“Mikhalkov makes an X-ray of our society, and Solovyov diagnoses and treats”

The classic of the camera shop confessed his desire to make a film about a TV journalist

In Moscow, for the 19th time, the White Square award for cinematography was presented. It is believed that this is one of the most elegant ceremonies, but this time everything did not go according to plan. I remembered the golden words that it is better to be silent than to speak.

On the stage there was a live orchestra playing a Haydn symphony, elegantly dressed people came out. Conducting the ceremony, apparently suddenly, was entrusted to the director and actor Yuri Bykov. The debutant had to read the text from the sheet. The head of the guild of operators, Ilya Demin, said that the operators scattered around the world due to various circumstances. Nevertheless, the turnout was active. It rarely happens that all the nominees are at the right time on the spot, but it happened.

The jury, led by cameraman Sergei Machilsky, included his colleagues Eduard Moshkovich and Denis Alarcon-Ramirez, directors Alena Zvontsova and Fyodor Bondarchuk, artist Pyotr Gorshenin, film critic Vsevolod Korshunov. And for the award for the best camera work in a full-length feature film, they claimed: Sergey Astakhov with Anton Megerdichev’s Heart of Parma, Maxim Osadchiy with Konstantin Statsky’s Zhanna, Morad Abdel-Fattah with Andrey Kravchuk’s Once Upon a Desert, Maxim Shinkorenko with ” Eleven silent men” by Alexei Pimanov, Denis Firstov with “Execution” by Lado Kvatania, who eventually won. He is the youngest of the nominees. Denis said that during the filming he suffered from covid and other operators filmed for him. Having some movies on the shortlist is amazing in itself. Only without fish they could reach the final.

It turned out that Marad Abdel-Fattah entered VGIK three times. Maxim Shinkorenko also did not get into the film institute on the first try, but decided to become an operator after seeing a program about Pavel Lebeshev as a teenager. Now he thanked his relatives for their support, and his children for working as extras, helping equity holders on the site with free labor. Sergei Astakhov admitted that he never made films for awards. The author of the novel “The Heart of Parma” Alexey Ivanov, having seen the adaptation, told him that he imagined everything that way, and this is the greatest praise. “I have been making films in a stroke for 15 years,” Astakhov said. “There is still a queue.” Bondarchuk called Astakhov a monument and a national treasure.

Alexander Antipenko, awarded the prize “For Contribution to Camera Art” named after. Sergei Urusevsky called his appearance on the White Square a miracle: “I came from Sklif. They took me to the hospital, but I said that I would rather die. I wanted to be on this stage. I’m on a crutch, but I can shoot with good directors. I have enlightenment now. I see things I haven’t seen before.” He was familiar with the cameraman of the film The Cranes Are Flying, he made a film about him called Seven Minutes with Cameraman Urusevsky. Antipenko was born and raised in Kyiv. There he graduated from a vocational school, received the profession of a cabinetmaker, which led him to a film studio. He received the profession of operator at VGIK from Boris Volchek, and began his career in the profession on the “Kyiv Frescoes” by Sergei Parajanov, whose name the organizers of the award forgot to mention. Antipenko filmed “Prayer” with Abuladze and “Scarlet Flower” by Irina Povolotskaya, after which he almost lost his profession. He was expelled from the studios twice and from VGIK three times. While still living in Kyiv, he received a telegram from Tarkovsky with an invitation to shoot Stalker, but was already sent to another picture. He worked with Gleb Panfilov on “I ask for words”, took several pictures with Vladimir Grammatikov.

Alexander Antipenko took the stage with his grandchildren, exceeded the five-minute limit allotted to him for the performance, and expressed his pain in his hearts. The laureate wanted the award to be presented to him by Daria Zlatopolskaya, his favorite TV presenter, “just a beauty”, but his request was not taken into account. “Guys, organizers, you offended me a lot,” Antipenko said about the format of the frames presented. Antipenko thanked the directors with whom fate brought Ali Khamraev for falling in love with Central Asia, made unexpected confessions: “I fell in love with Muslim children who are like peaches. I have never seen such beauty of children”; “Russia is divided. One is having fun under the show, the other, listening to Vladimir Solovyov and Nikita Mikhalkov, understands that there are big problems.” Mikhalkov, according to him, makes an x-ray of our society, and Solovyov diagnoses and treats. “Soloviev is smart. He knows so much! Where does he have so much health to stand for so long? I would like to make a film about him, but I don’t know how to get through to him, ”admitted the classic and asked for forgiveness,“ if I suddenly blurted out something wrong. In the TV broadcast, part of the speech was covered with a splash screen, which caused an increased interest of the audience in what else he “blurted out” there. Thus, our classic became the promoter of the award, adding attention to it.

The special prize “Operator’s recognition” for technical achievements was quietly and peacefully received by engineer-inventor Evgeny Vetlugin. Thanks to his device, the life of the operators was greatly simplified, and they equated it with a revolution in cinema.