Translated material
Distribution of badges and awards
They wanted to give Sokurov a prize, but changed their minds. But director Mamin* didn’t change his mind, but was given the title of “foreign agent”
Do you know how many Oscar nominations there are? 25. Not all awards even make it into the main broadcast; they are shown patter between advertising, jokes from the host and the main nominations as a side dish. Do you remember who won the Oscar last year and for what? What about the winners of Cannes or Venice? What about “Nicky” and “Golden Eagle”?
It's not that I underestimate the film awards. But a true director's legacy is his films, not his trophy list. An award from the Moscow Film Festival would not have added anything to the legacy of Alexander Sokurov, and failure to present this statuette would not have taken anything away. I don’t even know whether Alexander Nikolaevich is an honored artist or an artist. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't remember this himself. Because Sokurov makes films, and the members of the presidium hand out awards; they themselves either don’t know how to make anything, or have stopped doing it.
Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov is an outstanding director. And he's a great actor. Was. And now he’s filming “Besogon” and handing out awards. Everyone has their own path in art.
Well, then, everything is learned by comparison. They wanted to give Sokurov an honorary award. Butthey changed their minds . But the wonderful director Yuri Mamin did not change his mind, but was given it. The title of "foreign agent". Some foolishly even begin to congratulate people on this, calling this mark some kind of quality mark and reward.
Although the stigma cannot be a reward. But it dishonors not the one who is branded, but the one who distributes these brands at 17.00 on Fridays.
“Feast of Neptune”, “Fountain”, “Window to Paris” and “Sideburns” have not become any worse due to the fact that Mom now needs to be mentioned with a plaque, an asterisk or a footnote in parentheses. And by the way, do these films have any awards? “Eagles” or “Niki”, Moscow Prize or some other festival. And is this important to you when you know these films by heart and have watched them a hundred times?
But the distributors of awards and trophies do not calm down and get involved in the process with passion. Despite the fact that with the introduction of new restrictions, almost half of the books will have to be confiscated from libraries. Moreover, for some reason I am sure that no one will take the books about Stalin, the flat earth and the world government off the shelves, no one will put any marks on them, and Bastrykin will not check them. Much more dangerous is “The Cannibal’s Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” or “School of Horror” by Grigory Oster. The Investigative Committee will have something to check in these nightmarish writings, which, according to the informer and part-time deputy Maria Butina, carry “the destruction of the moral foundation of the child under the guise of humor and education.”
But if Auster still has to pass a difficult test of humor, everything has already been checked with the classics.
“Illegal consumption of narcotic drugs and their analogues causes harm to health, their illegal trafficking is prohibited and entails liability established by law.”
These are the words that accompany in online stores a collection of Pushkin’s works, “Fathers and Sons,” as well as “Asya,” Turgenev’s novels and stories, Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and “Viya,” Bulgakov’s “Notes of a Young Doctor,” his biography and the biography of Vysotsky.
A warning about harm and liability is placed in the “About the book” column.
That is, this is what we should know about the books of Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev or Bulgakov. They're talking about it. And that's all. And they all have the same contents, stuffed with capslock.
But there is also a positive in all this. The classics have already died and cannot be recognized as agents, cannot remain without some kind of awards or inspections by committees and commissions. The classics don't care. The question is, do we care?