Translated material
Toasted Man Drinks to the Bottom
LIBRARY
(Ending. Beginning at No. 62, 63) Without swords and bow After I returned from Italy, Tokareva and I wrote a script based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The script was approved, and the film was put into production. Honestly...
(Ending. Beginning at No. 62, 63)
Without swords and bow
After I returned from Italy, Tokareva and I wrote a screenplay based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The script was approved and the film went into production.
To be honest, I was not going to retell the plot of this novel by Mark Twain: I thought everyone already knew him. But when I remembered the interview I gave to the correspondent of the newspaper "Byloye i Dumy", I realized that it was not harmful to do so. But first, about the interview.
About two months ago - a call. In the receiver - a young girl's voice:
- Georgy Nikolaevich, hello, my name is Zina Barmakova, I'm from the newspaper Past and Thoughts.
(I remind the reader: as in the last book, the names and titles are not always genuine.)
- I have a question: what do you think, when it was easier to work in the cinema - now or then?
— When then?
- Before perestroika, under Stalin.
- Specifically, under Stalin?
- Well, with them all! Under Stalin, under Yeltsin, at the same time, as his ...
— Lenina?
- No ... Well, under Brezhnev!
I said that now and then it was equally difficult to work. Only now the problem is money, and then it was ideology. Both are equally disgusting. Well, personally, I think that in the cinema in our country it was possible to work normally only under Tsar Nicholas II ... The king is such a position ... Yes, the one who was friends with the psychic Rasputin. So he really respected the artists and reckoned with them ... A specific example? Now, God bless. And here. Flag history. Write it down. We had a great film director Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein, he created the brilliant film "Battleship Potemkin". As a representative of the youth section of the Union of Cinematographers, I was present at the screening when Sergei Mikhailovich handed over this film to Tsar Nicholas II at Mosfilm. His Majesty said that the film is useful and necessary, but he has one suggestion: in the episode when the sailors raise the flag over the ship, it would be nice to give a caption that this flag is red. Because without a caption, people may not understand that the flag is red. And Sergei Mikhailovich said that he would not do this: if everything is explained in words, this is no longer a movie. And Nikolai Alexandrovich told Sergei Mikhailovich that his proposal was completely optional. And if Sergei Mikhailovich, as the author, does not agree with him, let him forget about this conversation altogether. And he signed a permissive certificate: the king never used the administrative resource to the detriment of freedom of speech and pluralism. This is what we need to remember today.
What happened next was this: after that viewing, Sergei Mikhailovich thought, thought, and realized that in some ways His Majesty was right, someone might not really understand that a revolution had taken place. And he took a thin brush and painted the flag red in every frame: a genius is a genius! Thus, the famous color frame appeared - the first in the world. The film was a resounding success in all countries, His Majesty was pleased, and Eisenstein was awarded the Order of Lenin with swords and a bow. Did you write it down? .. What is the “why”? .. And therefore, Zinaida, that at that time there was no color film yet, it appeared much later ... Do you understand now? Well, if anything, call.
An hour later she called.
- Georgy Nikolaevich, the chief liked the material, but he says: today many do not know that the orders of Lenin were with swords and a bow. Even his grandfather doesn't know. And he asks: is it possible to make a bill and write that Eisenstein was given just the Order of Lenin, without swords and bows?
- Can.
- Thanks a lot! I will send the newspaper.
She did not send the paper. I forgot, probably.
Banal happy ending
According to the latest version of the scenario, in the final, Afonya buys a ticket for the first available flight at the provincial airport and lies on the airfield while waiting for the plane. A policeman approaches him and asks him to show his documents. Afonya shoves his passport at him. In the photo in the passport - a young boy with curls and a carefree smile, but in reality in front of a policeman - a dull man with completely empty eyes. This is where the movie ended.
I didn't like this dark ending. And Borodyansky and I, while still working on the director's script, wrote a version in which Afonya and Katya met at the end of the film. But they understood: such an ending violates the logic of the story, this is a banal happy ending. And left everything as it was.
And yet I remade the ending. When Zhenya Simonova flew to Yaroslavl and we started shooting her, Katya turned out so pure, tender and touching that I wanted her to appear at the end of the film. And we decided to shoot like this: Athos at the airport lies on the grass and waits for the plane. Katya comes up to him and says, as always:
- Athanasius, someone called me, I thought it was you.
Afonya opens her eyes - there is no Katya. A policeman stands over him and demands documents. (Katya dreamed of him.)
On the last day of shooting Zhenya - the third - they worked very intensively, filmed one take at a time in order to have time to shoot an unplanned "dream". And by the end of the day we arrived at the airport. We started filming Katya's approach. The first take was shot in rapid speed - Katya walks slowly, as if she is swimming. Not that! They removed the option - it comes with a flower. Not that! Filmed: she is walking, her hair is flying, a handkerchief. Not that!
And I realized that it's not about how Katya walks across the field, with a flower or something like that. And the fact that I really want Katya to appear for real.
And for thirty years now, at the end of the film, when Afonya goes to the plane, someone calls out to him. He looks around - and Katya is standing there and says:
- Athanasius, someone called me, I thought it was you.
And smart people wrote in reviews that the film could not have been so primitive if not for the ending. The appearance of Katya on the airfield is a banal happy ending ...
“Truth never, in essence, does good to a person - this is the ideal towards which mathematicians and philosophers aspire. In human relations, kindness and lies are more precious than a thousand truths.” (Graham Greene)