Our sincere Balabanov

The famous director decided to experiment with melodrama

Alexey Balabanov completed filming of the film “It Doesn’t Hurt Me” based on the script by Valery Mnatsakanov (STV film company, producer Sergey Selyanov). The film is due out in the spring.

This is the story of three comrades - against the backdrop of modern life. Misha, Oleg and Alka decided to start decorating apartments for rich people in order to earn money. That’s how they met Natella Antonovna, Tatu, a woman a little older than themselves, who helps find clients because she herself partly belongs to the new Russian world. Misha and Tata begin an affair...

Balabanov became famous for his “military” and “paramilitary” films, which are difficult for sensitive people to watch without closing their eyes. And everyone somehow forgot that his painting “About Freaks and People” was, in fact, about unhappy, rejected love.

Now it has been announced: Balabanov is making a melodrama for the first time, and he himself admits that “it’s difficult to film about love.” About a mutual and seemingly happy one - it’s doubly difficult. About a happy one that will end badly - threefold. Additional overtones are added to these supposed circumstances.

Balabanov works in auteur cinema - and even "Blind Man's Bluff", taken by many as an example of the genre, in fact turned out to be more intricate - an example of playing a game. One can expect that in the new case, the main thing will not be melodrama, but Balabanov’s attitude to the current domestic melodrama (presented primarily not on the cinema, but on the television screen).

Another important point is the performers. Directors of the “author’s” direction often prefer to invite little-known artists or non-professionals. Balabanov, in accordance with his manner, openly uses the trail of previous roles that trails behind the actor. Since he invites super-celebrities, their personal parameters also work for him. In the new project, Renata Litvinova (Tata) and Nikita Mikhalkov (oligarch Sergei Sergeevich) meet again - bright figures of the Russian film landscape. Also busy are Alexander Yatsenko (Misha), Dmitry Dyuzhev (Oleg), Inga Strelkova-Oboldina (Alka).

The main lyrical flow is associated with the role of Tata. Renata Litvinova got to play this time not a “poor girl” stewardess, but a bird in a golden cage. She herself is golden here - long-haired and red. Litvinova says that she agreed to act in the film because Balabanov insisted - without her, they say, the film simply wouldn’t happen, but in general, she doesn’t think of herself as an actress. Litvinova’s modesty (it seems completely sincere) is fascinating: “I am an instrument for answering all of Balabanov’s questions. The same thread that connects the artist with the image that he invented for himself... It’s very interesting to see how he imagines a woman with whom he can fall in love... I reassure myself that Tata is such a dream of his... "

Litvinova, who claims to be an author, comradely agrees with Balabanov the director, who “argues” with the current trend of producer cinema, where “you can change the director, the cameraman, and the actors, but nothing will change, everything will still be the same the best thing is these blockbusters for two weekends.” (Although it is difficult to imagine that Balabanov is subjected to any kind of harassment from his producer Sergei Selyanov...) And Renata Litvinova characterizes Balabanov the person as follows: “Touching. Defenseless. And in general, such a celestial being. I know a lot of details about him that absolutely amaze me. Disarmed. Absolute celestial. Now, if you ask about money, he doesn’t care about it at all. He is ready to shoot for free. This is a rare person. I've never met anyone like that. And in a sense, I’m just learning from him. Like a woman focused on money (laughs) ... No, money is not the main thing. Not the main thing."

Litvinova emphasizes (like some other people who have known Balabanov for twenty years): “Alexander Yatsenko is the spitting image of Lesha in his youth. Insanely similar. Face, profile, psychophysical moments... It seems to me that this is why he was approved for the role of Misha. Every director is looking for an alter ego...”

Here another overtone of the future picture is possible. From what was said by the leading actress, it follows that the tough and “unpleasant” Balabanov (yes, this is his external image among many - in particular among journalists, whom this director cannot stand) will appear in the film almost from the “belly side” , like that textbook hedgehog. By the way, the first title of the film was “Confession of a Tender Heart.” It is possible that the second one - “It doesn’t hurt me” - will change...

This probable sincerity will receive fleeting and at the same time completely documented confirmation in the film. In a very simple way. One episode - the celebration of the oligarch's birthday. Our new movie has not yet shown how this happens. And there are performances. Very rich people, finding that they already had everything for their bodies, wanted something for their souls. But - exclusive. That's why they give each other real theatrical performances for their birthdays. They hire professional scriptwriters, directors, artists, actors, singers, the corps de ballet of leading theater troupes... The circus, I must say, is not quoted - there must be drama, a feeling. Accordingly, a play is chosen, which somehow adapts to the biography of the birthday boy (note, not the hero of the day - people go to specially rented islands in warm seas to celebrate anniversaries). Or the play is written based on a well-known plot - from “The Snow Queen” to “The Naked King”. The performance usually lasts fifty minutes so that the guests do not get tired. During the action, they do not drink or eat, although a buffet is served, and then they usually go to a banquet in an expensive restaurant. However, sometimes for such a celebration they rent a train that rushes somewhere along Russian railways...

What kind of wampuka was staged by director Balabanov and artist Pavel Parkhomenko in the luxurious interior of the famous Baron Stieglitz School in St. Petersburg, you will see in the film - right down to the golden fountain from the decorative oil derrick. True, this episode is short and, as they say, passable. Misha and Tata find themselves at such a holiday, where Tata meets the oligarch Zilberman (Mark Rudinshtein). And around, real St. Petersburg celebrities are hanging out as guests at the party: Kirill Nabutov, Sergei Sholokhov with his wife Tatyana Moskvina and film director Dmitry Meskhiev. There is no doubt that these characters in the frame will cause the same joy in the viewer as the appearance of Joseph Kobzon in Tatiana Lioznova’s film “We, the Undersigned” a quarter of a century ago. The technique is not new, but it works flawlessly. One more quote from reality - and the fictional story is already completely real, and we will shed tears over this fiction.

Olga SHERWOOD, St. Petersburg