Text from a dzen.ru post by Aleksandr Stepanov, via Boris Rozhin
Today is Soviet Cinema Day. And Russian too. This holiday was established back in Soviet times and timed to coincide with the adoption by the Council of People's Commissars headed by V.I. Lenin of a decree on nationalization, that is, the gratuitous expropriation of the entire film industry. It is even surprising that this holiday, which reminds us that something can be taken away from the owners for the benefit of the whole society, is still celebrated on August 27th. Didn't think to "decommunize" and reschedule to another date?
Therefore, today I will make a small review of the book “Cinema. Legends and true story. It was written by Boris Vladimirovich Pavlenok, who in 1970-1985 worked as the head of the Main Directorate of Artistic Cinematography - Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Cinematography of the USSR.
I note right away that the author was a typical nomenklatura worker of that era, very intelligent, but in matters of ideology he was already going with the flow. Apparently, therefore, his story begins with statements that as a boy he “didn’t believe everything”, that he didn’t like glorifying the leaders, and he has complaints about the method of socialist realism ... Sometimes the first part of the book resembles a dull retelling of the primitive publications of perestroika “ Light" ...
This is very strange, because Boris Pavlenok talks about Soviet cinema in a completely different way. Here he is a professional and his observations are accurate and interesting:
“Creative workers were firmly convinced that the officials sitting in Goskino invented an ideological poison for the viewer and forced screenwriters and directors to stage films on given topics. And we, the producers, needed a template, firstly, so that the annual movie poster would reflect the whole diversity of life - geographical, national, social, moral, historical; and that in it, in the poster, there were the names of both luminaries and debutants (up to 30 directorial debuts a year) ... "
“The famous director Eldar Ryazanov spoke most figuratively. In a speech at the plenum of the Union of Cinematographers, he formulated his creative credo as follows:
- We are all icebergs, and are visible on the surface only in one seventh part, and what we really think, no one knows.
And further discussions followed about the violence that, guided by the principle of the partisanship of art, the "bosses" commit over creative workers ...
In general, I was not surprised that a call for freedom of creativity and the rejection of the party leadership of art was pulled out. This was discussed over a "glass of tea" and without it at all kitchen gatherings. It was astonishing that, confessing to his own double-mindedness and lies, Ryazanov poured mud on all the creative workers, and none of those present at the plenum even tried to wipe his face. But I knew a lot of guys who sincerely believe in what they claimed with their work.
Whatever you say, Lenin's definition of the intelligentsia cannot be called far-fetched! Another great quote:
“United in their denial of state control, the creative workers inside the workshop kept aloof, at best they were indifferent to the fate of their comrades, they envied the successful, they were at enmity with others. Sharp-tongued Alexander Dovzhenko said:
- What is cinema? This is when there is a great pile of pennies, and around, clinging under the arms, there is a circle of people, and if another person squeezed between them, everyone took a step back, stepping back from that pile. And who is your enemy?
Caricature from the magazine "Crocodile". Image from open sources
Pavlenok tells how difficult the fate of Vasily Shukshin was, who had the right to break through the hostility of his colleagues for each production. How the talented Leonid Bykov was wiped out in Kyiv.
“It was strange and incomprehensible. Speaking corporately against any kind of leadership, many "creators" for the most part were guided by the principle "man is friend to man, comrade and wolf." Just to spoil a person, and that was a pleasure. I HAVE NEVER MEET A MORE VIOLENT AND REVENGEENT PEOPLE THAN PROFESSIONAL HUMANISTS, WHETHER LITERATORS, ARTISTS, CINEMATOGRAPHERS.
The author considers Andrei Tarkovsky a great master, but at the same time he spoke about the following conversation:
“Once, when additional money was needed for the filming of The Mirror, and we were talking one on one, he opened for a moment, hooking America with some edge: - But
Coppola, having staged Apocalypse, received a fee for which he bought a hotel. ..
- We, Andrei Arsenievich, have a different social system, and hotels are not for sale. And your work is always paid at the highest rate that we have.
For the first time, he looked up at me and said in his dry and harsh voice:
“So we have a bad system ...”
Page from the magazine "Soviet Screen". Image from open sources
The author also has interesting observations that are not related to politics:
“Indian cinema was considered the pinnacle of primitivism, with its sentimentality, sweetness, abundance of songs and dances. My voice was also in this choir, until I went to India several times and sat at movie screenings in the hall. Only then did I realize that the philosophy of Indian films is consonant with the philosophy of the viewer. Those sitting in the hall did not just stare at the screen, they got used to the events taking place there, the action and the world of images were perceived by them as part of their own life ...
And as for the elite films, “incomprehensible to the masses”, then when we had a craze for Fellini's work " Eight and a half ”, it turned out that the film snobs, who rolled their eyes in admiration at the mention of it, firstly, not everyone understood the picture, and secondly, many did not have the patience to watch it to the end. But to admit that I did not understand or did not finish watching, or even did not look at all, meant to be separated from the elite. True, there were daredevils who, during a tete-a-tete conversation, admitted: “I fell asleep, you understand ...”
About national cinema:
“I think that the highest achievement of the cultural policy of the Soviet government was the creation in each republic of its own film industry ... And the world learned about the existence of some republics only thanks to national cinema. The loss of national cinematographs due to the fall of the Soviet Union is the most difficult and irreplaceable loss...
I first encountered open and well-managed opposition to the leadership of the party in art at the 5th Congress of the Union of Cinematographers (1986) ... From time to time, the secretary of the Central Committee Alexander Yakovlev, who clearly led and directed the congress, looked into the presidium ... And after the speech of the delegate from Georgia, Eldar Shengelaya, I left the convention. To the applause of the audience, he announced: “Down with the Party’s violence against art! Finally, having freed ourselves from the tutelage of the top, we will make the Georgia-Film studio profitable, and our films will pay off at the box office.”
I really want to ask how Georgia-Film is working now. Have you created many masterpieces? Here are a couple more great quotes:
“Once one of the Mosfilm screamers, who are claiming a leading role, decided to fortify himself with the opinion of an American authority - a major producer, and hopefully asked: how does he look at giving management at studios to creative workers? He answered shortly:
"It's like putting the running of a madhouse in the hands of a madman."
“Recently, participating in some talk on television, the famous director Sergei Solovyov shouted temperamentally and furiously:
They ruined cinema! Destroyed! Ruined!..
Who? Look in the mirror, Sergei Alexandrovich! Didn't you and your comrades drive out of the cinema those who taught you and put you on your feet? Didn't you, having taken the lead, ruined and destroyed the management system of the complex technical and economic complex of film production?
Weren't you the loudest shouting "Down with" Soviet power and "long live" the advent of anarchy and lawlessness? Was it not with your active assistance and participation that Rus' bowed its head before the invasion of the destructive virus of Western pseudo-culture? All of you prayed for America, as if not seeing that it occupied a leading place in the world not only in terms of the abundance of life's blessings, but also in terms of the number of crimes, prostitution, corruption, and the omnipotence of the mafia.
A society where a person is a slave of the golden calf and the god of greed cannot be otherwise. You called our people to this world, sanctimoniously called free.”
Summing up, Boris Pavlenok writes:
“We had the best acting school in the world. They were not all able to smile as dazzlingly or flex their muscles as their Hollywood counterparts. But they didn't play, they didn't imitate characters born of fantasy, like trained monkeys. They lived on the screen, recreating the full-blooded images of their characters with an authenticity that captivated the audience. Those sitting in the hall recognized themselves, their relatives and acquaintances in them. They were believed, imitated, they fell in love or hated - all seriously.
"Movie. Legends and true story "- a good book. And the fact that the author sometimes brings criticism of real socialism is strange, but understandable. In the vast expanses of the former USSR, there are enough people who have big complaints about Lenin or Stalin, but who really want that Soviet cinema to be returned to them now. Or that Soviet education. Not realizing that this is the result of the activities of the people they criticize and the system they criticize. One without the other would not work. And even people with a broad outlook sometimes do not understand this. This is most likely why people like B. Pavlenok lost at the end of the 80s.
However, comparing what directors filmed in the USSR, and what many of them began to shoot in the 90s, there is an idea to put a monument to the “Unknown Censor” at Mosfilm or Lenfilm. To an unknown creator, without whose influence many masterpieces of Soviet cinema would never have appeared...