Yuri Grymov explained whether there is a connection between the marketing moves of the USSR and the Middle Ages

When I was little, I often heard on TV announcers announcing: “Due to numerous requests from TV viewers, we are repeating the show…” I believed that TV viewers were actually asking for a repeat of their favorite film. Then I grew up and began to doubt. It began to seem to me that this was just a trick, as they would say now, a marketing ploy. Then I became an adult, started doing advertising myself and realized that in most cases this is exactly what happens.

But recently I unexpectedly became convinced of the opposite. After my lecture on the Renaissance, I received a lot of feedback from a variety of people, familiar and unfamiliar. Many people liked my experiment. Therefore, I decided to repeat this experience, and the lecture on the Renaissance will be held in our theater again. And then I’ll move on. And I’ve already planned a small series: starting with the Renaissance, I’ll talk about cinema, then about advertising, and I’ll end by sharing my experience of finding myself in the profession, along the way, talking about those outstanding personalities that I had the chance to meet in life. The very fact of being next to a real creator – and, thank God, I have met many of them in my time – is already enriching. It enriches you, if not with knowledge of life, then at least with the feeling that it has a great, amazing, inspiring meaning: after all, here in front of you is a person who was able to build his life correctly. I hope someone will find these meetings interesting or even useful.

Why am I saying all this? In a conversation about the Renaissance, among other things, I mention a rather interesting historical plot. At some point, the all-powerful Medici and the no less influential Pope Julius II (one of the most cruel and bloody rulers, even though he called himself the viceroy of God) decided to “shift their emphasis”: instead of competing in cruelty, treachery and duplicity, they came up with an idea to argue with each other in another area – in the degree of luxury. And luxury at that time could not be achieved by anything other than the possession of objects of high art.

And, I must admit, few people at that time were as well versed in works of art as these monsters. No matter how terrible crimes they stained themselves with, their sense of real beauty was fully developed. They felt beauty, they wanted to create it, they wanted beauty to be left behind. Yes, this is such a strange and terrible combination of spiritual qualities. No one can answer the question of why they needed this, but the fact remains. They found talented creators and helped their talent. They can be called the first producers in art. They produced Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and others.

The example of the Middle Ages is far from the only one. Another story on the same topic is Austria before the First World War. A leisurely, measured life, people understand what to expect from the future, and live a calm, filled present. Vienna at that time was a real cultural center of Europe. Theatres, galleries, museums. Theater directors, actors, and playwrights were much more famous than politicians and statesmen. The Prime Minister could easily appear in public simply because the public did not recognize him. The appearance of a famous actor instantly caused a stir.

When they decided to demolish the famous Burgtheater and transfer the troupe to another building, on the day of the last, farewell performance, the hall was packed, plus a crowd gathered on the street. The performance is over. A curtain. Stormy applause. The hall is standing. The lights went out. The hall is standing. The lights were turned on, then turned off again – people did not leave. People stayed in the hall for another hour, saying goodbye to the old theater and its atmosphere. Eventually the director persuaded the audience to leave. But the audience, leaving, literally practically dismantled the stage: everyone broke off, picked out a piece, a sliver of the old theater stage as a souvenir. So, to this day, many old families in Vienna keep these relics – pieces of the stage of the old Burgtheater.

I really want us today to remember this historical example. I really want us to compete with each other not in political ambitions, cruelty and brute force, but in art and culture. Yes, evil is always around. Yes, it is often within ourselves. But we always have a way out. After all, what makes us human is not politics, not economics, but our culture. I often recall the words of Churchill, which he said in response to a proposal to reduce spending on culture (this was during the Second World War): “If we reduce spending on culture, what then will we protect?”

Times have changed. Today the masters of the airwaves are politicians. Little-known, sometimes just random people who ended up where they ended up simply because of their loudness. They occupied the entire information space. And, accordingly, people’s minds. Today, most of the “stars” of the screen can walk the streets without fear – no one will recognize them anyway. Just as no one will stop to bow respectfully when they meet a famous director or conductor on the street. True creativity, high art is no longer an object of worship and admiration.

But I will still remain an idealist and romantic. And I will dream that we will again begin to pay attention to real beauty. The fact that we will again begin to discuss books, films and musical works with each other, we will begin to argue about the artistic techniques of painters and composers, we will analyze the differences in the creative style of poets, we will be amazed at the courage of theater directors and the talent of the actors who embodied the author’s plan on stage.

That is why we have productions at the Modern Theater, the whole point of which is to remind ourselves that we are human. Figure out why we need each other. Understand that we carry within ourselves good and evil, light and darkness. Hence “Julius Caesar”, hence “Peter”, “Leonardo” and “Judas”. From this point all the questions that we—actors, directors—ask ourselves diverge. And at this same point all our answers converge.

Let these dreams look like utopia. If I’m going to strive somewhere, then let my goal be utopia. In the end, we are already fed up with the cruel reality. We are all by nature directed upward, towards heaven. It is there, somewhere in an ideal world, that we draw strength to remain human.

Your idealist, Yuri Grymov