The series “Chaliapin” plunged into everyday life, as if into a puddle

Well, really: such a prominent man, two meters tall, but from rags to riches … And the voice, the voice – a trumpet! “Marseillaise”, “Life for the Tsar”, “Dubinushka”, “Only birds sing for free” … One wife, two wives, children, children, children … Bolshoi, Mariinka, Moscow-Petersburg, back and forth, back and forth … Folk artist of the republic No. 1, the Bolsheviks, Lenin, Lunacharsky … Emigration, a window to Paris, Don Quixote …

So the synopsis, script, plot for a small series is ready. Eight episodes, but how much more?

Director Yegor Anashkin (“Zuleikha opens her eyes”, “The Bloody Lady” – no, this is not about Sobchak) was not to fall into the “cranberry”, but also to observe the measure, to pass between trickles of highbrow, spirituality and mass consciousness. When people want only about “lyuboff”, adultery, betrayal in a dream and in reality. The people demand! And the bigger the character, the bigger. So, how not to follow the lead of these people, but also to make sure that you are watched, do not forget about the ratings?

You know, I liked it. Of course, as a representative of the unfinished Russian intelligentsia (sounds like an insult), you always want to have these “hints, half-hints” (remember Raikin?), meanings, second, third, allusions, associations, linking to today’s day … But then the so-called mass viewer unanimously spits on the screen, curses and switches the channel. As one very well-known humorist told me after the interview: “Are we not too serious with you?” To be serious now is embarrassing, bad, dangerous. You have to adapt to your people.

Director Anashkin succeeded: he did everything in moderation. He did not cave in under the electorate completely and irrevocably, but he also showed all the personal, intimate twists of stellar fate.

Alexander Gorbatov (“Bad Weather”, “Gloomy River”), who played Chaliapin, is generally a find, a victory, a huge plus. Great actor, thoughtful. Here he also has to go downhill, use stamps, show his Fedor Ivanovich as an “ordinary person” (Chekhov). But what about Pushkin: “He is small, like us, he is disgusting, like us! You lie, scoundrels: he is both small and vile – not like you – otherwise. Yes, he loves money like you, he cheats on his wife like you, he wants fame, but it’s still not like that, otherwise.

Here he is walking in his famous expensive fur coat, towering over the crowd, as if he had just descended from the portrait of Kustodiev … Again cliches, a stereotype, a concession to public taste. But how beautifully it goes, how beautifully it is filmed.

The film, in principle, without weaknesses: melodrama, heroics, and then – bam! – plunges you into everyday life, dullness, life, as if into a puddle. I understand the director, he did as he wanted, and shot.

And the only negative … you will laugh … this is Ildar Abdrazakov. The first world bass, he sings here for Chaliapin. It would seem that such luck, success, you can’t imagine better. But he who has ears, let him hear. Have you heard how Chaliapin sings? I remember back in the second grade the singing teacher played us a record. It was a shock, a shock, nothing less. So it still remains. Against this background, Abdrazakov becomes smaller, evaporates – with all due respect. As Smoktunovsky said to Oleg Efremov: “You are a wonderful artist, and I am space.” So Chaliapin is a space artist, but according to the film, he is simply very good. Inconsistency.

And now about myself, my beloved, about my passions. Still, we have very few directors who work on nuances, who are able to tell about the present time through the past. This is Dunya Smirnova: her Vertinsky, as if alive, rises before her eyes.

Dunya, come back! Leave your Chubais (no, not at all, for a while), come to Russia, I will forgive everything. Who is left untouched by us? Here, Gorky Alexei Maksimovich, a friend of Chaliapin (Koe-Kogo Street, like in a movie). A seasoned human being, colorful. And what a biography! Contradictory you are ours …

Dunya, come back and let Chubais rest. Film about the classic, and not just like that, but with subtext, as soon as you know how. They will definitely let you in, you are checked in all places. I’m looking forward to it.

Incredible Kapitsa

He spoke, wringing his hands,
Krasnobay and troublemaker
About the impotence of science
Before the secret of Bermuda.
All brains smashed to pieces
All the gyrus braided –
And rope power
They give us a second injection.

Vladimir Vysotsky, “Dear transmission, or a letter to the program” Obvious – Incredible “.

Well, of course, this is about Sergei Petrovich Kapitsa! His program was a cult, long-awaited. Obvious, incredible. He led it, simply reveling in his knowledge, the endless possibilities of science. He spoke so tasty, tasty, artistically, carried away, sometimes swallowing words, he wanted to have time to speak out. And with what pleasure! He was a great promoter of knowledge.

I was lucky to meet him. You know, it’s happiness. I visited him both in his Moscow house and at the old dacha on Nikolina Gora (I still remember those shaky wooden railings), in which his great father Pyotr Kapitsa lived. And on television during the recording of the program.

He lived like that, tastefully. It could be called strange (“But who is not strange?”), Out of this world in the most beautiful sense. Oh, more such strange ones!

… When Sergei Petrovich died, they decided to name one of the islands of the Kuril ridge in his honor – memory. And I was invited there, to the islands. This is not forgotten.

On the “Culture” for the 95th anniversary, they repeated “Obvious – incredible” and “Life Line”. What a man!