The last feat of the scout

Why is the film of statesman Vladimir Bortko "The Soul of the Spy" was unclaimed by the state television channel

Text: Alena Solntseva

Daniil Spivakovsky (left) as a fracture of Yujin

The film "The Soul of the Spy", shot by the director and deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party Vladimir Bortko, has already been released and seemed to fail. In the first, the most “fat” weekend, only 2618 spectators looked at him, and the box office was $ 12,941, which was sad, given that the film itself cost $ 10 million.

But Bortko was warned.

The flight of producers

At the beginning of 2012, Vladimir Borto, known for his television ribbons “Dog Heart”, “Idiot” and “Master and Margarita”, as well as the films “Taras Bulba” and “Blonde around the corner”, began filming the film based on the novel by ex-reconnaissance Mikhail Lyubimov “And Hell followed him”. This book was popular in the early 1990s, but Bortko did not know about it then, but then he read it-and he liked it.

$ 7 million. Bortko from the Film Foundation was received by the TRITE Studio Nikita Mikhalkov, 2 million was invested by the State TV channel "Russia-1", the script was agreed, counted on the Cinnation and a mini-series. But when the film was shot and mounted, producers ... refused to show it. “I finished shooting in September 2013, after which I heard:“ Let's make no one to see your movie, ”Bortko was indignant. - The official version: the film is so bad that he, as they say, "does not correspond to your level, Vladimir Vladimirovich." Bortko did not believe such an explanation and put forward his version: “Given the profession of our president, responsible people, apparently, were frightened that he would not like the image of the intelligence officer that we created with my co -author Mikhail Lyubimov.”

And Bortko began to fight for the exit of his picture. He showed it in the State Duma and the Ministry of Culture, where the Minister of Medinsky, refusing to comment on the quality of the work, announced that "did not see" political "obstacles to the performance by producers of" his contract obligations to rent a picture. " Nevertheless, the producers said they were taking their names from the credits.

Bortko managed to get to the governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko, who, according to the director, “is related to everything that happens on the screen. He liked the film, he wanted to convey it to the highest face. I don’t know whether he watched him or not, but something suddenly changed magically. ” The Lenfilm film studio took the picture and released it.

“Let's make no one to see your movie,” Bortko was indignant. - The official version: the film is so bad that it, as they say, "does not correspond to your level, Vladimir Vladimirovich"

The name of Mikhalkov and references to the channel "Russia" in the credits really. Bortko surprises: “This is a mystery. According to my speeches, in my life - I have nothing to do with the liberal part of society, I am an absolute statesman and can not do anything that, in my opinion, would harm our homeland. Another thing is that this is a non -standard view of the work of a scout, in the colloquial of a spy. This is a production drama. ”

Borto is used to thinking simply, so the romantic image of the spy, created by Mikhail Lyubimov, entered into his insurmountable contradiction with the idea of ​​the new nature of the no longer the Soviet state: “The work of the spy is connected with the fact that a person is lying, deceiving, falsifying documents, killing - this is his work. When Stirlitz did it, there was no doubt. On the one hand - absolute evil, fascism, on the other - good. And now not everything is so clear. What the main character does is doubt, so I was interested in this topic. ” The main character of his film finds an excuse: “I act for ideological reasons, the old man. I can, ”he explains his behavior. But the question remains: what are the ideological considerations? And then Bortko does not find a quick answer. As the hero’s colleague says in the very first frames: “Our work is to lie, deceive. Why do you need all this? For this pile of thieves? " But Bortko does not develop a topic about a “bunch of thieves”. He is only interested in the moral aspect: “How courage, courage are connected with meanness and baseness?”

Sandrin Brnner and Malcolm MacDowell played foreigners recruited by Russian intelligence

Mikhail Efremov appears in a short episode in the role of a great boss

Playing spies

Surprises the level of ideas about the life of the scout. At the author of the film, he is the most teenage, so they played in the yard in spies. Just on the song of Vysotsky “A Parody of a Bad Detective”: “Would you want cherries?” You will answer: "Of course." He will give you a bud with explosives - you will bring me a loaf. ”

The film, which caused, according to Borto, such passions in the top leadership of the country, tells the rather muddy story of the Russian intelligence officer Alex Wilka, who for some reason should go to the side of the CIA in order to find out who merges important information about Russia to the Americans. And so he calls the American resident, agrees on the meeting, undergoes a test on a lie detector and performs tasks in the hope that they will begin to trust him. At the same time, it occurs on the streets with agents, gives them encryption in matchboxes, draws signs on poles with chalk, drinks and deceives women a lot.

If Borto were actually interested in the life of intelligence, he could ask the co -author - Mikhail Lyubimov tells about the real everyday life of Soviet intelligence officers as a boring and unpertured series of routine worries: “A lot of time is spent on checks, people fall away, then they fall away, you look for them, look for them ... and Moscow is looking for, and they say: and Moscow is Zhmet, says. Wow, guys, that you are not making connections, you need more information. Therefore, the fact that in James Bond is all nonsense. "

However, Bortko chooses Andrei Chernyshov for the role of the main character of the handsome man and the “most mattled macho”, puts him at the bar, on the yacht, behind the wheel of a luxurious car, puts his beautiful girl on his knees, lets him walk along the streets of London, Montreo, Cairo, that is, does not deny herself spectacular pictures and expensive business trips. Here you are explosions, and revolvers, and a real English parliamentarian (in this role - Malcolm MacDauwell), who believes more in communism than in European values. So the hero of the “soul of a spy” is the most romantic character, but it’s not completely clear what he is doing, what he is doing and why.

Andrei Chernoshov played in the "soul of a spy" the protagonist Alex Wilki

Creating a myth is very difficult, it is not possible for one artist, if he is at least seven spans in the forehead. This is the result of great efforts to loosen national cultural soil. Spy cinema is a specific genre with its laws, with us it was popular in those days when the word “foreign” meant “very attractive”. And now it doesn’t work out. After all, not only Borto’s film, but also a well -promised “spy” by the novel Boris Akunin, who shot a talented debutant Alexei Andrianov with the same Trithi company and the Rossiya channel in 2012, failed in 2012.

In the USSR, the country of the harsh military, there was a perfect spy - Stirlitz, a deeply Soviet person in German stylish form. Once happily found by Tatyana Lioznova, the silent, restrained, impeccable-non-nordal officer became a reference way, in almost the Soviet answer of Bond.

However, this is interesting. Now Bond is no longer the same, he is played by the completely unknown Daniel Craig, and now Agent 007 drinks undiluted whiskey and works not so much on the Mi-5 as for himself. At the same time, the last film of the franchise “007: the coordinates of Skyfall raised a record amount at the world box office - $ 1.1 billion. It watched it well in Russia. But to imagine a film with a changing Stirlitz, to be honest, is difficult.

What happened? Manufacturers of the film “The Soul of the Spy”, relying on Bortko’s reputation, did not read the script and wept, only when they saw the finished picture? Or is something changed in the process of working on the film? For example, Russia has annexed Crimea and changed the vector of state ideology

Unforeseen losses

In Borto’s film there is little charm, common sense and many inconsistencies, but all this was present in the script approved by partners - the TRITE studio Nikita Mikhalkov and the leaders of the Russia channel, when the decision was made to launch in 2012. Moreover, not only the film companies themselves read the script and approved it, but the experts of the Film Foundation considered it quite acceptable. And they allocated funds not only on a non -refundable basis, but also returned - subject to profit. That is, it was assumed that the profit would be.

It happens that the film shot turns out to be much worse than the script, but how should the director distort the source material so that experienced producers at the end of the filming come to inhuman horror and demanded to bury the picture?

Films that the TRITE studio regularly receives a lot of money is often not in demand by the public. You can recall the dilogy “Tired of the Sun-2”, and “Spy”, and “House”, after which the studio was called the leader in losses. Only the "Legend number 17" went well. But the studio has not yet refused any unprofitable picture.

So what happened? Manufacturers of the film “The Soul of the Spy”, relying on Bortko’s reputation, did not read the script and wept, only when they saw the finished picture? Or is something changed in the process of working on the film? For example, Russia annexed Crimea and changed the vector of state ideology. And here it is not to the spies, who call the power of the “bunch of thieves” and say to each other: “We work for those who work for them, and nothing will happen to them, and they will pass you without hesitation, you know very well.” Maybe that's why the producers decided to sacrifice budget money?

However, the message about the upcoming mini-series “The Soul of the Spy” is still hanging on the TRITE website, if this is not accidentally forgotten the announcement. Bortko said that instead of the planned four, he had to leave only two episodes, hardly contrived at the request of the channel. Two series for $ 10 million are a very wide gesture for Russian cinema rising from the knees.