving all the dialog that is present out of sync with what the cast is saying (which is supposed to be the American dubbed audio). The end result is odd film to say the least. The story in the film is that Scott, a journalist from Seattle, has been sent to Russia to find Librianna, the Russian sex queen, who is trying to overthrow the Russian empire through debauchery.

Unfortunately none of this ultimately works very well. The concept wasn't a bad one but it was poorly executed. Stock footage from Russia is used just because they had the footage and forced into the story. Which makes it rather obvious that the film makers used whatever they had instead of gathering appropriate material. For instance, a bus driver informant has to wash the windows before talking and the footage is just of a bus driver washing the windows.

The sets used in the film are rather cheap and poorly designed showing a lack of a budget behind the film. Some of the rooms are just draped in sheets or so dimly lit you can't see more than the center of them. This fact makes it unlikely that Vladick Gaydoy was sent to Russia for the footage of him to be shot and more likely that Gaydoy made this film; the director is uncredited in the film and credited on the film's posters as “Members of the Secret Russian Underground.” I suspect that he and a friend shot the footage of him in Russia, if he was in Russia for that footage, and the possibly stock footage on a cheaper camera than was used for the American footage.

The footage doesn't blend well together either. The Russian footage is all very grainy whereas all of the rest of the footage is not. I suspect that even back when this film was originally released that the footage didn't blend well together. The need to force the stock footage into the film, probably to really try to push the it is a Russian adult film angle, weakens the entire project since often that footage feels more forced than the sexual footage.

Most of the sex scenes are very short, even for the time period very short, and aren't overly erotic. Most of the scenes are done before you even realize that they have really started. There is one extended sex scene in the film. And the film ends with a bizarre simulated sex scene with Venutcka and Gaydoy in a caricatured bear costume. Which brings us to the humor in the film. The film seems to want to be a parody of spy action films, while never managing to accomplish this. It also seems to want to be amusing, for instance Librianna's henchman is almost always hidden behind a cloth (possibly due to the make up job when he was shown not wanting to be applied every time) but there still seemed to be a joke they were trying to do. I am sure the caricatured bear costume was supposed to be a joke of some sort. However all the attempts at humor fall short. The attempts at scenes of action fall short. The narrative that has been assembled to try to make this mess make sense falls short. And the sex scenes fall short. In short, this film falls short in every aspect.

Librianna: Bitch of the Black Sea is presented in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The master used for this transfer was a film print, which is in relatively good shape. There is print damage and artifacts present, along with grain. The footage shot in Russian has considerable amounts of grain. There is a point where the picture gets distorted briefly in what looks like a digital artifact. There is more damage to the print at the end of the film than the beginning. There is an “alphabluearchives.com” bug that appears in the lower right corner of the screen a couple of times during the presentation.

Librianna: Bitch of the Black Sea is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. The dialog is clear and easy to hear throughout. The audio has some pops and crackles in places but for the most part is in great shape.

Alpha Blue Archives hasn't included any extras for this release.

Librianna: Bitch of the Black Sea was an attempt to make a pseudo-Russian adult film. While some creativity fell into the concept behind the film, the final product shows ineptness at every level. Alpha Blue Archives has a decent print of the film and despite a few flaws in the transfer has done a good job with this release.

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