Anton Dolin. Cinema-8. Nothing on the mirror...

Towards the release of the American film "The Invisible Man" and the French film "Harry, the Friend Who Wishes You Well"

Numerous monographs have been written about how the horror film genre has developed over the course of about a hundred years. And no matter what the skeptics say, this genre will live as long as the feeling of fear has power over a person. That is, he will always live. Changing over time, of course. It is difficult to explain to today’s audience that tales about Dracula, Frankenstein and even Fantômas were considered “horror” films at the time, and that almost all Hitchcock’s films and now classic disaster films were such. They still watch them (or their similarities), but they are afraid of something completely different. And they scare you differently. But we will continue the conversation about this in November, in articles about the second part of “The Blair Witch Project” and the new film by Robert Zemeckis . And now we are not talking about that.

Among the numerous cinematic fears, one has lived and lives steadily to this day: the fear of a double, the fear of another self. We can put a huge cultural and philosophical base under this banal remark - remember Freud, Jung, Derrida, Lacan... Let's try to avoid this. Let's just note that among the first successful film adaptations, the tradition of which, again, is still alive today, was an old film based on Robert Louis Stevenson's amazing story about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Cinema loves doubles, if only because this miracle, difficult to imagine in reality, is born on the screen without much effort. But technology is technology, and yet there is another meaning in this tradition. I would venture to suggest that the image of the “mad professor” in cinema appeared thanks to two literary texts so beloved by film directors, “Frankenstein” and “Jekyll and Hyde.” And the essence of the image was originally this: a brilliant scientist will sooner or later transfer his ambitions to the world around him, and then an abstract good - science - will turn into a concrete evil, against which there is a single, completely unscientific method: a crowbar (gun, knife, any other weapon in the hands of a simple good guy... or not a guy). Is it the case that uneducated filmmakers and their even dumber viewers don’t like the “too smart” and are trying to hurt them in this way? Hardly.

Rather, the matter is different. It doesn’t matter - the director associates himself with a scientist, an alchemist or a supporter of pure knowledge. He is aware of his abnormal power (in what other creative profession is power over people and space so clearly manifested?), fears it, and enjoys it. From this “what if”, taken to the absurd extreme, horror is born: what monsters can a person endowed with the power of creation create (Frankenstein), what kind of monster he himself will turn into (Mr. Hyde)... The time of petty demons is over - the creative double is a megalomaniac; he wants to rule the world or destroy it. This plot is exploited by cinema more and more violently from year to year: remember the recent “Fight Club” . Therefore, the hero of Paul Verhoeven's The Invisible Man , the brilliant scientist Sebastian Kane, has gone far from his predecessor, Wells's Griffin. He not only wants to conquer the universe, not only does he not feel the slightest remorse in doing so, but he also calls himself God. No kidding.

But let's not forget about the genesis of the theme from literature. Writers still haven't abandoned it. The so-called “king of horror” Stephen King devotes a good half of his known bestsellers to her. The most revealing is “The Dark Half,” where the pseudonym of a writer materializes into an infernal villain, ready to take the life of his creator. The hero of the French film by the young director Dominique Moll (only the second film, but already participated in the Cannes competition and received good press) “Harry, the friend who wishes you well,” Michel is also a writer. Although he doesn't know about it. But as soon as he remembers, with the help of a handsome double classmate, about a poem in the school wall newspaper and a children's novel about flying monkeys, everything around him turns into a nightmare: his loved ones die one after another, his family and himself are in danger. Although, to tell the truth, the hero himself is in the least danger. Precisely because he is to blame for the nightmare.

Paul Verhoeven is an ultra-famous director. One of the living symbols of Hollywood, which forgives the gifted newcomer from distant Holland for minor taunts in every film. But, whether he wanted it or not, Verhoeven became an active creator of Hollywood myths. It was he who directed "RoboCop" - still one of the favorite toys of American children. And Uncle Verhoeven gave an equally generous gift to the adults - Sharon Stone at the police station and with an ice pick. And lovers of historical cinema looked with slack jaws at the noble robber Rutger Hauer, plague-infected wells and knightly sex in “Blood and Flesh.” And melodrama fans cried happy tears over “Show Girls.” And science fiction lovers shed a stingy male tear over the dying (nothing, he survived) among the Martian mutants Arnold Schwarzenegger, who finally remembered everything... In general, such a director can afford a lot. And it allows you to move from film to film. Therefore, Verhoeven does not care at all who will play in his film and how (the neither overly stellar nor particularly attractive Kevin Bacon and Elisabeth Shue do not make a difference in The Invisible Man - especially since the first of them is not visible throughout the film). But it is important for him to make as spectacular as possible the story about a genius who did not care about his genius for the sake of the opportunity to scare children, molest naked chicks, destroy laboratories and kill former colleagues. And Verhoeven makes the story spectacular - a lot of explosions and murders, a hero transformed in fire, smoke or water into a scary ghost, scary dreams, etc. Well, this is a completely convincing way to explain to the viewer what’s what: becoming your own double, losing your reflection in the mirror, and in fact, turning into a kind of ephemeral reflection, shadow... - all this is a thrill. But it ends badly. There is no moralizing in The Invisible Man, there is only a gloomy hymn to boundless creative freedom.

Dominique Moll doesn’t teach us how to live either. Aware of his status as a first-time director, he avoids radical scenes. It operates through psychology and humor, which in Verhoeven’s work is still rude (witness the tasteless anecdote told by the main character before the decisive operation about Superman fucking the Invisible Man), and uses extraordinary actors. Their choice is extremely important: the film is based on four characters, each is described in detail, each was played by a young actor, but well known at least in Europe for his recent successful films. Sergi Lopez (Harry) was featured in last year's "Pornographic Connection", Laurent Luca (Michel) played a brilliant part in Guillaume Depardieu's "Field X" by Leos Carax, Mathilde Seigner (Michel's wife Claire) played one of the main roles in what was recognized as the best French film of the past year "Beauty Salon "Venus" , and Sophie Guillemin (girlfriend of Harry Prune) was recognized as an actress-hope '99 after her debut in "Desire" ("Longing") by Cedric Kahn. All these films were shown in Russia, so judge for yourself. So. , continuous close-ups and small details, nuances of country table conversations - all the action takes place in the country house of Michel and Claire, where their friends Harry and Prune came to stay - solid halftones, everyday life... and creativity Good guy Harry becomes Michel's muse. He reminds his friend of long-forgotten literary experiments, convinces him of the genius of the poem about the “night dagger” and inexorably removes from the path of the “writer” everyone who could interfere with him or would inadequately evaluate his creations. And little by little Michel begins to obey - feeling himself. genius, he is almost ready to come to terms with the everyday mania of the handsome killer Harry. Until he himself completes the logical circle, having wiped out his only passionate admirer and friend from the face of the earth, and, as if at the cost of this sacrifice, actually acquiring literary talent.

One of the most amusing details of the film by Dominique Moll, in French, frivolous and at the same time witty, not without depth and grace of the picture, remains the “recipes” of Harry, confident in the advantage of simple and radical solutions to any problems. Potency is restored by drinking a raw egg immediately after intercourse. Friends are saved by buying them expensive cars, or by killing their annoying parents. Verhoeven also gives his useful advice - don’t regret anything or anyone, do as you want, just remain invisible - otherwise you’ll be in trouble. Genius, which the authors of both films so insist on, is nothing more than an excuse, a relative and even dubious concept. On the one hand, without it it is impossible to gain freedom of action. On the other hand, why is it needed if this freedom is expressed only in the ability to kill and rape with impunity?

Forget genius. As Harry proved, talent can be acquired. This is just the courage to abandon frames and boundaries, to turn into your own double. To turn into a reflection that, without being completely real, can allow itself to do anything. That’s why these two generally normal – no more – films so captivate the viewer. Because it's very scary to imagine what you would do if you were invisible. What would you do if you turned into your own shadow? Schwartz also wrote about this. Mr. Hyde is still scary on screen because everyone recognizes themselves in him. What doesn’t stop you from looking at him without stopping and quietly dreaming to yourself: “If it were me...” Remember the last shot of Twin Peaks: the good knight from the FBI sees an evil spirit in the mirror. This is how each of us is: we look at the screen or in the mirror - we see one face. The face of our good friend, Mr. Hyde.