"Oh, how sad all this is..." There is in the unfinished play of Maxim Gorky “Jacob Mantis” a certain mystery. The writer’s time on the play is unknown. It is written according to the old orthography with the use of a solid sign, therefore, no later than 1917. Based on a number of indirect data, the manuscript is believed to date from the early 1910s. Although there is an opinion that the idea of writing “Yakov Bogomolov” arose from Gorky in 1916, when he visited Fyodor Chaliapin in Foros, and a year later – already in Koktebel – the idea was embodied in a play. The play was not finished; the manuscript contains three acts and the beginning of the fourth. The title of the play was given by the editors at the first edition by the name of the main character, put by the author first in the list of actors. The surviving manuscript is a draft. Apparently, it is the first sketch of the play: a significant number of words are not written in full, the names of the actors are indicated, as a rule, by initial letters, sometimes by the first syllables of the surname.
All this gives modern directors a wide scope when interpreting the work, and, above all, the finale, which was not completed by Gorky. It is not known how the writer saw the finale of the play, because each appeal to it is the possibility of the author's decision of the unfinished work. For Abram Matveevich Room, “Premature Man” was the last work in cinema. The film ends the trilogy, the first film of which is “Grenade Bracelet” (1965) by Kuprin, the second – “Flowers Late” (1970) by Chekhov and “Premature Man” (1971) by Gorky. Abram Matveevich filmed it shortly before his death. To some extent, the picture can be considered as a creative testament of the 77-year-old director.
It is no coincidence that Room ends the film this way. When you think back to what you saw, you suddenly realize that all 7 characters in their own way unhappy people. At first glance, such a statement may seem strange: how can the hero of Alexander Kalyagin Nikon Bukeyev be unhappy with his 6 million, or Yakov Mantis, matchlessly played by Igor Kvasha? Turns out they can. With regard to Bukeev, Room himself put an end, but even without it from Gorky’s text it is clear that this person has no purpose in life. He is no longer interested in money – there is plenty. There were many women in his life, but his "last love" rejected him with all the millions. No goals or desires are emptiness.
Yakov Mantis is almost the complete opposite – a workaholic, energetic, active, purposeful. But this is all about your work. But in personal life... According to Nina Arkadyevna (Nina Shatskaya) “he is stupid, stupid and talkative”, but according to Verochka (Irina Varley) “he is a beautiful, honest person”. Contradiction on contradiction. Too much is tied up here and not explained. It is too difficult to justify and convincingly play such a naive idealist engineer, which is Jacob. The “premature man” of the Gorky era, looking for water in the desert, is no longer relevant in our time. Bogomolov and Bukeyev is a clash of two opposite positions: those who are used to talking a lot and at the same time living as a consumer, and those who honestly do their job, regardless of obstacles.
The incompleteness of the work allows the actors to improvise, but it is not easy for Kalyagin to do this. Nikon Bukeev, he plays restrained and elegantly. His task is quite complex: Gorky did not prescribe a single scene of seduction in the role of an old womanizer, lusting for Jacob’s young wife. You have to work with hints and gestures, as well as send a summons to the subject of passion - the uncle Jean (Boris Ivanov) - a vulgar and intrigue - settled down. All female characters cause sympathy and pity. The most suffering person is Verochka, in whose life there is not a single lumen: both love for Jacob is unrequited, and the position in the uncle’s house is hopeless. Nevertheless, Irina Varley creates a voluminous and vital character, not confined to one emotion of suffering, but revealing a pure, honest, impetuous and trembling nature.
Olga Borisovna, performed by Anastasia Vertinskaya, is beautiful and proud, but at the same time quite mundane. Not finding understanding in her husband and not understanding his beautiful impulses, from boredom and from a petty sense of revenge rushes into the arms of a primitive male, athlete Ladygin (Valentin Smirnitsky). He is also sorry in his own way - a person living one day and fluttering around another charming girl, like a butterfly one day. Nina Arkadyevna (Nina Shatskaya) is also not envious - youth goes away, personal life does not add up, and the soul is empty, frostbite... So it turns out that each of the listed characters, even the "bundle" Jeanne, it's a shame in the final.
Needless to say, a wonderful film adaptation: an ideal “nature” with beautiful views, amazing in depth music by Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, sincere, heartfelt play of actors.