"House with Tower": Karlovar Prize

Director Eva Neumann in an interview with Dmitry Volchek (2012)

Fragment from the program of Dmitry Volchek "July Films" (2012).

Dmitry Volchek : In Karlovy Vary there is a contest “East of the West”, films from the post -Soviet world participate in it. There were no Russian paintings this year, and the main award was received by the film by Ukrainian director Eve Neumann “House with a turret” based on the famous autobiographical story Friedrich Gorenstein about the boy, whose mother gets on the train in 1943 and dies in a provincial hospital. This is the second film of Eva Neumann on Gorenstein’s prose - five years ago the picture “At the River” was released based on the story “Old Woman”. The main role in the “House with the Bashenka” was perfectly played by eight -year -old Dmitry Kobetskaya, Ekaterina Golubeva starred as his mother: this is one of the last works of the actress who committed suicide in 2011.

Announcer: “The boy was poorly distinguished by his faces, they were all the same and inspired him with fear. He perched in the corner of the car, at the head of the mother, who was in the downy beret and coat, buttoned to the throat, lay on the knots. Someone in the dark said:
- We will suffocate here, as in the murderer. She goes under herself all the time ... in the end, here are children ...
The boy hastily took out the mittens and began to rub the puddle along the floor of the car.
- Why are you stubborn? The man asked. - Your mother is sick. She will be put to the hospital and cured. And in the train she can die ...
“We must get,” the boy said in despair, “a grandfather will meet us there.”
But he understood that at the next station they would certainly be planted.
Mother said something and smiled.
- What are you? The boy asked.
But the mother did not answer, she looked past him and quietly hummed some motive.
“A terrible voice,” they sighed in the dark.
“Nothing terrible,” snapped the boy. - You have terrible ...
Dawn. The small windows of the commodity wagon turned blue, and the tops of telegraphic pillars began to slip in them. The boy did not sleep all night, and now that the voices were quiet, he took his mother’s hot hand with both hands and closed his eyes. He fell asleep right away, and he was gently shaken and tapped his back against the plank wall of the car. He also woke up immediately, from someone else's touch to his cheek.
The train stood. The door of the car was open, and the boy saw that four men were carrying his mother on a stretcher through the path. He jumped down on the gravel of the railway embankment, and ran after.
Men carried a stretcher, raising high and putting on their shoulders, and the mother swayed indifferently to the beat of their steps.
It was an early, cold morning, ordinary frost in these steppe places without snow, and the boy stumbled several times about stones frozen to the ground.
People walked along the platform, some turned around, looked, and some guy, five years older than the boy, asked him with curiosity:
- Did you die?
“I got sick,” the boy answered, “this is my mother.”
The guy looked at him with fright and walked away. ”

Dmitry Volchek: “The House with the Tower” is the only story of Friedrich Gorenstein, published in the USSR before the cancellation of censorship. I remember the number of the Yunost magazine in 1964 with this publication: my literature teacher kept it on a special shelf next to the release of the New World, where “One Day of Ivan Denisovich” was printed, and Baikal magazine with excerpts from the book of Arkady Belinkov about Yuri Olesha. I asked Eve Neumann when she first read this story.

Eva Neumann: I bought a book, and when I opened it, the first story in this book was a “House with a Tower”. This was the first volume of the three -volume. I found only one volume of the writer in the “Bukinist” who was very praised to me.

Dmitry Volchek: The Word Publishing House is the first edition.

Eva Neumann: Absolutely.

Dmitry Volchek : But you live in Germany, so you probably met with Gorinstein himself?

Eva Neumann : Yes. I met him shortly before his death.

Dmitry Volchek : But did not discuss the plans of the films on his stories?

Eva Neumann : discussed. We even started working on the film “At the River” according to his stories “Old Woman” and “Conversation”. We started working, then he was very ill, he was gone, his work was then continued by the screenwriter Sergey quarter. And about the “house with the turret” we also said, he recommended that I do not start with him, but first remove the “old women”.

Dmitry Volchek: He planned to make this film himself with Tarkovsky, with Klepikov. Please tell us about the history of the relationship between this story with cinema.

Eva Neumann: You see, many came to him, and something such did not work out. For some reason, it so happened that the material, it turns out, was waiting for me. What I'm very happy about. I knew that there was a scenario of “House with a turret”, I was looking for and, in the end, found it with Yuri Nikolayevich Klepikov. They wrote the script with Gorenstein, this was to be the debut directorial work of Klepikov himself. Then it did not pass, and it was so traumatic for Klepikov that he even abandoned the idea of being a director, and remained a screenwriter. That's all I know about it. I read the script, but I did not use it.

Dmitry Volchek: Why?

Eva Neumann: He didn't suit me.

Dmitry Volchek : How does it differ from your script?

Eva Neumann : everyone differs. I tried to adhere to the Gorenstean drama, it was for me such a light in the window. Because when you begin to analyze everything in this story, you understand that this is an absolute and perfect form. I understood this and tried to adhere to it. Thus, the story helped me. Once upon a time, Gorinstein himself said: “Do not think about your own scenario, it is better to adapt, this will give you more space for your creativity.” I obeyed his advice, and it seems to me that this is more suitable for me.

Dmitry Volchek: That is, he didn’t even offer you to see his script? Did you find it by chance?

Eva Neumann: He did not even have this scenario. Or maybe there was. In any case, then I turned to his son, no one knew where the script was. I hardly got to Klepikov, he, thank you very much, gave him to read. But the script did not go.

Dmitry Volchek: Maybe the fact is that he adapted him for Soviet cinema with some censorship thoughts?

Eva Neumann: As it seemed to me, not without that. They really wanted the film to go. The script is not as perfect as the story itself.

Dmitry Volchek: Do you know anything about Tarkovsky’s plan to make this film?

Eva Neumann : Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about this. I only know that Tarkovsky was going, he had an idea, but not himself “a house with a turret”, but supposedly, a continuation. But, frankly, I don’t really know anything, and Gorenstein himself did not reveal this secret to me.

Dmitry Volchek : When you worked on the film, did not hang the shadow of Tarkovsky over you? ! Here Tarkovsky would take it off like that!. When you think that Tarkovsky was going to do this, this is a very strong psychological pressure, no?

Eva Neumann: No. Enough your own internal pressure, this is also not an easy test. That is, pressure is already enough. But the fact that there is Tarkovsky, Klepikov ...

Dmitry Volchek: But you studied with Kira Muratova.

Eva Neumann: No, this is not true. I studied at the German movie academy, I had a practice at Kira, sat and watched it shot “secondary people”. What did you want to say?

Dmitry Volchek: Your admiration for Kira Muratova is noticeable in this film - there are her images, her manner of building a dialogue, for example.

Eva Neumann: I understand, you want to say to me, and I very often hear it that I am such a copy, but more and more, Kira Muratova.

Dmitry Volchek : No, in any case.

Eva Neumann: Plagiat - I heard that too. You see, I am younger than Kira Muratova for 40 years. It so happened that I was born later. But she is one director, she shot many films, she is a recognized master of cinema, by the way, I am very respected and revered, and I am another director, I am at the beginning of the journey. But then - Muratova, and this is Neumann, it is Tarkovsky, and this is Vasya Pupkin. I don’t know if it seems to you that the manner is similar, this is better for you.

Dmitry Volchek : But there is absolutely nothing bad in this, this is wonderful.

Eva Neuman: I don’t see anything wonderful in this, I don’t see this at all, especially since I am far from the assessment of what I do not see.

Dmitry Volchek : But are these repeating dialogs Muratov?

Eva Neumann: This is not Muratov. You mean, probably, when men talk and repeat all the time. The fact is that this is a father and son. The son always speaks only like that, these are my friends, these are no actors. The son always says: “Thank you, good, nothing, thank you ...”. Dad always asks: "How are you?" If you ask him how you are doing, he says: “And how?” That is, I wrote off from the life of these living people. Moreover, my son starred in my film “near the river” with an absolutely identical text. I think that this young man cannot say another text, and he is pretty to me.

Dmitry Volchek: You said that the theme of this story is very important to you and the history of the 40s itself. It seems to me that this is a story about Soviet divided. Plus, of course, Gorenstein always has a very strong Christian motive. How do you formulate the theme of this story for yourself?

Eva Neumann: For me, the theme of this story is a longing for something native, longing for warm, and most clearly this longing is noticeable when something is very oppressing you. During the war, such harsh circumstances, such a terrible life, are all strangers, very strangers, and very cold, and so you yearn for your native one, you want to go home so much, so you want to go to mom. This is the main thing for me.

Dmitry Volchek: The last phrase of the film - “Will this never end?” What is this about?

Eva Neumann : About a nightmare, which is around during the war, about these human suffering.

Dmitry Volchek: This is not necessarily a war. Soviet life was like that.

Eva Neumann: Soviet life was different, and there were people who were happy, I even know such. There were definitely people who loved who gave birth to children who had life like life, but such conditions of the game were. I am not inclined to go into such political things, I look at things more chamber.

Dmitry Volchek : But Gorenstein thought about this, about this Soviet mutation.

Eva Neumann: This is true, he thought about it. But I'm not Gorenstein.

Dmitry Volchek: “Psalm” About this.

Eva Neumann: “Psalm” is about everything. But I am not excited by the theme of the Soviet Union, but by something human. When I make a movie, I try to create my world, dear to me, my dear. But there is a lot of effort and time, this means that for a long time I have to be in this state, and things such as indignation by the Soviet Union, System or something else do not excite me for a long time.

Dmitry Volchek: You shot in Odessa. What attracts you to the Odessa atmosphere? Gorenstein is Berdichev ....

Eva Neumann : Gorenstein is not only Berdichev. Gorenstein is Gorenstein, and I am me. And I really love Gorenstein, I still think that this is one of the greatest authors in the literature of all time. I admire them, but this does not mean that I have absolutely identical views on everything with him.
I love Odessa, I have my life, I had my own childhood, my feelings, my relatives, my own family story, my attitude. Gorenstein was much older than me, when I met him, I was 26, and he was 69. Therefore, of course, we have different attitude. The fact that he had to survive, thank God, did not happen, so I cannot appreciate the entire scale. I don't know these experiences. But, in any case, he has one very grateful reader in my face.

Dmitry Volchek : In mine too. How did you find this house with a turret? Is this also some kind of house that is important for you?

Eva Neumann : This is a decoration. And we built the decoration, in general, it corresponds to my performance, and, among other things, it had to hide something. For technical reasons, she came out the way she came out, and I really like her.

Dmitry Volchek: This is a house of dreams, a house, in which he could not enter, and in which he would like to live.

Eva Neumann: And this house, which we see, is the house of my dreams. I don’t know what dream was Gorenstein, but this house of my dreams, it seems to me that there is some kind of secret in this house, and the image of this house is something very dear to me.

Dmitry Volchek: Is this the last role of Golubeva?

Eva Neumann: No. After filming in my film, she still played somewhere.

Dmitry Volchek: How did you choose her for this role? She starred quite little.

Eva Neumann: She starred little, but the fact is that I worked with the operator Rimvidas Leipus, and he once shot Bartas, and when we were looking for a mother, he remembered such an actress. We invited her, she arrived, and we came to each other.

Dmitry Volchek: She watched the materials of the film, was interested in his fate?

Eva Neumann : She starred, then once again came to sound. The film was not ready yet, it only voiced her role. And soon she was gone.

Dmitry Volchek: A boy? How old is he?

Eva Neumann: He was eight then.

Dmitry Volchek: Incredibly difficult work for an eight -year -old boy.

Eva Neumann: Yes, a very difficult job. I admire them, I am proud of my little actor. I can only admit that the difference between Dima Kobetsky and the person whom we see on the screen is unimaginable, is a completely different person. Therefore, I am proud of myself too.

Dmitry Volchek: He saw the film?

Eva Neumann : No.

Dmitry Volchek: Will you show?

Eva Neumann: Of course!

Dmitry Volchek: What is the center of this film for you? Maybe there is some kind of scene or movement that you would call for yourself the central, key in the film, as in the architectural structure, design?

Eva Neumann: There is such a gesture there, it is repeated when the boy pats his mother on the arm. For some reason, when I see this, I rejoice. I did it consciously, these are not symbols, but I like this gesture, and every time I see it on the screen, this gesture pleases me.