Cinema on the island

All the main “Nickies” went to the film by Pavel Lungin

The twentieth anniversary Nika Award ceremony lasted six hours. Only the most persistent survived until its completion, but they were rewarded, and not only with a bright concert performance by Maxim Galkin, but also with a discussion that flared up at the end about the state of Russian cinema. It was this, and not the presentation of “Nick” in six nominations, including all the main ones - for best film, best director, best actor, best cinematography - to the film “Island”, which became the main event of the ceremony. Everything about “Island” is already clear, and, as Pyotr Mamonov said when he went up on stage to receive the prize, “you are expecting something from me in vain, I have already said everything” (meaning the performance when receiving the “Golden Eagle” , cut during television broadcast and therefore attracted special attention). In addition, the most striking film of the year, judging by the frequency of quotes and references, was not “The Island” at all, but “Playing the Victim,” although only Liya Akhedzhakova received “Nika” for it, as a female performer in a supporting role.

The debate is about where cinema is today - whether it’s in...whether, as Yuri Chursin’s hero declares at the beginning of the film “Playing the Victim,” or in its prime, as director Andrei Smirnov and the head of Roskultura, Mikhail Shvydkoy, found it necessary to object to this , began Dmitry Bykov, who came out to present Ivan Vyrypaev with the award for “Discovery of the Year.” Bykov read caustic and even, one might say, bitter verses, in which he outlined the unsightly situation of new stars in the context of the impoverishment of the domestic cultural landscape.

The theme was continued by the speech of Maxim Galkin, who, together with a brood of characters he parodied, reproduced a certain standard set of judgments about the place of modern cinema, accompanying this free improvisation by showing excerpts from the nominated films, each of which contained profanity. It turned out that this topic can attract the attention of the public even closer to midnight.

However, the point is not in the joyful excitement at the mention of a strong word, but in the absence of any other content that one can grab onto in order to compose even just a joke for the skit (although jokes and parodies are perhaps the most serious indicator of meaning).

It was precisely the new content that was missing from the anniversary ceremony, during which Eldar Ryazanov was honored - for so long and so monotonously that it no longer evoked any feelings (unlike the much briefer and truly touching appearance on stage of Fyodor Khitruk, who said in the words of his hero Piglet: “Am I really the only one who could make so much noise?”). They also remembered the past 20 years, were nostalgic for the time when they were young, declared the independence, collegiality and professionalism of the Nika Academy...

Unfortunately, at the ceremony it became clear that the absence of new faces, new ideas, new meanings in modern culture is the result of a systemic crisis of professionals. Choosing from the entire array of works created this year, the academicians unmistakably fell into the most general, most hackneyed options of all possible and did not demonstrate any desire to go beyond the banalities.

The design of the stage, where in the center there was a stylized “20th Anniversary of Nick” stylized as the 20th Century Fox emblem, and on the side on two screens the numbers “XX Years” were lit, similar to the symbol of a party congress, clearly demonstrated that the thinking of the majority of filmmakers was stuck somewhere. then within these limits. The spiritual achievements of Soviet cinema and the American temptations of lack of spirituality, boring and no longer content words about the need to awaken good feelings with the help of cinema, memories of the 20-year-old struggle for freedom (what kind of freedom? What was meant by this then and is understood today?) - Here is a narrow circle of topics to which the rhetoric of those who congratulated and accepted congratulations was reduced.

Even the promise of Mikhail Shvydkoy, who wanted to raise the significance of Pavel Lungin’s victory, to provide him with material support for the production of any new script, did not cause much excitement. And not only because the audience was in a hurry to get home. There’s just a feeling that it’s not about the ability to shoot, implement and support. The point is a lack of belief in the vital necessity of any projects. The exhaustion of the old discourse at this anniversary ceremony was revealed with some terrifying obviousness, and it is impossible to attribute it to the peculiarities of a specific situation.

The incantations about friendship, unity, and a common cinematic space sounded tattered and worn out. And all together it was very reminiscent of a concert in a veterans' home, to which children and grandchildren did not come. Despite the fact that the organizers and directors of the action showed maximum effort - the technical capabilities of the stage of the Army Theater were used, and the numbers were quite nice, and the movie skit was funny, and in general everything was no worse, and perhaps even better than usual . But it doesn’t make me happy, because the emotions are fake. And the cinema that was presented today, with rare exceptions, is also fake. And the ceremony, in its form of a skit between parties, is nevertheless designed for a lively response, for improvisation, for the play of creative forces, only reveals this lack of content.

Alena Solntseva