Translated material
They sing soulfully...
Jos Stelling's film "Dushka" is coming to Moscow screens
Soul, darling, darling - the Dutchman Jos Stelling does not fully understand the meaning of all these Russian words. And it’s unlikely that it would occur to him to compare “darling” and “stuffy, suffocate, suffocate”, or to dissect the word “breathe”... But still, it’s not for nothing that in Russia they love Stelling like nowhere else except Holland, something about this grandfather he feels about us in Dutch cinema, although he doesn’t understand it. What he doesn’t understand is clear, just take the song he chose for his film: “Why are you standing there, swinging...”, he chose it, clearly focusing on its content: to lean against, to cross, to connect two solitudes, strong masculine and supple feminine. .. Well, the melody attracted me - viscous, sweet, soulful. And little does Stelling know that now this song already sounds like a parody, especially when it is sung to the accordion by some rural bus passengers dressed up as Eastern European peasants, as happens in the first scene of his new film “Dushka.”This scene is absolutely stunning - the villagers look like a parody of Kusturica's films, and besides, one young woman with a tall hairstyle suddenly begins to choke, and then collapses between the seats and gives birth to an ugly baby, which the passengers cradle and pass to each other, just like in the movie “Circus”, saying: “Darling! Darling!”
What this scene means, we find out only in the middle of the film, but for now one might think that this is how the main character was born, a decent Dutch humanitarian, whose past the director quickly flips through in front of us, showing photographs: here is a young journalist, here he is in the company of famous film actors , here with beautiful women. And here he is today - a clean, self-care elderly man, whose bachelor apartment openly demonstrates the degree of his abandonment and lack of demand.
For a long, long time and without words, we are shown his everyday life. He goes to the cinema and sleeps in the auditorium, he runs in the park, he sits for hours in a cafe, he composes some useless script and dreams of a young beauty from a neighboring office, who is taken away every evening by a leather-clad motorcyclist. But then one day, a beauty, having quarreled with her boyfriend, gets into our hero’s car, drives to his house, flirts, but then a bell rings in the hallway, and a strange guest in a fur hat bursts into the house, joyfully waving a shabby suitcase, and throws himself on the owner’s neck. and shouts pointing at him - “Bob!” and to himself - “Darling!”
The guest does not know a single word in any foreign language, the purpose of his visit is unknown, but it is clear that he has no intention of leaving. Bob makes several attempts to get rid of Dushka - he pushes him out of the apartment, gives him money, pretends that he is leaving. But he has nowhere to go, and Dushka silently and devotedly stands under the windows, and as a result, he still goes to sleep on the small sofa, having laid out his socks, boots, jacket, and tie. It is impossible to communicate with him, but when Bob finally finds a translator, he hears in response to his question “When will he leave?” discouraging: “Don’t be afraid, Bob, Darling will not leave you!”
The role of Bob was played by the Belgian Zhen Bervutz, and Dushka by Sergei Makovetsky, and this is his best film role in many years, and in general the best male role of this season. The fact that Makovetsky is not just a good, but also a subtle and very deep actor is known to those who saw him in the theater, for example, in the play “The Black Monk”, staged by Kama Ginkas. It is useful for all actors to work with good directors, but especially talented ones, then they get extraordinary roles and unforgettable characters.
Jos Stelling, when conceiving the film, was guided by a completely different person, not even an actor, assuming that the role of Dushka would be played by one St. Petersburg critic, but, having met Makovetsky, the director revised a lot in the plan and script. Yes, of course, the idea of the meeting of West and East and interest in their interactions has not gone away, but many additional overtones have appeared in the image of Dushka.
Arriving in Moscow to present the film, Stelling was very concerned that Russian viewers would not be offended by it; he even tried to explain his plot not with a metaphor of Eastern and Western, but talked about the two halves of the soul of one person, himself: “Here, - he said, “there’s only one fool, it’s Bob, it’s me!” But the viewer, nevertheless, has already noted how accurately and sarcastically Stelling portrayed Russian film festivals (at one of which Bob met a stupid Russian, calling him a word from the film he had just watched - Dushka), with their provincial squalor, busty translators, bad speaking English, always damaged microphones, ladies of unknown origin in vulgar outfits and rich buffets where all the food is swept away in five minutes... And here no excuses will help, Stelling is not at all delighted with either the typical Russian holidays or the typical Russian manner of getting stuck in someone else's house, staying there overnight and then having breakfast, not from the ineradicable familiarity seasoned with the constant consumption of alcohol. However, just these funny and accurate sketches that stick in the memory are still a completely ordinary movie, without much depth.
But the scenes with Dushka do not quite lend themselves to an unambiguous and superficial reading. No matter how the classic interprets his own film, it is, of course, about some very strange and complex movements of the human soul. Makovetsky managed to create in this role the image of both a very nasty and very touching creature, unbearable to live with, but impossible to forget. Darling is so loyal, open, simple-minded, but also incredibly ridiculous, stupid, awkward, sticks out like a pimple on the chin, and nothing can be done about it, but when he disappears, Bob realizes that nothing can fill this emptiness. And the fact that Dushka was a provocateur, arousing in him feelings the existence of which he might never have known. And Bob goes after Dushka, clearly embodying the Russian proverb, which Stelling clearly does not know: “If there are old people, I would kill them, if there are no old people, I would buy them.” Alas, there, in the country where Bob is going, there is neither Darling nor himself, there is only a bus taking us back to where we all came from. And it is impossible to define in words what Bob is looking for, and what Darling gives him, although, of course, everything can be blamed on the European longing for community, conciliarity and emotional openness, which their souls yearn for, but their bodies cannot stand... However, in The wonderful duet of Bervutz and Makovetsky has much more, and it is contained in many precise details, small nuances, from which modern, and especially Russian cinema has long been unaccustomed. This is the saturation with meaning of the entire cinematic texture, where each object knows its role, and the ability not only with a gesture, but also with an elusive movement of the facial muscles to convey a state of mind that cannot be read at the level of consciousness, an emotion that is changeable, like ripples on water, in general, all that , which is the result of the unfussy efforts of a serious artist who has the courage to shoot exactly those stories that seem important to him.