Bond. James Bond

Conversation with filmmaker Andrei Zadansky about the new and old agent 007

Today, in the new episode of the podcast "Genis: a look from New York", director Andrei Zagdansky, we are talking about the American premiere of the new James Bond-and his predecessors.

What has changed?

What is preserved?

What was lost?

What awaits him in the future?

We are easy to find on the air and on the Radio Liberty website. Subscribe to my podcast on Spotify , iTunes , Google Podcasts , Yandex Music . Take up in a conversation: write to me on social networks and in the accounts of "Freedom", as well as on all podcasts.

I want to add that our conversation about Bond is continued by colleagues with their podcast "Dzligarim". It is conducted by the film experts of Ira Medaykova, Ksenia Reutova and Masha Buneev. It is about German -language cinema, series and representatives of the film industry. The last issue is just dedicated to a hot topic: Bondian and the image of the Germans in it.

Alexander Genis: The most interesting thing in the adventures of James Bond is that they continue to appear on the screen. The new film is the 25th picture of the career of the great cinematic spy.

In the very first review of the premiere of the film “It is not the time to die” the critic New York Times Cattle called the picture “generous and long farewell”. The first is the length of the film - 163 minutes. About the second-a melancholy note that accompanies a picture in which 53-year-old Daniel Craig says goodbye to the role. How exactly he does it, I will not say, because I do not want to give out plot moves. I only note that the image of Bond will not disappear anywhere. This is clearly said by the authors, the last line in the credits encourages: “James Bond will return.”

And it’s clear why. He entered too long into the mythology of the mass poult: almost 60 years. This is an unprecedented record in the fleeting world of mass art. No phantomas dreamed of such. The very fact of phenomenal longevity deserves to be more carefully peering into the invulnerable (especially if we take into account all the dangers that he was subjected to) agent 007.

How to get around the lock?

True, he was born like Athena Pallas - adults and well -armed. In the first book of Jan Fleming, “casino” of the piano Bond 36 years. The age makes him the same age as the October Revolution, but he has been preserved better. Even the Cold War Bond experienced without much damage to his popularity, which can not be said about its other heroes.

Let's look at James Bond's dossier. It is rightly opened with an inventory of property. If the king is playing a retinue, then Bond is the surroundings. First of all, cars. So in the new film, the car is the most successful, in my opinion, character. However, it doesn’t matter where they take Bond, it is important that quickly, but not so much that the viewer does not notice the brand of the car. For her, this is the best advertising that costs millions of dollars. In 1967, Bond used the Japanese Toyota for her advertising (the film "live only twice"). Then Japanese cars were still not known outside Japan. It was Bond that helped them begin world expansion. Among the vehicles was the T-80 tank, on which agent 007 traveled around St. Petersburg in the film "Golden Eye". The cost of Bond cars in retail sale, as a rule, exceeds $ 200 thousand. However, a collection of the most popular Bond cars can be bought for about $ 25 - of course, toy. True, in the film "Die, but not today" Bond has a car that is difficult to advertise, simply because it is invisible. I must admit that I liked this car more than others: my eyes are not cornet.

Love for fast driving does not interfere, although it should, another hobby of Bond - drinking. Most often, he drank champagne, Scottish whiskey, gin, he rarely drank pure vodka, and Japanese sake only once. As the bartenders of the whole globe know, the beloved Bond cocktail - "Martini".

In addition to luxurious machines, tasty drinking and, of course, women, Bond loves to earn (albeit not for themselves) money, and as no hero in the history of world cinema.

And of course, Bondiana’s temptation is the central image and the landscape surrounding it. The films about Bond have always been a "Bedecker" for envious people. Possessing a great taste, he found a business in the most picturesque corners of the planet. Following him, we enjoyed the same panorama that it opens up rich and famous when they have time to look around. Bond is used to killing enemies where his more peaceful viewers would dream of spending a vacation.

Well, now, recalling Bond what they envy him for, Andrei Zagdansky and I in hot pursuit (just left the cinema) will discuss the American premiere of the new adventures of agent 007.

The current Bond has already managed to get a nomination for an unusual prize - the most long -awaited film of 2021. Why were we waiting for him so much?

Andrei Zadansky: This is quite obvious: for a year and a half we did not go to the cinema, including me. James Bond is the most long -awaited entertainment that should arrange everyone. It has a few cars, a little shooting, a little beauties, a little irony, a little beautiful countries. And all this in general is the most long -awaited movie entertainment that we missed all this time.

Alexander Genis: It seems to me that it is after Covid, it is after strict quarantine James Bond that restores the feeling of the norm. After all, as already mentioned, we have been living with James Bond for so long that we are used to watching a new series every second year. This is a ritual. Even I, although I go to the cinema much less often than you, never missed the chance to watch James Bond in the cinema. This is a noisy sight, it must be watched as an attraction. That is how it was this time. I have already forgotten this feeling of a holiday, a roar and a huge screen, a holiday that James Bond gives all his viewers one way or another.

Actually, I wanted to talk to you about this. How does James Bond differ from other militants? Already something, and this good is enough in Hollywood, but James Bond has its own specifics. There is everything in rich militants, plus something that makes Bond an exception.

Andrey Zadansky: First of all, a big story. This is the 25th James Bond. Most of our life proceeds in parallel with the bond, he is a character in our folklore, a common name. Remember, we recently discussed the question of what quality the hero should have in order to turn into an archetype. I said that for this he should have a recognizable silhouette. If you can draw a silhouette of a movie hero, and it will be recognizable, and this is primarily James Bond with his gun, then this is the archetypal character of our modern world, our mass culture. James Bond is just like that.

Secondly, it seems to cover us whole. It has cars, races, shooting, women, a secret, criminal people, terrible villains. And all this, it should be noted, is in New James Bond. But this film is made with new additional quality: wonderful actors, all the stars play in it, in it, the super-cars, it has a super-fire, made it a very strong, very good director Cori Fukunaga, we once talked about him when his film was True Detective, 5-6 years ago, he is a master. And everything in general turns out that a large movie building that we see on the screen.

Alexander Genis: Of course, James Bond was very different, but there is a matrix in it. When I came to America very young, with a university bench of the Faculty of Philology, and finally saw James Bond, I immediately recognized him. Every week I went to the cinema to watch everything that was deprived of me: Fellini, Bergman, Antonioni, well, James Bond. When I saw James Bond for the first time, I realized that it was he left our Propp, from his "morphology of the fairy tale", which I studied at the university. There are all attributes: a magical fairy tale, animal animals, magic objects (usually shooting), there are all archetypal situations. You said absolutely correctly, this is the folklore of our time.

But the most curious is the figure of James Bond itself. He is not just a hero, he is a hero, in essence, devoid of morality. By this he resembles Sherlock Holmes. As it is written by Conan Doyle, the happiness of the Londoners, that Holmes is on the side of the law, not crime, because he would be the same brilliant criminal as he became a brilliant detective. James Bond is also out of morality, he is not a real agent of the secret service, because he is an individualist, a single wolf, always in itself. But the main thing is that all this is not seriously, in all this - not seriously. The most valuable quality of Bondiana is that this is in no way a realistic sight, one must be an idiot to believe that James Bond is truly suffering. As said, in my opinion, it was Sean Connery: " A secret agent is good if every bartender knows the secret of his beloved cocktail."

Andrei Zagdansky: This is where the decisive turn came in this film about James Bond. Here, just the cards are Stasova in a completely different way. This James Bond is sentimental, he is in love, he is sad, he suffers. The main motivation for his behavior in this film is a love affection. If the classic James Bond, let’s say, uses everyone in the world, including women, then in the current situation this is another James Bond, he has other relations with a woman. Good or bad, I don't know. This, I admit, embarrassed me to a certain extent.

Alexander Genis: This is the big problem of the film “Not the time to die”. Although the picture had just released, there were already critics who say that the modernization of James Bond, who passed by all the rules of political correctness, taking into account ME Too and the new emotional charge with the hypersensitivity of the hero, led to James Bond that the whole film was really bond that we love.

I agree with this in many ways. When I see the crying Bond, it seems to me that something is wrong here, this is from another opera. And the women who appear in the new film are not at all the ones we knew before. Previously, these were the beauties who were born in order to satisfy James Bond, the simple desires of James Bond, and now these are full -fledged heroines, who are fighting no worse than him. How do you like this turn - the evolution of the image or its destruction?

Andrei Zadansky: You know, today, when we talk about James Bond, really many criticize the current James Bond. I thought it was a little reminiscent of the situation with the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in Russian circles. Everyone absolutely knows who needs to give a bonus and who does not need. The same thing happens with James Bond. Everyone knows what the perfect James Bond should be.

But the fact is that the authors decided to turn. This, I repeat, was embarrassed, but at the same time it pleases it in its own way. They took the very step that changes the game. This is an inevitable evolution of character, we cannot stay with the same James Bond all the time. Moreover, we know that this is the last film in which Daniel Craig is shot, it was necessary to put some point, and they decided to put an end to this way. At the same time, the picture has in an absolute excess all the necessary components: shooting, murders, mandatory Russian trace ...

Alexander Genis: We will talk about the Russian trace. But as for all these old familiar components, they, in my opinion, are wonderful. I understand that I feel nostalgia for classic James Bond, I do not want him to change, I want to live in a familiar fairy tale, and not in a new one that can be the current generation of viewers much closer than me. But, one way or another, the best that was in the film is pursuit, cars. It would seem that everything is already there, there are already some unprecedented helicopters, but the car is still the favorite of James Bond. Because the super -beautiful car resembles an extremely effective boonda. The best scene in the film is a pursuit that occurs in an old European very narrow city, where the car feels like an elephant in a shop, it is crowded, it should break out of the vastness. It is the cramped that creates this delightful contrast between the ancient European culture with its architecture, with its narrow streets, with its cozy wonderful life, and suddenly the frozen world bursts on his car James Bond, which calmly drives the car in a completely unthinkable way. I must say that stuntmen have worked in this picture the best.

Andrei Zadansky: The pursuit is a supercinematographic spectacle, this is alpha and omega. Cinema is impossible without a chase, both in the literal and figurative sense. And the car is really one of the main characters of the film.

(Music)

Alexander Genis: It is time for us to talk about the enemies of James Bond, about the monsters that are enough in these films. The myth of James Bond is a Manichaean myth, villains and angels are divided forever. This is a relic of the Cold War. The whole point of James Bond was that on the screen the duel between the two superpowers, two ideologies, two opponents that the aristocratic democracy of England and the folk democracy of America represented. On the other hand, there were ominous kagabists who scared the audience terribly, despite the fact that their names were Russian classics.

But the Cold War ended, in any case, for James Bond, it stopped. In the new film, we see Russians, but this is a very slurred Russian trace. For example, a huge scene made a strange impression on me, the culmination of the film that takes place on the basis for submarines on some island (apparently, these are the Kuril Islands, because it is a controversial territory between Russia and Japan). Please note that all the power of the superpower, which in the old Jamesh Bonds was approximately equivalent to the West, here it is some old, the same, it is a rusty power that aged base of the 50s. There are already no technical miracles, but instead of this infection, instead of this, the virus is instead of this biological weapon, which lively reminds us of the present time. I am even afraid that this film will strengthen fools who believe that someone like Bill Gates is chipping over the population with a vaccine.

Andrei Zadansky: The Russian scientist, of course, is a pronounced disgusting idiot. The Russian island or, in any case, the Russian base of submarines is indeed something abandoned, but adapted again for a new evil. There is a turn: this was the old evil, here it looks like, these are the levers, these are the bunkers and the new evil.

Alexander Genis: Cold War number two.

Andrei Zadansky: But it seemed to me the most striking, funny and accurate Cuban episode. It is very accurately and very genko made. The charming Cuban actress Anna del Armos plays the heroine, who is the name of Paloma. She is ridiculous, she works incredible miracles in shooting, in fights, in jumping, in driving a car and at the same time she is a super -woman James Bond, in an incredible decolled dress that opens and opens her charming beautiful legs. She sits in a cube in a bar, which looks more like some kind of hin. Everything is generally created by the game, from the word "game", impression. Remember, when she shoots remarkably and fights, he says: "Have you been training?" She says: "Yes, I have three whole weeks."

Alexander Genis: This is the best scene in the film not only in your opinion, but critics all noted the luck of this scene. In any case, in the very first review of the film it was said that the Cuban scene is most like a real Bond. And right, because it is a fight where everyone is dying, but this is a funny fight. Remember, in childhood, we all watched the film "Three Musketeers", the fights there were approximately the same as in the classic James Bond. We know that no one is getting sick seriously, no one is crying, no one hurts - these are all dolls, and these dolls play remarkably.

When we talk about the classic James Bond, we inevitably recall one important element of Bondiana - this is a technique, technology tricks. In each film, she has its own. And if earlier in the old, ancient James Bond, the technology was spy, it was some small causals of espionage crafts, but gradually the technology was complicated.

Andrei Zadansky: First, I will say a few words about the technology of the movie itself. Kinematographic tricks and cinematographic sophistication of James Bond has grown a lot during this time. If you remember in the early Bond there was a spaceship, which opens the beak to capture the American missile. Everything is very funny there, similar to Meles "Flight to the Moon." Reminds the first movie carts. Now ingenuity in this area has become more accurate, more interesting, more reliable. Again, we return to the nature of evil in the film: the situation is recognizable. Let there not be DNA, even if not aimed weapon, but still the fact that we are now experiencing in this covid era, it is very similar to the fact that it is a weapon in the new James Bond. There is clearly a step forward.

The second point is the purely technological reliability of what we see on the screen. Fights have become fantastic and more reliable. I looked at the list of people in the credits who worked on tricks and on special effects - these are hundreds of specialists. This is a huge budget, which, I hope, they will return at the box office. James Bond grew as a whole as a spectacle, and here, cinema technologies work miracles.

Alexander Genis: At the same time, we are now afraid of technology than we admire it. Because progress causes fears, utopia does not work out of progress. However, I did not quite understand the motives of the villains. It used to be simple: when there was a cold war, it was clear who the enemies and what they wanted. There are communists who want to win the world and take freedom from people. Why can't you understand? And what the villains want the current ones, I do not quite understand. И это, надо сказать, большая проблема для Джеймса Бонда. Впрочем, и раньше лучшие злодеи были амбивалентны. Вспомните Брондмауэра, который играл в одном из Джеймсов Бондов или в этом фильме Кристоф Вальц, который восхитительно играет кого угодно, но лучше всего злодеев, как мы знаем по Тарантино.

Андрей Загданский: Тут я с вами не соглашусь. Холодная война была не предметом, а фоном, на котором развивалось большинство коллизий Джеймса Бонда. Если вы помните, противостояния в большинстве фильмов всегда удается избежать, всегда есть злодеи…

Александр Генис: …которые хотят нарушить правила игры.

Андрей Загданский: Злодеи, которые в мутной воде ловят свою рыбу, скажем так. У них свои прагматические задачи, они хотят разбогатеть, они хотят обанкротить весь мир, стать его владельцами. Нынешний злодей, в частности, в последнем фильме, он более инфернальный злодей, у него нет прагматических задач, но он хотел стереть с лица земли полчеловечества просто потому, чтобы оставить после себя такую злодейскую память.

Александр Генис: Такой Герострат.

Андрей Загданский: Герострат, совершенно верно. Между прочим, вы начинали нашу запись с того, что вспомнили Шерлока Холмса, как хорошо, что он был сыщиком, а не был злодеем, потому что если бы его таланты пошли на то, чтобы он совершал преступления, он был бы самым совершенным преступником. В конце фильма происходит вербальное объяснение между двумя антагонистами. Наш злодей говорит Джеймсу Бонду, что мы с тобой одинаковые – это то, с чего вы начинали сегодняшнюю беседу, что это на самом деле один и тот же человек. Вечный мотив кинематографа, вечный мотив сыщиков и преступников, вечный мотив двойников. В этой картине он, на мой вкус, чересчур артикулирован, я бы вполне обошелся бы без этого резонерского текста.

Александр Генис: Это большая проблема финала, потому что Джеймс Бонд, как известно, защищает женщин. Откуда берутся дамы Джеймса Бонда? Они всегда находятся в опасности, есть такой архетипический сюжет в кино: вот дама, которой грозит беда, и рыцарь, который ее спасает. Но в этом фильме мало того, что есть уязвимая дама, у нее еще и ребенок. И тут в сюжет врывается Достоевский, чтобы выяснить, можно или нельзя спасти мир ценой слезы ребенка. И ребенок, очаровательная девочка, ей лет пять, наверное, синими глазами смотрит на все эти злодейства и уж точно не принимает их всерьез, потому что она ни разу не заплакала. Это говорит о том, что Джеймс Бонд уже изжил все, что можно, уже выдавили все слезы в зале. Понятно – почему. Потому что им нужно было убить Джеймса Бонда. Крэйг уходит из бондианы, скоро у нас появится в Нью-Йорке на Бродвее, где будет играть Макбета. Но кто придет ему на смену? Открылся тотализатор – кто будет следующим Джеймсом Бондом. Кого бы вы назначали?

Андрей Загданский: У меня нет подходящих кандидатур. Я думаю, что выбор будет наверняка неожиданным, практически уверен в этом. Признаюсь вам, как лояльный поклонник всего сериала, всех Бондов, я пойду смотреть его сразу, кто бы ни играл героя.

Александр Генис: У меня есть свои идеи, я немедленно ими поделюсь. Самый необычный выбор? Например, робот. Шварценеггер играл робота, может же быть такой робот, которого мы все полюбим, которого не будет так уж жалко, когда его бьют, потому что он железный или из чего там он будет сделан. This is one option. Второй вариант: мы все знаем, что сейчас возвращаются виртуальные актеры. Представим себе, виртуального Шона Коннери вернуть на экран…

Андрей Загданский: Нет! Я понимаю, о чем вы говорите, очень хорошо. Более того, технологически это уже возможно или почти возможно. Но это макабрическое развитие. Я не хочу смотреть фильм, где воссоздан искусственный Шон Коннери на экране.

Я думаю, женщина станет новым Бондом. И это тот самый поворот, который будет отвечать духу нашего времени.

(Music)

Сегодня в новом эпизоде подкаста "Генис: Взгляд из Нью-Йорка" – мы беседовали с режиссером Андреем Загданским о новом Джеймсе Бонде и его предшественниках.

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