Formula of Love

"Formula of Love" is what they call a "cult classic" among Russians who grew up in the 70s-80s. I guess it can be best described as a "campy romantic comedy" -- it's funny, has a great cast who show superb acting, and the whole film is teeming with quotable one-liners.

I've been wanting to do the subs for it for a while now, but couldn't find time -- the film is pretty long and required careful translation as there are lots of subtle jokes. Many of them, unfortunately, don't survive even the most creative attempts at translation, so some of the charm is inevitably lost, as is always the case. I think the film is still very enjoyable, though! :)

The action is set in Russia in late 1700s, during a visit by a famous Italian mystic Alessandro Cagliostro. The fact that Cagliostro did visit Russia is about the only historically accurate part of the film, though. The screenwriters concentrated on making it a comedy and didn't spend too much time researching the time period, so there are quite a few historical inaccuracies in the film -- such as the fact that there was actually no war with Turkey in the 1780, even though the characters allude to it all the time. Heck, even the fact that they refer to him as "Giuseppe Cagliostro" is pretty inaccurate, as he used "Alessandro Cagliostro" as him nom-de-guerre -- Giuseppe Balsamo was his birth name.

Still, I think you'll enjoy the film! I had real fun translating it. :) Here's the excerpt:



I usually link to arjlover for movies, but unfortunately the version they have on their website has chunks missing, which is why I didn't use it. The only place I know where you can get the film via Torrent is a Russian tracker, and you have to register -- useless if you don't read Russian. :) I'll link to it anyway, since many of my readers are Russians or Russophiles and should be able to figure out the site. If you really want to watch the film and can't navigate RuTracker.org, just email me and I'll help you out.

Original title: "Формула любви"
English title: "The Formula of Love"
Studio: Mosfilm
Duration: 90 minutes
Download media: rutracker.org
Download subtitles: mricon.com

(There's a 1080p version of the film on the same site. You should be able to use the same .srt file -- just rename it to match the filename of the movie.)