Moscow will say goodbye to the director on December 2

Farewell to Eldar Ryazanov will take place on December 2 at the Eldar film club, a source close to the director’s family told Interfax. The time and place of the funeral will be announced later. Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy answered questions from Kommersant FM host Svetlana Tokareva.

Photo: Evgeny Pavlenko, Kommersant / buy photo

The famous director and screenwriter passed away at the age of 89. The cause of death of the People's Artist of the USSR was acute heart failure. During his life, Eldar Ryazanov made several dozen films, including “Carnival Night”, “Cruel Romance”, “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath”, “Office Romance”.

— Eldar Aleksandrovich, with all his regalia, achievements and popularity, always spoke very modestly about himself, he said that he went into fashion many times, went out of it, never did anything to be fashionable, while every film of his until now since then we have been loved by moviegoers. Why do you think? How did he manage to always hit the mark and feel his viewer so subtly?

— Eldar Aleksandrovich, for all his modesty, I will now say, perhaps, a pompous phrase, lived the life of the country. He lived the life of the Soviet people, each person individually. His first films coincided with a time when the country was gaining a new breath, a new mood. “Carnival Night” is the beginning of the thaw, this is the time when people learned to live without fear. All his life, no matter what he filmed, he explained to all of us that we shouldn’t be afraid to live, we shouldn’t be afraid of ourselves, we shouldn’t be afraid to be at peace with ourselves, because no matter how hard you try to break yourself, change yourself, come up with some kind of... then a different fate for yourself, all the same, you will either return to yourself, or you will lose yourself forever.

For all his refined and subtle wit, he was a very vital person, he accepted this life in all its intricacies and understood that it is extremely dangerous for a person to change himself. In this sense, as one heroine of a wonderful play said to herself: “I am a contemporary, I keep pace with myself.” Eldar Aleksandrovich kept pace with himself, so he always hit surprisingly sensitive points in our modern life. He was an absolutely outstanding film director, a great film director, this can be firmly said, he worked with many great masters, who also exist. If there is a promised heaven, then they will all meet there, with Emil Braginsky, with whom he collaborated as a screenwriter in his happiest years, with Oleg Efremov, with Evgeny Evstigneev, with Andrei Mironov. He was a great director who knew how the people and the country lived. And this is very important.

— Do you think it is possible to assess his contribution to the culture of our country as a whole?

“His contribution was great and limitless. He was a great, among other things, comforter - he consoled our country and all of us in the most difficult years. He said: “Guys, you’re not sad at all, everything will be fine in the end.” And this is true, because, like all great directors, he always knew that good would triumph over evil, and this simple thing, a simple thought was very important to him.

“Now, as we understand, statements will be made to perpetuate the memory of Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov. Do you think he would support this idea?

— I don’t know, Eldar Aleksandrovich was a really modest person, but his memory has already been immortalized, because quotes from his films have become part of our everyday life. We remember all his wonderful works, and the New Year without “The Irony of Fate” is not the New Year, and the New Year without “Carnival Night” is also not the New Year. And when we think about ourselves, we remember all his paintings. I think he is worthy of any kind of memorialization, so maybe the street is named after him, or maybe something else. But that's not the point at all. His paintings will live, we will look at them, and our children and grandchildren will look at them. And this is the most important memory for a master like him.

— Mikhail Efimovich, where and how did you personally intersect and collaborate with him?

- I did not collaborate, this is too strong a word, we met when I worked at the Theater magazine, about 40 years ago, when the intermediary between him and us was mainly Emil Braginsky, when we published plays, and many film scripts that became films were originally plays. That’s when we met Eldar Aleksandrovich, and it so happened that we never lost sight of each other all our lives. He was an amazing person and very touching in friendship, and reverent in all respects. I think that his family life was not easy, but in the last decade, fortunately, it turned out very successfully.

“Eldar Ryazanov was a great comforter”