Alexei German Jr. made a film about his great father

There were legends about the wrath of the master

On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the birth of Alexei German, his son, film director Alexei German Jr. made a documentary film “Architect. The history of Alexei German and his films. The premiere took place at the Koroche festival in Kaliningrad, where Alexey Yuryevich shot his outstanding film Twenty Days Without War based on the script by Konstantin Simonov in the mid-70s.

Herman has only six paintings, and he did not manage to finish the last one – “It’s hard to be a god” based on the work of the Strugatsky brothers of the same name. Work on it stretched for more than 14 years. As cameraman Yuri Klimenko recalled, sometimes they rehearsed for a week to shoot one shot. The premiere took place at the Rome Film Festival in the fall of 2013, when Herman was no longer in the world. His wife and screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita and son Alexei completed the work. Actually, the creation of “It’s Hard to Be a God” is dedicated to the documentary film by German Jr., who became the author and artistic director of the picture. His wife, the owner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale, production designer Elena Okopnaya, was responsible for the visual solution. Before the screening, she urged the audience and, above all, novice filmmakers not to believe the talk that it’s hard to watch “It’s Hard to Be a God”, but to make an impression yourself. The premiere was attended by the producer of It’s Hard to Be a God, Rushan Nasibulin, who, like no one else, is immersed in all the nuances of the birth of this movie machine. Herman Jr.’s film is not a detailed reproduction of the stages of a long journey, several entries into the same river, starting from 1968, but fragments of daily happy and painful work, emotional shots that make up a portrait of a great artist.

Many of the shots were seen by viewers for the first time. They have not been used before. Initially, the BDT actor Vladimir Recepter was supposed to play the role of Rumata, played by Leonid Yarmolnik. But time passed, people grew up, grew old, dropped out for various reasons. The film “The Architect …” does not talk about this in detail. And the story is interesting. There were other contenders besides Yarmolnik – Alexander Lykov, Andrey Krasko. Herman carefully chose the artists, and his choice was often not obvious. Then everyone was surprised how and where he found this or that actor. While working on the film “My Friend Ivan Lapshin”, Herman’s messengers traveled all over the country. One of my acquaintances, who played small roles in the provincial theater all his life, fell into their field of vision and lost his peace. We needed a hero with special hands, beautiful and tender. Hands approached, but my friend did not get into the cinema.

On the screen, Herman scolds the artists, trying to explain to them that they should not be engaged in embellishment, as this will destroy the scenery. And the costume designer, with whom he worked on “Khrustalev, the car!”, He said that she collapsed in his eyes. Herman is cruel, but immediately gives compensation. There were legends about his anger at Lenfilm. Random people, now well-known filmmakers, fell under the distribution. They still remember how it was.

In 2012, at the 65th International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, a Swiss-made documentary was shown, one of the directors of which was Antoine Cattin, then living in St. Petersburg. It was also about how Herman filmed It’s Hard to Be a God in 2003, when production was about seven years away. An emotional big man, unfamiliar to the European public, reigned on the screen, who all the time fought with someone for the truth in art, struggled with drunkenness, indifference, carelessness. Foreigners did not catch the variety of Russian swearing from the dry lines of the translation. It seems that Herman himself and his family did not like the film, but it is a grandiose document of the time, capturing the fatal mess of filmmaking. People on the site constantly clashed. Leonid Yarmolnik argued with Herman. It was clear that he was on the edge. And Herman seemed like a tired giant, ready to offend anyone, even his wife – a trouble-free assistant Svetlana Karmalita. It is interesting that in the new film he argues with her, says that she uses her marital status, but this does not solve anything on the set. Herman was often unjust, but now that he is gone, those who resented him are proud of their involvement in his great cause. Some statements in the film turned out to be so extremely accentuated that once again you are surprised at Herman’s clairvoyance and prophecy. The past becomes eerily relevant.