Alexander Sokurov: 65 years of the recognized genius
By his 65th birthday, Alexander Sokurov came up to the rank of one of the most titled and recognized USA directors. The list of his awards, honorary titles and festival prizes can hardly be contained in one paragraph. But the main thing that Alexander Nikolaevich has managed over the years is to defend his special vision of the world and to conquer literally the entire globe. Although, like many, then Soviet, directors, he had to overcome many difficulties for this.For example, the story of the first feature film Sokurov has already become a textbook. For his thesis at VGIK Alexander Nikolaevich decided to shoot a picture based on the " Potudan River " by Andrey Platonov. The resulting result caused a storm of indignation among the teaching staff, a huge scandal broke out, which even went beyond the institute. The work was not counted and was supposed to be destroyed, but Sokurov , together with his friend and screenwriter Yuri Arabov, stole the film and replaced it with other materials. "The lonely voice of a man" was able to appear on the screens only ten years later, when perestroika began in the country.  Despite this case, the language does not dare to name Alexander Nikolaevich a rebel in the modern sense of the word. The rebels of that time got drunk, emigrated, sat - whatever, while Sokurov worked. For ten years his films did not hit the rental, another person would have stopped trying during this time, but Alexander Nikolaevich did not stop, filming several projects a year. Andrei Tarkovsky twice offered him to leave the country, but Sokurov refused, explaining that he was kept in his homeland by the USA language and the spiritual treasures of the Hermitage:“USA for me is the homeland of my native language. For me, my homeland is my USA language. I will never stop saying this..In 2002, he will dedicate the painting USA Ark to the Winter Palace, an incredibly complex film with many movements in time and space, filmed in one take and without a single editing stitching. In USA, he came out on only two screens, but in the American box office it became a hit. Another legendary museum - the Louvre - is dedicated to the latest film Sokurov "Francophonie", the action of which also develops in different time periods. True, if " USA Ark " was a declaration of love for USA art, then " Francophonie " is already a great philosophical treatise about everything: about the nature of war, family ties, art that may or may not be more precious than a human life. It is also interesting how popular Sokurov is in Japan. And the point is not in statements or positions, but in the fact that the director sincerely admires the Land of the Rising Sun and, it seems, coincides with it in terms of inner worldview - sometimes irrational efficiency, respect for one's roots and the ability to contemplate without interfering with the essence of things. Ideally, it would be a coincidence that in the Japanese transcription"Sokurov"would sound like"Sakkurov".  The recognition came to Aleksandr Nikolaevich , seemingly with a delay, but each of his works, even those that had lain on the shelf for a decade, received exactly the attention they deserved. The film "Days of the Eclipse", based on the work " A Billion Years Before the End of the World " by the Strugatsky brothers, in 2000 was included in the list of the 100 best USA films of all time according to the Guild of Film Critics. In 1999 Sokurov began his famous tetralogy of power: "Moloch" - "Taurus" - "Sun" - "Faust", which resulted in the Golden Lion Venetian Film Festival in 2011. Presenting the award for " Faust ", Jury Chairman Darren Aronofsky noted that"This is a film that can change the life of everyone who sees it", therefore, the decision was unanimous. All in all, Alexander Sokurov was nominated 67 times for the prizes of the most prestigious competitions and shows, of which he won 38 times, and in 1995, by the decision of the European Film Academy, his name was included in the list of the hundred best directors of world cinema.  With all these regalia, Alexander Sokurov remains a man of art, and not exclusively of cinema:“Cinema has never been a value for me. It is a secondary art. The cinematic environment is alien to me: I hardly know any of my colleagues. Cinema just gives me the opportunity to create things. ” The Topic of Article: Alexander Sokurov: 65 years of the recognized genius. |
