The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) on Netflix
Baron Münchhausen never lies, and his stories tend to come true. He longs to marry Martha, but he is still married to Jacobine, and only the Duke can undo that.
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- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb8.3/104,413 votes
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Plot summary
Set in Germany in 1779. Baron Münchhausen has a reputation for spinning fantasies, yet the tales he tells have an odd habit of turning out true. He says he cannot lie, and the notion of lying for gain or out of politeness disgusts him. He lives in a castle with Martha, and the two have long intended to marry, but his parents once arranged a marriage for him with Jacobine von Dunten, who lives with their adult son Theophilus. A divorce needs the Duke's permission, and Jacobine and her lover Heinrich Ramkopf hold it back. Relatives want to have the Baron declared insane so they may dispose of his property, and every priest he approaches declines to marry him and Martha.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Very Same Munchhausen (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Soviet censors cut just one scene from the film: the one in which hunters study the works of Baron Münchhausen. It was considered too bold because the whole country at the time was studying the works of Leonid Brezhnev.
- Director Mark Zakharov had to convince the State Committee for Cinematography to cast Oleg Yankovsky as Baron Münchhausen, and scriptwriter Grigori Gorin wanted Andrei Mironov in the part instead.
- The film was shot in East Germany, on the streets of Wernigerode, rather than in Bodenwerder near Hanover where the real Münchhausen lived, because shooting was easier to arrange in the GDR and Wernigerode had an authentic look and was barely damaged in World War II.
- German actors and ordinary citizens filled the crowd scenes and small parts, so in the very first scene everyone but Oleg Yankovsky and Yuriy Katin-Yartsev is German; Zakharov, unused to location work, struggled to coordinate the German cast in stormy weather.
- In the 1990s a dialogue between Münchhausen and the pastor was shortened; among the cut lines was the baron's reply to the pastor's complaint about his book: "I read yours - and it isn't any better."
- Casting the role of Martha took a long search, with Tatyana Dogileva and Irina Mazurkiewicz among the actresses who auditioned, before Yelena Koreneva was picked by the State Committee.
- Oleg Yankovsky had just turned 35 when shooting began, although the baron of the book and play is a middle-aged man with an adult son, and the director was able to defend his choice.
