| The results of the 13th festival “Window to Europe” have been summed up Any festival, ours or not, class “A” or completely classless, with a concept or not, is forced to give out prizes. Everyone has problems with this, even in Cannes. But the task of the jury of the Vyborg festival can be considered one of the most difficult. The film stream, almost completely chosen by Kinotavr and the distributor, splashes onto the festival screen the remnants that were not at all sweet this year. True, in the form of a list, everything looks great: of the 14 films in the gaming competition, half are debuts, which is always interesting, and in the second half there are films by such famous directors as Stanislav Govorukhin, Konstantin Khudyakov, Nikolai Dostal, Vera Storozheva. But in reality, it’s a martyr’s pain to choose who will get four prizes in the feature film competition plus the main prize of the festival, which from this year is awarded in the “Vyborg Account” competition according to new rules.
Their novelty lies in the fact that from the category of public, that is, amateur, spectator prize, this prize moves to the rank of the official, main award of the festival, awarded by a grand jury based on the results of audience voting. The regulations and technical aspects of this combination of survey results and jury verdict are not yet entirely clear, and therefore may cause criticism in the future. But this year there was no room for controversy. According to the “Vyborg Account”, voting takes place immediately after the session, when everyone present in the hall submits questionnaires, evaluating what they saw using a ten-point system. Previously, points were simply calculated by posting the results on a board in front of the cinema hall, and everyone could clearly see the people’s choice. Now no numbers are announced in advance. And the jury makes its verdict based on the results of the survey. I think that in the current situation there could not have been any big disagreements: both professionals and viewers clearly gave the highest scores to the films of Stanislav Govorukhin and Nikolai Dostal. True, I personally liked more the film “Nanny Wanted” by Larisa Sadilova, already shown at Kinotavr - a very clever take on our modern life of the genre scheme of a psychological thriller like “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” A convincing scenario has been found: an infernal nanny is hired for a girl from a rich family - a modest former teacher, a lonely woman, not very attractive, overweight and withered, whom social protest against the unfair distribution of wealth turned into a sophisticated scum, secretly and skillfully manipulating someone else's child and other people's destinies. And Tyuzov actress Marina Zubanova plays here subtly and toughly. However, I understand that we forgive such a plot in Hollywood, but evaluate it very harshly when it is transferred to our soil. Even among professionals, we still have primitive ideas that cinema shapes reality, and not vice versa. Therefore, everyone becomes scared: what if the genre comes to our house under the guise of an ordinary nanny?
The prizes of the festival have also changed - before that there were Harry Potter white “Owls”, and now the completely patriotic gold and silver “Rooks”. The point, as you know, is not in the name. However, the popular saying “whatever you name the ship, so it will sail” has not been canceled. Previously, there were cases when the “Owl” flew like plywood past the “Boomer”, for example. Nowadays, more diverse games are possible - from variations of the verb “sail” to the use of the word “ship”. But, I repeat, the current competition does not provide any opportunity to be sarcastic about the jury’s resolution.
The new main prize “Big Golden Boat” (according to the “Vyborg Account”) was awarded to Stanislav Govorukhin’s film “Not by Bread Alone,” which we have already written about. The author of the film thus had a compelling argument in his battles with distributors. And the distributor himself probably appeared, because the owners of the festival - the Paradise film group - own a small but effectively operating chain of cinemas, Five Stars, and the basic cinema Rolan. At a press conference, the director bitterly denounced representatives of almost all cinema chains who allegedly refused to show his film, citing the fact that the audience was not interested in such a film. To be honest, they can be understood: a sluggish and largely meaningless black and white picture about the ordeal of an honest inventor of some kind of pipe production machine at the end of the Stalin era is not very exciting. And “Night Watch” or “Turkish Gambit”, which Govorukhin named as an alternative to his film, with all their shortcomings, are attractive to distributors due to their genre definition and the use of modern filming methods. However, everything is learned by comparison. There was no “Night Watch” in the “Vyborg Account” competition. And in addition to the films of the main competition, there were also “Poor Relatives” by Pavel Lungin, which was awarded by “Kinotavr” out of complete despair, “State Councilor”, which the audience had already watched and long forgotten, our last year’s art deliveries to international festivals - “Remote Access” by Svetlana Proskurina, “4” by Ilya Khrzhanovsky, “Schiza” by Guka Omarova, as well as that same thriller about a nanny and the biographical mess about Yesenin “The Golden Head on the Block,” filmed by former distributor Semyon Ryabikov and successfully attached by him to TV channels in the Russian hinterland. Against this background, Govorukhin’s film was doomed to unite everyone.
Nikolay Dostal received a regular-sized “Golden Rook” as the winner of the gaming competition. 13 years ago, his charming film “Cloud-Paradise” became a prize-winner at the Locarno festival and a legend of post-perestroika cinema. The clown Andrei Zhigalov, who played the main role of the dreamer Kolya, who literally took off on a dare and went to the beautiful far from provincial boredom, was predicted to become the new Yuri Nikulin. But he also left - to Germany. And now he played his hero again in the film “Kolya-Perekatipole”. This film is as charming as Cloud Paradise. In him, the same Russian melancholy, nurtured by moonshine and timelessness, froze like a fly in amber. The film can certainly become a provincial hit if it is offered to be seen in the right place. But there is a certain weariness of the theme in it, and the tired skill of Irina Rozanova, Alla Klyuka and Andrei Zhigalov in depicting Russian types only emphasizes this.
Of the seven debutants presented in Vyborg, I would like to mention only Artem Antonov. And not even so much in connection with the film “Halflight,” which received two special prizes - from festival president Armen Medvedev and “Elephant” from film critics. His short debut, “Capital Ambulance,” was strong and fresh, like an Antonov apple. It seemed that next the producers would give him the opportunity to realize this obvious penchant for the genre. However, in the new film from Antonov, they clearly demanded that he turn his macabre story about how, in a distant northern village at the end of the war, Russian widows and captured Germans turn from enemies into friends, into a lofty parable. Therefore, the guy constantly stepped on the throat of his own song, and the audience is forced to listen to the howling of the wind for at least half an hour of screen time and watch how slowly people walk through the forest, how they are cold, coughing, etc. But the parable still came out lopsided, because the best scenes are comedic episodes in which village women, yearning for affection and working hands, look for captives to suit their tastes. And the tragic ending raises more questions than emotions.
In general, the new boats of the festival in Vyborg, instead of happily setting sail, began to quietly drift. Let’s attribute this to an unlucky serial number and wait to see what the “Vyborg Account” will show next year. Irina LYUBARSKAYA, Vyborg - Moscow |
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