Rolling field Dear Gena! I am sad that we are not working together again. A student song should start as a brave boastful loyal march, and then go to something touristic, and at the end and on the wagon-blatt. Clean guitars. But don't change the melody. It would be good if they were still smoking at this time, and it was not a sin to drink, but Vanya to sing - "But we cannot be broken on the plain" (Vladimir Vysotsky, July 9, 1974).
People have a different sense of humor, so we all react differently to funny things. Comedy doesn’t have to be funny to make the audience laugh. But it must leave a feeling of satisfaction after watching. The painting “Once Upon a Time” is not quite ordinary. The script for it was written by Victor Merezhko, whose previous work “Hello and Goodbye” (1972) was warmly received by both viewers and critics. The film was directed by Gennady Poloka. For one of the main roles, he was going to invite Vladimir Vysotsky. However, after the 1968 Intervention, the leadership opposed their close cooperation. Nevertheless, Vysotsky auditioned for one of the main roles. According to eyewitnesses, his trick – dancing on a vertical wall – was unique and physically inexplicable. He jumped on the wall and made two tap kicks on it! It’s hard to believe that this is possible, but Vysotsky did it in front of the entire crew! Vladimir Semyonovich was engaged in the film not only as an artist, creator and performer of songs, but also as an associate of the director.
It was at his suggestion that the overture to “Once Upon a Time One” appeared – a stupid circus march, in which the self-satisfied fanabery of the main character of the film – the popular cartoon don Juan – is clearly expressed. It was Vysotsky who proposed a kind of introductory titles - against the background of the inner side of the lid of the suitcase with which the hero travels, dotted with numerous photos of women seduced by him. In the picture according to the script, in addition to the original songs, many folk, ritual, as well as chaptushki were assumed. Vysotsky categorically objected to the direct use of ethnographic song material, which the editors insisted on. Striving for stylistic unity, he remained true to himself this time. He decided to write folk songs himself. So there was "Wedding counter song", "Particles of the bride", "Great father" and others. These wonderful compositions had all the advantages of folk songs, and at the same time they felt the unique aroma of his intonation.
Unfortunately, this time the story that already took place in the film One of Us (1971) was repeated: after multiple edits from eight proposed songs, a small part remained in the film, and The Sad Song About Vanechka and Vani's Song in front of Students were not included in the film at all. Vysotsky loved farcical elements in cinematography. Working with Gennady Poloka on the film “Intervention”, he offered some interesting solutions that perfectly fit the picture of the film. In “Once Upon a Time One”, the passage of the protagonist in the first scene – one sock red, the other yellow, two huge dogs on a leash – looks more vividly to the sounds of a bravura march, the idea of which was proposed by Vysotsky. The deliberately farcical nature of the picture did not like the screenwriter Viktor Merezhko. In one interview, he complained that he actually wrote a comedy and the final result was not satisfied, as, by the way, and Anatoly Papanov, who played the main role of Vanya Karetnikov.
Poloka is a meticulous person, annoying to the point of tediousness, and the question of the main role performer, in fact - the monorole of the picture - was the most important for him. We tried a huge number of actors – from little-known to the stars. And they couldn't stop at anyone. One of the assistants called Anatoly Papanov, but at first this idea of enthusiasm from the director did not arouse. The fact is that in 1963 the picture “The Living and the Dead” was released, where Papanov unexpectedly played a serious and tragic role of General Serpilin, and the stigma of a deeply dramatic artist was imprinted on him for a while. And in the film Vanya Karentinkov is a tragicomic womanizer, a rolling field, an unfortunate crook, a defenseless shalopai. And yet Anatoly Dmitrievich was summoned. Papanov had read the script by that time, he liked the role extremely much, and he came to Leningrad. Arrived and immediately together with Poloka went to the costume and make-up room - to look for an image! I can't tell you what the great actor was unhappy with in this movie. With a great desire, you can find a lot of elements that did not find a response in the hearts of the viewer.
But the audience is different. Someone perceived the image of Papanov exclusively in an amusing way, someone transferred to him the negative of the real "don Juan" from real life. Both are true, but it is necessary to evaluate Ivan Ivanovich Kartetnikov not by the first frames that “set the tone”, but by the final. In Russian there is a wonderful proverb: "For one beaten two unbeaten give." So, the whole history of Karetnikov length of 59 years is the story of a dragonfly from the fable of Krylov: “Summer red sang, did not have time to look back ...” Human life is like a meteor. It'll flash and you won't have time to blink. Here is the "candid" canvas, "chuckled" while he was young and lucky. Walked through life easy, playful. It was not the first time he left a woman who trusted him, but he was abandoned - like a dog at a garbage can. The lesson did not go well for Karetnikov, he immediately on Saturday again tries to "make a cell of society" and ... understands that his "train has left" - in the literal sense of the word. And then he recalls the "spare airfields" that he acquired throughout the Soviet Union.
In tragicomedy, a perfect balance of sad and funny is not necessary, but the finale is extremely important. And the ending of the picture is magnificent. Carthenikov for an hour and a half of screen time passed "all the circles of hell" falling talent poloter in his own eyes. It turned out that talent is not needed, because it is easily replaced by a machine, and the ineradicable desire to “look at people and show yourself” led only to the fact that he was not needed by anyone. The strongest shock was that in the last family, where he was first accepted as a native, the son-in-law turned out to be the same Karetnikov - not fed up, not played in youthful fun, not ready for family life. The finale of the picture is no longer a tragicomedy. It's a drama. The drama of a talented man in many areas who failed to properly dispose of his talents. . .
We walked under God, under the god of war, artillery covered us, but a mortal wound found from the back and betrayal in the heart stuck. I bent myself in my lower back, the willpower called for help: “Sorry, comrades, for turning by mistake to someone else’s doorstep.” .' ("Vani's Song at Mary's", Vladimir Vysotsky)