Back in 1967, the creative union of Vladimir Motyl and Bulat Okudzhava presented the audience with a real work of cinema, a heroic-lyrical comedy film about the Great Patriotic War "Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha". Cinema, non-standard for the Soviet era in genre, did not leave anyone indifferent. And for its creators and participants in the filming, the film became truly fateful.
The background to the creation of the film Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha at the Lenfilm studio is as follows. At the suggestion of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army, in the late 1960s, publications periodically appeared in the press that young people were reluctant to serve in the armed forces. For the state interests it was required that the cinema should react to this urgent problem. As an example, comedies on a military theme filmed in the West were cited - "Babette goes to war", "Mister Pitkin behind enemy lines." The ideological task for art workers was set as follows: to raise the prestige of a serviceman, patriotic films about the army and the war of a comedic plan are required. The director Vladimir Motyl took over the job of creating such a movie.
Appeal to the genre of heroic-lyric comedy
Initially, Vladimir Motyl's plans were to shoot a picture dedicated to the Decembrist Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. The script was typeset based on the historical novel-biography "Kyukhlya" by Yuri Tynyanov. However, in the cinema sector under the CPSU Central Committee, the director was advised to change the subject. Starting filming a film about the Great Patriotic War, Motyl decides to make the main character look like the Decembrist he loved - the same awkward and eccentric dreamer. Hence the genre of heroic-lyrical comedy was born - in a serious war drama such a character would look ridiculous. The heroization of the war, depicting battle scenes and illuminating the historical course of events, is automatically relegated to the background. The director sees the main task in appealing to the inner world of his characters, to show the individuality and innermost feelings of the soldier.
With a proposal to write a script, Motyl turned to Bulat Okudzhava. The director explained his choice as follows: "I adored this staunch, small, thin soldier, with his true truth about the war, soft humor against the background of heroic publications." The theme of the conceived film about a schoolchild-intellectual who goes to war was close to the front-line soldier Okudzhava. Subsequently, he talked about a creative union with Motyl: "without knowing anything about each other, we caught the same plot."
On a military theme - both seriously and jokingly
The time of what is happening in the film "Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha" is 1944, the final stage of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet Army with liberation battles is advancing across European countries in the direction of "Berlin!"
The film was partially filmed in Kaliningrad. As an example, the scene with the overturning of a can of gasoline was filmed in front of the only Gothic religious building in Russia, the Cathedral of the 14th century.
It should be noted that in the story written by V. Motyl in collaboration with B. Okudzhava, not all events and characters are completely fictional. Some of the plots are based on real events. For example, an episode in which Kolyshkin, having gone on New Year's Eve for a parcel, got lost and ended up in a dugout with the Fritz. Okudzhava took it from an article that flashed in one of the front-line newspapers. This story was told to the war correspondent by a soldier who at first concealed that he had been in the enemy's disposition.
The situation that happened in the Baltic, when, being literally a few steps from each other, Zhenya and Zhenya missed each other, happened on the roads of the war with the director's parents. IN. Bloodworm, who had a hard time going through the loss of his father and his mother's exile, added other autobiographical touches to the script. He was just a boy when the boys were gathered in a military camp to prepare for a future war with Japan. The mentors there were former front-line soldiers, all sorts of people: those who sympathized, and the Derzhimords, because of whom the children were starving. Hence, from a difficult post-war childhood, so carefully traced the image of a swanky and tight-fisted soldier Zakhar Kosykh. This role was one of the first big works in cinema for the aspiring actor Mikhail Kokshenov.
The image of Colonel Karavaev was created by Mark Bernes, who even during the war became popular with the people thanks to his works in such films as Fighters (1939) and Two Soldiers (1943). The actor and performer of the songs did not complete the work on the role; Grigory Gai performed the dubbing of the character for Mark Naumovich. Bernes passed away at the age of 58, two days before the decree on awarding him the title of People's Artist of the USSR was issued.
The scriptwriter, writer and poet Bulat Okudzhava appears in the episodes of the film “Zhenya Zhenechka and“Katyusha”. A young volunteer who went to war from the Arbat courtyard, Bulat was somewhat similar to the main character of the picture. It was he who brought a lot of that related to life at the front: images and dialogues, small but important details. Motyl drew ideas for some of the plots from the military youth of Okudzhava, which he told about in his autobiographical story "Be Healthy, Schoolboy."
In fact, the film turned out not about war, but about a man in war. About modern Don Quixote and about love, which will turn into a tragedy. The narration is carried out in the form of an ironic and at the same time touching romantic story. The main artistic merit is the proclaimed inner freedom of a person in a difficult situation.
This is one of the few films in which the authors allowed themselves to joke on a military theme.
Zhenya Kolyshkin
A fragile intellectual from the Arbat, who in 1941 did not allow him to complete his education at school, Zhenya Kolyshkin, at the age of 18, serves in the regiment of mortars. Simple-minded and open-minded, he lives in a world of his fantasies and read books. There is no war in this illusory world, and Kolyshkin does not feel that he is really at the front. A kind of Don Quixote of our time, he hardly fits into the surrounding reality. Therefore, he constantly gets into alterations and various stories:
- when, in the episode with the accidental launch of the Katyusha, the commander scolds him for his inconsistency and absurdity, Kolyshkin replies that his concentration is to blame;
- in a quarrel among the soldiers, he with unplayed spontaneity suggests to his comrade: “Be my second!”;
- in love with the signalman Zemlyanikina, Zhenya is childishly naive when in a huge empty house in the liberated city he and Zhenya are playing hide and seek;
- in the scene with the lady of his heart, the knightly sword in his hands does not look funny, but creates the image of a touching lyric gentleman.
The action in the film is divided into peculiar episodes, similar to chapters of a chivalric novel, with a slight touch of props and theatricality.
But in war as in war - what is happening in reality affects a kind of inner world of the dreamer and romantic Zhenya Kolyshkin. An eccentric and ridiculous young man, having gone through the crucible of war, turns into an adult man. And at the end of the film in front of the viewer - a matured 19-year-old guard fighter.
Initially, the actor Bronislav Brondukov participated in screen tests for the role of the main character. But both scriptwriters were unanimous in the choice of the performer when it came to Oleg Dal. According to external data, the actor did not match the character in any way. But in terms of internal content, the Pechorin of the Soviet era (as Dahl's colleagues and critics characterized) was a "sniper hit" in the image. The director said that the main quality that he saw in Oleg was his absolute independence, the ability to think independently and subtly, to look at people and phenomena without taking into account established opinions. Oleg Dal is an extraordinary and tragic personality, which was in contradiction with the times. And this contradiction worked on the inappropriate behavior in the war of his character Zhenya Kolyshkin. Hence the tragicomic character of the whole film.
Zhenechka Zemlyanikina
When the filming was already over, the leaders decided not to allow the film to be released because of the tragic ending: the signalman Zhenechka Zemlyanikina dies in the battle. A charming blonde girl with a slightly rude appearance, with a truly Russian feminine character - such, according to B. Okudzhava, was a real front-line soldier. A sprig of strawberries at the entrance to the tent of the signalmen and a laconic inscription “Who will turn up - I will hit! Strawberry ". One detail, and how much she says. This is the responsibility of the girl for the regimental communications entrusted to her on duty; and a hint that the annoying gentleman will be "sacked" by her; and the firm intention of women to fight for the Motherland on an equal basis with men, giving a worthy rebuff to the enemy.
The main thing that, according to the director, should have been in the heroine - a certain feminine organic rudeness of a warring girl. As soon as filming began, it turned out that Natalya Kustinskaya, approved by the artistic council, did not correspond to the type of her character. But Galina Figlovskaya, a graduate of the Shchukin School, struck Motyl with the accuracy of the portrait: "by no means a beauty, with sensual passionate lips, created for both platonic and physical love." And when the actress appeared on the set, it turned out that by nature Galina is a simple and sincere girl, a real fighting friend of Zhenya Kolyshkin and his comrades.
The acting profession did not become the main one for Galina Figlovskaya. A career in the theater did not work out either. In the memory of the audience, she remained an actress, famous for the role of front-line signalman Zhenechka Zemlyanikina.
Legendary "Katyusha"
In the frames of the film, among various military equipment, the legendary weapon of the Great Patriotic War appears - the BM-13 rocket launcher, popularly called "Katyusha". Initially, our missilemen gave the launcher the name Raisa Sergeevna, by the first letters of "rocket projectile". The Nazis dubbed the weapon "Stalin's organ" for the consonance of its volleys with the powerful sounds of this instrument. Soviet military experts recognized the multiple launch rocket launcher as the "goddess of war."
But the affectionate name "Katyusha" was given to the formidable military equipment back in 1941, when the first missile salvo fired at the enemy near Orsha. Some of the guardsmen of Captain Flerov's battery said about the installation: "I sang a song." And by association with the popular front-line song by M. Blanter on poems by M. Iskovsky "Katyusha" got its military name. It is noteworthy that one of the subsequent models of the BM-31-12 rocket launcher was called "Andryusha".
This is how, not only the participants in the war, but also the weapons of Victory formed a frontline biography and "personal life."
Poetics of War Cinema
The heroic-lyrical war comedy Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha did not immediately find a viewer. The film had to go through "fire, water and copper pipes", both at the stage of launching into filmmaking and after being released. It was all about the genre of a war film, unusual for Soviet cinema of the 70s. The director's decision to touch on the events of 1941-1945 through an ironic comedy, and not within the framework of a traditional patriotic drama, was met with hostility. The script was rejected at the Mosfilm studio as not complying with the instructions of the party and the government. The objections of the Main Political Directorate of the SA were based on the fact that history has a tragic ending, but a happy ending is needed. According to film officials, joking on this topic was generally unacceptable. There might not have been a film at all. Vladimir Vengerov, who headed the Third Creative Association of the Lenfilm studio, helped. “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha started filming in Leningrad.
However, the passions did not subside on this. After the premiere of the film, harsh and offensive speeches from critics and the press rained down. There were many complaints from those responsible for the ideology in the country - they say that the creators of the picture do not emphasize the heroism of Soviet soldiers. High military ranks also reacted extremely negatively to such an image of front-line life, threatening to "grind the creators of this concoction into powder." All this predetermined the further creative path of V. Motyl, making him a disgraced director for many years. And for Bulat Okudzhava, the stigma of literary insecurity was firmly entrenched. As a result, the film “Zhenya, Zhenechka and“Katyusha”was still released, but it went on the“third screen”- not in the capital cities, but on the periphery, in small cinemas and clubs.
In spite of everything, such a movie was to the liking of the generation of the "sixties". And most importantly, the front-line soldiers liked the film. Apparently, because next to them in those difficult years were their own Zhenya-Zhenya, scorched by the war, who returned and did not return from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War … Probably, looking at the screen, "everyone was thinking about his own, remembering that spring."
The famous director Vladimir Motyl managed to make a film about the fact that in war there is a place not only for exploits. Everything is there, and "even that which does not exist." This could not leave the audience indifferent. In the first year of the screening, about 24.6 million people watched Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha. The famous poet and writer Bulat Okudzhava, who himself traveled the roads of the Great Patriotic War, wrote a script that combines elements of melodrama and tragicomedy. As only he could do - subtle, restrained and wise. And the talented actors, with their surprisingly soulful acting, managed to convey the romance of youth in the harsh realities of front-line everyday life. After all, love does not choose a place or time, it comes without asking.
The past five decades have put everything in its place. Today viewers and film critics are united in their opinion: the film Zhenya, Zhenya and Katyusha is the poetics of war cinema.
