Transformations of Zhenya Lukashin: found himself on the sidelines, but there is hope in his eyes

Early in the morning on this cherished day, this is what an oil painting turned out to be: at the same time on the First “Office Romance”, on “Russia 1” – “Irony of Fate”. Yes, Ryazanov against Ryazanov, but it has already happened. But Myagkov against Myagkov, moreover, Novoseltsev against Lukashin – this is interesting.

Moreover, “Irony” for once was shown not on New Year’s Day, on December 31, they broke the tradition. And great! They also gave us all (here men are no different from women, they can and love too) the brilliant artist Andrei Vasilyevich Myagkov. To be remembered.

In general, Eldar Alexandrovich Ryazanov shot in series, an essay on a given topic. The first pancake, unlike the well-known proverb, was a success for him, and the second one is a copy, which is always worse than the original. See: “Carnival Night” – it doesn’t get any better; and then a year later, an analogue – “Girl without an address”, is not the same. “Beware of the Car” is an all-time masterpiece; a few years later, “Old Robbers” – it seems, but for the second time. And here, please, “The Irony of Fate”, an extraordinary story with a happy ending (no, someone, of course, was unlucky: “Ippolit, where is Ippolit? Eh, they offended such a good person”), in which the entire Soviet Union believed; and very soon – “Office Romance”, also about the transformation of two adults on the love front, but not quite the same. So it seemed.

Years passed … “Office Romance” suddenly began to rise, become prettier before our eyes, and in the zero years of the 21st century, after the collapse of the Motherland and the physical departure of so many Ryazan admirers, it suddenly turned into a unique classic of the genre; here appeared and revealed the depth of feelings, sensations, and the very transformation that happens to people at the moment of the highest, extraordinary experiences. Ryazanov called for him into the bright distance, away from the routine of life, to great and pure love. And we, the old and new born spectators (who are the people), responded. Now “Office Romance” is at least as good as “Irony” – always, even for the hundredth time, you look with pleasure. Yes, like good wine. It happened.

Andrey Myagkov almost always played a little man, this is his theme, Gogol’s. In “Irony” and in “Office Romance” he showed how handsome a small person can be, how free, capable of an extraordinary act when he falls in love for real. How he jumps out of the gray everyday life, out of the ordinary, and then his whole life is colored with such multi-colored colors, such color, sparkles, paradox, charm that it becomes enviable.

“You can’t live like this,” another director, Govorukhin, said at the dawn of perestroika, however, on a different occasion. “So you can live, you need to!” Ryazanov said. And we believed him.

Zhenya Lukashin is a typical representative of the Soviet intelligentsia, even write an essay on him. A surgeon in a city polyclinic who does not have a very large salary. Not a communist, no, not an activist, one of many. He understands everything about the system, about the system, the party in power, the one and only, but he accepts the rules of the game. Does not glow, does not protrude, works from morning to evening, heals. He knows Pasternak (and in “Office Romance” he also knows Pasternak: “… And you are beautiful without convolutions”), Yevtushenko, the poet Kirshon shot in 1938 (“I asked the ash tree”), our beloved Alexander Aronov, sings them with a guitar . True, Nikitin sang for Myagkov in the film. Andrei Vasilyevich was upset and begged Ryazanov for a solo in “Office Romance” – there Myagkov sings exclusively in his own voice.

Lukashin jokes about Soviet verbal cliches (“Is this a city on the Neva?”, “When do people sing?” – “They sing at demonstrations. When they drink, they sing”), but he does not go beyond the flags, he is loyal. People like him were transformed into perestroika (as they once were during the thaw), again believed in socialism with a human face, in reforms, went to rallies in defense of Yeltsin. On August 19, 1991, people like Lukashin, without blinking an eye, rushed to the White House to defend a flimsy democracy, built barricades, stood there without getting out for three days and three nights in the rain and won, as it seemed to them …

People like Lukashin did not take anything for themselves, they did not acquire anything in modern times. Someone will say: they were on the sidelines. He, Zhenya Lukashin (how about his father?) will not agree with this. In 1975, he was 36… So, now… If you meet an old man walking towards you… everything in him has settled, drooped… the only suit, the only coat… But his eyes… Hope still shines in his eyes. This is Lukashin. At the end of his life, Andrey Vasilyevich Myagkov himself had a dull look, and, unlike his hero, only disappointment was imprinted there. He went into himself and into his wonderful wife Anastasia Voznesenskaya (the director of the market at Garage) and shared common troubles and joys with her, did not leave her, until the last they walked holding the handle.

And Novoseltsev is the same Lukashin, only he has a boy and … another boy. Unlike Lukashin, who really treats, Novoseltsev works in a meaningless statistical institution, calculates something there, plans. And he is also a very good person (“And an excellent worker! But you don’t know, don’t say so!”), The world rests on such people. Although Ryazanov initially wanted to make him unsympathetic, faded, awkward, ridiculous. Remember Neyolova at Danelia’s in the “Autumn Marathon”: “Ridiculous, like you?” This is about Basilashvili.

Yes, inconspicuous, ordinary, ordinary, but … what a handsome man! I like it best when in the dining room Shura tells him about Samokhvalov, who made public the personal letters of the heroine Nemolyaeva to the general public, and Novoseltsev almost shouts: “Oh, chuvyrla!” – and with a crash with a spoon on the table, so that the entire chewing public shuddered. Good girl!

That’s how beautiful a little person can be. Or it can be terrible, stupid, scary, like Myagkov’s Karandyshev in The Cruel Romance.

He was such a wonderful artist – Andrey Myagkov. I just want you not to forget him.