2023-12-14 19:24:54
On the theatrical platform of the Yeltsin Center, as part of the International Festival of Film Schools “Kinoproba”, they presented a sketch of the play “Art Council” directed by Dmitry Limbos about how the film by Stalin Prize laureate Alexander Ivanovsky based on the operetta “Silva” by Imre Kalman was received. This was the first film adaptation of the operetta during the war years.
The film was shot in 1944 at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio and became its calling card. Many people do not know what preceded this. On February 8, 1945, an art council was held in Sverdlovsk, at which it was recommended to refrain from releasing the painting due to its low artistic merits. The transcript fell into the hands of the director of the Kinoproba festival, film expert Liliya Nemchenko, while working in the archive. She suggested conducting an experiment to master the unique material.
The young actors read out fragments of the protocol along with imaginary monologues of the filmmakers who participated in the discussion of “Silva” – and this is already the fantasy of playwright Masha Kontorovich.
For Yekaterinburg actors, recent graduates of theater universities, this project became an opportunity to break a long pause, since there is no other work, much less experimental. The “readers” sat on chairs in front of the audience. Their faces are whitewashed. The shoulders are dusted like flour. Understand it as you wish. Either it is the dust of time, or the dandruff of mossy characters. The technique is common, passing from play to play, and has reached the cinema. The actors try to exist either in the traditions of clownery or commedia dell’arte, and this is difficult for them.
The artistic council is led by the influential director Ivan Pyryev. He was played by the aspiring actress Galina Chernaya with a pasted-on beard. On her chest is the head of Comrade Stalin. Among the masters called upon to decide the fate of “Silva” is film director Grigory Alexandrov, a native of Yekaterinburg. In 1919, together with Pyryev, he organized amateur performances in the Cheka club in his hometown. By the time “Silva” was accepted, Alexandrov had already filmed “Jolly Fellows,” “Spring,” “Circus,” and “Volga-Volga.” From the height of his position, he will say at the artistic council that “our masters have the right to make mistakes, but they do not have the right to move back.” Ivanovsky’s painting was subjected to serious criticism, which seemed malicious to him.
Mikhail Romm is the calmest and most intelligible character here, but he also joined the chorus of voices about the worthlessness of “Silva”. He believes that Ivanovsky’s film was poorly made and wonders: “Why does Silva have to be such a sour and rotten person.” The young actor who played Romm agrees with his opinion.
At the artistic council they will criticize the unsuccessful selection of actors, call the heroes ugly, uninteresting people, and Silva – “a mournful old lady with many children.” Her role in the film was played by Zoya Smirnova-Nemirovich.
The filmmakers listen to devastating speeches and harsh criticism. The director of “Silva” is Alexander Ivanovsky, who at one time staged at the Zimin Opera, worked as an assistant to Protazanov on “Father Sergius”, independently made a number of silent films, and adapted “Dubrovsky”. After “Silva”, he will film the famous “Tiger Tamer” together with Nadezhda Kosheverova. The artist of the painting is Vladimir Egorov, referred to in the transcript as Comrade. Egorov, is a laureate of the Stalin Prize (he will receive it in 1946) and already a People’s Artist of the RSFSR, who worked on the painting “The Picture of Dorian Gray” with Meyerhold, “The Cutter from Torzhok” by Yakov Protazanov. In the play by Dmitry Limbos, Ivanovsky and Egorov are the same moth-eaten characters played by girls, covered with the ashes of time and dandruff, like the arbiter of their destinies, Ivan Pyryev.
Ivanovsky is not feeling well, his heart is “bad.” Never before had he been accused of bad taste. “This is a new charge for me,” he will say. Judging by the transcript, Ivanovsky accepts and does not accept the accusations, argues, but reconciles himself with harsh statements: “Maybe such criticism is necessary. Severity is needed in Soviet criticism.”
Vladimir Egorov will justify himself by saying that he should not have agreed to stage “Silva” in Sverdlovsk, where “the factory had neither floors nor ceilings,” that it was just an empty place. According to him, not a single film has been subjected to such severe criticism as “Silva,” although in his memory 12 films were released, including “Cherevichki” and all sorts of “serial stuff.” Egorov spoke decisively at the artistic council, and was not the pathetic clown that he turned out to be in the play.
The first viewers – and among them experienced critics and one wonderful actress – said many words of praise to the creators of the sketch, but this is too much of an advance that still needs to be justified. If the authors of the “Art Council” lay claim to something serious and will not limit themselves to a one-time show, then they need to work hard. The sketch, even though it is a sketch, is clearly not suitable for a full-fledged statement, although the idea is good. And it deserves a brighter embodiment. Even a competent reading of the transcript could produce an interesting result.
Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29179 dated December 15, 2023
Newspaper headline: Arts Council with Ivan Pyryev
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