The director of the film “Shadows disappear at noon” Krasnopolsky died without getting his due

Krasnopolsky and Uskov were loved by the audience, and fearful officials did not release the future TV hit “Eternal Call” for four years, fearing the appearance of historical topics that were dangerous from their point of view. Vladimir Krasnopolsky had the title of People’s Artist of the RSFSR, became a laureate of the USSR State Prize and the Lenin Komsomol Prize, was awarded orders, but there was a feeling that he was never given due recognition during his lifetime. He will be buried on September 27 at the Troekurovsky cemetery, where a funeral service and a farewell ceremony will take place.

– Anatoly, how long have you known Vladimir Krasnopolsky?

— Since 2002. We offered him the script of Eduard Reznik “Give me life” – very sincere, raising the problems of a child with cancer and his parents, who were united by a common tragedy and pain. It was the debut of our studio. The main roles were played by Victoria Tolstoganova and Denis Matrosov. The film got into the top three at TEFI in the nomination “Direction”, but Vladimir Arkadievich did not receive an award. They apologized to him – as he himself said, they said that “you were recently awarded the order, and we will give the award to others.” Krasnopolsky and Uskov were a little upset because of this. And the film was shot by Vladimir Arkadyevich. Actually, from that moment on, they began to work separately, but retained their pair brand. Everyone could shoot their own project, but there were always two names in the credits. They swore to each other that until their death they would have a single brand. I think they even shared the money. If Uskov worked, then he gave half of the fee to Krasnopolsky, and vice versa. Thus, if someone was temporarily unemployed, he could live normally.

Our first shooting day was March 17, 2003. From that moment on, we worked together. Once after the film “Give Me Life”. Vladimir Arkadievich left for the big project “Two Fates”, but then returned.

– Everyone perceives Uskov and Krasnopolsky as one thing. How did you dare to threaten an indestructible union by offering Krasnopolsky independent work?

“And they came to us together. Until recently, it was not clear whether they would shoot together or not. Filming has begun. We look, but Valery Ivanovich is not there. He is working on another project somewhere. These swindlers didn’t tell us anything. Although we could guess. All negotiations were conducted by Krasnopolsky, but this is normal. And then it turned out that Vladimir Arkadyevich was the only one with us.

– You started cooperation twenty years ago, when Vladimir Krasnopolsky was no longer a young man. Why did you decide to work with him, not with someone younger?

– The fact is that at the age of 70 he was 35 in his energy. He had a young voice and the smell of a real man. All the young girls were in love with him. He was noble, good-natured, absolutely not scandalous, he knew how to present himself. At the age of 70 he ran and jumped. He is also an athlete, a basketball player, and played volleyball with Yeltsin on the same team.

Do you remember the moment when serials were considered something base, and Uskov and Krasnopolsky were treated like second-tier directors? Then everything changed…

– This is a separate conversation – about the formation of serial production. Back in the Soviet years, Krasnopolsky and Uskov made “Shadows Disappear at Noon”, “Eternal Call” – and immediately became classics. Recall the 60s, when “Major Whirlwind” appeared, and later – “Sherlock Holmes”. Previously, there was no concept of “series” – there were serial feature films that were not perceived as a second-rate movie. “Irony of Fate” was created as a television picture. “Office Romance” has already gone to theaters and was a success. It was a so-called two-part series, a solid television movie. Neglect appeared later, when we had the first Mexican series, “Slave Izaura” … Then they began to say that this is a movie, but this is not quite. If we take the USA, England, France, then there has never been a disdainful attitude towards serials. They just understood that this was for home and TV, but there is an attraction for the big screen. Over the past twenty years, the best directors in the world have gone into series. Not in “soap” – this is a separate genre, not in a sitcom. They shoot like a movie novel, and the dramaturgy is just as good there, and the actors are real stars. Why treat it with disdain?

– Did Vladimir Krasnopolsky excel in everyday life and on the site?

– In everyday life, he was a merry fellow, a joker, with a good sense of humor. He loved companies very much, became their soul. You can talk about Arkadyevich for a long time … There will be no such people anymore. If he told a joke – and they just poured out of him – then it was not vulgar, not for the sake of laughing, but certainly with a double or triple meaning. He was an educated man, received two educations. The first – at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Ural University, the second – at VGIK. Valery Uskov’s first education is journalism. And he also studied in Sverdlovsk. And then there was VGIK. Interestingly, they both graduated from the documentary film workshop, studied with Ilya Kopalin, and then, as Vladimir Krasnopolsky said, they decided to make a knight’s move and filmed a feature film as a debut. Their distribution was in Sverdlovsk, but soon Mosfilm saw their film, and the first producer of all Russia, as Ivan Pyryev is called, said: “You will work at Mosfilm. From that moment on, their career went on.

– You told how Vladimir Krasnopolsky was in everyday life. What happened on set?

– Before entering the site, there is another stage of writing a director’s script. Here it is interesting to watch him. In the director’s script, in each episode, in addition to the main event and effective motivation for the characters, he was mainly looking for emotion. Even at the drinking stage, when each scene was carefully analyzed, and the cameraman Temerlan Zelma, who, in fact, became Vladimir Arkadyevich’s co-director after 2003, participated in this. They came up with a lot together. Krasnopolsky first of all looked for how emotional everything would be. This is his main secret. He felt the emotion on an intuitive level, instantly grasped whether this or that technique would work. He had 20-25 takes if the actor emotionally played inaccurately. Then Krasnopolsky demanded to repeat again and again until emotion appeared. I have met few directors who work closely on this. Therefore, Krasnopolsky and Uskov are considered masters of melodrama, since the main thing in it is emotionality. After all, we worked with Vladimir Arkadyevich in different genres. We had comedy, and melodrama, and drama. And the last series – “The Expropriator” in 2017 – is a crime story.

Did he take anything else after that?

We’ve been planning to shoot for the last five years. He was waiting to launch. At first we were told that it was with them that we had to rest for a year or two in order to gain something new. While they were recruiting, or rather, writing a script for them, a pandemic happened, and then a special operation. And he was ready to go. His only problem was with his legs. In the past three years, he walked poorly, leaned on a stick, but said: “Don’t worry. I have already bought a stroller. They will take me.”

– Antonioni and Bertolucci also continued to work in a wheelchair …

“Here he is getting ready. The script for “The Poor Oligarch” was approved – a good eight-episode story. He waited and waited – and did not wait.

Did you feel the time?

– Look at his work. “Give Me Life” is absolutely right on time. It is not for nothing that Khamatova gave her foundation its name after our film was released. Only one word has been removed.

– Did Vladimir Krasnopolsky have a special approach to actors?

“It all started with trials. He chose the actor on the level of sensations. I could say that this actress was “cold”, I immediately felt whether this was his person or not. If not him, then he refused to work with him. All the main roles were played by people who idolized him. He was very fond of actors. He grew up in a theatrical family. His parents worked in the Sverdlovsk operetta, and he spent his childhood in the theater. I know directors who hate actors. How to work in this case? Actors are your hands, your fingers…

– How many pictures do you have together?

– Ten: “Expropriator”, “Funny Life”, “House with Lilies”, “Santa Lucia”, “Manna from Heaven”, “Marry a Millionaire”, “Wolf Messing. Seeing through time.” “Yermolovs” (and this is 32 episodes), “Trap”, “Give me life” …

– So, you extended Vladimir Krasnopolsky’s creative life to some extent.

– I think that if it were not for us, then others would have offered something, because until recently he was cheerful, kept a clear and penetrating mind. Good energy came from him.

– Do you think he was paid tribute during his lifetime for his skill and talent?

– I think no. He and Uskov were not spoiled for awards. Something was given for anniversaries. They deserved a workshop at VGIK, but they were not invited there. And modern festivals? Why not invite old people there to a master class on a domestic series?

They were written off early.

“They didn’t sit without work. In socio-cultural and pedagogical terms, they were not used. They had to take VGIK students to practice …

– The daughter of Vladimir Arkadyevich did not follow in her father’s footsteps?

– Lena almost became a stunt performer. Now she works at the hippodrome with children, teaching them how to ride a horse. She is very combative.