Take a walk, "Cornflowers": the new series inherits "Combinations" and "Songs"

Nostalgia for musical idols from the time of the late USSR has reached its apogee: a new series about fictional pop groups has been added to the series about real pop groups. But at the same time, one that could well have existed in the Brezhnev era and become popular. VIA Cornflowers is a potential hit of spring, perfectly played and stylized, moderately light and lyrical. It will be released on Wink on April 10, with a secular premiere scheduled for April 7. Izvestia watched the first two episodes and got a boost of good mood.

What films and TV series were made about the USSR

The Soviet myth is heterogeneous, but over the past few years, the 70s and 80s in it have received a completely completed formalization in films and TV series. Soda machines, farts, strict on the outside, but kind on the inside officials, villainous bureaucrats, hysterical Komsomol activists - this is the background that has become quite entrenched in the films "Moving up", "Half an hour before Spring" (popularly known as "Pesnyary"), "Games", "Dorm", "Combination", "Light" and "Hands Up!" finally. All this is a very special space, where you immerse yourself with great pleasure, because it is cozy and bright in this world.

All this, of course, contrasts with the real cinema of the 70s and 80s. It feels like Panfilov, Balayan, Abdrashitov, Ryazanov, Danelia and Solovyov were filming about some other country and other people. There are still heirs to their depictions of that era, but "Cargo 200", "Summer", "Patient No. 1" are a continuation of reflection, these are metaphors, allegories, phantasmagoria, phobias. The key words there are "stuffiness", "decline", "lack of freedom", "pressure", "fear", "rebellion". All this is another myth. But mass cinema chooses another one.

The sun is always warm here, but it doesn't burn. The rebels here are funny young guys who are doing great for the most part. They are talented, daring, beautiful, witty and naive, and they defeat everyone and everything. Athletes set records, directors make films, musicians write hits. It's all so good that it's better not to look ahead to failure, disaster, and the end of romance. For some reason, I remember how Okudzhava, who had already aged, was once asked in the 90s when his life was better. He replied that he was happier then because he was young. This yearning for youth is the secret to the popularity of nostalgic content, and the younger generation gets a sense of the "golden age" instead of nostalgia, even if the fashion for T-shirts with the inscription "USSR" has long passed.

How did "VIA Cornflowers" turn out?

"VIA Cornflowers is an ideal example of just such a development of the myth. Two times collide here — the end of the 70s and the conditional "our days". In these very "our days," an incredibly rich elderly woman (Irina Rozanova, as always, is impeccable) writes a will according to which her two toxic middle-aged daughters will receive all the millions of dollars, but only on one condition. They should make sure that the band "Cornflowers", which is so forgotten that it is difficult to find its songs even on the Internet, performs on the federal channel on New Year's Eve.

The daughters urgently start looking for the aged members of the group, because otherwise there will be no money. And we periodically fall into detailed flashbacks, where Rozanova's still young heroine meets several talented students who hastily put together an VIA and started performing until someone very influential crossed their path.

Everything is in contrast here. Today, the authors of the series claim, the world is ruled by "grandmas" and bloggers, who actively earn money by deceiving the public. Teenagers are playing video games, adults are fighting over money, women's husbands are fake, and young lovers are somehow suspicious. Everything is false and vulgar, there is a solid emptiness behind the luxurious facades. Is that the case in the 70s? There are dance floors, underground records by Deep Purple, recreation by savages in Gelendzhik, "Volga" crashes into a tractor because for some reason it rushes along a dirt road among wheat.

You quickly believe all this, you get involved, especially since Sergey Zhukov, the producer and composer of the series, specially wrote a dozen and a half original songs, stylized to those that were sung on the dance floors of the 70s. Perhaps some of them turned out even better than most authentic hits, which even experts today recall with reluctance and bewilderment. At the same time, another layer of pop music is ironically presented, officious and opportunistic, where songs like "We need BAM" must win contests because they are necessary.

Music, youth, a love triangle, adventures — what else do you need to have a good evening? Well, yes, the scenes of the past lose in acting, because in "modernity", which is very conditional and mythological in its own way, Dmitry Kharatyan, Anna Kotova and Igor Vernik embody images besides Rozanova - large, charismatic artists who fill each scene with some additional content, some kind of understatement that triggers the work of imagination. And in the "70s," everything is transparent and simple, on the surface, to evoke the most uncluttered feelings. Everything here is immediately solved, everything is predictable, pure pleasure.

So far, only the first two episodes are available — there may be surprises ahead. So far, the plot structure and the overall mood of the series are very similar to Mikhail Segal's famous 2014 film "Cinema about Alekseev." There, too, in modern times, they dig up a "very famous Soviet musician," the bard Alekseev, from oblivion, they take a detailed interview with him, and through flashbacks we learn about his youth and stellar career. However, we soon realize that the interview is just a performance that a woman in love has arranged for a mediocre loser who pretended to be a master of KSP, but time has put everything in its place. Alexander Zbruev plays not just Alekseev, but Turgenev's Rudin, who in his old age must reflect on who he was.

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In Cornflowers, the mood and plot are very similar, so perhaps this is a series for those who either haven't watched the Alekseev Movie or have long wanted something more in this spirit. And for the widest audience, this is a new journey into the "golden age", lost forever, but so dear, beloved and desired. And who will blame the audience for this?