He'd be retirement age soon. If he were alive. Whatever that means. Alexey Balabanov. Icon of Russian film.
For Russians, I'm certain individual like Kurt Cobain from Nirvan's squad in the pop culture circle. For friends – Ljocha, the manager is besides a small known in our country.
Beginnings – Beckett and Kafka
He was born in 1959 in far Sverdovsk, where the devil says good night and where the last frames of the Tsar family's life were played Santa II. Yesterday and today: Yekaterinburg. Although in the case of artists, mentioning this magical threshold of past years makes sense only as much as.
Rather, he himself was far from nostalgic reflections, so let's go back to the time erstwhile the fresh era began. For him, and for Russia. The 20th century was slow ending. The times of general misery moved mildly into the realm of colorful memories. Alexey Balabanov was in his late thirties, had respective short films on his record, plus 2 subtle feature adaptations based on Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka – Happy Days and Castle. These are exceptional, very valuable paintings.
On the bike after the apartment
Nikita Michałkov and Alexei German, crucial figures in that reality, turned on a green light for him. Both agreed to play in his films at different stages of their career. Michałkow – a promoter, German – an eternal "colonitor", dealing with censorship until his death. Author of legendary films My friend Ivan Latshin and Hard to Be God.
Chronology is important, but not always. That's why it's worth focusing on the way the manager decided to travel. In my opinion, it is consciously, although it is contaminated by subjectiveism. After finishing the first phase of education, he was 17 years old, Inga's mother, the chief doctor in Swirdowski, asked him what he intended to do in life? Until then, he rode a bicycle on a huge, for russian reality, apartment. He spent all free minute listening to records with western music, which he most likely gained thanks to his parent and father, the chief editor in Siberian cinematography. – Ljocha was the only 1 of our gang who had western records and a separate toilet at the time. – remembers a friend from his youth, who knows the taste of municipal quarters. The communists were a request for the minute and aimed to integrate a fresh society according to the concept of then power.
Bar
Yeah. Alexey Balabanov was somewhat privileged. So erstwhile 1 day Mom asked what she was going to do in life, he said without hesitation: I want to be a director! However, he continued to survey at the School of abroad Languages. – If you want to be an artist, I don't mind, but first you gotta get a solid education. Then, do whatever you want. She expressed an opinion without emotion.
He was most likely capable due to the fact that he was rapidly selected for a narrow group of translators who might have had contact in conflict situations during military-level talks. Then Balabanov always cut off the subject erstwhile it was ostracized by that period. The insiders said that due to the fact that he was discreet, he was allowed more than anyone else. He could say a lot due to the fact that in his message he avoided pointing out a circumstantial address for the villains. It's called a bar. And we must admit that he was able to exercise this privilege and kept his word.
Brother
In a cult movie Brother he told of Russia terrorized by “Kaukaz” and Russian robbers at the beginning of the alleged systemic transformation. In the final scene of this hellhole, the main character drives from St. Petersburg to Moscow hitchhiking to make order there, too. Balabanov did not follow the punch, though Brother It was a cashier's success.
He could afford a small more material freedom. Despite the pressure, he returned to the old artistic concepts of Happy Days and Castle. In the movie About monsters and people He clearly expressed his views on what average is and what is truly a real perversion. The image in the Sepia method is awesome to this day.
Brother 2
And then he was Brother 2Balabanov and his branch, for the conditions of our part of the world, already slept in the money, to the degree that the implementation of the second part of this movie could have taken place in the United States of America. There was money to hire an American Hollywood crew and actors. Balabanov exclaimed without a key there that the idolized by almost all the Land of Dreams is simply a terrible bayonet and that the Russian oligarchs bargain from the company their people with colleagues from behind the large Waters. He besides mentioned the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. And it was only 2000.
The characters of the movie are hunted by the Ukrainian mafia and what is most perverse, hired by the Russian oligarch. And to make it even funnier, in a film-rented restaurant in the Ukrainian territory of Chicago, the brother of the main character kills the “banderer” with the cry “behind Sevastopol!”. A cult hit for that generation of the Nautilus Pompilius squad is heard in the farewell staff Goodbye Americabut no nostalgia intended by the authors of the song. The complexes are gone. Pride was born. Again, success.
Criticism and Darkness
Ljocha was getting stronger. The word “censorship” was a pure abstract for him. In a terrible and comic production Sissy. He clearly expressed his view – the mediate class is derived from criminal backgrounds. In the hierarchy of his films he specializes Load 200 – I think it's 1 of the darkest paintings in the past of planet cinema. It was an earthquake. Tectonic plates moved then. After the premiere, Balabanov lost almost all his friends. Not everyone could accept the director's message.
In the simplest explanation – if Russia is simply a female and is simply a parent – a terrible thing has happened. parent Rossia She is raped by degenerates in state uniforms who usurp the right to power. That's what Balabanov said. With success and no consequences. He could inactive be creating. And he didn't halt in his honesty. In the environments liable for rewarding movie makers, it was increasingly hard to consider whether to separate it in a unique way. For example, in Cannes or even a modest Oscar in any category.
Freedom of criticism
Unfortunately, Balabanov himself buried the chance of life. W Morphine based on memories Mikhail Bulhakov He besides boldly outlined the character of a judaic villain, who, having previously adopted a “falling class”, later joins the Wait, allowing him to have unlimited access to the then-deficiency drug. Balabanov actually since the premiere Brother He found himself between the proverbial hammer and the hardwood.
It was always certain that he would do something. On the 1 hand, he was accused of chauvinism and anti-Semitism, on the other, of spitting on his homeland, as after a loud movie Smokerin which he clearly suggested that the country of which he is simply a citizen had reached his greatness by humiliating noble people of another cultures. I do not know, possibly due to his talent and measurable successes Alexey Balabanov could accomplish more. possibly he didn't spend adequate time in the salons. In his spare time, however, he preferred to penetrate areas where he was afraid to see even a cat or rat, and where he frequently returned home badly damaged. He died in a sanatorium close Petersburg in May 2013.
When I go back to the films of Balabanov, I wonder in which countries the artist could tell so many truths that were not expected. And he did it in Russia. partially for state money. It's 1 of our east neighbors' secrets.
Adam Rosłoniec
