Is my fate the fate of Prometheus or Faust? The real life of many world-famous writers surpasses the plots of their novels. This also applies to the creator of a unique work called Human Comedy. Honore de Balzac worked on the cycle all his life, but managed to complete only 91 of the 137 planned works. It was the last years of the great French thinker that the Ukrainian Soviet writer Nathan Rybak dedicated his novel The Mistake of Honore de Balzac. Both the novel and the film depicted the known biographical facts with maximum accuracy, allowing improvisation only where historians left no documentary evidence. The film covers the period from 1848 to 1950 - a period both fateful for Balzac and tragic.
In 1821, 22-year-old Honoré met with 45-year-old Laura de Bernie, mother of 9 children. The resulting mutual interest turned into a persistent love. Their relationship lasted until the death of Madame de Bernie in the summer of 1836. She supported Honore with money, advice, her connections, helped to edit manuscripts and proofreadings. When she died, Balzac wrote about her: She was my mother, friend, family, companion and adviser. She made me a writer! This wonderful woman has only one episode in the film, but it shows how much Balzac was attached to her. Balzac met Evelina Hanska in absentia in 1832. The 31-year-old woman, married to a man almost 20 years older than herself, therefore, wanting to be not recognized, signed as Outlander.
Your soul has lived for centuries, gracious Sovereign, and yet I am assured that you are still young, and I wanted to meet you. When I read your works, my heart trembled. The words ‘Outlanders’ touched Balzac’s heart, and an 18-year story began. Screening the novel by Rybak, the director Levchuk somewhat changed the main tone of the novel. The tragic line of Balzac's last love was preserved, but several parallel lines were added, drawing the Polish landlord Hanskaya in a completely different scale than the palette of the great novelist. Both Rufina Nifontov in the role of Evelina Hanskaya, and Viktor Khokhryakov in the role of Balzac played excellently. The film itself makes a very, very pleasant impression with the extreme authenticity of what is happening on the screen.
Scene after scene, the director reveals to the viewer all new features of Balzac’s character. The breadth of his nature, the sincerity of his actions, the love for ordinary people is not explicitly, not openly, but is still opposed to Evelina Hanskaya. The master of the sharp word Balzac in any company always remains himself. He easily and effortlessly maintains a conversation, although he understands the ambiguity of his situation, because many of the noble circle of the countess consider him a “swindler and profligate” who seeks to “pluck the widow.” Evelina herself understands this, so she drags with a remarriage. Victor Khokhryakov perfectly coped with his role, finding special expressiveness in the behavior of his hero. Throughout the film, emotional discomfort and internal discord weigh on the writer, causing him to suffer.
The long-awaited consent of Evelina to marriage does not bring him the satisfaction and joy that the writer so hoped for. Once upon a time he said to Evelina: “Love is always chains”, but after the wedding his words are even more sad and categorical: “What a sad meeting, Eva...” (Evelina became pregnant in 1846.) Balzac dreamed of a son and even named him Victor-Honore. However, due to moving and illness, Evelina had a premature birth, and the baby, which was a girl, died the same day. At the age of 50, Honore felt empty and tired. He wanted to work. He had a lot of ideas. He had a desire, but... something burned out in his mighty chest. A heart big enough to love all the characters he created became too big and could not stand the frantic rhythm of the work that began 30 years ago. The last lines written by Balzac were: I can neither read nor write. ..."
M. de Balzac was one of the first among the great, one of the best among the chosen. All his works constitute one book, a living, brilliant and deep book, where our terrible, terrible and at the same time real modernity lives, moves and acts. . .' (From Victor Hugo's Epiphany)