Spirituality of Classical Art We can say that “Stone” forms with the paintings “Circle of the Second” and “Silent Pages” a kind of trilogy about the connection of the past and the present, about the deadlock of the materialistic worldview and culture and the search for spiritual ties with classical culture, not poisoned by the Soviet experience. “Stone” was released in 1992, was restored by Sokurov in the directorial edition in 2009, but went unnoticed both in the early 90s and in the late zeros, and even more so now. The title of Sokurov’s previous painting indicated that a new circle of hell was beginning for Russian culture, the Soviet period was only the first, “Stone” deepens and expands the theme of the uselessness of culture in the new Russia.
The appearance of Chekhov in the night Yalta house-museum does not cause his watchman any interest, the great writer remains a stranger in his house and in the time in which he fell. This house is a repository of classical spirituality, independent, the third hero of this chamber drama with the participation of only two actors. Here, unlike the Circle of the Second, music sounds constantly, spiritualizing and filling with meaning black and white ascetic and static (with barely noticeable camera movements) plans. “Stone” is one of the most piercing and mysterious films of Sokurov, as it did not go against his past tapes, it is about overcoming death, about immortality.
With his tape, Sokurov shows that the past is alive: having removed the Soviet period with the scissors of denial, the new Russia was unable to restore the lost connection with the pre-Soviet past, classical culture was not in demand in the market conditions. The unfortunate, nameless watchman performed by the same Peter Alexandrov (who played Malyanov in Circle Two) embodies the ragtag post-Soviet present, indifferent to life and death: he does not even ask Chekhov about his books, almost does not talk to him, although if I were in his place, I would bombard Chekhov with questions and delights.
The great writer in this picture is vital, full of life, intelligent, attached to material joys (for example, piercing scenes in which he wants to light the fireplace, or dresses in his former clothes), but he increasingly feels his alienity in the world into which he came (note, in the body). Here, no one needs high culture: no one lives in the house, and apparently almost no one visits, however, the very presence of the watchman next to Chekhov, the aura of the spirit of the great writer elevates him. The hero of Alexandrov barely noticeably spiritualized, soars above the earthly, and Chekhov in the brilliant, nuanced performance of Mozgovoi, imbued with the drama of Russian timelessness.
Here lies the answer to the question why Chekhov, and, for example, not Tolstoy: Chekhov best expressed the emptiness of time, the expectation, the yearning of the spirit under the burden of material, therefore, getting into our time, he seems to find himself in the concentrated world of his works, in an atmosphere of longing brought to the limit. In Chekhov, in what he personifies and carries with him, say Sokurov and Arabov, more life than in our liquid time, the past, classical art is aliveer than all living (because the film sounds Tchaikovsky's music from the opera "Eugene Onegin" - the center of Russian culture, as well as the music of Mozart and Mahler), it is able to breathe life even into the most disappointed and desperate soul, which is the soul of the watchman and each of us.
Why "Stone"? The stone is something solid, immutable, unchanging, it seems to be about the firmness of the spirit, true spirituality, about the strength and immutability of the great past, which is represented here by Chekhov, and to which the hero of Alexandrov and the spectator himself are attached. Sokurov and Arabov, after a series of their thanatological, hopeless films about spirituality and the disintegration of the world, created a real hymn to the spirit, immortality, the victory of high over low. Having no illusions about the market reality, mired in barbarism and violence, having overcome Soviet spirituality, they turned to the life-giving spring of classics and proved that it is capable of nourishing people even now.