Cinema is not about rock

The music journalist Artem Lipatov watched the documentary of Evgeny Grigoryev “About Rock” with his son-18-year-old Daniel, who, like the heroes of this picture-Yekaterinburg rockers, plays in the group. The one saw inspired each of them to write his own review.

Artem Lipatov

A chance that burst, or a movie is not about rock

Chance!
He is not a pay, not an advance
It falls out only once.
Fortune is knocking on the door, and you
No at home.

Naum Ole

Former journalist, student of the directors of Viktor Man and Kirill Serebrennikov Uralets Evgeny Grigoryev in 2011 decided to make a film about the young generation of Yekaterinburg rock musicians, for which he made casting with the veterans of the Ural Rock and Roll-Vladimir Shahrin (Chayf), Alexander Pantykin (Urfin Giwus, “Cabinet”, etc.) and Sergey Bobunts (“Semloret Hallucinations”) - chose three groups. Immediately after that, due to the termination of financing, the filming of the film stopped, but Grigoryev did not retreat from the idea: he took a small loan, bought three video cameras, gave out to the musicians and went to look for money. And the groups began to shoot.

Actually, here the documentary “About Rock” begins, still going on the country's screens, fractionally, unsystematically, but its rental has not yet stopped. I watched him in the cinema hall of the Tretyakov Gallery, one of the most interesting film spaces of Moscow; For a session, the 18-year-old son and I were late for just a couple of minutes and were surprised by the penses of laughter rushing from the hall. “Probably, these are friends of those who starred in the film,” my son whispered to me while we made our way between the seats. But after about five minutes we laughed with the hall.

Three groups with funny and wild even names- the “City of Chekists” , Cosmic Latte , “Joe for themselves”-want more than they have, but some try to go to this more through the classic contract-producer scheme (in Russian, especially non-umoskovsky, conditions it does not work, despite all the rhetoric of the producers, which causes only bewilderment), the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter-the latter. Through creative and personal throwing, others-through a semi-boddist-polucose spitting. At first, the thirds seem to be short-lived losers, but in the process of the film you are imbued with their spontaneous inception ... However, the result is about one: over the years that have passed since the first time we see the heroes, even if something happened to them, but from the point of view of the traditional view of the evolution of success, they all remained about the same place from which they started.

The film and musical critics reviewing “about rock”, almost unanimously converge in one- this is a picture of losers. Some go further, or claiming that in front of us is “a picture of what is the Russian rock of the 2010s, which has almost completely lost its relevance and lost competition for the minds of hip-hop”, or claiming that the heroes, children of the 90s, grew up with conformism, exchanged freedom “for escapism, escape in the rapidly growing genre of music”.

Dear colleagues, the main thing in the film “About Rock” is what he has an unobvious attitude towards music. That is, obvious, but not notable. That is, unconditional, but ambiguous ... In general, the fact is that music is an environment in which the same processes are very bright and clearly as in other areas of creativity. Probably, to make a movie about creative throwings and failures of the theater troupe or artist-Stankovist is no less interesting, but this requires much more involvement in the process, a much more thorough acquaintance with the subject-moreover, it is far from obvious that these throwing will generally excite anyone outside the professional environment.

A chance is not the main thing at all.

Another thing is rock. More than one generation has grown, in which at least 70% of boys in the puberty grabbed the guitars, and some did not let them go for a long time (some are still holding), and therefore everyone with the maximum probability can project the throwing heroes on themselves. That is why they laugh in the hall, and not even the peers of the screen heroes laugh, and the boys and girls are noticeably younger than them. Irony and deliberate ambiguity in the name are clear, but the fact that shamelessly spreads before the viewer on the white sheet of the screen (ah, author, ah yes, a master of metaphors!), Is not about fate at all.

This is about the chance. Young musicians from Yekaterinburg wanted to give a chance. In the cinema, this does not look as disgusting as in the television reality show, and not as academic as in a scientific experiment, but the essence is the same. However, it was not a chance, and not at all because “there was no house,” but because a chance is always a plus of everything else. But the tempter from the idea that started all this is the director Grigoriev is small (recall the story with the termination of financing). After all, he himself is the hero of the picture: even when receiving from the “City of Chekists”, Video -Videos, starting with the traditional “Hello, Zhenya Grigoryev!”, He himself sends the same messages to the future, only much more voluminous. For example, one of them was embodied in his previous documentary, on the premiere of which he, like his wards of rockers, timid and hopes. And, like them, breaks off.

The most remarkable thing is that this episode is shot and included in the film. Here, of course, there can be different versions regarding his deliberation, but the character on the screen is clearly bad, and he floods alcohol truly grief, thereby becoming one step with musicians, whom he shortly before he asked about the role of alcohol in their life, but it is here that the viewer understands where this rhythm is, where this drive is, where, in fact, rock with a small letter is not from the framework of the same. Festival "Invasion", in fact. These drives and rhythm are available only to a person who, at an intuitive level, is clear what free will is. Grigoriev is fleeing from his hometown, but at some point the car turns around, and he returns to the non-POWER Trinity, to the “City of Chekists”, Cosmic Latte and “Joe for himself”, to give them another chance and thereby give it to themselves.

Five years later, from the moment of the first casting, Grigoryev takes off all three groups of video clips; Actually, here the end is the end. A good fairy tale that a chance is not the main thing at all. The main thing is you and what you have inside. The fairy tale is over, but life continues: as far as you know, all three groups continue to play.

Daniil Lipatov

Three Neskoye Stories about the Ural Rock

Three groups, three frontmen, three completely different stories.

Ilya wears a terrible hairstyle a la Alla Borisovna and constantly doubts herself and what he is doing. Nikita is confused in his own women and, like a guf, "at first he swore that he loved one, then - that he loved the other." Glory drinks all the time and does not particularly strive for anything (to the question “What role does alcohol play in your life?” He replies: “Important, up to the decisive”). It is these three who are selected by the authoritative jury, consisting of director Evgeny Grigoryev and the legends of the Ural rock, for filming the film, which stops almost immediately after the casting due to the closure of financing. But the film is nevertheless shot and goes in the cinemas of the country.

What is the film "About Rock"? The fact that everything does not always work out the way you planned (if you planned something at all). About how hard it is to take responsibility - both in small and large. Generally speaking, his heroes should not be musicians or actors and artists. There could be representatives of non -creative professions - businessmen, politicians, but anyone! Because the problems that are facing the heroes are common to everyone.

One of the most winning scenes of the picture is the one where the director represents his last film at the film festival, but after watching instead of applause, the public looks perplexedly into the void: the film remains incomprehensible and unrecognized, the upset director goes to the bar and gets drunk. Evgeny Grigoryev, thereby putting himself on one step with the heroes of the picture, making, in general, a wrong act, but strategically finding himself right: we are all people, everyone has ups and downs, he is no better than his heroes - and the viewer has already developed sympathy and antipathy, and this invasion is tearing the spectator, leaving the spectator into fools. So, a new intrigue arises and it is necessary to watch more carefully.

Grigoriev quite obviously loves and understands rock music-Sverdlovsk rock is close to him at least at the place of birth. In the final, he shoots each of the clip groups - and it is interesting that it is for those songs that they played five years ago at listening. It turns out that nothing has changed? Here it is worth recalling the words of Glory, the leader of the “town of Chekists”: “We have such a life rhythm, and he suits us.” Of course, Ilya and Nikita, guys with other rhythms, will argue with him, but the songs continue to sound, and this is the key to continuing the story, if not on the screen, then in life.

And finally: the film “About Rock” breaks the generally accepted stereotypes of the domestic viewer about documentary cinema. Because it is not only not bored (namely this association arises in the mention of the term “documentary cinema”) - it may well compete in terms of entertainment with smart European comedies. No wonder at the session on which I was, the explosions of laughter sounded regularly.

In Moscow, the film “About Rock” in May is shown in the cinema “Karo 8 Atrium”.