Translated material
Anton Dolin. Cinema-33: Full Billy
To the release of the British film "Billy Elliot"
Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky ...
Tchaikovsky Was a Great Composer .
Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky ...
Tchaikovsky Was Born in the Ural .
This is a text from the Stalinist English textbook of the 49th year, used - to the great delight of listeners, Russian and foreign - for his symphony, the fashionable composer Tratnikov . Used as one of the myths, which seems to us to be domestic, but in reality has long stepped over the borders of the Fatherland. Or here:
I love Tchaikovsky Peter!
He was an avid composer,
Great sounds inquisitor,
Singer of people's good ...
This is already from the poet Irteniev . And all to the fact that the film about ballet simply cannot go to any other music, except for the "Swan Lake" . This also applies to the better (according to critics and spectators) to the British film of the year, Billy Elliot . However, t -rex sounds as an addition. And such is the whole film - a common place seasoned with lyrics and spontaneity, and therefore attractive even for the most refined viewer. In the end, they, refined, are tired of the artificiality of modern cinema more than others. There is no need to talk about the public: both lovers of Hollywood militants, tiring in their own way, and lovers of the old, “sincere” Soviet cinema will find their film in Billy Elliot. At least one of the two - Tchaikovsky or T -Rex - will receive a response in their hearts.
The case of Billy Elliot reminds of the last British hit in the international box office - the "male striptease" ( "Full Monty" ). It seems that there was nothing special in it - an ordinary movie, a completely trivial and very simple plot: a group of losers decided to do an unusual business and, as a result, after many ridiculous ups and downs, succeeded. However, the unique spirit of the province is not an old cozy province from the decorative “chocolate” , but of the ugly miner's outback - and the grotesque figures of “little people” who dream of a beautiful life make the film touching and understandable for all categories of the public. Moreover, its main thesis: courage in creativity will help to overcome any obstacles - seemed proven. "Billy Elliot" is a film on the same topic, only in another genre: no longer a comedy, but a melodrama. And this is a fundamental difference.
The secret of the film is that until the final itself seems unusual to the viewer, although in fact it remains quite predictable, as it should be according to the genre, history. In fact, just as in a love melodrama, the heroes should connect in the last frame in a kiss, at the end of Billy Elliot, a sentimental film about a creative career, this career should take place. Actually, you do not have to be a deep analyst in order to understand this already somewhere in the tenth minute of the film. However, the awareness of the complete predictability of everything that is happening does not prevent the picture from perceiving the picture as a touching, exciting sight, which makes the viewer drop an uninvited tear. How to explain this?
Everything is very simple: in the era of a formalistic and aggressive cinema, sometimes built on a deceit of expectations, the viewer (ours in particular) is yearning for the so -called sincereness , whose apotheosis see the old domestic cinema . "Billy Elliot" is designed quite like that. One can imagine how, in the Soviet outback, a simple village guy instead of working on a collective farm and dreaming of the title of the first tractor driver in the village, decides to devote himself to the ballet. Everyone laughs at him, and only a ballet teacher who accidentally finds himself in a provincial school perceives a strange dream seriously: the guy has a gift from above. And, of course, this gift will sooner or later convince all doubts - from the harsh members of the harsh family to the stiff leaders of the capital's ballet school. Replace the collective farmers with miners, and the Soviet outback is English, and you will imagine what Billy Elliot is. At the same time, you will even know how it will end: the miners will forget about the strike and begin to hug, rejoicing in the success of Little Billy (which is still considered a novice pederast). And nothing will prevent the viewer from experiencing a sense of euphoria and unity with the simpletons seen on the screen.
The story of a “stranger among their own” in this case is not related to the situation of dissidentity, the idea of dissent or dissentie. “Billy Elliot” is a simple variation of the plot of the “ugly dessert”, the story of how the visible ugliness turned out to be not understood in time with internal beauty. The fairy tale of the ingenious Andersen acts flawlessly - in each there is an unfulfilled dream of hidden wings, about not noticed for the time being swan beauty. There are two famous ways to release this hidden beauty: love and creativity. However, the first always leaves a place for doubts about the objectivity of the assessment, and the second requires too much courage and excessive energy costs. In Billy Elliot is an ideal option: creativity as a life method, as a way of existence, natural, born. The director of the Deputy Stephen Daldry was looking for and found a hero, for whom the dance is the natural state of the soul, and then was able to show this on the screen. For all the pattern of the plot canvas, such a high degree of successful visual realization of a difficult idea cannot but impress.
"Master duckling" is an eternal plot directly related to the idea that always attracted humanity: with the idea of flight. Actually, in addition to Andersen, on this subject, in the last century, the studio of Walt Disney , a cartoon about the eared of the flying elephant, Dambo , spoke out on this subject. In each case, “not like everyone else” is rewarded for his other wings. In Billy Elliota, the dance is a direct and simple embodiment of the idea of a young Jamie Bell's flight, because it is impossible to teach what he does on the screen is a born gift. Its - both those to whom he studies during the film, and invented by himself - look incredibly convincing; Starting from the first frames, where the hero jumps on the couch to the beat of the T-Rex song, each of his movements is subconsciously perceived by the viewer as a practical “flight” (otlet?) Course. After that, the heroes of the “stealing tiger, the invisible dragon, soaring without visible efforts into the air, look like characters in a bad computer game for the most backward preschoolers. Billy flights are as necessary, as apparently difficult, and at the same time associated with a sense of genuine happiness. It is impossible not to believe them.
The wings of the “dancing in the light” are cut out gradually, and this process holds the attention of the viewer more strongly than the plot itself. At first, Billy is engaged in boxing, which for him is a synonym for falling (the partner invariably sends the boy to knockout), and looks at air girls in packs that do exercises on the other side of the gym. Once in the room of one of these girls, the daughter of Miss Wilkinson Debbie, Billy admires the wallpaper with images of swans and falls into the arms of his counterpart in the clouds of fluff from the broken pillow. In the scene of the introductory exam, the last, decisive question - "What do you feel when you dance?" - suggests the corresponding answer: "I turn into a bird." Finally, in the final, Swan Billy freezes in the stop-frame of the jump. The theme of the "Swan Lake" also does not appear immediately-at the beginning, musical accompaniment comes down to rock music, from a completely air brand of Bolan (nevertheless, the main association with Ti-Rex-the heavyweight of the fossil predator) to the land-land-social "London Calling" , to the music of which Billy, Tony, falls and enters "to the bottom", that is, to the police station. Finally, having sent Billy to a ballet school, his father and brother - both miners -, as if as a counterweight, go down underground. No less interesting is the work of the camera (the film “shallow grave” and “TranSpoting” Brian Tufano) worked in the film: it is shooting - often from above - and skillful installation, then enclosing the hero into a closed space, which sharply releases from there, give the impression of the flight.
After the bizarre dances of Bjork Selma , which cost her the last “dance” at the end of the rope, after the Bessonian dancing in the MTV style, Billy Elliot’s dance seems to be a sip of fresh air. In the rays of the quiet and natural radiance of Jamie Bell, the other characters of the picture turn into statists. Meanwhile, if you figure it out, each of them is gifted with a much brighter personal characteristic than the main character. Billy is not characteristic of extremes: his father and brother go to mining strikes, they are ready to enter into an open confrontation to the authorities - Billy does not join them and does not reject them. Billy's best friend, Michael, clearly hints at homosexual contact, and the girls from the ballet class are in love with the main character, but he is immersed in another - in their dancing. The grumbling teacher of ballroom dancing Miss Wilkinson (the brilliant work of Julia Walters) forces Billy to go ahead, he does not agree, he breaks up ... and continues to dance only because he cannot. Jamie, who was recognized as the best actor of the year in Britain (Batta Prize), acts as the embodied human hope for gaining wings, and therefore he does not have to have individual qualities. Enough ability to fly.
Actually, the history of the realized dreams in the cinema has been presented more than once more interestingly. For example, back in the 99th year, the Cannes showed an outcast French film "New Leather". His heroes lost in the modern world studied at the courses of bulldozerists . One did, the other did not; And in an hour and a half, the viewer’s picture was convinced that learning to manage a bulldozer is a big thing, and this is how you can find happiness. However, international success went not to the "new skin", but by Billy Elliot. Well, there is little surprising in this: humanity likes to see themselves with a flock of swans, and not ducks digging in the ground. Therefore, nowhere and we will never go from the eternal "Swan Lake".