Arseny Tarkovsky discovered the untitled notebook of the screenwriter of the cartoon “Film, Film, Film”

At the 29th Open Russian Animated Film Festival, taking place these days in Suzdal, an evening was held in memory of the playwright who was at the origins of this film festival, Vladimir Golovanov. He passed away on June 8, 2023. It was he who wrote the script for Fyodor Khitruk’s masterpiece “Film, Film, Film.” Seeing him on the big screen these days is truly a miracle. It says everything about how a movie is made, what pain it costs the authors.

“You are about to be happy now,” said Vladimir Golovanov’s friend, film director Yuri Norshtein, before the show. – Volodya wonderfully wrote in his memoirs about Khitruk how they composed the episode with the girl. The animator was Veta Kolesnikova (Violetta Kolesnikova passed away in 2022, she also worked on the films “Winnie the Pooh”, “The Town Musicians of Bremen.” – S.H.). Everyone remembers the wonderful music, the way the unfortunate director fights with the girl whom everyone already hates. It seemed to Volodya that the girl should turn into a ribbon. They constantly argued with Khitruk. Volodya even slammed the door and left him. Maybe he read Shpalikov too much, but came back. I thought it was a waste to leave poor Khitruk alone. And he, hearing that the elevator had arrived, walked up to it, and when the doors opened, he began to hum music again, to which the girl would not start jumping. Volodya turned blue.

Edik Nazarov (director Eduard Nazarov, who directed the films “Once Upon a Time There Was a Dog,” “About Sidorov Vova,” “Martynko.” – S.H.) told me how they sat in the hall – Veta Kolesnikova, Khitruk, Vladimir Zuikov, Edik – and watched the material. It was called “watching auditions.” Back then, animated scenes were shot on the cheapest negative film. Everything was still in the drawing, on tracing paper. Nazarov was sitting in the corner and suddenly began to sing: “This is Khitruk’s scene, this is Veta’s scene. This is Khitruk’s scene. Make an amendment.”

I must say that Vladimir Golovanov has not come to Suzdal for a long time. In recent years he has been ill. A small retrospective based on his scripts also included “The Tale of a Little Boat” by Vladimir Petkevich, “Cat and Co” by Alexander Guryev, “The Girl Lyusya and Grandfather Krylov” by his wife Maria Muat and “Words on the Slope” by Valentin Telegin.

At the very beginning of the evening, Golovanov’s muse, his wife and animated film director Maria Muat invited everyone to receive a book of his poems with the words: “Volodya was a bad businessman. I will be very glad if any of you wants to take his book as a souvenir.”

Vadim Zhuk, who had been friends with Vladimir Golovanov for many years, read his poems, which have unusual titles. For example, “Moscow Grass”. “Volodya is a famous and solid screenwriter. He always has a clearly outlined script according to all script laws, and the poet resisted this in him. Animation is a special type of poetic creativity. This is not a documentary, not a feature film, but poetry. His poems are illogical, free and extremely worthy. He has complex associative series. The word does not run parallel to the word, but along the stadium track, meeting another word, running away, falling from heaven, emerging from the silent wall of the building,” the poet said about the poet.

Yuri Norshtein remembered another amazing story.

– Volodya lived in Galitsin, rented a room at some dacha. He lived for his own pleasure and also for poetic pleasure, he made a diagnosis of his life, translating it into poetry. All this was written down by hand. Then he left and forgot his notebook. It had to happen that the great poet Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky replaced him there. And I have the good fortune to be friends to this day with his daughter Marina Tarkovskaya, Andrei Tarkovsky’s sister. Marina said that her dad found some kind of notebook and walked around all the time and quoted poems from it, laughed and said: “What poems! Who wrote them? And then everything became clear. The story is remarkable. Knowing it, you can write a poem about how two poets met without meeting each other.”

Norshtein is a master of sketches and remembers all the details. That evening he remembered their acquaintance with Vladimir Golovanov: “We met on the Arbat in the Leningradskoye cafe.” In general, there were the usual portions – kefir, sausages, bread. Nothing special, but you could go in there and fill your belly. I passed by a cafe and saw the artist Slava Naumov there. He studied at VGIK on the same course as my wife Francesca (Francesca Yarbusova is a production designer for the animated films “The Engine from Romashkov”, “Hedgehog in the Fog”, “Tale of Tales”, “The Overcoat.” – S.H.). Next to him stood a tall young man, very handsome. He exuded neatness and even light. It was clear that he already knew his worth. There was never any fanfare, but there was a calmness that came from talent. Slava introduced us.

A little later I heard about his animated script “Passenger”. Not every scenario can be told, but this one is. Rails, sleepers, a shelf above the rails, a man on the shelf. That is, there was no carriage. This solution itself is fantastic. People constantly enter the imaginary compartment. Masha showed me Volodya’s poems about Brigitte Bardot. She, anyone, could have appeared in the compartment, because the system is absolutely open – some Martian, a grandmother with knitting. Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk told me something about this, because he had his sights set on this scenario. People come and go, disturbing the person lying on the shelf. He can’t stand it. The train stops and the shelf stops. The man comes out. The shelf is leaving. He takes a deep breath. The sun is shining. This is a typical Volodino space. I followed the paths, came to a dead end, turned around, and walked in the other direction. Suddenly I heard the cry of a crowd of thousands dragging the ship. And the passenger fits in with a huge number of people and starts shouting with them: “Oooh-oop!” This scenario could be done today. Somewhere it lies unwritten. Or it was a story.”

Important evidence and things tend to disappear. During a seminar at the House of Creativity in Bolshevo, Vladimir Golovanov “briefly wrote some poems, in two lines, in four.” Alexander Timofeevsky answered him. Then the poems were passed on to Norshtein. He collected them. But they disappeared because Yuri Norshtein’s mother-in-law was cleaning up the house. I saw some pieces of paper in the desk drawer and threw them away.

“Volodya Golovanov wrote bitter poems, and the further they went, the more bitter they became. But there is nothing surprising here, since “summer is heading towards harsh prose,” as the most outstanding person in Russia said (a line from Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.” – S.H.). At the same time, Volodya was still a happy person. The content of his existence was happy.”

An invaluable evening with the participation of unique people, for whom everything must be recorded. After all, young animators often don’t know the classics; they ask again: “Who is, say, Tonino Guerra?”