So said Herman

Alexey German - the eldest passed away at the age of 75. The author of the films "My Friend Ivan Lapshin", "Khrustalev, the car!", One of the favorite directors of Andrei Tarkovsky, the only Russian film director who apologized to the Cannes, and the father of Alexei German - the youngest. Publicpost collected statements by Alexei German about life, profession, cinema and remembered his creative path.

"Without seeing this world, I could not remove anything"

“I was completely desperate when Lesha decided to become a director. Svetlana (the director of the director - Publicpost) then told him:“ You are not a son, if you go to the filmmakers! ”You can imagine, I kneel down in front of him and said:“ Do not do it. Let me buy you a car. "And he told me:" No. Buy a car, but I will still go to study with Solovyov. "True, he says that he did not remember this, he was small. But he went to Moscow to Solovyov at VGIK, and we reached for him, because we were bored. Moving here, we partially believed that the center of art was here. But it turned out that we did not like it. And we practically fled from Moscow." (From an interview with "Interlocutor" 2010)

“There are paintings that I shot quickly.“ My friend Ivan Lapshin ” - for 11 months,“ checks on the roads ” - for a year,“ 20 days without war ” - for a year and eight months. I can shoot quickly. And such paintings as“ Khrustalev, machine! ”,“ It is difficult to be a god ”, require long detailed filming. This is a mosaic, not painting. And in general, my last picture and I have the last picture and I have the last picture. I shot for a long time, and I will also voice at least a year.

- Why the last?

- Health is not that. I'm afraid there will not be enough for me anymore for a good movie. "(From an interview with the 2010 interlocutor)

“My mother prompted me the best formulation:“ Art is when I don’t be shy about my uncle and aunts who pronounce the texts, dance, play Beethoven ... When I am not ashamed that they are forced to earn their bread in this way. After all, they are someone's fathers, sons, maybe loved ones. "(From an interview with the 2009 Russian Reporter)

"We are now counting money in the movie. It is on this occasion that Putin said:" This is both business and art. "Here they remembered the first half. Well, on this line - the line of business - maybe we have gone a revival. And along the line of art ... At Lenfilm studio, Tregubovich shot the film" In the War as in War ", the Averbas -" Fantasy Pharyvyev "," Alien letters ", Aranovich - Aranovich - Aranovich - Aranovich - Aranovich - Aranovic "Torpedo bombers" and "summer trip to the sea", I made some of my paintings, there were directors on the way ... This was the revival what picture can you put now next to these films? " (From an interview with RIA Novosti 2008)

“Together [people] never opposed it. Together they always cowardly and betrayed each other. When I took off“ My friend Ivan Lapshin ”, a huge number of people that I considered my friends ceased to say hello. I remember how Svetlana and I (the director - publicpost) were always alone. I do not want anyone, but what was, and this memory was in my death.” (From an interview with the 2009 Russian Reporter)

“I was somehow confused by the age of 70. All my thoughts about life are now consisting of banalities. Suppose, I realized that all those poets who wrote“ Life rustled like your dress ”, or“ as if I had a spring with a swinging, ”or even more deafening type“ Life passed like the Azores, ”that they were all right yesterday and I came from yesterday and I came from yesterday and I came from yesterday and I came from yesterday. He threw the briefcase, my father was dying and wheezing yesterday, and I, a young man of twenty -eight years, sat under the door, and then said: everything. " (From an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda 2008)

“Not seeing this world, I couldn’t take anything away. I discovered not only for myself - for many this keyhole, which can be spied on without being there. I have all the films made on the principle of a keyhole. I was always most interesting to me. Even then I understood that either a keyhole or fellini; he is a fiction, he is a fairy tale. Or“ The throne is in my blood. ”Or my favorite director. Bergman ". (From an interview with Anton Valley 2008)

This "prayer of an elderly man" hangs in a frame in the house of Alexei German. She went to him in the inheritance from his father, and his father - from his friend Daniil Danin.

"Lord, you know better than me that I will grow up soon. Keep me from a fatal habit that I must say something for any reason ... Save me from the desire to interfere in everyone’s affairs to improve something. Let me be thoughtful, but not a bore. Useful, but not a despot. Protect me from the temptation to outline endless details. Give me my goals. I want to talk about the diseases, when you have a brilliant lesson, proving that I can be mistaken ... If I could be cordial, I am saving this ability, I am not going to turn into a saint: other people are unbearable in close communication. Waiting for, and recognize unexpected talents in other people. "

The path of Herman

Film director Alexei German - the eldest passed away at the age of 75. The author of the films "My Friend Ivan Lapshin", "Khrustalev, the car!", One of the favorite directors of Andrei Tarkovsky, a man who was apologized to the Cannes critics, and the father of directed by Alexei German - the youngest.

The German Sr. was born on July 20, 1938 in the then Leningrad in a creative family: his father Yuri German was a writer. In 1960 he graduated from the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. Four years later, he becomes the second director, and then the director of the Lenfilm.

The director of German Sr. was the directorial debut of the Sr. Roads (1971-1985), shot from the story of his father Yuri German “Happy New Year!” With Rolan Bykov in the title role. The film was successful: in 1988, the German Sr. received the USSR State Propertia for the directing. Even earlier, in 1976, the second film of German German was released “Twenty days without a war” (according to the story of Konstantin Simonov), the main roles in the film were played by such stars of Soviet cinema, such as Yuri Nikulin, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Lia Akhedzhakova and even Konstantin Simonov himself.

The next two films made German Sr. as a director of not only all-Soviet, but also a global scale. In 1984, "My Friend Ivan Lapshin" was released on the screens, and again according to the story of Father Alexei Yuri Herman. Work on the film was not easy: only the script was rewritten by the director itself several times. The plot was based on the story of the head of the criminal investigation department of the city of UNCHANSK Ivan Lapshin in the 1930s. “There were two possible paths - to make an adventure film and make a film about a love triangle,” said Alexei German later. “We did not choose one or this one, mixed both directions - the main thing for us was not a detective intrigue, not a love story, but we did the film about it. It was our most important and most difficult task.” The film received awards of international film festivals in Locarno and Rotterdam.

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, the film is not everyone with enthusiasm. The German Sr. said later: "At the first show in the house of the movie, glass was beaten, the doors were broken out, my head was broken." The film was first released only in 7 copies and German Sr. had to go to Andropov himself so that he would give the go-ahead for mass rental.

"Khrustalev, car!" -The last film by German Sr., who was released in 1998. The historical film about the last days of the Stalin era was shot according to the script of Herman Sr. and his wife Svetlana Karmalita. One of the most important scenes in the film - the death of Stalin - starred in the near dacha, where Stalin actually survived his last hours. The film was shot for 7 years. In particular, because the shooting was not always located. Initially, American investors were supposed to finance the film, however, after they demanded that the American actor play Stalin, the German Sr. refused their financial assistance.

The picture had a difficult fate: during the show in Cannes, the tape was almost booed. In Japan, the film was crazy success. Subsequently, French critics apologized to Herman Sr. Kinocritic Andrei Plakhov still predicted that "Khrustalev, car!" "It will take its place in the history of cinema as the most personal and toughest film of an outstanding director."

The Herman Sr. himself answered all the disputes about the film as follows : "A shock from another cinema will pass and it will become clear that this is a tragicomedy about our life: as Gogol wrote, as Beckett writes."

Alexei German - the eldest passed away, never having time to release his last film in a wide rental - it is difficult to be a god "based on the same story by the Strugatsky brothers. The production of the picture began in 1999. The film was ready in 2008 and even shown in a closed session. Then critics compared the picture in power with Andrei Rublev Tarkovsky. Everyone was waiting for the film in 2011, but it never released. In an interview in the same 2011, he said that the film will appear on the screens in the next, 2012.

In 2012, the director’s condition worsened sharply. In November 2012, he had an operation to remove intracranial hematomas formed after the fall. After the operation, he fell ill with pneumonia. The press received reports that pneumonia managed to cure, but they were followed by news about the deterioration of the health of German Sr..

On February 21, the son of German, the oldest film director Alexei German-the youngest announced the death of his father: "Father lived his life with dignity. He did not betray his ideals. He did not sell. He did not change himself to vanity. I believe that he went to the best world."

In the Lenfilm pavilion, on the set of a movie based on the Brothers Strugatsky’s book, it is difficult to be a god. ” Photo: ITAR-TASS