Translated material
The element of Brodsky
Andrey Khrzhanovsky shot a film poet about the poet
Brodsky's nest. A painting by Andrei Khrzhanovsky “One and a half rooms, or a sentimental journey to their homeland”, created based on the works of Joseph Brodsky, was released in Moscow. 
Portrait of time Picture of Andrei Khrzhanovsky was filled with the air of Leningrad Brodsky. There are a lot of stylized “under antiquity” and documentary episodes, fragments of Brodsky’s works sound behind the frame, the poet’s genuine things live in the frame and his drawings come to life, and the performer of the role of Brodsky is the Petersburg director Grigory Dityatkovsky - is very similar to the poet.
“Fly in the window and shudder in the fire,/fly off, fly on the wicks greedy./Whistle, river! Call, call me,/My Petersburg, my fireman bell. ” Brodsky Dityatkovsky, sitting with an unchanged cigarette in his hand on the deck of a snow-white yacht, travels along the river of time, along the river of their life: here the audience see a five-year-old yosu who is amused with a cat, then a Joseph-pioneer singing in the choir, and here is a young man with a glass of wine (in the role of Brodsky in the film is occupied by the film. 8 people) ... But this tape is not just a “BRODS BIOGRAPHICAL FILL”.
“When working on the picture, a whole complex of topics was important for me,” says Andrei Khrzhanovsky. - But first of all - a portrait of the time that is remarkably presented by Brodsky in a series of essays: “One and a half rooms”, “Guide to the renamed city”, “Less unity”, “Trophy” ... In these works, the time is also amazingly described, which includes such components as family, parents, generation ... ””
The director was born to the director for a very long time: “If we consider the preliminary work, which later formed in the film“ One and a half cat ”, 2 then the picture“ One and a half rooms ... ”I made about 10 years,” says Khrzhanovsky. “Of course, during this time the idea of the tape was specified - when working on animation and during installation.”
A miracle in all respects in the Fantasy of Khrzhanovsky lovingly and carefully interwoven humor and sadness, Bach music and songs of the era of the victorious socialism, the absurdity of the Soviet regime and the romance of the generation of the 60s. The first loves of Brodsky come to life here (“I hugged these shoulders and looked ...”) and the poet’s accusations of parasitism, 3 of his walks on Leningrad and a link to Norenskaya (Arkhangelsk region), Brodsky’s communication with friends and the most relatives - parents (their roles were played by Alisa Freindlich and Sergey Yursky).
“The girls we hugged,/C that we slept,/Friends with whom we drank,/relatives who fed us and bought everyone,/The brothers and the sisters whom we loved so much,/acquaintances, random neighbors with a floor higher,/Our teachers, - yes, all together, -/Why I don’t see them anymore,/where they all disappeared ...”. “This film is absolutely directorial, and therefore it was very difficult for me to work,” Sergey Yursky admits. - Despite the fact that Andrei and I are friends, I never worked with him as a director of feature films. It was not easy for us to find a common language. I understood that he sees his poetic installation in this way, and not otherwise, but it was difficult to obey this. ”
“Sergey Yuryevich, like a large artist and a great jealous, has a resistance gene,” Khrzhanovsky says, so to speak. - Because he is really an independent and very big creative person. And with Alice Brunovna it was very easy for me to work. She is a miracle in every way! "
Fantasy on an eternal theme in the film by Khrzhanovsky’s parents are the same as most parents of the world: they rejoice at the success of their son at school and worry when he eats poorly. They notice with surprise that their child is interested in girls. Pulling to the TV, they admire the Joseph who receives the Nobel Prize: how worried he is! They begin to learn English: what if they will still be released to Yos in America? In the rare minutes of conversations with his son, they tell him on the phone about how well they live, and then proceed to cleaning common areas in a communal apartment. Longing for their son - and die, being thousands of kilometers from him ...
“They tell me that I need to leave./Yes. Thank you. I'm going to./Yes. I understand. Spend/not. Yes, I'm not lost. " “Almost everything regarding Brodsky’s communication and parents in the film is fantasy. But taken not “from the ceiling”, but from indirect evidence, from the interview, from Brodsky’s works, ”says the director.
From the essay of Joseph Brodsky, one and a half rooms: “To one degree or another, any child strives for adulthood and eagers to break out of the house, from his close nest. Outside! In real life! To the wide world. To independent existence. (...) Then one day, when the new reality is studied, when independence is realized, he suddenly finds out that the old nest has disappeared, and those who gave his life died. On that day, he feels like an unexpectedly devoid of reason. The monstrousness of loss makes it incomprehensible. Reason, exposed to this loss, cringes and increases its significance even more. ”
In the finale of the picture, Khrzhanovsky gives the titer: "Dedicated to the memory of our parents."
Things that attract “I have separate impressions of Brodsky in life and from Brodsky in the film,” says writer Andrei Bitov. - These are separate impressions, but not contradictory. I am separately good about Khrzhanovsky, I am separately good about the incredible work that he did, and separately remarkably belong to Brodsky. These three relationships are not connected in my knot. I am not ready to review the film and I do not want to do this. It is impossible to evaluate this work. Because you can’t make a film about the poet about the recently departed poet. And this is “impossible” - not a ban. Just never managed to make a film about the poet. Nobody succeeded as ever as never before. But there are things that are beckoning ... "
“My candle, throwing a dull light,/In your new world will illuminate off -road./And my shadow, blocking the trace,/There, behind my back, goes into the kingdom of God.”
1 Tonino Guerra worked with Andrei Khrzhanovsky on the films “Leo with a gray beard” and “A long journey”.
2 This tape on Brodsky’s drawings, published in 2002, was marked by many awards, including the “Golden Eagle” and “Nika”, the Golden Dragon Grand Prix at the Festival in Krakow, a special prize of the MKF “West-East”.
On February 3, 1964, the poet was arrested on charges of parasitism, and on March 13, the People’s Court of the Dzerzhinsky District of Leningrad sentenced him "to 5 years of forced labor in a remote area."
Of the dialogues in the court: Judge: Where did you work?
Brodsky: At the factory. In geological parties ...
Judge: How much did you work at the factory?
Brodsky: Year.
Judge: by whom?
Brodsky: milling mill.
Judge: In general, what is your specialty?
Brodsky: Poet,
Poet-translator.
Judge: And who admitted that you are a poet? Who ran you to the poets?
Brodsky: Nobody. (Without calling.) And who ranked me to the human race?
Judge: Have you studied this?
Brodsky: What?
Judge: To be a poet? They did not try to end the university where they are preparing ... where they teach ...
Brodsky: I did not think ... I did not think that this was given to education.
Judge: And what?
Brodsky: I think this is ... (bewildered) ... from God ...
Recorded at the trial of Frida Vigdorova and published in the Samizdat "White Book"