Translated material
Alexey German (1938–2013)
Watching the films of Alexei Herman, I want to cut out a miracle, find the mechanism of influence. The undertaking is hopeless: in the formula of success, which includes obscure inspiration and more intelligible labor and sweat, there is certainly an irrational term - simply, secret. The sensation that arises from the first frames of Germanovsky cinema. Another “twenty days without war”, more “checks on the roads” are amenable to rational awareness: there is a shelf in the history of culture and your own hierarchy of values on which these things can be put. From the "Lapshin" starting-a clash with something superior to your idea: no, not about cinema, but about the possibilities of art in general.
Is the first, fourth time you look, about Lake, Khrustalev or Rumata (and I have seen twice not yet completed, but already mounted on the story of the Strugatsky brothers, “It is difficult to be a god”) - you will inevitably fall into a state of spellbound, obsession. Perhaps obsession is the most suitable word for describing the Herman phenomenon. The dreaming nature of cinema is unlikely to ever come out with such desperate and visual expressiveness. It is immersed in this without a trace, which, after sobering, seems incredible when on the screen there are ordinary household and historical events, without phantasmagoria. Where is this complete truthfulness of sleep, the acute horror of the nightmare, a heavy hangover awakening? I would like to look for an answer, although: why is the thunderstorm amazing, what is Bruegel enchanting, why is Hamlet mysterious?
For the first time in the "It is difficult to be a god" taking up the fantastic plot, Herman makes it so real that you move all into this reality. I saw the Czech castle of the volume before the arrival of Herman and with him. Up to the museum, under the - living dark centuries, where the guards are miserably drowned in a book of books, the torture wheels are spinning, the breeze swings the bunches of the hanged people, and the rain of the car on the fortress wall is blurring and erodes the mud imported and imported on dump trucks. As always, this director, the immersion is complete - because every movement is verified. Everything is reliable and convincing, as in a dream.
Perhaps there is a solution - in the frightening accuracy with which Herman shows us our dreams.
Still - into the relics with which this is done. Each time - a sense of helplessness in the selection of words, but is it possible to renew the earthquake? The genre is good - a review of a thunderstorm. Here: if comparisons arise, then with something natural, spontaneous.
Another question: how does he achieve this? How does he manage?
Incredible in complexity, the task was set earlier: to twist the life unfolded in an art narrative back into the ball. To get rid of the consistent presentation of events, because in reality it does not happen, in life they occur simultaneously, in parallel, at once, crawling and leaning on each other. The task was impossible: it is so impossible to squeeze the even sausage of toothpaste back into the tube. We will call the most outstanding attempts: in literature - the Joyce "Ulysses", in painting - Picasso, marriage, Filonov. It turned out: it is impossible to circumvent the obvious fact that on a sheet of paper the words and phrases are placed one after another, and not bullying in a bunch. It is impossible to neglect with the simple circumstance that the canvas of the picture is flat. Sopromat.
It is easier Herman: the movie allows you to combine the misansens, to lay out replicas. But here is his own sopromat: the German frame with anfiladus goes into infinity, and the eye cannot be covered by so many plans. The ear does not capture the polyphonic choir, although in life we somehow cope with the simultaneous sound of tram calls outside the window, rain on the cornice, television portion, hissing of a frying pan, wife’s voices and his own telephone conversation. We cope with this without noticing or discussing. But we get confused in the retelling of our dreams, feeling the powerlessness of the tongue.
Alexey German found such a language. I tried for us. And the fact that we sometimes do not understand him is our trouble, and not his fault. He invented, regardless of us. Let's enter the hall, sit down at the desks.
Alexey German - guest of the program of the RS "Face to face" (2003)
Freedom cinema - "Khrustalev, car!"