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Awesome Movie

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

I was disappointed with this "film" for many reasons. First, it was impossible to understand the interviews with Leon Theremin. The version I watched had no English subtitles, so most of the last third of this "film" was useless. Also, they interviewed a woman with short, brown hair that spoke Russian with no subtitles. Another problem is that most of these people are not introduced or have their names on the screen. I had no idea who these people were and why they were being interviewed. (My opinion is the director didn't know why these people were being interviewed either.) Anyway, the last third of this "film" just drags on and on because you don't who the people are, and you can't understand what they're saying. It's so bad, it's really annoying.Another problem is the look and feel of this "film". It was made in the early 90's, but has the look and feel of a 70's documentary. It appears that the director had no preconceived plan of what he wanted, so he went out and filmed all this footage and then tried to make a story out of it when he got back to the editing suite. I've worked on documentaries, and that's NOT how you should do it. The director had 15-20 years to improve upon the look of his "film", but did not. This leads me to think that he was very inexperienced. The "film" looks very amateurish and dated. Is it all bad? No. The first 2/3 are fairly interesting and tell a good (if disjointed) story of Theremin and his inventions. I loved the performances by Clara Rockmore. They were moving and beautiful. All the archive footage was pretty cool. And Brain Wilson's interview is something you just have to experience for yourself - it's classic! I also enjoyed the interviews with Robert Moog - very enlightening. All in all, this is a decent "film" (God, I hate it when they say "A Film by ______" in the credits. It sounds so pompous!) But, it suffers from a lack of direction which makes the last third so bad, it's painful. Plus, we can't understand what happened after Theremin was kidnapped and brought back to Russia. It's really frustrating.

I owe my watching this documentary to my strange daughter. Now I do not mean this in a bad way--I come from a family of strange people and the fact that she KNEW what a theremin was surprised me, as I sure didn't. Apparently a theremin is a magnificent electronic musical instrument created in the early part of the 20th century by Dr. Theremin--a genius who had immigrated to the US around the time of the Russian Revolution. This film, then, is about the instrument and its inventor--and it makes for a slow but very interesting story worth seeing even if you are not a musician. I am certainly not one, but I found myself marveling at the beautiful and other-worldly sound of this machine. In fact, we have all heard the theremin before--most often in sci-fi movies but even in other places such as the Beach Boys' song "Good Vibrations". And, speaking of this, seeing Brian Wilson interviewed was pretty bizarre, as he looked pretty good but the more he talked the more you realized that he still is quite mentally ill.Anyway, there is MUCH more to the story in regards to Dr. Theremin--much more, but I don't want to say more because it would spoil this wonderful film. His life, put simply, is MUCH stranger than fiction! I give the documentary very high marks for all the effort it took to construct--with trips to Moscow, locating the Doctor, arranging for interviews, etc.. Clearly this was a labor of love and I appreciate this. The only reason i don't rate this even higher is that it is a bit dry in places and although it kept my interest, I have a much larger capacity than normal for this sort of thing...and the average person might just find their mind wandering. Still, it's fascinating and I strongly recommend you try it.

The theremin is one of the first electronic musical instruments invented and I can't say I was ever crazy about it. I always thought of it as something used to add an eerie quality to certain psychological films like Hitchcock's "Spellbound" or science-fiction films such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still".As it turned out, the theremin had an enormous influence on the later history of electronic music.Named after its creator Léon Theramin (Lev Sergievich Terman), it was treated by others as a serious musical instrument especially when played by its greatest exponent, Clara Rockmore, She, as a matter of fact, happened to be the sister of my last piano teacher, Nadia Reisenberg, who often accompanied her but I knew nothing about this during my piano studies.One of the problems with this documentary would have been very simple to remedy: it is usually impossible to know who is being shown without a caption though that could usually be worked out by the context. In the case of Clara Rockmore, there was a family resemblance and Nicolas Slonimsky had a familiar face. But another problem has been mentioned often enough: the aged Theremin's speech in the English language is incomprehensible and should have been subtitled (Only when he spoke Russian were subtitles included.). In fact, an English subtitles option would have been very welcome throughout.I also think, in view of various questions which have come up, that the "abduction" of Theremin from the United States in 1938 seems too much of a whitewash. In view of his invention of a bugging device which was used for espionage against the United States, one wonders where the real allegiance of the inventor lay.It was thought, for many years, that Theremin had been executed by the Soviet government but in a real "believe it or not" story, he turned up late in life and eventually went back to the U.S. for a time. His unexpected reunion with Rockmore made for a very touching ending for the documentary.Another not very user-friendly DVD and, I would hope if it is ever reissued, that these problems could be remedied.

The story of Leon Theremin does not require more than 60 minutes. That is the hurdle this film tries to get around by spending way too much time talking to those whose lives have crossed paths with Theremin or his device. Theremin himself is barely intelligible, mumbling on about his recollections that have already been explained by the filmmakers. The use of the theremin in 50's sci-fi and horror films is glossed over and the film spends no more than a few minutes talking about this famous application of the musical instrument.I love documentaries and Theremin seemed like one of those offbeat documentaries that I so love (Errol Morris'), but it is merely a pretender. Truth be told I caught myself skipping through the last few minutes of the film because it just DRAGS on and on and on. Not recommended.