Young Catherine

[Lanie]

I think it was filmed in Russia. and would not be surprised if some was filmed in Canada since the director was Canadian.  I ran a website for an actress for awhile who was in this movie, so... yeah.  Hope that helped.

[Janet_W.]

I've seen this film and greatly prefer it to the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones . . . tho' to be fair, I only looked at the latter one for about 10 minutes before giving up!

I recognized some of the garden sequences from the grounds adjacent the Catherine Palace. I'm not sure about the other sites.

At any rate, tho' some of the history might be a tad shakey here and there, I think Julia Ormand and the other actors are wonderful and the script moves things along quite well. Very colorful production; you've reminded me I have my own copy and must watch it again!

[Janet_W.]

Some time ago Julia Ormond played Catherine in a production that was broadcast here in the States on A & E. Although the script had some historical inaccuracies, the production itself was, I felt, very fine, and I thought Julia Ormond was excellent in the role. I'm afraid I can't say the same for another production featuring Catherine Zeta Jones; I watched for five minutes and then turned to another program.  

[Svetabel]

BTW, Julia Ormond was quite  good as Catherine.

[ivanushka]

I've just managed to get hold of a DVD of "Young Catherine" - the Julia Ormond miniseries.  I agree with Janet W that there were a few historical innaccuracies it was still a very good production.  JO was great as Catherine, as was Vanessa Redgrave as the Empress Elizabeth and Reece Dinsdale as Peter III.

[Svetabel]

Well,  I can repeat that Julia Ormond is quite good as Catherine II but frankly I can't imagine her as Catherine as she was. Of course I did not know the Empress personally  it's just my feelings.
Actually for me the best actresses who ever played Catherine were Katrin Kohv and Svetlana Kryuchkova. Katrin Kohv played the young Empress in ""Mikhaylo Lomonosov" - a serial about great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, and the actress looked almost alike Catherine, I mean the features! The other, famous Russian actress Svetlana Kryuchkova played the aged Empress in "Tzarskaya Ohota" (A Hunting of the Tsaritsa), a movie on Princess Tarakanova.
Certainly these actresses are known mainly in Russia

[dmitri]

Julia Ormond was much better in Young Catherine

[dmitri]

This was filmed in Russia and was quite excellent.

[Clemence]

I watched it in Italy in the early '90s and found it superb ... is there a dvd available in europe somewhere?

[dmitri]

Years ago it was released on video. I am not sure whether it made it to dvd. I have it on video. Although there were some inaccuracies, it was quite entertaining. The sad thing is that the dashing young actor who played Grigory Orlov, Mark Frankel, died not long after in a motorcycle accident.  Julie Ormond was quite delightful and Vanessa Redgrave was excellent as Empress Elizabeth.

[Annie]

How sad about the actor, I didn't know about that.

This was a great show, I have it on a homemade VHS I taped off the TV when it was new but would love a better copy someday.

[Belochka]

An immensely entertaining and visually appealing film, which is superior to the more recent Zeta Jones version IMHO. It is now finally available in DVD format.

Margarita

[dmitri]

Craig McLauglan was truly awful in the Zeta-Jones version.

[ivanushka]

I managed to get hold of a copy of "Young Catherine" on dvd recently and thought it was superb.  Though not 100% historically accurate it came pretty close and certainly did as good a job as a two and a half hour mini series would allow.  I thought Julia Ormond was brilliant at portraying Catherine's journey from naive young girl to worldly wise woman.  Vanessa Redgrave was excellent as the Empress Elizabeth, conveying her beauty, majesty and ruthlessness.  I was also really impressed with Reese Dinsdale as Peter the third, showing how he went from being an essentially well meaning if very immature youth to a vicious and dangerous autocrat.

If people are trying to find a copy I'd suggest one of the best places to look is ebay.  That's where I got my copy and there usually seems to be a couple of copies available.

[dmitri]

Yes I enjoyed Young Catherine in spite of historical inaccuracies at times. Much of it was shot in Russia and this adds to it very much.