The red nobleman and the Russian genius: Solomin and Balabanov again on the big screen

At the beginning there is a sign: “Dedicated to the first security officers.” In the 90s this would have been impenetrable, an untranslatable pun. Now please. On the contrary, it is only welcome. Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, after all the revelations, security officers in the cinema were exclusively negative heroes, romantics from the high road without fear or reproach. But since then, time has turned back, and now the knights of the cloak and dagger are respected people. They fought for their homeland.

Well, in Soviet times… A cool head, a warm heart, clean hands – this is what Felix Edmundovich bequeathed.

In “Adjutant…” Solomin is a separate story. This is the height of dignity, super dignity, I have the honor. Red nobleman, straight back, clear gaze, the word of an officer. “Pavel Andreevich, are you a spy?” Here Koltsov briefly told Yura the class essence of Marx-Engels-Lenin.

In fact, “His Excellency’s Adjutant” is a harbinger of “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” and Captain Koltsov is Stirlitz’s Standartenführer, Maxim Maksimovich Isaev. Well, that means Solomin is Tikhonova. This is how a new ideological philosophy was expressed on the theme of oneself or another: an enemy can be no less intelligent than a hero, a patriot, a Red, a Soviet. The enemy can also love the Motherland. He has his own ideals, an idea of ​​beauty. And therefore, defeating such an enemy is even greater valor.

Mikhail Bulgakov was the first to describe this in “The White Guard” (“Days of the Turbins”), then “Running”. And Stalin said then (and he was a fan of the Turbins) that these were strong people, decent in their own way, and we broke them. Which means we are invincible.

You watch these two films, and you can get confused. “Staff Captain Standartenführer Koltsov-Stirlitz” or: “Koltsov, I’ll ask you to stay.” Yes, never before had His Excellency’s adjutant been so close to failure.

The white general played by Strzelchik is an enemy with a human face. And the eyes are kind and kind.

And remember “The Elusive Avengers”, a patriotic song about Russia, performed by a white officer – Vladimir Ivashov: “Field, Russian field…”

In “Seventeen Moments…” Müller (even though he is the chief of the Gestapo), both Schellenberg and Bormann are very nice people with a high IQ. Even if they are war criminals. But Stirlitz beat them too. Is it too much valor to defeat fools?

Also “Option Omega”, a five-part film where the Soviet intelligence officer was played by Oleg Dal himself, and opposed by Baron von Schlosser (the wonderful actor Igor Vasiliev), a worthy enemy, an Abwehr intelligence officer. Well, what is he against Paul Krieger-Skorin?

…Yuri Solomin could play everything – both on the Maly stage and in the cinema. Although if in “Dersu Uzala” by Akira Kurosawa he is very reminiscent of Captain Koltsov, then in “An Ordinary Miracle” there is a completely different Solomin, and with the Wizard-Yankovsky on a friendly footing, and he sings a song with Ekaterina Vasilyeva soul to soul, cheek to cheek. But we will remember Yuri Methodievich as “Adjutant to His Excellency.” So handsome! Intelligence, honor and conscience. And talent. Great artist!

RUSSIAN GENIUS

This film is simply called “Balabanov”. And is there anything else that needs to be added? Alexey Oktyabrovich passed away in 2013. He would be 65 now.

He gave the interview sixteen months before his death. I just finished my penultimate film, “Stoker,” and eight months later my last, “I Want Too,” and after another eight months he was gone. There in the cinema he also dies, filming himself for the first time. It just falls to the side, falls off – and that’s it, the heart stops. He only manages to say: “I am a member of the European Film Academy,” probably this was important to him.

During those 54 years allotted by fate, he made many films. Among them are masterpieces. Like no one else, he understood what a frame is, how many meanings fit there, what tempo, dynamics, and music in cinema are. He was the best director of his time, and everyone recognized this.

He went through Afghanistan, served in the army, and that’s where “War” and “Cargo 200” come from. The last film is scary, hopeless, impossible to watch it a second time. He was well acquainted with the bandits and believed that their code of honor was much higher than that of the notorious intelligentsia. Are you against it, are you offended? But you can’t change a person, that’s how he thought. And from here both “Brothers”, and “Zhmurki”, and “Stoker”.

He loved his wife very much, hence “It Doesn’t Hurt Me” is Balabanov’s most tender film. He loved Russian rock very much, probably more than anyone ever has. You can see it in his paintings!

But there’s no point in putting him into pigeonholes; one thing is clear: he made all his films out of himself.

In Balaban’s films, his second “I”, the subconscious, came out, since he was the most intelligent, very subtle person. There, political correctness completely disappeared, there he coincided with the Russian people, with their majority, and could not help himself. There Danila Bagrov said: “I don’t really like Jews,” after which another super director, Alexei German, stopped shaking his hand. And in vain, they are not offended by Balabanov. And about the Caucasians on the bus… And this famous: “You will also answer for Sevastopol!” And his characters who played Bandera’s followers pronounced “e”, like many do now.

Well, what can you do, people feel this way, they say so, he is just a reflector of this. In life, he himself would never say that, but cinema is the second reality, and maybe the first.

Here he is sitting, almost lying on the bed: “Life should be interesting, then you can shoot. And when it’s not interesting, nothing will work out.” They considered him a guru, they were looking for meaning, but he was simply interested in filming the unusual Mikhalkov or very famous artists in a gangster comedy.

When his friend Sergei Bodrov died, life ended for him, he even wanted to leave this life. Still, I still made films by inertia. “You have to make a movie before you’re 50, after 50 you lose energy, and without energy, no movie can be made.” How right he is! In relation to all Russian directors. And to yourself. It’s fair.

There is no energy in his last film, it left him. There is a feeling of illness there – physical and spiritual. He said everything, he said it like no one else. That’s why his films are always relevant. That’s why his cinema is real art. He is called the Russian Tarantino. There is no need to compare. He is simply Russian, a Russian genius. What else can you say?!