The special way of Olesya Fokina and the solar talent of Gennady Shpalikov

MOSCOW. Olesya Fokina’s documentary about Shpalikov was nominated for the Golden Eagle Award in the nomination for Best Non-Fiction Film.

The German teacher and liberal politician Adolph Diesterweg (Adolph Diesterweg) considered the teacher’s personality and way of thinking the main thing in teaching and upbringing. Plutarch, on the other hand, saw in the disciple not a vessel, but a torch to be ignited. Tell me who your teacher is…

Teachers of Olesya Fokina at the Higher Courses of directors and scriptwriters were Merab Mamardashvili and Paola Volkova, masters - Leonid Gurevich and Boris Galanter. Gurevich considered the main purpose of documentary films not to serve the interests of those in power, but to search for the highest truth in a person, his spirituality and moral principle. Boris Galanter was called the poet of documentary films. His subtle, clever films that have been sent “on the shelf” more than once — about Pushkin, Beethoven, Plisetskaya, Polunin, the inhabitants of the dying village of Vylegzhat — are full of love for heroes and unaccountable sadness.

The torch, lit by teachers, allows Olesya Fokina to find her own, special path to each hero. Her films are portraits of humanists, enlighteners, philosophers, writers, composers, journalists, artists. Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Konovalov, Brodsky, Mamardashvili, Panyushkin, Siddur, Guerra - dozens of amazing destinies, sincere and delicate conversation about them without varnishing and retouching. Many became heroes of the documentary series "Man for All Times", which tells about kindness and nobility opposed to destruction.

Many became heroes of the documentary series "Man for All Times" about kindness opposed to destruction. Fokina is important to talk about Tsvetaeva through the prism of today. About the nobility, fidelity and fearlessness of Pasternak, who supported the family of a friend, the poet Titian Tabidze, who was shot in 1937. About the outstanding neurosurgeon, director of the Burdenko Institute Alexander Konovalov. About the famous organist, professor of philosophy Albert Schweitzer, who changed his life drastically and left for Africa to treat lepers after receiving a medical education.

The director is sure that you need not lower the bar to the needs of the undemanding audience, but gradually accustom it to the author’s cinema. Despite the length of the addictive process and the initially low ratings. The main character of Fokina’s new film “The Life of a Charming Man” is a screenwriter, poet, and director Gennady Shpalikov. The names of two legendary paintings are enough to understand what trace his work left in the history of Russian cinema: “I am walking in Moscow” and “Zastava Ilyich”. According to Fokina, in his poetry and scripts - those sincerity, tenderness and a sense of peace that no longer exist. How long has Shpalikov himself been absent from the mournful list of those who died at 37: Pushkin, Burns, Van Gogh, Rafael, Yengibarov.

The main character of Fokina’s new film “The Life of a Charming Man” is a screenwriter, poet, director, “Thaw Man” Gennady Shpalikov. The names of two legendary paintings are enough to understand what trace his work left in the history of Russian cinema: “I am walking in Moscow” and “Zastava Ilyich”. According to Fokina, in his poetry and scripts - those sincerity, tenderness and a sense of peace that no longer exist. How long has Shpalikov himself been absent from the mournful list of those who died at 37: Pushkin, Burns, Van Gogh, Rafael, Yengibarov.

The incredible success of the film “I am walking in Moscow”, the recognition of colleagues and spectators, brilliant prospects for the future. The main prize at the festival in Bergamo for the directorial debut "Long Happy Life", which struck Michelangelo Antonioni and passed the third screen in his homeland. The script for the film Shepitko "You and Me", received the award of the Venice Festival and failed in the Soviet box office. Like Urusevsky’s film “Sing a Song, a Poet”, also created according to his script.

The lack of demand, the unfulfilled dream of staging the picture “The Wharf,” the unfinished book, despair drowned out by alcohol, the breakdown of the family, and suicide. “All goodbye is alone,” “Don’t be sad. I’m tired of you. " The Fokina film is a story about sunny and tragic talent.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru