Introduction “Introduction” is the first independent directorial work of I. Talankin, who became famous a few years before the production of “Serezha” by V. Panova jointly with G. Danelia. Turning again to the prose of this writer, Talankin shows himself to be a consistent innovator, looking for new ways of storytelling and editing the material. For the first time bringing to the screen many future Soviet film stars of the 60-70s (B. Tokarev, N. Bogunova, etc.), the director, like many of his colleagues (G. Chukhrai, S. Rostotsky, M. Kalik) expressively captures the photogenicity of young faces, freshness and openness of the eye, funny, even somewhat ridiculous impulsivity of youth.
Shooting a film on a military theme, Talankin learns the style lessons of “Ivan’s childhood”, trying to show the bitterness of teenagers as a result of life trials. However, unlike Tarkovsky, he does not rise to the level of a holistic, detailed metaphor, bogged down in loose, fragmentary drama. The scenes of “Introduction” are expressive in themselves, remain in the memory of the viewer not fake, melodramatically not inflated by drama, but, unfortunately, do not form a single narrative fabric.
When working on the picture, Talankin, of course, took into account the experience of Forbidden Games by R. Clément, which is indicated by numerous intertextual references (the image of a girl with a hare, the bombing scene, etc.), but refraining from directly opposing the children’s fantasy of military reality, he sought to show how very young heroes face adult problems, are forced to solve serious existential issues beyond age. So the character of Tokarev is not years wiser and more responsible than his weak-willed father, and although the boy’s behavior is marked by some embittered arrogance, rejection of the shortcomings of others, a scene in which he, despite his character, overcomes pride and resentment, consoles his mother is remembered.
The lack of dramatic sharpness of “Ivanov’s Childhood” and “Forbidden Games” places “Introduction” in a horizontal plane, depriving the vertical dimension: the heroes of the film Talankin also ask existential questions, but only in the finale their question acquires a comprehensive, universal scale. In the scene of the meeting of the heroes of Tokarev and Burlyaev, Talankin openly demonstrates his worldview position: everything is overcome if you meet a person related to you in spirit.
The final passage of Oleg (the hero of N. Burlyaev) under the columns expresses the director’s faith in the possibility of not an office, not academically dry, but a living philosophy, sincerely concerned with human problems. Dispute with peers and ardent rejection of dead objective truth by the hero boldly declare the dissident attitude of the director himself, for whom individual human destinies are more important than the impersonal dictate of the common. This picture is a true introduction to the work of Igor Talankin, sincere in its humanism, not disfigured by ideology.