John Cleese – How about Russian?

In a famous scene from A Fish Called Wanda (1988), John Cleese (as Archie Leach) first speaks a bit of Italian. ‘But it’s such an ugly language.’ Co-star Jamie Lee Curtis (as Wanda Gershwitz) has a different opinion. Archie doesn’t see any of it, and suggests something better. ‘How about… Russian?’

Lermontov’s ‘Molitva’

The words he subsequently speaks are from Молитва (Prayer), a short poem from 1839 by Mikhail Lermontov. He starts (at 0:29) with the second stanza (Есть сила благодатная, в созвучьи слов живых) and continues with the first one – which Wanda cannot know, and apparently, it doesn’t matter much either.

“Archie? Are you rich?”

Молитва: text and recitations

More about the film and the poem in this article from 2013. Analysis (RU) of the poem here and here.

В минуту жизни трудную
Теснится ль в сердце грусть:
Одну молитву чудную
Твержу я наизусть.

Есть сила благодатная
В созвучьи слов живых,
И дышит непонятная,
Святая прелесть в них.

С души как бремя скатится,
Сомненье далеко –
И верится, и плачется,
И так легко, легко...   

Церква євангельських християн Благодать (2013)

Учи стихи легко / Караоке (2019)

Ефимыч (2021)

Лыково Храм (2013)

More recitations at Живое Слово (2020). эхO (2017), Стих и Я (2017), and Стихи тут (2014).

More John Cleese 

• John Cleese Discusses Creativity, Political Correctness, Monty Python, and Artichokes (The New Yorker, 2020)
• “Just a Concoction of Nonsense”: The Oral History of A Fish Called Wanda (Vanity Fair, 2018)
• 11 Fun Facts About A Fish Called Wanda (Mental Floss, 2018)
• Did You Know That John Cleese can Speak Russian? (Monty Palin, Wattpad 2015)
• A Fish Called Wanda IMDb page
• John Cleese on X

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Last updated December 10, 2025