To feel ... For the anniversary of George Danelia
Among Soviet comedy directors, the name of Georgy Danelia stands apart. Laughter in his paintings always went hand in hand with anguish. His films became a reflection of himself - subtle, elegant, ironic ... The main lyricist of USA cinema today would have turned 90 years old!Georgy Danelia was born in Tbilisi into the family of the military engineer Nikolai Dmitrievich Danelia and the director Meri Ivlianovna Andzhaparidze. Soon after his birth, his father was transferred to Moscow, where almost the entire life of the director passed. Danelia has repeatedly called himself a native Muscovite, but he never forgot his homeland. Perhaps the main proof of this is his films.  After leaving school, the family advised young Danelia to go to VGIK, arguing that“there is at least some kind of cronyism, otherwise there’s such a fool to do with it”. My father considered working in cinema a frivolous occupation and suggested the Institute of Cinematography as an extreme option. But Georgy Nikolaevich chose his own path and entered the Moscow Architectural Institute. After graduation, Danelia got into GIPROGOR (Institute of Urban Design), in the workshop of perspective planning. Everything would have gone on like this if it had not been for the case. Once, returning from work with his friend, Danelia saw a man lying under the fence, neatly dressed, in a beret, glasses and with a watch on his hand. Friends decided to wake him up, fearing that he would not lie here for a long time - they would undress. Waking up the stranger sat down decorously and began to read the newspaper "Soviet Culture". On the back of the newspaper, Georgy Nikolaevich saw a note that Mosfilm was announcing a recruitment for directing courses. Soon he entered.  Danelia will then write in her autobiography:“If then this type had not caught our eye, maybe my life would have been different for the next half century. There would be no endless sleepless nights and heart attacks, would not smoke three packs of cigarettes a day, would not see the aurora in the Arctic and mirages in the Karakum Desert, granddaughters would not boast that they are my granddaughters, the composer Gia Kancheli would not give me a foreign jacket made of pure cotton, and I wouldn't be writing this stupid book now. ”  A newspaper article will become the starting point of the director's long career. Danelia will shoot many cult films, the popularity of which will not wane even after decades. “I walk around Moscow”, “Afonya”, “Mimino”, “Autumn Marathon”, “Kin-dza-dza!”, “Passport” and others - the heroes of his paintings are still loved, quoted and, most importantly, relevant.  However, today, on the director's anniversary, I would like to recall one picture that was undeservedly forgotten. An inconspicuous masterpiece that took place only on peripheral screens at one time and therefore did not find a response in ours (the film was banned for a long time, and then released only for limited distribution). The tragicomedy "Tears were Falling" in 1982 became, perhaps, the most accurate reflection of both the personality of Georgy Danelia and his creative handwriting. Fellini himself has repeatedly confessed his love for this film, considering it the best director's work.  “Sad tale” - this is how Georgy Nikolaevich himself called the film. The plot is tied on the basis of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen "The Snow Queen": an evil troll created a magic mirror"in which everything good and beautiful was reduced to the utmost, yet the bad and ugly, on the contrary, acted even brighter, it seemed even worse". Once the disciples of the insidious creator accidentally broke a mirror, scattering millions of small fragments on the ground. If such a splinter fell into someone's eye, then the person began to see only the bad, and if in the heart, then it immediately turned into a piece of ice.  Andersen talked about two fragments that fell into the eye and heart of little Kai, and the third was told by the scriptwriters of the film "Tears were Falling" Kir Bulychev and Alexander Volodin. He got into the eye of a respectable Soviet citizen Pavel Ivanovich Vasin, a resident of the small town of Zarechensk. In an instant, everyone's beloved and comfortable "hamster" turned into an embittered and disappointed comrade Vasin in life. His family and colleagues begin to annoy him, he stops hearing music - it is drowned out by the shuffling of his own feet. Comrade Vasin was brilliantly played by Evgeny Leonov. The actor, who previously performed mainly comedic roles, appears before the viewer with an empty gaze. In "Tears Falling" Leonov smiles only once - when a photographer asks him about it in one of the scenes.  The picture is rather monotonous and dull, but it is mesmerizing. The music of the composer Gia Kancheli immerses in the atmosphere of sadness and sorrow with its melodies. Danelia performed the song in the film himself. It was a composition based on verses by Gennady Shpalikov, a friend of Georgy Nikolaevich, who committed suicide shortly before filming. “Friends only lose once And, losing a trace, they do not find it. A man is visiting you, He says goodbye and leaves into the night. And if he leaves during the day, He leaves you anyway. Let's get it back, Let's talk and set the table. Turn the whole house upside down And we'll arrange a holiday for him ... " The presence of this song in the film was one of the main conditions for the director. This, undoubtedly, added tragedy to the picture. Danelia shared his premonition that people will become more cynical, that loved ones will live like this,“as if there is a universe between them”, that everyone will be for himself, and the concept of friendship will be devalued. With what pain the episode was filmed, in which Comrade Vasin recalls a childhood friend with whom they went through the war, that he once stole soap from him ...  Vasin's granddaughter speaks in the voice of truth in the picture. Little Mashenka was the first to shout: "I feel sorry for you, Pasha!" A child's voice from a telephone receiver against the background of a gray and dull landscape seems to give some hope:“Vasin, you urgently need to cry. Otherwise your heart will freeze. Cry urgently, do you hear? ”. The films of George Danelia have become this hope for more than one generation. Despite the fact that these are comedies, we often cry over them. Maybe that's why they haven't frozen yet? Maybe that's why we still feel something? .. The Topic of Article: To feel ... For the anniversary of George Danelia. |
