Russia (bbabo.net), - In the Cinema Club - another premiere: Vladimir Nepevny's documentary "Fists of the Great Limit". It is about Mikhail Kulakov - one of the brightest stars of the Leningrad underground of the 60s and 70s. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Moscow International Film Festival, and now we are making it available to a wide audience.
The film is presented by Zhanna Vasilyeva, a visual arts observer.
The film "Fists of the Great Limit" is dedicated to the artist Mikhail Kulakov, who remained true to abstraction even when it "went out of fashion." However, it is clearly premature to speak of Kulakov's work as a thing of the past. Not only because two years ago a big exhibition "Mikhail Kulakov. The Style of the Thaw" went off in Moscow.
Kulakov's interest in abstract expressionism coexisted with the search for mystical revelations. He tried to combine the free gesture of the artist with the natural breath of natural material. Strongly coarsening, one can see that his path, perhaps, led from Pollock and Roerich towards Kandinsky and symbolism. The key word here is "path".
A man of fantastic biography, Kulakov knew how to turn his ship 180 degrees. After completing a couple of courses at MGIMO, he dropped everything to become an artist. Driven out of the house by his parents, who did not appreciate his first experiments in abstraction, he went to Leningrad to find his place in the circle of director Nikolai Akimov, to study at the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema ... I almost got drunk, but got out and ... began master of the sixth dan of martial arts. The latter will be useful to him in Perugia, where he will begin to give lessons in taijiquan. By the way, the name of this type of wushu is translated from Chinese as "the fist of the great limit."
At his wedding with an Italian in 1976, Lilya Brik and Peter Kapitsa were witnesses. In Italy, mosaic panels of this master of martial arts will decorate two stations of the Rome Metro. He will become a member of the Academy of Arts. Pietro Vannuchi, in Perugia, will receive in 2003 the gold medal of the International Emigration Prize.
Vladimir Nepevny, who made excellent films about the inventor of needle animation Alexander Alekseev ("Dreams of Alfeoni"), about musicians ("Kurekhin", "Gaivoronsky: fleeting moments") and the poet Viktor Sosnore ("Sosnora. Alien"), in a film about Mikhail Kulakov combined animation and photography, music and poetry. Poetry here is almost the same mistress as painting. Kulakov was at home in the circle of Leningrad poets, a friend of Viktor Sosnora and Gleb Gorbovsky. Songs based on their poems performed by Alexei Khvostenko set the tone of the film - desperately reckless, conversational in its own way.
Photographs by Vladimir Sychev, Boris Kudryakov, Gennady Prikhodko and other remarkable photographers create an image of the Leningrad thaw, parallel to the frozen official image of the "cradle of the revolution". The dashing energy of life will break through not only in black and white shots, but also in dynamic bright animation, reminiscent not so much of abstraction and the secrets of surrealism, but of the almost childlike full-bloodedness of being. And the same immediacy will manifest itself in the footage of the shooting of Kulakov's work on the canvas. It seems that painting here is only a part of life. But perhaps the most important part of it.
Allowing you to look beyond the "great limit".
Back to news underground. The film stars artists Vladimir Nemukhin, Vitaly Kubasov, Natalia Kochergina, Bob Koshelokhov, poet Valentin Khromov, artist Lev Prygunov, philologist Mikhail Meilakh, volcanologist Heinrich Steinberg, psychiatrist Valery Natalenko, and the artist's widow, Marianna Molla-Kulakova.
The scriptwriter and director of the film is Vladimir Nepevny. Known for portrait films, including those dedicated to Kira Muratova, Sergei Kuryokhin, Alexander Volodin, Viktor Sosnora and many others.
The music for the film was written by the legendary free jazz musicians Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and Vladimir Tarasov.
Animator Boris Kazakov is known for his experimental and radical works, he collaborated with director Yevgeny Yufit.
The chronicle of the underground in the film is recreated thanks to the unique photographs of Boris Kudryakov, Vladimir Sychev, Gennady Prikhodko, Sergei Podgorkov and other photographers.
The international premiere of the film took place in Italy at the Asolo art film festival, the oldest art film festival in Europe.
The film participated in the festivals "Window to Europe" (Vyborg), "Arctic open" (Arkhangelsk), "Stalker" (Moscow), "EPOS" (Tel Aviv), entered the short list of the "Laurus" award.
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