| Alexander Sokurov’s film “Father and Son” was released in Moscow On Friday, the premiere of the film “Father and Son” took place at the Roland cinema. Before this, the film was shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, then at Kinotavr, as well as in Vyborg and at the Festival of Festivals in St. Petersburg. Before the premiere, Sokurov gathered a number of television journalists and film experts for a so-called “round table”, at which he did not directly, but tried to explain the questions that arose after the screenings. Sokurov's relationship with journalists is very difficult. On the one hand, at all his public appearances he abuses both media policy in general and film journalists in particular. Some take his anger personally and are offended. It's in vain. If you listen carefully to the director’s speech, it will become clear: Sokurov treats the press with great respect. He believes in its power, he hopes to be understood, passionately seeks attention and expects zeal in the struggle for the high ideals of art. For Sokurov, these are not words, but a matter of life, for which he fights with all his truly immeasurable strength. And meetings with journalists, to which, contrary to the rules of publicity, people personally selected by him are allowed, are not the whim of an author favored by fans, but an attempt to find partners. The passion of the preacher, discernible behind Sokurov’s quiet and measuredly calm tone, is born of a firm conviction in the seriousness of the tasks facing art and the holiness of its mission. This earnest seriousness is the weak point of the artist, who did not recognize the new conventions between society and art, but it is also the secret of his invulnerability, which allows him to devote himself to his work with truly religious fervor. Not everyone manages to stand under its banner. But one cannot treat his position without respect, although for Sokurov himself, ardent opponents are perhaps preferable to polite observers, because the Old Testament style of his behavior does not tolerate anyone who is neither cold nor hot...
Be that as it may, the 14th feature film by Alexander Sokurov (there are countless documentaries) has been presented to the public. This is the second part of a trilogy about sibling relationships, the first film of which, “Mother and Son,” was filmed in 1996, and the last, “Two Brothers and a Sister,” is only in conception.
In one almost fairy-tale city by the sea, two young men, father and son, live in an apartment under the very roof. They don't have much life together left - their son will soon graduate from military school and leave home. And the entire film was made about the inevitability of separation and the intensification of mutual love. It was too difficult for me to empathize with the relationship between these two people. Their speech, deliberately not everyday, did not seem poetic. Another thing is the image. Sokurov says that a visual image is as dangerous as a knife, since the meaning contained in it has too strong an effect on the mind. Perhaps so. I didn’t catch the ideological meaning, but I felt the impact. This film is very easy to watch - it draws you into its aura and pleases you with the triumph of the art of cinema, which is, after all, first of all not history, not replicas, nor a reflection of reality, but a self-sufficient moving light painting. I don’t want any explanation for what is happening on the screen, since it has no analogues at the level of words and is much more subtle than what can be said about it. In essence, the less I understand about the plot, the better, I see and that's enough for me. When you can look at a movie and not comment, it’s a real movie.
But is this the impression the director wanted to achieve? It remains a mystery to me what is more important for Sokurov - to capture his vision of the world or to share his understanding of it? For those who are interested in the director's comments, I will try to convey them as I understand them.
Sokurov said that he never makes films that are directly related to the events taking place in his life. He is “after all only a man” and his own impressions, his personality simply would not be enough for so many works. His work is closest to the work of an architect who builds a house “not for himself and not from himself” and does not always meet his tastes and desires. The film is the result of artistic mastery of the fundamental values of culture.
Sokurov said that “as an internally strong person, he is not interested in death.” But as an author, he cannot ignore “the enormous power and universal significance it has in life and in art.” Death for him is concentrated in the word “never”, in the inability to smell the departed person, hear his voice, or feel his touch. “For those who lost their loved ones, experienced this and then conscientiously thought about it, it is obvious that the lack of warmth, stiffness of feelings, emotional coldness, and cruelty are a moral transgression. Less than forty days have passed since I parted with my father, and I understand perfectly well that everything needs to be done on time and there should be no boundaries, never and under no circumstances should you spare human warmth” - this is a direct quote.
The tender relationship between father and son, between whom there is not much of an age difference, seemed too erotic to many. Sokurov did not comment on these remarks, but explained that he deliberately made the characters young so that they could see their reflection in each other. The distance between them should be insignificant, the father should remember himself at the age of his son, and the son should imagine the state, mood, world of his father. “In a film, in a sense, there is one character, one, single soul, this is very important to me.”
Each viewer can now unravel the secrets of the relationship between father and son, who do not spare warmth, but cannot cope with the situation when too much love results in too much pain, on their own in the Roland cinema.
The film stars non-professional actors Andrei Shchetinin (father) and Alexey Neymyshev (son). “A non-professional performer transfers part of his nature, created not by a director, not by a theater school, but by nature itself, to the screen,” Sokurov explains his choice, “and this treasure is a guarantee of trust in what is on the screen.” Alena Solntseva |
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