I'll go! My Lord, Father, Sidor Karpovich,
Where do you want your kids to eat?
“One” is a picture of a twenty-year-old teacher, Elena Aleksandrovna Kuzmina, sent by the People’s Commissariat for Altai to eliminate illiteracy in Oirot villages. The picture was partly based on real events. One of the newspapers published a note about a teacher who died in the Karakum sands. However, since such a story could happen anywhere in the outback, Kozintsev and Trauberg moved the scene to the Altai.
The main role in the film went to the graduate founded by directors Kozintsev and Trauberg film workshop FEX (Factory of the eccentric actor) Elena Alexandrovna Kuzmina, full namesake of the main character. The year of birth of the heroine and actress also coincided. The actress was surprised, but Leonid Trauberg explained such a striking coincidence: “If you were not accidentally carried to the cinema, you could find yourself in the place of this courageous girl.” We imagine her to be just like you. So they gave her your name. After the statement, Kozintsev advised Kuzmina not to try to think about the upcoming role, because the heroine should not be different from the actress in life. Therefore, Elena Kuzmina tried to better understand herself, learned to express her own feelings more diversely and truthfully. This led to the fact that the actress no longer separated herself from her heroine. “I already walk like that Kuzmina. Or she walks like me. I don’t know, the actress wrote.
Shooting was difficult, they traveled around the surrounding area (within a radius of 50 kilometers!) to find a suitable location for filming. And, it should be noted that all this was not in vain. It turned out beautifully, partly even ethnographically, given that they filmed a real Oirot village, a real Altai shaman. Even the fearsome skin of a horse in the wind is an authentic thing. The picture even acquires a certain shade of documentary, authenticity.
While the work on “One” was going on, the time for sound cinema gradually began to come. No one took this innovation seriously. However, an order came from the ministry: “One” should be voiced at all costs. The music for the picture was written by an outstanding composer Dmitry Shostakovich, the leitmotif in “One” is the song “What a good life will be” (played somewhat ironically). Shostakovich will continue fruitful cooperation with Kozintsev, will write music for the trilogy about Maxim, Hamlet and King Lear.
The actors only had to say a few words. Maria Babanova sang the wonderful lullaby “Sidor Karpovich”. The most difficult was the actress who played the main role. “Well, Lelyshche, you’ll have to open your mouth and say something,” said Kozintsev Kuzmina, who trained all her life to keep her breath from slipping during the game. Kuzmina's voice was subtle, even to the phone, when she answered the phone, asked to call one of the adults. Kuzmina had to utter only a few phrases ("He cuts your sheep for meat", "I will complain!" and "I will go"), but it was difficult for her. After that, the actress began to seriously work on her voice, took singing lessons, thanks to which she performed dramatic roles in theater and cinema. Although at first Kuzmina decided that the transition to sound cinema is the end of her acting career.
Yes, “One” is not the most famous work of Kozintsev and Trauberg, but it is very worthy and deserves attention. It reflected the transitional stage in cinema: the first words spoken on the screen, the birth of author’s music in cinema, innovations in camera work (Andrey Moskvin uses “filters” of different density and different colors of stockings, socks). I recommend watching.