Russia (bbabo.net), - Andrey Konchalovsky's new large-scale project "History from the first person" - video interview - memories with participants in the historical events of Russia and the USSR. Already the first 200 interviews with veterans of the Great Patriotic War have been posted on a specially created interactive Internet portal history from first person.rf. And then there will be more such interviews - you will get an encyclopedia, a video data base, which has no analogues in the country and in the world. The columnist asked Andrey Konchalovsky about the project in more detail.
Andrey Sergeevich, please tell us why you decided to create such an Internet platform? Correctly, I understand that it is a logical continuation of all your activities, because the history of the country is recorded in all your films, whether it is Ivan's Childhood and Andrei Rublev or Paradise, Dear Comrades!, Cheerful Man and others?
Andrey Konchalovsky: The fact is that a huge number - millions - of people are leaving as witnesses of historical events. And we will never again replenish their experience and knowledge. Every personal experience is unique. Another issue is that people often cannot articulate what exactly they want to say and cannot find someone to listen to them. And their memories can be priceless.
There are still such last remaining witnesses in our time. It doesn't matter what - the war, the post-war years, the Khrushchev thaw, perestroika .... We need to try to find them and extract from their memory everything that has some kind of value. Moreover, I would say that this value is implicit. I mean that, of course, it is good to record the memories of the remaining members of the Politburo, but a person who was a combine operator or simply remembers Gorbachev or someone else can be of no less interest. At the same time, it is one thing to write down, and another thing to select from what is written what makes sense.
Selection, in fact, is the essence of creative activity. Therefore, when they ask: "And for whom is this encyclopedia?", I answer: "For everyone!". Because the further civilization develops, the shorter the human memory becomes. And young people do not want to remember anything at all, they have everything on the Internet. It can be said that the shortening of human memory is a tragic process for all mankind. But I will hope that not all civilizations lose their memory as quickly as the European one. Maybe the Chinese and Indian ones are more conservative, although I can't really judge. Therefore, if there is an opportunity that has appeared thanks to the Presidential Grant, creating a bank of memories is a great luxury. And to briefly expressence of creating such a portal, then, as Indian wisdom says, treat the first person you meet as your teacher. Anyone can learn. It is important that the student is talented.
And who makes the selection? And what if the person is telling a lie? He is like a witness, but he does not remember well, he embellishes. What to do in this case?
Andrey Konchalovsky: Nothing. Let it be as it is. In this case, we do not do any segregation. Then, when everything is assembled, we understand what makes sense to leave on the portal and what does not.
The selection is made by the team, the editor. But I have the most direct relation to everything. It all started with the fact that about ten years ago I made several documentaries about political leaders. These are people such as, for example, Heydar Aliyev, Leonid Kuchma, Wojciech Jaruzelski and others. I have preserved a four-hour interview with Jaruzelski, during the recording of which he was just on trial. He was tried by the newly arrived euro-liberals for crimes against the Fatherland. While I have not yet made a film, but this conversation shows how erroneous public opinion can be in assessing this or that figure. It's a pity that we can no longer find witnesses to how the "progressive liberal" public ruined the great Russian writer Leskov in the century before last. I sometimes think about how hard it was for him to live. But it was a genius! For the domestic intellectual elite, "party spirit" has always been a characteristic feature. ("Against whom are we friends?") No wonder Leskov wrote that the slogan of Russian liberals is "If you are not with us, then you are a scoundrel!" And this is very typical of the Russian mentality, such Manichaeism. Black and everything! That is why I am skeptical about the hope of a democratic state in Russia. Democracy is a compromise. And the Russian hero is always an uncompromising person!
Andrey Sergeevich, is it possible that this encyclopedia will be used in cinema - by you or other filmmakers?
Andrey Konchalovsky: I hope! It will be open to everyone. For the sake of this, it is going to make this interactive document later in one form or another become the property of a wider audience. Although it is worth being aware that interests are becoming more superficial - nothing can be done. But still, the quality of those who came is important, not the quantity.I imagined how a young director or screenwriter listens to these video testimonies and finds some story, such as the story of Asya Klyachina or the postman Tryapitsyn, and makes a film about it.
Andrey Konchalovsky: Of course, this can happen, but we must not forget that American-style utilitarian methods of creativity have taken root in cinema today - in short, how to make a film so that it is a success with a wide audience ... There you have it GPS navigation system - Do you know what it is?
Yes, I drive a car.
Andrey Konchalovsky: So. There was such a story - a housewife in America, always went with a GPS to the nearest supermarket - one and a half kilometers away. When the GPS broke, she got lost and couldn't find her way home. I say this to the fact that the shortest path to success, which indicates the GPS, today is the principle of modern cinema. American recipes give a person, roughly speaking, instructions on how to make a successful film for people who are not interested in anything. And we are in a cycle. And in order to create a work of art, you need to think differently, you need to throw away the GPS and grope in the dark. Of course, there will always be brave people. You see, when I was working on the films "White Nights of the Postman Tryapitsin" or "The Story of Asya Klyachina", I felt delighted that I was filming a piece of real life, and I don't know what will happen in the next second. Of course, in the case of "Asya Klyachina" I did it under the influence of neo-realism and great Italian films, where actors were not filmed. But in order to make your own movie based on a real human story, you need to have other aspirations. You have to throw away the recipes, the recommendations of the instructions, you have to throw away the GPS and wander in search of answers.
And to wander, you need the ability to sacrifice your time and much more. And what matters is not success, especially immediate success, but the desire to understand something. I don't want to sound like a shaman, but what you are asking is basically a search for simplicity in the very complex and confusing chaos of life's facts.
Andrey Sergeevich, for example, our whole family regrets that there was no such technique before, and we did not write down the stories of our grandmother. And now people can turn to your team and invite: come, I have such a unique person, write him down. Is that right?
Andrey Konchalovsky: I can't say that the possibilities of my team are unlimited, but in general - yes. And here is the case that any bast will be in a line. And this is an endless process. There are no limits. And I hope that while we have the opportunity, we will lay the foundation for what can be called today's concept - Big Data or a database.
The point is, we never know exactly where the jewel is hidden in recorded memories. You have to listen, think and choose. Recording such interview testimonies is a process reminiscent of searching for pearls or gold. You need to sift a lot of rock to find the treasure.
Treat the first person you meet as your teacher
What will you do to ensure that what is recorded on the portal is watched and listened to? After all, you yourself are talking about the younger generation, that their memory is shortening - it is unlikely that most of them will sit down and listen to veterans. Maybe you are planning to make some kind of "viral" videos, distribute quotes that will draw attention to the story?
Andrey Konchalovsky: This is the next stage. Of course, we will think about how to make it possible for anyone who wants to always use this material. How, say, separately, to submit memories of the Kursk Bulge or letters from German soldiers from Stalingrad. But now the primary task is to get memories, to crystallize the most important thing like a rock. This is not only a cinematic, but also a historical, research project. While we are collecting unique material, and no one knows what value all this will have even in twenty years. Because today for some young people, and even those who read, Caesar and Stalin are people from some one very distant era. Or some people think that it was Lenin who defeated Napoleon. Nothing can be done about this, this is a huge terrible global process of the destruction of memory, there is an atomization of not only knowledge, but of the whole society. In addition, it has intensified during the pandemic. And became the hands of those in power. Because, as Karl Marx said, if an idea takes hold of the masses, it becomes an irresistible force. Therefore, for those who manage, it is important that there are no general ideas, that there is no mass, but there are individual people who sit at home and watch "augmented" reality.
What other projects are you currently working on?Andrey Konchalovsky: The pandemic gave me the opportunity to do several projects. Firstly, I finished the work that I started with Yuri Nagibin. For forty years I have written several versions of the script for Rachmaninov, two of them with Nagibin. Then, 30 years ago, I rewrote everything, and only now it seems to me that I fully realized how you can tell about Russia by telling about the life of Rachmaninoff.
This is a big statement.
Andrey Konchalovsky: Yes. It seems to me that now I can imagine how you can tell about Russia through the story of a landowner who, by chance, was also a brilliant composer. And another ten-year project that I recently completed is dedicated to the history of the Russian revolution.
You said that it would be nice to make a documentary project about Andrei Tarkovsky for his anniversary, which is celebrated this year.
Andrey Konchalovsky: I was included in the commission under the Ministry of Culture to prepare the celebration of Tarkovsky's birthday. In fact, I believe that Andrei's work requires a separate, encyclopedic dictionary. It would be nice if the average viewer understood what exactly Tarkovsky was worried about, what he was trying to fix? I think that I understand his searches and throwing. He was tongue-tied, you know?
In what sense? He also expressed himself visually.
Andrey Konchalovsky: He is tongue-tied in the sense of his film language. I think that he did not fully know how to express what he wanted. His most important value is sincerity. And I told him, they say, the cow is mooing sincerely, but who understands that she is mooing? I think it would be interesting to explain his desperate search for the meanings he saw. Then6 later, when he had already achieved success, his last works sinned with a kind of narcissism. But, nevertheless, his intention, his intention is the most interesting thing. Because that's the intention of the artist. He didn't want to be understood, he wanted to understand! These are different things. For me personally, the ideal of an artist is what Boris Pasternak: brilliantly expressed in the lines: "it is impossible not to fall, as if into heresy, into unheard-of simplicity by the end." Tarkovsky did not reach simplicity, he died early. A film about him needs to be made with very careful, loving hands.
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