“ASSA” NEARLY KILLED BY YELTSIN, BUT SAVED BY GORBACHEV

KINOBODKA

For domestic cinema, the film "Assa" has become a "squad song", the motto of Perestroika. Few people were interested that "Assa" is the name of the gallery of the avant-garde artist Timur Novikov. But the first experience of co-creation of an experienced film pro Sergei ...

For domestic cinema, the film "Assa" has become a "squad song", the motto of Perestroika. Few people were interested that "Assa" is the name of the gallery of the avant-garde artist Timur Novikov. But the first experience of co-creation of an experienced film pro Sergei Solovyov and Russian rock-n-rollers was accepted by young people as a guide to action. "Re-re-men!" - the stadiums yelled along with Tsoi, and after the film screenings the audience waved lighters, as if trying to get a better look at the uncertain future ...

- In fact, there was no special insight. Like all ordinary, normal Soviet people, I was convinced that for at least another three hundred years the communist society would live, live and make good. And when Gorbachev launched the mechanism of some kind of “acceleration”, I, of course, thought that all this was just another bluff and chatter ...

- How was the film received in Goskino? After all, "Assu" should not have been allowed ...

- Do not believe it: it is already easy and almost hassle-free. A special time was approaching, and the most sensitive officials foreshadowed some milestones of change. Well, at least they already understood that the time of the Bartholomew nights had passed and whether it was worth it in principle to look for new loyal adventures on your ass.

- And what is the history of the emergence of MELZ on the horizon of the premiere of "Assy"?

- When I started talking about the "happing" premiere of "Assy", some new expression appeared in the eyes of the Goskino officials: "Maybe he's right? Maybe the time has come not to kick, but even to help? Then they, frightened of themselves, say: “Here we have a whole system of cinemas in Moscow. Pick any one." Well, we chose "Drummer". And the "Drummer" was then led by a hellish man with an expressive surname, either Vonyan, or Vanyan ... Such a cunning Armenian man. Very clever. Even excessive. And he decided that now, on the contrary, is the time to swat all of us like insolent flies ...

- But they say that at first he did not mind the premiere, this Vonyakin, oh no, sorry, Vanyan ...

— The reservations are, in general, correct. Outside, he was nothing, at first he nodded silently, while all this was being prepared, brought together, gathered in a heap in his cinema. The frosts were terrible. They brought to the government building, where the cinema is located, a ten-meter sign with a three-meter earring in Bananan's ear, and outlandish columns with eyes built into them. He silently watched everything. Endured until the end. But what finished him off was the pre-sale of tickets. The screening of the film was scheduled for about a month. So, all the tickets for the month ahead were sold out in a little less than an hour. Then he had a shock, which he hardly survived, because the crowds all stood and demanded to continue the sale ...

- So, your, excuse me, "dream of an idiot" about the happy fate of the box office came true?

- And how! Bewildered by all this, Vanyan wrote, probably, the last denunciation in the history of the great Soviet state. That denunciation was later shown to me at the Moscow City Committee. I wrote to Yeltsin, who was then the first secretary of the city committee. Like, in front of the Kremlin they are going to arrange an anti-Soviet orgy, he himself saw the rehearsals ... Absolute unbridledness. Experienced Vanyan fundamentally rounded off his murderous accusations. De, the cinema has not been under repair for a long time. And when a huge number of spectators who bought tickets go up to the balcony, it will certainly collapse. There will be great human casualties. And the anti-Soviet orgy will be stained with blood. Yeltsin was shown this nonsense. And he instantly slashed: "Yes, drive them to hell out of there, don't stand on ceremony, don't talk to them."

Without any explanation, our "restless economy" was thrown out in the blink of an eye right into the snow, into the frost. They call me: “Come urgently, everything is dying. The columns need to be saved, they are bulky. Manuscripts, paintings…”. Arrived: my mother! I called someone, they rushed to save, transport, store. In general, complete despair.

At three o'clock in the morning I came to the telegraph office and demanded a form for a telegram to Gorbachev. They were scared to death: “Are you out of your mind? We will not accept any telegrams to Gorbachev.” I throw out all my documents, the degree of my rage was such that, probably, they were simply afraid to contact me. He wrote something like this: “At a time when you are fooling people’s heads that there is some kind of perestroika going on, either you are being fooled, or you are fooling us. Either way, I don't want to be stupid. People, believing in fiery speeches from high tribunes, wanted to do something alive, real ... ". I attributed everything I think about the Moscow City Committee. Such a healthy telegram came out. Despite the tearful exhortations of the postal workers, he did not reduce. Paid some crazy amount. And Daniil Dondurei and I went straight from the telegraph office for vodka and got drunk. From grief. For it was a gesture of desperation.

Then Gorbachev told me how everything happened next. Of course, the telegram lay around all day, unclaimed by anyone. By the evening he was going to leave, and someone in the form of entertainment - other dispatches were approximately the same: only denunciations - slipped my "fun" telegram. After reading, Gorbachev got excited. The next morning, the president of the USSR calls Elem Klimov, oh horror! ..

- Literally like Stalin in the old days ...

- He says: “Listen, who is this Solovyov? .. And how outrageously they treated him. Do you want advice? Do not mess with this Yeltsin. You can, of course, now draw me in too, arrange a stormy debate. But these are all fruitless discussions. In addition, Moscow has a huge number of federal concert halls. Choose any, call my assistant on my behalf.

It was wild and strange that "two-way communication" works. I didn't count on that. I wanted my cry of despair to reach the stars of the Kremlin.

I am still friends with Mikhail Sergeyevich. After all, he pulled me out of absolutely hopeless situations during the filming of Assa twice. The first time we were not allowed into the Oreanda Hotel in Yalta. "Let's get out of here, your foot will not be in the hotel!" they told us. Then I wrote ... no, not to Gorabchev - just to the village of my grandfather in the Central Committee of the CPSU. Suddenly, the next day, almost the entire leadership of the Crimea in hats squeezed into my filthy room. At eight in the morning. I stare at them from under the covers like it's a hangover dream. You yourself know how we “mark” troubles. And the hats nod: "We just misunderstood, we are always happy to help ...".

In general, on a tip from the president, we began to circle around Moscow and ran into MELZ. It was, as it were, the Bolshoi Theater on the outskirts of the workers, on the outskirts, near the electric lamp factory ... With red velvet seats, a pompous hall. Something so cool...

- Rather proletarian. But the place is not at all prestigious.

“And we weren’t looking for prestige. We were looking for the right place. And "Drummer" was chosen because it is Russian constructivism. And the name is good. We also liked MELZ. Columns. Big theater for the poor. Good house.

- The premiere of "Assy" in MELZ thundered throughout the country. They broke through with a fight, young people traveled from afar to partake of the underground.

Why is everyone freaking out? It was the first Russian presentation. There were endless queues. They burned fires. It was early spring, dog cold at night.

Were there any unexpected reviews for the film?

All reactions were unexpected. First, I saw all the chiefs of Moscow. Somewhere they got tickets. After all, it was an exception when their telephone right did not work. I had to "get it". Then they approached (I didn’t know anyone by sight). They winked conspiratorially. Looked back. They shook the hand ... imperceptibly. And tickets, the holy truth, it was impossible to get. Do not believe it, Yevtushenko calls: "Give me a couple of tickets." I swear to him that I don't. But he does not believe: “It does not happen. Even with Lyubimov ... ". And the guys who were on duty with bonfires in the square took away my right to back marks. They themselves established the democratic right of a living queue. Strictly followed. And Yevtushenko stood in line, and Akhmadulina ...

— Who was the inspirer of the famous exhibition?

— The exhibition was made by an outstanding person, the famous paper architect Avakumov. Shutov participated. It looked brutally cool at the time. We were assisted by a nice guy, the deputy director. His name was Sasha Weinstein, who was surprised at our appearance, like aliens. You, he says, are the first human faces that I see in my twenty years of sitting here. There are usually ghosts around here. Assy started his production career.

But most importantly, the first secretary of the district committee, who now works for Luzhkov as the Minister of Industry, actively helped us. Before our eyes, he turned from a stamped functionary, a district committee secretary into a deeply sympathetic, normal person. But all the same, some commissions and checks were constantly sent to us. He accompanied them diplomatically, but already, as it were, from "our side." Then he asked: “Okay, take these four condoms away, leave everything else. You never know what they require!”. In all this history, he only once gave a departmental rooster. It was Easter. And I banned the rock concert. But it was impossible to cancel the movie, the tickets were all sold out. Instead of a concert, he took Rachmaninov's Vigil... He was informed: "They have divine hymns for Easter." He came completely pale, broke: “I forbid!”. I'm trying to explain something about the secular work of Rachmaninoff. Useless.

- Nothing strange. Even at the conservatory of that time, both Vespers and Bortnyansky and Grechaninov were banned. How long did Assy's shares last?

- One and a half months every day, and all the time different groups. They left, they came. "Sounds of MU", from Sverdlovsk "Nautilus", St. Petersburg bands. With tools, installations. I arranged banquets for them, I almost drank myself. This is the only way to pay them. I didn't know when it would all end. Didn't want to live.

- Then you decided that it would not be one film, but a whole trilogy?

“On the contrary, I did not know how to wait until the end of this lunatic asylum. But a new epic has begun. They began to call from all over our vast country, asking to take all this to them. Then I turned gray. I imagined that for the rest of my life I would travel around the country, accompanying the “columns with eyes”. I categorically refused. But my guys traveled around a lot of cities, arranging noisy actions in concert halls or stadiums.

- "Assa" seemed to have raised a barrier, opening up space for violent battles. The newspapers devoted entire pages to the polar opinions of respected critics. Stanislav Rassadin, for example, criticized the film for showing off. Valery Kichin praised for artistry and phantasmagorism. Young film critics organized stormy public "round tables" dedicated to the film, posing the question point-blank: "The edge of the century - or a set of baubles?" Most of all, the “film clubs” were offended by you. They did not forgive the betrayal of the serious art-house film "Alien White and Pockmarked" with this "outrageous underground". So we can say: the film seriously stirred up the professional sphere of cinema.

- I didn’t read everything: it was a paper Everest. The snowy shaft of the film continued to drag somewhere. With great difficulty, I jumped out from under this block. And he kept rolling. The reason for this is, of course, a combination of many circumstances. The film seems to be in the middle of time. After all, only in the first year since March, according to official figures, he gathered 28 million viewers ... Really a lot?