Irina Evteeva shoots the film “Hotel Onegin”, in which the heroes of Pushkin live

Recently, I managed to visit the studio of Irina Evteeva in the center of St. Petersburg and see how her film Onegin Hotel is born. This is a story about a director who came from Great Britain to Russia to feel the spirit of Pushkin and make the film Onegin. The hero fantastically finds himself in a hotel of the same name, surrounded by the familiar characters of Alexander Sergeevich. We talked with Irina Evteeva about her work on an unusual painting.

How did such a bizarre idea come about?

– I was approached by the producer, director and screenwriter Irina Margolina, and said that she had a long-written script for the Onegin Hotel. I read it, realized that I could not do it, explained why. But then I read it again. We made some adjustments and I got to work. Appeared Wardrobe Man, Cat, existing as an ordinary cat and as a person. When he puts on the cap of Chernomor, turns around, then he becomes a Wonder Cat, a Pushkin scholar. And when he lies, he is just a cat.

Are you filming a feature film?

– Yes, an 80-minute film, where I do 60 minutes, and the animators do the rest. Initially, we thought about puppet animation by British director Barry Purvis. (In 2014, he came to Russia and donated his Tchaikovsky doll to the House Museum of the Composer in Klin; he has the Tchaikovsky cartoon created as part of the Russian Tales of the Old Piano project about outstanding composers, the script of which was also written by Irina Margolina. — S.Kh.) He was supposed to make several inserts. The story itself is based on the fact that an English director, a quarter Russian, flies to Russia to shoot the film Onegin. He finds himself in a strange space – the Onegin Hotel, where he meets the characters of Pushkin’s novel and Tchaikovsky’s opera. And the hostess of the hotel is an opera diva. Her role was played by Lyubov Kazarnovskaya. The protagonist Barry travels with a learned cat, endowed with speech. He speaks Russian better than the owner. The cat is here like a servant, like a jester.

– How did Lyubov Kazarnovskaya react to your idea?

– Very good. She knew that there was such a script, and she was happy to act. Kazarnovskaya is very good in dialogue with Arthur Vakha, who played the English director. There was a whole story here. We were waiting for Barry Purvis, hoping that he would take part in our picture, but relations with England became more and more difficult. When it became clear that he would not come, I did not know what to do, whom to invite, because everything had already taken shape in my head, and I imagined only him. I had a big storyboard — about 300 pictures. I draw not like animators, but like feature film directors do it – like on film, by numbers. I drew the character that Barry was supposed to be. I began to sort out the actors for the main role. As a result, Artur Waha emerged. Make up, try. He was so courageous. According to the script, he has love with the heroine Kazarnovskaya. In their youth, when Barry was an aspiring artist and she was an aspiring singer, they talked. We have a puppet scene of their acquaintance. But they parted, like Onegin and Tatyana.

Will Pushkin also be present? How will he look?

– He is always present, but like a cloak, a suit. That’s how I imagined him. For this, we invited a ballet dancer, because he moves well, unlike dramatic actors, especially young ones, who are hunched over and lack body.

– Did Sergei Dreiden star in one of his last roles?

– We met with him for the last time on April 10. He played a Pushkin scholar, Barry’s teacher of sorts. They are friends, and the hero of Sergei Dreiden advises him on Russian culture. He is the only character Barry interacts with outside of the hotel’s residents.

– Have you ever worked together?

– This is our fourth collaboration, although we met more often during the filming. For the first time this happened at Petersburg, where Sergei Simonovich was behind the scenes. We got to know each other then. Later, he was supposed to participate in the second part of The Demon, he starred, but I, a bad person, did not draw him, because I could not make a movie for twenty minutes – I only needed ten. Then there were all sorts of reflections where he appeared.

– Make an independent film from what was not included. This is priceless stuff!

– I can’t do it anymore. Everything remained in the originals, which were not preserved at Lenfilm. Then we had “Little Tragedies”, where Sergey Dreiden appeared both in the frame, and behind the scenes, and in “The Miserly Knight”, and most importantly, in the role of Salieri. He so willingly agreed to my proposals, he never let me down, he constantly came up with something. It was very easy with him. I have a feeling of a certain game from our communication.

– And your unusual style did not cause any questions from him?

– Absolutely not. He saw all this in Petersburg, which he liked very much. I didn’t know that Sergei was filming with Alexander Sokurov in The Russian Ark at that time. I started making Petersburg earlier, but as always, it took longer. Worked for five years and completed in 2003. We left almost simultaneously with Sokurov. “Petersburg” – a little later. It turned out that both films were on the same topic, and here and there, Sergei Dreiden was a guiding star. He was curious. After Little Tragedies, we met on the Arventura. He was amused that he had the role of a Chinese, whom, as he said, I saw in the old Jew. Sergei Simonovich was always ready to act, to play anyone.

– It is fortunate that you managed to record his marvelous voice, you did it in advance.

“I had the opportunity and I did it. It was important that the actors still remember the shooting. Four years later, by the end of the picture, they could have forgotten everything. I also thought: you never know what will happen, someone will go on tour or other shooting … But I wanted their voices to sound. Lyubov Kazarnovskaya recorded lullabies and sang them in a completely non-opera voice.

Who did Barry meet at your fantastic hotel?

– The heroes of Pushkin live in the hotel. Balda, for example. With us, he is an administrator, and Prince Elisha is a porter and driver. They all circle in this space.

How do you work with actors? Do you discuss everything in detail?

– I talk, but not very much, I show pictures. When you enter into communication, you build a frame, you proceed from plasticity. It is important to decide where the actor should stop and say the text, think about where it is more convenient for him to do it. The apartment where we filmed had mirrored doors. You could shoot through them. The shots were more interesting.

How long will it take to complete the painting?

– One and half year. The path is long. Since I teach and head the department, I do cinema in between my main work. We rented in 16 days, and for me this is a luxury that I am not used to. There were 9 days at Arventura, and 7 days at String Wood Melody. There were more nature and objects here. We filmed in a hotel located in the former cinema “Barrikada” on Nevsky. Even earlier, at the beginning of the last century, there was a Central Bank of the Mutual Credit Society. The place is historical, associated with the Pied Piper by Alexander Grin. He described exactly this building. Production designer Lyudmila Veselova found an interesting private house with a fireplace in Ozerki. There we rented the grandmother’s garden, where the boy runs, Barry’s apartment. Grandmother was played by Elena Rufanova. The shooting took place at such a rainy time – the cameraman Alexander Burov had to go to tricks, shine through the windows, creating the appearance of the sun. There was a beautiful flower gallery that was impossible not to use. You saw Barry watering the flowers… Filmed in the museum-estate, which once belonged to the first director of the Public Library, President of the Academy of Arts Olenin. The furniture that was under Pushkin, and he visited this house, has been preserved. There we rented an office where our scientist cat sits.

How did you work with a human cat and with an ordinary cat?

– Sergey Byzgu starred in the role of a cat in human form and in a hat. He was the first person I called and said that I see him in this image. But with a real cat there were some difficulties. No matter how much we tried to get him to rub against his leg, he did not. Something of the plans did not work out, because our cat does not sharpen its claws on the chair in principle, since this is indecent for an aristocrat.

So is he trained? Was there a cat casting?

– We looked at the photos and selected them. The trained cats were good, but shabby, but a chic one was needed. Our name was Belphegor-Fram Violet*RU. Since the name is complex, in everyday life he was Pusya. The cat is not trained, but his mistress Lyudmila Volodina was constantly next to him. She is an accountant by profession, and she really enjoyed filming. The cat listened to her. When it was necessary to make a panorama, to show how he walks or jumps from the fireplace to the chess set, Lyudmila crawled below, followed by the cat. He is an aristocrat, and we accepted him as a people’s artist. He had a tent with a toilet, a place to rest during filming. We gave him a carrier later. Whether he liked her or not, I don’t know. Maybe he has bad memories of filming. Now I will show the footage where the girl Dina, the daughter of the owner of the hotel, is holding a cat smeared in jam in her hands, and Barry and Lyuba think that he is injured. The cat was brought to the shooting for scenes with artists. One day was set aside for him to walk around the drawings, walk on the grass, and then you could use all this. On the plane, the cat and Barry have to talk, and he and Vakha found a common language. It was something. In the scenes with Vakha, he does not seem huge, but in the hands of the girl you can immediately see how big he is.

What happens after everything is filmed?

– A rough cut is being made, a preliminary color setting, so that later we can shoot in the studio where we are, on my installation. We work together with editor and animation operator Alexander Baulin. Then light and color preparation or glazing is already done. All this is created on glass. We connect what was filmed against a green background with the main material. I used to do it on different glasses, from different projectors at the same time, and now we are collecting something on a computer. There may be several projections, as with Pushkin’s cloak, where something that was not on the set is drawn. I often move from one image to another, make hand-made streaks, model the image with light bulbs, work on different glasses, as they give variety, transparency and density. Then we take this or that episode, “compose” its texture with the help of this or that glass and illumination. It should be alive, pulsing, not just coloring. Otherwise, it would not be worth it to start everything – this could be done by a color setter.