On October 24, the Bazelevs company will release the comedy “Bitter!”, which tells about the attempt of a young couple from Gelendzhik to organize the wedding of their dreams. The film was shot in a pseudo-documentary style - everything that happens is allegedly recorded by a camera held by the groom's younger brother. According to the traditions of the genre, the film stars mostly unknown actors. The only face well known to film and television viewers is Sergei Svetlakov. In "Bitter!" he plays himself: according to the plot, the father of the bride invites Svetlakov to the wedding as a toastmaster.

Before the release of the comedy “Bitter!” to the screens Sergei Svetlakov spoke with Lenta.ru about burning brides, camels at a wedding and the broad Russian soul.

“Lenta.ru”: One gets the impression that the advertising campaign for the film “Gorko!” in some sense misinforms the viewer. For example, a poster with these pink petals, the slogan “The main thing is not to get drunk,” suggesting such purely Russian fun, the description of the picture is comedy and adventure. And this also applies to the trailer , albeit to a lesser extent. It's quite cleverly edited and doesn't give much of an idea of the film. Was this done on purpose? Did you set this goal for yourself - not to let the viewer have an idea in advance of what he was going into?

Sergey Svetlakov: The goal was to bring the viewer to the cinema, naturally. And the second point is to make sure that the audience does not leave disappointed, no matter for what reason they came to the show. It seems to me that we can do both. Therefore, it would probably be dishonest to say and write that this is a film about the fate of Russia. And the campaign - you can’t say about it that this is an absolute lie, these are all stills from the film. They simply reflect one of the directions of the film: to a greater extent we show the humorous component of the entertainment called “Bitter!” And the viewer will understand that this is not just a farce, but a real movie, when he comes to the cinema.

Your movie is not humorous, but rather satirical.

Well, that's up to you as the viewer to decide.

So you don't agree that the film turned out to be quite evil?

No I do not agree. He would be angry if we chose one of the positions. After all, two planets meet in the film. One planet is 85 percent of the people living in our country, the other is the remaining 15. Although, probably, even less - 5 percent versus 95. And the filmmakers do not accept any point of view, they say, you are philistines, and you - rich bastards. They look at it all from the outside and give the viewer the opportunity to understand and find something of their own. Understand that we need to do something new, unite people...

When you talk about two different parties, who do you mean? One side is the groom's low-income relatives, the other is the nouveau riche from the bride's family?

No, I don’t draw the line that way, but divide the characters according to age. There is an idea among young people about what a holiday is, what that very moment of happiness should be like. And there are ideas about this from the older generation, supported by traditions and some obligations to society...

So this is a film about how some conventional hipsters with their stupid dreams are defeated by Grigory Leps’ song “Natalie” ?

No, the fight continues. There is no unconditional victory, but there is a feeling of some kind of eternal draw. There is no way to say for sure: these are wrong, these are right, this is how you should do it.

Nevertheless, unity comes precisely on the basis of the collective performance of “Natalie”.

No, in fact, on the basis of the broad Russian soul. All-understanding, all-encompassing, all-forgiving and slightly enhanced by alcohol.

A little?

Well, in some cases a little, in some - a lot, but this is our mentality and ineradicability, when everything should be broad and like the last time.

If there is a little something in the film, it is morality, but it still exists: love your parents, no matter what they are.

Yes, of course it is.

That is, to some extent, the older generation won, right? “You love us , no matter what we are. We are sometimes boors and philistines, but you love us and they don’t care.”

Not certainly in that way. The children themselves are good, but they do not offer any sensible compromise solutions. The moral is this: respect your parents, try to unite, make contact. Lies always give rise to catastrophic consequences: a burning veil, a dad with a microphone in the sea... It turns out that children also insulted their parents.

This burning veil, by the way, seems to me to be too much. Well, that is, it’s absolutely not funny, it seems to me.

These are our Russian extremes: first we laugh, then the person is on fire and we are no longer laughing, then we laugh again and hug, then we go with a gun at the person, and half an hour later we sit with him and drink - such a purely Russian confusion in emotions. And this sets us apart from everyone else. We live by instincts, we don’t have any concepts embedded in us, there are only here and now.

And also about the burning veil - this is a fact of life, I personally saw it.

Wait a minute, did you see the burning bride?

Yes, yes, I saw the burning bride.

In general, do you often have to perform the same functions in life as in the film “Bitter!”? Well, that is, how often are you invited as a guest of honor to weddings and other events?

Yes, this is a common practice: not a month goes by without several offers being received, sometimes within the country, sometimes abroad. The question here is different: someone lives by this, and someone, like me now, is moving away from it. For now I'm somewhere in the middle. That is, I still agree to some things, but there are fewer weddings in my life, at most one every six months. I began to approach this scrupulously, and this is no longer my main income.

Okay, the veil was burning, but something else was happening, comparable in scale to the events from the film “Bitter!”?

Well, there were things that you can’t talk about at all...

Tell us what you can.

So, I say, the veil was on fire... At one wedding in Monaco, a 73-year-old old man at the end of the evening decided to show his young wife his ideal sports form. I tried to do a backflip. Of course, a triple fracture, so the bones stood up like in a game of towns. There was also a wedding in Dubai, in the desert. There, instead of walls, there were camels tied together. I was shocked, although I knew these people, I knew what they were capable of. But then it turned out that 50 people were buried under us: all the tables were on people who were breathing through tubes disguised as flowers. At some point, during the dance, they all jumped out from under the sand like ninjas...

There were, of course, weddings where people were completely at odds with alcohol, and it all ended in banal fights.

By the way, did you drink during filming? They say a drunk can't play drunk.

One time a double suddenly started, and I accidentally took not the usual bottle with tea, but the one next to it with real cognac. I had to pour it and drink it. But there was no getting into character with the help of alcohol, everyone just played drunk. We drank lightly, for the sake of the surroundings, because we had to dance a lot...

Still from the film “Bitter!” 15

You don’t only star in films about drinking and dancing. For example, in “Bedouin” you had a role - and this is quite a drama.

I do things that interest me, not for money, but simply because I want to. Most people don’t know about many things, like the filming of “Bedouin.” Besides the fact that I am friends with Igor Voloshin ( director of “Bedouin” - Lenta.ru’s note ), I sincerely believe in the good intentions associated with this film. I think the questions it raises are important. That’s why I decided to help in any way I can.

At the same time, you probably understood that no even conditionally successful distribution fate awaited this picture. Why do you think such a hopeless situation is developing with Russian dramas?

My guess is that these dramas are simply so similar to real life that no one wants to watch what happens in them. Everyone wants fairy tales and entertainment. At least in the movies, let us see how it happens, lift our spirits and color our lives. We know how to shoot beautifully, we have good actors, but people are disappointed in the films.

TV projects with your participation are invariably successful. What do you think is the reason? Well, that is, the sketch “Our Russia” is already 7 years old...

Well, yes, but we haven’t filmed for two and a half years, now there are reruns. But they give the same numbers, that is, the project is alive. The Comedy Club program on TNT is ten years old; this year the anniversary was celebrated at a festival in Jurmala.

I believe that the main reason for success is a talented team of people. I in no way consider myself part of this and generally don’t want to compliment anyone in particular. I'm talking about the whole group of people to which I am involved - and I am happy that I also work with them. The second is creative luck, probably related to the time in which we live. We are now at the crossroads of generations, so to speak: one generation, to which I also consider myself, was born in the USSR, the other is in modern Russia. There is a huge difference between them: in their upbringing, in the kind of childhood they had. Young people have different values.

What the Comedy Club does is understandable and interesting to both. Some understand, others remember. We reach exactly the same TNT audience - “14-44”. Perhaps in the future there will be projects with a narrower theme, designed for a specific audience...

But you yourself say that the audience is tired of reality on the screen, they want a fairy tale. And the comedy programs listed just reflect reality. In a humorous way, of course, but this is our reality, you can’t escape it. Why doesn’t Comedy Club make you feel more tired?

Well, because in the show everything ends well, unlike in real life. We show all situations in a humorous manner, with a positive attitude, with some kind of invented, cheerful, optimistic ending. That is, we do not have a tragedy at the end, this is the difference from real life, in which, as a rule, all these situations do not end very happily. The guys from Tagil, who party at the hotel shouting “Tagil!”, end up in some hospitals after jumping from the ninth floor. And here he will jump from the ninth floor and survive. Because they are all our superheroes.

"An all-forgiving soul, fortified with alcohol"