Shpalikov, Gennady Fedorovich

Early years

Born in the family of military engineer Fedor G. Shpalikov, who built a pulp and paper mill in the city of Segezha and then died in 1944 during the liberation of Poland ^[1] (according to other sources, ^[2] went missing in Germany on January 29, 1945).

Gennady was raised by her mother Lyudmila Nikiforovna, the sister of General Semyon Nikiforovich Pervertkin ^[3] . In July 1955, Gennady graduated from the Kiev Suvorov Military School , where he was sent in 1947 by the military registration and enlistment office of the Leningrad region. In the same place, at school, began to write verses and stories ^[4] .

Then he entered the Moscow Higher Military Command School . A year later, during the exercise, he injured his leg (meniscus of the knee) and was stationed ^[5] . According to Boris Zakharov, who studied and was friends with Shpalikov at the school, his leg began to ache because of his fault: “One of the last exams, reluctance to go to physics. "Boris, give me a leg!". Not got there. Gene got to the medical unit, did not go to physics. " Later Shpalikov passed physics as “excellent” for Boris when he entered the Mendeleev Institute ^[6] . From 1956 to 1961 ^{[4] he} studied at the VGIK at the scriptwriting department. Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Konchalovsky studied with parallel courses, with whom he formed a common company ^[7] .

Creativity

The first major work is the film “ Zastava Ilyich ” directed by Marlen Khutsiev . Scenario Shpalikov wrote, being a student of the last year. Nikita Khrushchev , looking at the picture, compared it with ideological diversion, blaming the fact that "three guys and a girl hang around the city and do nothing" ^[8] . The film was censored , a number of scenes were excluded, and numerous revisions and improvements were required from the script. At one of the artistic councils Shpalikov could not stand it and sharply criticized the censorship restrictions ^[9] . He did not want to rewrite the script, often disappeared for days and weeks, which further hampered the release of the painting ^[5] . In 1965, the film still came out on screens in an abbreviated version and was obstructed by film critics - the creators were accused of imitation, superficiality and so on.

In 1962 he was invited by Georgiy Daneliya to work on the film “ I walk through Moscow ”. According to the memoirs of Danelia, the artistic council initially did not want to assert the script for the same reasons as Ilyich's Outpost - in it, too, three guys and a girl “wandered and did nothing”. But after the director, bypassing all instances, took the script to the First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Cinemas, Vladimir Baskakov, and assured him that there was no “fig in his pocket” in it, the work went “easily, quickly and cheerfully” ^[8] . True, the artistic council refused to accept the final version of the script under the pretext of "it is not clear what the film is about." Therefore, Shpalikov and Danelia had to urgently invent a scene “with meaning” (it was an episode with a canvas in the performance of Vladimir Basov , in which they secretly ridiculed members of the artistic council), as well as a new genre of “lyrical comedy” ^[8] .

Coming on the screens, the picture immediately fell in love with the audience. Popular was the song from the final of the film with the words: “And I am walking, walking in Moscow ...” (according to eyewitness accounts, written by Shpalikov directly on the set).

At that time, Shpalikov, largely because of his addiction to alcohol, left his wife, Natalia Ryazantseva . Shpalikova’s second wife was a young but already popular (who played the main role in Lev Kulidzhanov ’s film “ When the Trees were Big ”) actress Inna Gulaya . A new family and the birth of Dasha’s daughter for some time helped Shpalikov to refrain from addiction.

In 1966, the film “ Long Happy Life ” was released on the screens of the country - as it turned out later, Shpalikov’s only directing work. The leading roles in the film were performed by Kirill Lavrov and Inna Gulaya, for whom this role was written ^[1] . According to reviews, the final scene of the picture was shocked by Michelangelo Antonioni (the poet of “alienation and non-communicability”), who saw in it a clear and concise expression of “non-communicative feelings”. The film won the main prize at the International Art Film Festival in Bergamo . In the USSR, the picture was little noticeable.

In the same 1966, the film “ I am from childhood ” directed by Viktor Turov on the script of Shpalikov, considered by Belarusian critics as the best film created in the history of Belarusian cinema, was released.

Under the conditions of the new Brezhnev era , Shpalikov began a period of creative lack of demand. Of his numerous scenarios, written before the beginning of the 1970s, only two animated films were filmed - “ Once upon a time Kozyavin ” (1966) and “ Glass Harmonica ” (1968). The Shpalikovs family existed on the salary that Inna Gulaya received in the Studio Theater of the Film Actor , but in spite of this, Shpalikov helped her friend Viktor Nekrasov with money, which they stopped printing in the late 1960s ^[10] .

Against the background of such life problems, Shpalikov’s addiction to alcohol reappeared (and, according to friends, the writer could easily work drunk, and therefore he did not even try to stop drinking alcohol). Literary critics also note the high level of his works in the 1970s: they contain a bright individual theme of good, but unbearable people. Shpalikov himself left home, interrupted by temporary housing with friends and acquaintances.

In 1971, the film “ You and I ”, shot by Larisa Shepitko , was released, in the script of which Shpalikov drew a line under the sixties , stating the collapse of the former illusions of this generation. The film was awarded the youth program at the Venice Film Festival ^[11] , but was the worst in attendance in the USSR. In 1971, Sergei Urusevsky 's film “ Sing a Song, a Poet ... ” was unsuccessful according to the Salpali script. The Chairman of the State Committee for Cinematography, F. T. Yermash, appointed the painting with a circulation of 16 copies, which made the scriptwriter Shpalikov extremely low in reckoning that he hoped to pay off his debts due to repayment payments.

Recent years

Shpalikov worked on the novel, which did not have time to complete, although from the surviving fragments one can feel the scale of the author's intention.

In the 1970s, in the writer's letters and diaries, the theme of summing up persistently sounds: “... I managed to do little. Sometimes I thought well, but thinking is not fulfilling. I could do more than I could. ”

In 1974, Gennady Shpalikov committed suicide - hanged himself in the House of Writers (according to other sources, at one of the cottages) in Peredelkino. Nearby we found a suicide note ^[5] :

It is not cowardice at all - I can not live with you anymore. Do not be sad. I'm tired of you. Dasha, remember. Shpalikov.

Also in his house was found the last poem, which is also often referred to as his last will ^[1] :

Not pretending but pretending
Not counting anything
I leave you and I leave,
My dears, everything!
All the farewell - alone,
Finally - do not squeal.
I will only give you a daughter -
There is nothing more to bequeath.

He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery (school 34) ^[12] . Shortly before his death, his wife Inna Gulaya left him, who, tired of fighting her husband’s drunkenness, was simply afraid of the fate of her daughter. Relatives and friends of Shpalikov immediately accused her of pushing her ex-husband to suicide. This, according to Inna's mother, led to depression, alcoholism, loss of work and, ultimately, the death of the actress herself, which some also consider to be suicide ^[13] .

In 2003, in Moscow, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where Shpalikov lived ( 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya , 13, bldg. 1).

In 2009, at the entrance to the VGIK building, a monument was opened to Gennady Shpalikov, Andrei Tarkovsky and Vasiliy Shukshin as three graduates who “identified the artistic face of the national and world cinema of the second half of the 20th century” ^[7] .

• First marriage (1959) - Natalia Ryazantseva , screenwriter.
• Second marriage (1962) - Inna Gulaya , film actress.
  • Daughter - Daria , film actress ^[5] .

• Poems Gennady Shpalikov began writing in the late 1940s. The first poems were published in 1955: on June 26, the newspaper "Stalin's tribe" published "Two Poems", November 1 - a collection of poems under the general title "Lyrical Poems" ^[14] . The first collection of poems was published posthumously: "Selected" (1979). Later, other collections also came out, including “I lived as I lived” (1998), “Farewell to the Garden Ring” (2000), “White-and-white steamer”.
• Alexander Galich ’s song “For Seven Fences” ^[15] was written in collaboration with Gennady Shpalikov:

We went out of town,
And it’s raining outside the city
And outside the city fences,
Behind the fences - the leaders.

• In the film “ Colleagues ” (1962), the song “Deck” (music by Yuri Levitin ) sounds to the verses of Gennady Shpalikov performed by Oleg Anofriev ^[16] .
• In the film “ The Boy and the Girl ” two songs by the composer Boris Tchaikovsky sound to the verses of Gennady Shpalikov: “Ice Ladoga Floats” performed by Nikolay Gubenko and “Apple Trees and Cherry with Snow Swept” ^[17] .
• Most of his scripts Shpalikov wrote in the Moscow region house of cinematographers "Bolshevo" . Colleagues and friends of Shpalikov - Edward Topol and Pavel Finn mention this in their books.
• In the finale of the film “ Wounded Animals ”, a poem by Gennady Shpalikov “By misfortune or fortunately ...” reads the film director Nikolay Gubenko ^[18] .
• In the final of the film “ Genius ”, a song based on the verses by Gennady Shpalikov “Ah, I'll Drown in Zapadnaya Dvina ...” performed by Alexander Abdulov , music - Andrey Makarevich ^[19] .
• In the final of the film " Black Square " sounds an excerpt from a poem by Gennady Shpalikov "I walk across Moscow."
• In the “ First Channel ” project ““ The Thaw ”in verses”, prior to the TV show “The Thaw ”, Mikhail Efremov reads a poem by Gennady Shpalikov “By misfortune or fortunately, the truth is simple ...” ^[20] , Alexander Yatsenko - “People lose only once " ^[21] , Evgeny Tsyganov -" Farewell to the Garden Ring " ^[22] .

Director's work

1. 1966 - Long happy life

Scenarios

1. 1962 - Star on the buckle (short story in the movie " Little Dreamers ")
2. 1962 - Tram to other cities
3. 1963 - I walk across Moscow
4. 1964 - Zastava Ilyicha / I am twenty years old (together with Marlene Hutsiev )
5. 1966 - Once upon a time Kozyavin (together with Lazar Lagin )
6. 1966 - I come from childhood
7. 1966 - Long happy life
8. 1968 - Glass harmonic
9. 1971 - You and me
10. 1971 - Sing a song, a poet ... (with Sergey Urusevsky )
11. 1994 - Day of the charming man

Acting work

Both works of Shpalikov in the credits of the films do not appear ^[23] .

1. 1962 - Tram to other cities - episode
2. 1964 - Zastava Ilyich / I am twenty years old - episode
3. 1966 - I come from childhood - episode

• Shpalikov, Gennady Fedorovich // Brief literary encyclopedia / Ch. ed. A. A. Surkov . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1962-1978.
• Adamenko, Natalia. Dmitry Meskhiev and the poetic realism of the film “Long Happy Life” // Cinema Studies. - No. 64.
• Bondarenko V. Holiday through the eyes of a cropped teenager // Tomorrow . - 1999. - December 14th.
• Grebnev A. Music of Life // Soviet Culture . - 1965. - January 30th.
• Kapralov G. Talent, fantasy, screen // Pravda . - 1968. - July 7th.
• Murzina, Marina. The love story of Gennady Shpalikov and Inna Gulay // Arguments and Facts . - 2008. - February 14th.
• Pulkhritudova E. Thoughts on History // Theater . - 1969. - № 4.
• Runin B. The search for poetics and the temptations of optics // Art of Cinema . - 1972. - № 7.
• P. Strokov. One could expect more // Soviet culture. - 1965. - January 30th.
• Yu. Khanyutin [About the scenario “I am twenty years old” by M. Khutsiev, G. Shpalikova] // Art of Cinema. - 1961. - № 7.
• Yurenev R. One day of the young // Art of cinema. - 1964. - № 4.

• The site of the memory of the poet, screenwriter and director Gennady Shpalikov (Neopr.) . The appeal date is September 17, 2014.
• Gennady Shpalikov (Neopr.) . Chapaev. The appeal date is July 26, 2018.
• Gennady Shpalikov. Poems (Neopr.) . Anthology of Russian poetry. The appeal date is September 17, 2014.
• Gennady Shpalikov. Poems. Biography. Photo (Neopr.) . The best Russian poets and poems. The appeal date is September 17, 2014.
• Gennady Shpalikov (Unsolved) (inaccessible link) . Encyclopedia of domestic cinema. The date of circulation is June 27, 2015. Archived April 5, 2015.
• Legends of world cinema. Gennady Shpalikov (Neopr.) . Channel "Culture". The appeal date is September 3, 2013.
• Memorial evening of Gennady Shpalikov in the House-Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva (Neopr.) . Old Radio (March 5, 1997). The appeal date is April 22, 2017.