Cinema on weekends. Rich people are too

The denouement of the film “Unprincipled in the Village” (directed by Roman Prygunov, screenwriters Alexander Tsypkin and Vladimir Vasilyev) is as simple as three poplars on Plyushchikha. Gathered a party of eminent actors and went to nature to enjoy. The fish was hooked by a diver.

They came up with a plot on the theme of the birthday of General Pyotr Khalyakov (Nikolai Fomenko). The general’s wife, singer Valya (Kristina Babushkina), calculated everything, summed it up, multiplied it, and now the Moscow beau monde is going to the general’s anniversary, like fish to spawn. However, the general bucked and demanded to celebrate his birthday in the village.

The thieves were welcomed in the village as if they were their own, according to the principle “any whim for your money” … The village headman (Alexander Baluev) especially tried. A swaggering metropolitan general, a forced retinue, shy peasant women, tough village men are not fools to fight, a tough satrap at the head of the village – compote is brewed according to the canons of a new Russian fairy tale for adults.

The harmonious complex of work of the screenwriter, director, cameraman and actors is impressive. The combination of talents creates a powerful synergy. Replicas, landscapes, camera angles, feminine charms and masculine muscles – all this has a self-sufficient value. And together it turns out fantastically.

Only one song, a gift from Valentina to the general, sounds wonderful with a wonderful twist.

They hanged themselves cool – they got drunk, they figured it out, they fought, they burned down the bathhouse, they got hungry and went wall to wall with the villagers. Happiness is when there is a contrast. You sleep sweetly, and they pour cold water on your swollen muzzle. Or when, from an excess of feelings, you can send a general in three letters and explain to him briefly and popularly why you are tired of him.

In Russia, nothing ever goes according to plan. The beauty of the film “Unprincipled in the Village” is the impossibility of guessing what will happen in the next frame. There is no time to even think about finding the end. The film is not life, screen time is limited in any way, and the whole fountain of ideas does not fit into it. Along the screen narrative, logical traps are whimsically placed, turning it into hypertext. It is impossible to decipher without explanation. This is how Anton Chekhov, with the story “The Lady with the Dog,” conducted a dialogue in absentia with a woman who accidentally impressed him on the Yalta embankment, also a writer, who presented the version of an accidental meeting in her own way.

This is not a mockery of the involuntary spectator-reader, life-affirming works are really born from momentary artifacts in the genre of thoughts about. Upon completion, the rein can be amputated without regret.

Dissent markers remain in the on-screen text. As if someone shook salt and pepper from the tablecloth on the cake, so that life would not seem like honey. There is such a criterion for the quality of a work of art as the scope of many interpretations. The film “Unprincipled in the Village” was even credited with the biblical story “The Last Supper”. The allusion arose from the arrangement of furniture.

Wonderful. The Russian national idea “Save Alyonushka” is embodied outside the box, without the gray wolf. In the course of the play, it is impossible to understand that this is the essence of the film “Unprincipled in the Village.” Foolish name. If someone finds principles somewhere, tell Father Frost by telegram. Let the non-standard bring gifts. There are definitely none in the village, personally verified.

Three days passed like a dream, as if it never happened. Big black cars returned, took away the metropolitan party.

See for yourself and you will probably see in the film “Unprincipled in the Village” not what we are.

Exactly the fact that the wife of the village satrap acted as a solver with a gun. Multi-purpose actress Irina Pegova is chubby and petite, but in the film she appears as a mountain woman: “In my house, only I can beat my husband.”

Filming of the film “Unprincipled in the Village” took place in the demonstration village of Mandrogi, Podporozhsky District, Leningrad Region, with the participation of local residents from the surrounding villages.

The trick is that when the world is at war and Russia defends itself like the strong against the weak, it has the strength to make such refreshing films that are tired of the news. Somehow it becomes so easy on the soul from fooling around.

Natalya Vakurova, Lev Moskovkin.

Photo by Sofia Sandurskaya / Moskva Agency