"My son was scanned to create Pinocchio"
For director Igor Voloshin, Pinocchio is the highest manifestation of the evangelical idea that the spirit breathes wherever it wants, God's incarnation. The author of the musical film story takes the wooden man extremely seriously, and considers the new film itself to be a return to his first art hits. Shortly before the release of Pinocchio, Izvestia met with Igor Voloshin and talked about the philosophy of the fairy tale, the hero, and creativity in general.
"And the director can become Lenin"
— The coincidence of your hairstyles with Pinocchio is not accidental, is it?
— This is definitely not an accident! I've seen more than once that in my favorite cult films, the main character, whoever he is, becomes like the director. That is, he literally mutates into it. This applies not only to the external moment, but also to the inner feeling. This is the magic when you can get into a character without plastic makeup and everything will work by itself. Let's say Evgeny Vitalievich Mironov can play Lenin without plastic surgery so that it will be Lenin. But a director can also become Lenin when he works with an actor on an image.
Presentation of the film "Pinocchio" in the framework of the International Film Market and the forum "Russian Film Business"
In addition, my son was also scanned to create Pinocchio. He's a bit of a Pinocchio himself. I wanted the character to be created from several layers, and among them, these layers, there is me, there is my son with his recognizable features. And there is Vitaliya Kornienko, who has done a wonderful job in this role, giving us energy and DNA. I also played the emotions of the future Pinocchio in postproduction somewhere. All this was transferred to his facial expressions. So in our cinema, we have a mix of completely different resources and technologies for reviving the main character. This is a unique, professional and high-tech manufacturing experience.
At the same time, we were creating, in a sense, an alien on planet Earth. He's not a man, he's not a tree. I even posed the question like this: is Pinocchio a living tree or is he a wooden man? You need to answer this philosophical question before the start of the painting, so that you have something to say.
— Is he still a living tree or a wooden man for you?
— For me, this is the highest manifestation of the evangelical idea that the spirit breathes wherever it wants. That is, for me, this is God's incarnation. After all, there is a powerful archetype of father and son in this story. A biblical theme. The path of inanimate nature, which, acquiring a spirit, becomes a human being.
A shot from the movie "Pinocchio"
— Over the past few years, several Pinocchio productions have been released. They're all pretty loud. Have you watched it? What do you think?
— I've reviewed everything! But it's better here! I know how that sounds. I'll explain what's going on. Before we took a swing at this work, no one had ever attempted to remove the main character in the form in which he was created on the pages of the original source. It's a doll. It's a tree. This is not Dima Iosifov in Leonid Nechaev's film "The Adventures of Pinocchio", a boy in cool plastic makeup with a nose. Although it's an outstanding film, we love and adore it. This is not an animation made by our beloved Guillermo del Toro.
This is not Matteo Garrone, whose approach I have not fully understood, although there are lively eyes. Living eyes, planted in a tree! I watched that movie with a great sense of reverence and pleasure, and I'm ready to review it. It is a cultural treasure of Italy, as well as its "Scary Tales". Garrone is a great artist.
But we shot differently. They filmed about Pinocchio without Pinocchio. And then we looked at the material that had already been edited, and I explained: here you see the scene, and Pinocchio will be in the center, now he is not there. Instead, there was a square with my face or a square with Vita's face in the frame. In almost every frame. It's difficult for an ordinary person to watch the montage version, because Vita is running around in a "scuba diver" costume (our "mockup", a motion capture costume, resembles it) in light bulbs, and then she doesn't exist at all, then we play with emptiness, then a doll appears there...
A shot from the movie "Pinocchio"
There were actually three dolls. It's all quite difficult, it increases the budget a lot, and that's what prevented even our Western colleagues from making such a film, because it's incredibly expensive. And we were given the opportunity to bring this image, this wooden creature, to the human world in its perfect manifestation. A magical incarnate spirit, a puppet come to life. Imagine that you have a doll at home — and she suddenly starts talking, wants to go to the theater, wants to go to school, wants friends. Pinocchio is changing this world and changing people.
"I didn't like the dull art"
— Do you have the same approach to cinema, to working with actors, as the approach to art films for Kinotavr?
— And for the Berlin Film Festival, there was everything. I remember liking an article where they wrote that there is a generation of "new quiet ones", and Voloshin is "loud". I didn't like the dull art. I didn't understand at once how you can make a movie without holding the viewer by the throat, brain, arms, legs with the entertainment you lure him with. You're entertaining him anyway, not putting him to sleep. That's why I actually had fairy tales from the very first films. There was drive, there was energy, there were soundtracks.
The migration of many authors from art cinema to commercial cinema is now obvious. Personally, I have always aspired to high technology and great art. It's interesting to combine this on the territory of your own scenario. Malevich's "Black Square" and Michelangelo's "Pieta" are all the same approach, the same order of things. That's the case with movies. In commercial cinema, I have even more opportunities to realize what I have in mind, because I have more finances. If you want to build a cool pavilion that has the color you want, furniture made, a crucifix carved on the wall, it all costs money. Being an author is an expensive pleasure.
— You've also worked in European cinema, which is almost synonymous with copyright. And with what feelings do you remember him today?
— I remember very well, we still communicate with those with whom we worked at that time, they write to me. But the main thing is that I didn't do anything specifically for this. Producer Livia Filusova saw my "Nirvana" at the Berlinale, then in Karlovy Vary we were with Kolya Homeriki, I with "Bedouin", and Kolya with "The Heart of the Boomerang". I received an email saying that we have a script for you. And we would also like to work with Olga Simonova, who played in "Bedouin". I say, come on. And he went. It turned out to be an international cast with Jean-Marc Barr and John Robinson in a small role. The movie "The Basement".
The Europeans have the same thing as we do, it's just that they have one person doing what we have three people doing. They count every penny. That's why they call you and want you to make what you see out of their stuff. His name is like a surgeon who knows how to operate in some sparkling way. It's very valuable.
— Do you write scripts for yourself as often as you might notice?
"I'm writing." I have four things lying around, waiting. It's just that I really like what I'm doing now. And these, yes, they're still there.
"I've been making one movie all my life anyway"
— Are you not very interested in TV shows now? Is there less art?
— I'm more comfortable in the cinema, of course. You can spend more time honing what you have in mind in the pre-training period. You have more time in a movie than in a TV series to shoot a scene perfectly. But when I was doing Physical Education, I also approached it so that it would be a big project with a powerful idea and a cool shape. The series provides an opportunity to tell a story that doesn't fit into a short story. That's why the writers of the trilogy wrote — they couldn't fit the story either. By the way, we are currently discussing the idea of making a TV series with Hydrogen, because there is also a long-distance race. A full meter is not enough.
— What would you like to do after the movie stories? Although, in general, you said that you have been doing them in various forms all your life.
— That's right, in fact, I've been making one movie all my life anyway. And I didn't go into fairy tales, but started with them, as I've already said. Because for me, they are about eternal values that take their point of account from the day of the creation of the world and man. As long as I'm talking about the values that are close to all of humanity, and I want to complete this stage, whether it's five years or ten, I'm not even thinking about it.
Igor Voloshin
I'll tell you something. Alexey Oktiabrinovich Balabanov once saw my short meter and said: well, that's it, you need to make your debut. I went to meet producer Sergey Mikhailovich Selyanov. He started offering me some stories. And for five years he offered me films that he knew I wouldn't make. And I told him that you'd better take mine, please. In the end, he offered me a script called "The Autumn Games." After reading it, I decided to give up again. And he says: we should make a debut already. In two weeks, the budget is $300,000, which is super small.
I said, come on. And I offered him a big, detailed explication in the style of "Blade Runner". I'm explaining this now so that it's clear, because there are brands that immediately switch minds. The budget was greatly increased, and we made such a tale of loneliness about St. Petersburg, about young people who, expressing themselves, look like aliens. It was my departure from realism. And now, with Pinocchio, I've come back to where I started from.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
