Unknown Andrey Konchalovsky: colleagues remembered the facts from the director’s life

In 1965, the premiere of Konchalovsky’s debut full-length film The First Teacher took place in Venice, which brought the Volpi Cup to the leading lady Natalya Arinbasarova, who became his wife. The jury awarded the House of Fools in 2002 with Yulia Vysotskaya in the title role. Twice Konchalovsky received the “Silver Lions” for directing – for “White Nights of the Postman Alexei Tryapitsyn” in 2014 and for “Paradise” in 2016. Recent “Dear comrades!” were awarded the special prize of the Venice jury in 2019. And on the eve of the anniversary, Konchalovsky said goodbye to the festival in protest against the fact that Russian films were no longer invited there. Goodbye Venice Festival! It has been a celebration for me for 60 years! I do not regret that there will be no more. I’m glad I was! And Venice is beautiful even without the festival!” he said.

On the eve of the anniversary, one of Konchalovsky’s best films, The Story of Asya Klyachina, who loved but never married, was re-released with Iya Savvina in the title role and with the participation of the villagers of the Gorky region. In 1967, the premiere took place in the capital’s Cinema House, but the picture was released on the screens only in 1988. On August 6, Konchalovsky was supposed to meet with the audience, but due to a positive test for covid by his wife Yulia Vysotskaya, the event had to be postponed indefinitely.

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We talked with Andrei Sergeevich’s colleagues about his significance for Russian and world cinema, and during these conversations, interesting details came to light.

Armen Medvedev – film critic, president of the Window to Europe festival, ex-minister of cinematography – told MK about how he studied with Konchalovsky at the same school.

– At the event in honor of the 90th birthday of Andrei Tarkovsky, you recalled how you visited Tarkovsky’s apartment. Did you visit Andrei Konchalovsky?

– I visited Tarkovsky only once, but I didn’t visit Konchalovsky, but we studied together at the 110th school until the fourth grade.

– In one class?

– Looks like one. I don’t remember exactly, because Andrei quickly left us for a school at the Moscow Conservatory. But our acquaintance began there and continued when he was going to enter VGIK. We somehow met, walked along Khlebny Lane and Vorovskogo Street. Andron talked about his life, about his father. These seem to be friendly, but not very close relations we were connected with.

Who else studied with you?

– Alexander Shirvindt studied three years older than us, and in parallel with us – Kostya Shcherbakov (a film critic who worked at MK in the 1960s. – S.Kh.), son of Academician Sisakyan. The children of prominent members of the party and the government studied at the 110th school at that time, and one can talk about it for a long time. I was friends with Valery Kuznetsov, the son of the same Kuznetsov who was killed by Stalin in the Leningrad case. My friends were modest, not elite.

– And in Konchalovsky it was felt that he was a boy from an elite family?

– I felt it, of course. He always looked down on people. Remember Alik Lipkov?

– I knew him. With the participation of Alexander Lipkov, Konchalovsky wrote his famous books Elevating Deception and Low Truths. He had a book “The impetus for reflection, or All about the toilets” on the idea of ​​​​Konchalovsky. Their names are on the cover.

– So he was a friend of Tarkovsky, wrote a review of Konchalovsky’s Romance of the Lovers. And then we were on some foreign trip with Andron, and he said: “I have a press person, Alik Lipkov.” Everyone thought they were friends. But at the same time, when Andron studied at the conservatory, about a year or two before entering VGIK, his father did not allow him to buy an old used foreign-made car. Sergei Vladimirovich said to his son: “Only over my corpse.” Andron was going to make repairs in his room in the apartment on Vorovskogo, saving up money for it. He himself earned them and bought paint, wallpaper, everything you need exactly in the amount that was enough money. Andron said that his room was half renovated, because his father did not give money.

– Fate brought you together years later, when you began to lead the film industry. Did childhood acquaintance affect your relationship?

– When we were on a trip to the GDR, we talked a lot, remembered. Not school, of course. Andron remembered the music school he had transferred to more. I was recently told that he spoke very warmly about me. I was even surprised. When we last saw each other at Nika or somewhere else, he seemed a little distant to me. And then for some reason he said that he treats me reverently.

– And yet, when you were at the ministerial post, how did you communicate?

– And he lived in America at that moment. And when I returned, I helped him get a space for the studio. I don’t remember if it worked. We talked more in front of America when he started Siberiada, told how he wants to shoot it.

– How can an experienced film critic determine Konchalovsky’s place on the film pedestal?

– Andron could have surpassed Tarkovsky and become the first director of our country, if not for his departure, not for leaving for European and American cinema. I don’t really like the films he made after his return. “Dear comrades!” turned out better than others, but, of course, this is not a picture about Asya the Lame-Legged, not something he shot before. I love his “Uncle Vanya” and “Romance of Lovers” very much, although there is quite a conjuncture there. He is now, one might say, the only living classic left.

– Today you recalled Tarkovsky, with whom Konchalovsky began, became a co-author of the script for Andrei Rublev. Parallels arise.

– On this topic, we once talked with Vadim Yusov (the legendary cameraman who filmed Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris by Tarkovsky. – S.Kh.). He believed that Tarkovsky was offended by the fate of his father, whom few knew before Ivan’s Childhood. Therefore, he pulled himself up to Konchalovsky in order to enter the literary world, the circle of people who gathered in the Central House of Writers. Vadim Ivanovich said that on this basis the friendship between Tarkovsky and Andron arose. I don’t know how right he is. But, perhaps, Tarkovsky thus compensated for what his father Arseniy Tarkovsky did not receive.

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Julius Gusman – director, TV presenter, founding father of the Nika film award – told MK about how Andrei Konchalovsky headed the film academy and how they first met.

– In addition to “Nika” something connects you?

— Andrei Sergeevich was one of the first lecturers who spoke at our Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. Rustam, Maksud Ibragimbekov, and I studied at the Azerbaijani workshop at that time. We were struck not only by the moral, but also by the physical health of Andrei Konchalovsky. At that time, no one thought about a healthy lifestyle, and at dinner at the Central House of Writers, he gave us a short lecture about it. To this day, Andrei Sergeevich is one of the most spiritually, physically and creatively strong people in the film community. He received one of our very first “Nick” for “The story of Asya Klyachina …”. A person should probably live life like Andron. One of the smartest people I know, Professor Vladimir Pastukhov, who lives in London, considers Andron a wonderful philosopher. Konchalovsky is a man for all time. It is remarkable that at a venerable age he is focused on creativity, puts on performances, shoots a variety of films, and teaches. He is not just a mature professional, but also a person with great artistic taste. I like what he does, although I don’t always agree with what he says. When our film academy elected him as its president, Andrey Sergeevich took this responsibly, with soul, and now he is trying to lighten the huge burden that two and a half people from the Nika team carry. He did not erect a monument to himself, but is full of creative plans, as if he were 35-40 years old. I would very much like to keep this state of mind and body for many years to come.

“It’s amazing that he was thinking about a healthy lifestyle while still very young.

“Especially considering the fact that Maksud and Rustam and I spent almost every morning at the barbecue at the Nikitsky Gate instead of breakfast. Konchalovsky already then understood what physical perfection meant for the spiritual strength of the artist. We somehow went to one of his wife’s restaurants, and Yulia Vysotskaya is not just a wonderful actress, but also an expert in the field of nutrition, and Andrei Sergeevich was served three small cups of different soup in a row. This was his dinner. I don’t know what diet it is.

He has good genetic material. His father lived a long and healthy life. I don’t know many people like that. For example, Vladimir Zeldin, who lived 102 and a half years and until the last went on stage, played in my performances. My wonderful friend Yuri Ryashentsev is over 90, but he is full of strength and enthusiasm, writes poetry, one play after another. When we talk about a man of such magnitude and an artist of such power as Andrei Konchalovsky, it is important to note that he is also an insanely intelligent person. He knows his strength, perfectly understands the scale of his talent and personality, but at the same time he does not show off. I can’t say that we are close friends with him, but for sure, he behaves like an intelligent friend and a talented artist.

– When he was offered the post of president of Nika, did he have any doubts? Still, his brother Nikita Mikhalkov heads the competing Golden Eagle award.

– It is pointless to persuade and convince Andrei Sergeyevich. He is such a prominent and strong person that sometimes it causes not only a feeling of protest, but discomfort in an ordinary person. He is like a lump. No wonder he shot “Sin” about the great Italian artist Michelangelo, who sculpted from marble. He is the same whole person made of marble or granite, something strong. Marble also has veins, spots, it is difficult to work with it. But a lump is a good image to characterize an outstanding Russian artist.

– Obviously, when filming about Michelangelo, Konchalovsky filmed about himself …

– A real director always takes pictures of himself, his inner throwing. In the same “Postman Tryapitsyn” you can recognize Konchalovsky. I love his old films, not only Asya Klyachina, but also Siberiada. There is power behind him. This person is strong and whole in his rightness and mistakes. He has wings behind him that are not made of wax, like those of Icarus. They are from a different material. And what could be more important for an artist than good wings?