Chapaev (film)

The film begins with the fact that Chapaev and his fighters beat off the bridge leading to the farm from the Czechs . On the bridge, Commissioner Furmanov approached Chapaev, who came up with volunteer weavers (among whom was Anka). In the farm, the commanders in accordance with the order of M.V. Frunze are developing a plan of attack on the village of Alamikhinsky. In the busy village, Chapaev explains to the deputy wounded in the arm of the brigade commander Elan on potatoes his actions about the commander’s actions during the battle. At this time, orderly Chapaev Petka teaches Anka a machine gun and pestering her.

Colonel Borozdin and the lieutenant discuss in the train car the danger of Chapaev’s personality (“former sergeant major ”) and the vicissitudes of time. Two come to complain to the commissioner about Chapaev, who requires a veterinarian to be examined as a doctor and issue a document. The commissar explains to Chapaev that the “intelligentsia” is right and they cannot issue a document. Furmanov tells Chapaev about Alexander the Great . Petrovich comes to the colonel with a request to cancel the shooting of his defector, Borozdin changes his sentence.

Furmanov arrests Zhikharev’s commander’s platoon for robberies arranged by his fighters, and demands that the loot be returned. Chapaev comes and argues with the commissar about who is the head of the division and who should give orders for the arrest. The order given by Furmanov on behalf of Chapaev is executed and the loot is returned to the peasants, who come to thank the head of the division. Chapaev gathers a rally at which he warns fighters that he will shoot for robberies on his own. After the rally, the peasants ask Chapaev for whom, for “Bolsheviks ali for communists?” To which he replies, “I’m for the International ”, Furmanov is trying to clarify for which International, for the 2nd or 3rd ? Chapaev answers that he is for the one in which Lenin is .

Petka examines Anka for the collection-analysis of the machine gun. Between the characters feelings arise. Petka goes to white for the “tongue” . On the river, he meets Petrovich, a fishing angler, whose brother Mitka is punished with ramrods and dies. Petrovich explains that he fulfills his brother's dying wish to eat fish soup. Petka took pity on him and released him, for which he was given to the tribunal Chapaev. Petrovich hates Borozdin because of the death of his brother, and surrenders to the Red Army. He talks about the upcoming Kappel attack, calling it " psychic ." Chapaev is developing an action plan, complaining about the lack of ammunition and people.

Chapaev learns that on the eve of the attack, the squadron commander Zhukov was killed as a result of the “buza”. Chapaev takes command of the squadron. The officer regiment is approaching, the Red Army fire on them. A “psychic” attack forces some Red Army fighters to leave their positions, but the commissioner returns them. The White Guard infantry is retreating under machine-gun fire and a hail of grenades. A new attack on the position of the Reds is undertaken by the Cossacks, and Anka has run out of bullets and she is in despair. The red cavalry led by Chapaev appears on the field. The White Guards flee under the onslaught of the Chapaev squadron. The soldiers capture the Kappel headquarters.

Furmanov was recalled to Moscow, and the new Commissioner Sedov is coming to replace him by car . Colonel Borozdin offers the commander of the front a daring raid plan for Lbischensk , where Chapaev’s division headquarters are located and leads the detachment. Deep at night, the Cossacks burst into the city and inflict a crushing blow to the Reds. Chapaev shoots back from the white with a machine gun in the attic of the house. Anka goes for help to brigade commander Elan. An approaching armored car opens machine-gun fire at Chapaev and one of the bullets pierces his arm. Petka undermines the armored car, but the White Guards roll up an artillery gun to the house and begin shelling. Petka and the wounded Chapaev have to retreat.

Anka arrives at the brigade commander. The remnants of the Red Army and Chapaev are trying to cross the Ural River , but the Cossacks kill Petka, who covers the retreat, and shoot Chapaev floating from the machine gun. Reds fall upon whites and those recede. A peasant hiding in the hay kills Colonel Borozdin.

• Boris Babochkin - Head of Division Chapaev
• Boris Blinov - Commissioner Furmanov
• Varvara Myasnikova - machine gunner Anka
• Leonid Kmit - orderly Petka
• Illarion Pevtsov - Colonel Borozdin
• Stepan Shkurat - Cossack Potapov (Petrovich), batman Borozdin
• Vyacheslav Volkov - brigade commander Elan
• Nikolay Simonov - Komkhvzvoda Zhikharev
• Elena Volintseva - a peasant woman
• Boris Chirkov - a peasant
• Sergey Vasiliev - lieutenant
• Georgy Zhzhenov - orderly Teresh
• Mikhail Rostovtsev - veterinarian
• Andrey Apsolon - Red Army soldier
• Stepan Krylov - Red Army man
• Georgy Vasiliev - officer with a cigarette
• Victor Yablonsky - Cossack Plastun (not in the credits)
• Emil Gal - veterinarian (not in the credits)
• Konstantin Nazarenko - partisan-buzoter (not in the credits)
• Pavel Leshkov - Borozdin's interlocutor (not in the credits)

• By the seas - by the waves (Chapaev sings)
• Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (performed by Colonel Borozdin on the piano )
• Black Raven (Chapaev sings)
• The storm roared (Petka sings)

Script

In the summer of 1932, the Vasiliev brothers were asked to make a film based on the script “Chapaev” written by Anna Furmanova with the participation of V. Trofimov. The deceased husband of Anna Nikitichny, writer Dmitry Furmanov , who served as the commissar in the 25th division in 1919 and wrote a novel about zachdiva in 1921, dreamed of making a film about nachdiv. Sergei and George Vasiliev categorically did not like the script manuscript - it was written by people far from the cinema, poster and didactically. But the first principle of the script captivated them. Both directors knew about the Civil War firsthand, and Sergei Vasiliev had the opportunity to command a squadron during it. The Vasilievs took up the study of documents in the archives and in the Museum of the Red Army , found and questioned hundreds of former fighters and commanders of the Chapaev’s division in Moscow, Leningrad, Saratov. In Uralsk and the former Lbischensk they talked with the participants of the battles on the opposite side - the Cossacks of the white Ural army . One of the main consultants of the film was an associate of Chapaev, who took command of the 25th division after his death, brigade commander Ivan Kutyakov . As Vasilyev later wrote: “It took several months to study and process the entire mass of materials. And only after we felt that we already personally know and deeply love our future heroes, only then did we start the script ” ^[1] .

The Vasilievs critically evaluated all the predecessor films on the themes of the Civil War. In their opinion, most of them either suffered from excessive naturalism, or living heroes were lost behind battle scenes - "shooting for the sake of shooting, smoke and roar ... Machine guns fired - people were silent." The Vasilievs wanted to combine the epic legendary character of the Civil War participants with the realism of their human images. They persistently tried to weed out among the legends and myths with which Chapaev’s image in popular memory managed to grow, simple, ordinary, everyday touches that would revive his image for future viewers. In the course of work on historical materials, the Vasilievs prepared three versions of the script: the first is preserved in manuscript notebooks; the second was ready by early 1933 in the form of a typewritten copy; the third version, called Chapai, was dated June 1, 1933, and became the first work of film drama published in a thick literary magazine ( Literary Contemporary No. 9 for 1933). During the work, the number of scenes of the future film grew from 57 in the first version, to 70 in the second and 76 in the third. The scenarios testify to the struggle of the desire to fit into the script many vivid episodes gleaned during their research and from conversations with Chapaev’s comrades-in-arms and his opponents, with efforts to concentrate historical material, demands to discard everything less valuable, which did not fit into the time constraints. In the final directorial script, 66 scenes were left, of which only 57 were included in the film ^[2] .

Of these 57 scenes in the film, only four remained from the original script, which, in turn, were pretty much reworked - the scene with veterinarians, Chapaev’s speech at the rally, scenes of the attack on Lbischensk and the death of an executive in the waters of the Urals. The remaining 53 scenes were re-written by Vasiliev. Furmanov’s recollections of meetings with local residents were creatively reworked, hence the story of a bearded peasant about the “carousel” of red and white, and those and other robbing peasants. A few lines were taken from the novel about the attack of officer battalions, which turned into the most famous battle scene of Soviet cinema. Moreover, in the original text of Furmanov, White approached silently, trying to take the Red Army by surprise at dawn. In the scenario, officers march to the drum roll, ignoring the fallen comrades. The real Chapaev that day was wounded in the head and did not directly participate in the battle, in the scenario he leads a horse attack, which decided the outcome of the battle. In the scene of preparing for this battle the night before, the Vasilievs preferred to take the initial recording of the conversation with the boss in Furmanov’s diaries, where Chapaev compared himself to Napoleon and was ready to cope with the army and the front, rather than reworked this scene from the novel and script ^[3] .

The Vasilievs set themselves the task of overcoming the sketchy-documentary nature of the original material available, leaving the most expressive episodes from it, like tea drinking after a fight or a song on vacation. At the same time, they expand, supplement individual minor episodes, revealing the character of their heroes. In their book, the Vasilievs recalled:

In cinema, as in any field of art, detail is very important, a hint ... Furmanov casually mentions that Chapaev, scolding the wounded Kutyakov, said - a fool, you don’t know the commander’s place in battle. This was enough to create a scene in which Chapaev, using potatoes, a pipe and cigarettes, gives a lesson in tactics to his comrade.

- S. and G. Vasiliev. "Chapaev Furmanova and" Chapaev "on the screen." - "Literary newspaper", January 15, 1935 ^[4]

One of the episodes of the future film was entirely borrowed from John Reed 's book on the Mexican Revolution . The sentry, having heard a rustle in the bushes, shoots at them, not trying to ask for a password, justifying himself before the commissioner subsequently: "What is the difference, because I still didn’t get it." Insurgent, inexperienced, inexperienced peasants in Mexico and Russia had similar features and this episode gave the film a rich color. Another scene was creatively reworked from the silent film by James Cruise that Vasilyev liked. The hero of the tape, originally cowardly, follows the order "Sit down!" In the first episodes. Gaining courage in the course of the picture, he himself uses this phrase in relation to his former offenders. In the scenario of Vasiliev during a heated quarrel, Furmanov reproaches Chapaev for his appearance. Then Chapaev himself, who recognized the commissioner's justice, repeats the remark about the “shabby form” to his orderly Petka ^[5] .

Images of the main characters and casting

Chapaev

When working on the Chapaev’s image, the Vasilievs faced the problem of how to imagine a person who really lived, but not to limit himself in an attempt to imagine in him a whole generation of nuggets from the people, whom the revolution and civil war gave a chance to express themselves in full force:

Not wanting to copy Chapaev, not wanting to give it photographically, we recreated it, because the image combined all the typical features that should have been inherent in Chapaev ... Having abandoned the narrow biography, we, in the course of the entire artistic process, were brought to the fullest recreation of the real appearance of Chapaev.

- S. and G. Vasiliev. Chapaev. About the film. "- 1936 ^[6]

One of the main artistic techniques in the palette of work on the image of the nachdivas was the contrast between the poster, sublime, legendary image of an epic hero in battle scenes and the accentuated everyday, simple, and even rustic way of Chapaev in scenes after the battle. Hero Vasiliev breaks the canons that were prevailing at that time, and does not act as one might expect. All his actions go beyond the scope of templates, he is completely individual, he does not correspond to the ideas of a positive hero and this causes interest and sympathy. The Vasilievs imagined the inconsistency of the figure of a native of the peasant environment - with the inherent features of anarchism, spontaneity, and protest against the slave past. Chapaev, endured by a wave of changes in the leaders, should have had a powerful faith in his own strengths and capabilities, but this should have been accompanied by conceit and self-confidence: “I am Chapaev! And you ... Who are you ?! Who sent you here ?! ” ^[7]

The Vasilievs stubbornly sorted through many options for scenario solutions in order to achieve certainty and integrity of the character of the hero. These colors will sparkle from the first frames of the picture. The first appearance of Chapaev in the frame is swift and expressive, with a couple of words he stops the running fighters and carries them along with him. This is followed by the famous poster episode: the orderly Petka, who has merged with the machine gun, is firing, and having started in the broken cap he leads the battle. These shots have forever become the hallmark of the film and for many years - the entire Soviet cinema. But already in the next shots, Chapaev is casual and simple, in the scene of meeting with the commissioner he is dry and cold. And to Furmanov’s question, what are the fighters who were looking for weapons thrown in a panic in the river, Chapaev cuts off: “Bathing is hot.” Commissar Chapaev did not fail to succumb to illiterate in military affairs in the next scene - during the headquarters meeting. The growing conflict between the boss and the commissar is the main line of plot development. The scene with veterinarians who did not want to examine the konoval, and the scene of the arrest for participating in the robberies of comrade Chapaev and the realization of the dual power in the division that once belonged to him, became the culmination of the development of the conflict, the highest point of the clash. The Vasilievs found a psychologically accurate move that allowed Chapaev to save face, with a delegation of peasants thanking for returning the looted property ^[8] .

The Vasiliev brothers wanted to approve another actor for the role of Chapaev, and several versions exist on this subject. Babochkin himself was supposed to play Petka , but the actor in mini-sketches showed the directors the living, feeling, real Chapaev and convinced them of their role in the role without external resemblance to Chapaev. From the memoirs of Boris Babochkin:

“I didn’t think about the fact that I have to play Chapaev. I just persuaded the Vasilyevs not to make mistakes in choosing an actor for this role ... Proving to them the unsuitability of some candidates, I without any second thought presented Vasiliev with such features of this actor that they asked me to try makeup. I put on my hat and stuck my mustache ... "

“Chapaev” could be:

• Nikolay Batalov - refused the role. The official version - because of the large employment, the unofficial one - he was tired of acting in films on the theme of the Civil War.
• Vasily Vanin - was originally approved for the role of Chapaev.

Petka

At first, Yakov Gudkin was invited to the role of Petka , but after the start of the shooting it became clear that he was not suitable for this role.

Alternative Finals

The Vasiliev brothers, fearing a too pessimistic ending to the film, shot two more endings.

1. Red troops marching along Lbischensk . The wounded Anka and Petka pass by, joy is on their faces, behind the scenes are the words of Chapaev: “Happy, I say, you and Petka. Young. All life is ahead . ”
2. Filmed in the homeland of Stalin , in the city of Gori . In the frame is a beautiful apple orchard in which Anka plays with children. Petka comes up to them, he already heads the rifle division. Behind the scenes Chapaev’s voice: “Get married, you will work together. The war will end, life will be magnificent. Do you know what life will be like? You don’t have to die! ”

In addition, during the Great Patriotic War, the propaganda video “ Chapaev with us ” was shot ^[9] . In it, Chapaev sailed to the opposite bank, where the Red Armymen blamed him: "They were waiting for you here!" After this, Vasily Ivanovich delivers a speech calling to beat the enemy (fascists) according to his example.

Rental in the USSR

• November 5, 1934 in the Leningrad cinema "Titan" the premiere of the film ^[10] .
• There were no posters for the new film, only handwritten announcements, since the shooting of the film and its editing were completed just two weeks before the premiere and the posters simply did not have time to prepare.
• There were few spectators in the cinema hall in the morning, but the line was already set for evening viewing, and then the film caused a stir. In this regard, it was shown simultaneously in many cinemas in Leningrad for several weeks.
• In the Leningrad cinema "Saturn" the film went every day for two years. ^[eleven]
• The film was restored in 1963 .

Rental outside the USSR

Screen Dates Abroad

• January 14, 1935 - USA
• May 24, 1937 - Denmark
• 1945 - Poland
• 1946 - Czechoslovakia
• March 14, 1946 - Germany
• May 23, 1946 - Austria
• October 31, 1947 - Finland
• 1961 - Italy

Video Edition

Since the beginning of the 1990s, in the USSR and Russia, the film was released on VHS videotapes by the Krupnyi plan association. Outside of Russia, a version of a film with dubbing and subtitles in different languages ​​from neighboring countries was produced by various foreign video companies on imported VHS (for example, in the USA the English version of the film was released on VHS). Also, in Russia in the 1990s, the film was released on VHS video cassettes by “ 48 Hours Studio ”, “ Vostok V ”, in 2000 it was re-released by the companies “Lenfilm Video” and “ Master Tap ”.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the film was restored in Russia and in 2001 it was first released on DVD-ROMs by the Krupnyi Klinov video and video association in the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound system, and with Russian subtitles. On November 4, 2004, the film was released on DVD by Soyuz Video Studios, also by Master Tap, Vostok B, Retro Club companies, in 2007 by Magnat, and on January 22, 2009 by Music- Trade. " Sound - Dolby Digital 2.0.

What is the strength of the film "Chapaev"?
First of all, the Vasilievs worked hard and honestly on the material, being able to stay true to the historical truth and translate it into highly artistic images. Chapaev shows real, living people with all their weaknesses and weaknesses.

- Ivan Semenovich Kutyakov ^[12]

When a director made a crappy film, where well-intentioned heroes sucked by twenty consultants did positive things weighed on a pharmacy scale, where stale, unnatural youths boredly eliminated a breakthrough and stupidly reached their predictable happiness, and the viewer stubbornly did not go, then the director its director raised a terrible cry:
- You see, they don’t go to ideological films! And why? Because our viewer is incontinent, alien, does not understand a damn thing in art. Give him Monty Banks .
The story is ordinary - the audience took filmmakers under suspicion. We are good and talented, he is bad, philistine and undergrown.
But for some reason Chapaev’s audience was wonderful. Millions of spectators are quite mature, ideologically seasoned, well versed in art, revolutionary in their hearts and Soviet in all their affairs.

- Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov , feuilleton “Tranquil curbstone” (1934) ^[13]

• "Chapaev" opened the first Soviet film festival (Moscow-35).
• Stalin considered Chapaev to be the best film of Soviet cinematography and watched it more than 30 times between 1934 and 1936.
• According to a survey of cinema experts of the world (1978), the film is included in the list of one hundred of the best films of world cinema.
• Favorite movie of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin . ^[14]

Prizes and Awards

• First prize “Silver Cup” of the 1st Moscow International Film Festival in 1935 .
• "The Best Foreign Language Film," according to the National Board of Review in 1935.
• Grand Prix of the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 .
• Stalin Prize I degree in 1941 . Prize winners: G. Vasiliev , S. Vasiliev , B. Babochkin .
• Bronze medal at the Venice Film Festival in 1946 .
• Gold medal at the third film screening in Lido degli Estensi ( Italian: Lido degli Estensi ), dedicated to the "Struggle of peoples for freedom and independence" in honor of the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy in 1961 .

Cultural Impact

• Impressed by watching the film, Osip Mandelstam wrote two poems in 1935, in which the film and episodes from it are mentioned (“From a damp sheet talking ...” and “A day stood on five heads. Five full days ...”).
• The film is mentioned in the poem by Samuel Marshak “A Fun Journey from A to Z” (1953) - “We saw [in the cinema] a newsreel, the Chapaevites in battle.”
• Chapaev and the Void .
• Also, the main characters of the film, Chapaev, Petka, Anka and Furmanov became the heroes of the series of computer games " Petka and Vasily Ivanovich ."
• A lot of jokes were invented about the heroes of the film.

• A possible prototype of the Anka machine gunner was a native of the city of Krasny Kut in the Saratov province , a nurse (according to other sources, a reconnaissance platoon fighter) of the 25th Infantry Division (later Chapaevskaya) Maria Popova.
• It was the film "Chapaev" that proved that Chapaev himself was not born in Samara , as many assumed, but in Budaika . His fellow villagers accidentally came to the Cheboksary Theater "Rodina" to this film: Babochkin played Chapaev so naturally that one of the villagers shouted: "So this is our Vaska!"

Myths and Misconceptions Born by the Film

1. Kappelites mental attack : impressive shots from the film made us believe that such an attack actually happened. However, historians who studied the military way of the units of Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel , do not find evidence of this. Parts of Chapaev and Kappel never met each other in battles - the enemy of the Volga corps of Kappel in June 1919 was not the 25th division of Chapaev, but the 24th rifle division ^[15] .
   Kappel could use this technique earlier, on the Volga, during the command of units of the People’s Army . Subsequently, when the Red Army stood on a regular basis, such a technique probably could not be effective, and therefore it is doubtful that it could be used in battle. However, this spectacular scene confirms the talent of the director.
2. Uniform spectacular black uniforms with accelerants, a banner with a skull and bones - an image born of propaganda . The uniform of the white fighters shown in the film was not characteristic of the Kappel people, but of the units of the Markov division of the Volunteer Army , which was part of the Armed Forces of southern Russia . The troops opposing Chapaev apparently did not have uniform uniforms.
3. Chapaev’s death : according to the official version, Chapaev died on September 5, 1919 near the city of Lbischensk (now the village of Chapaev, West Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan). The circumstances of the death of the division commander are described in different ways. According to the hot pursuit of the investigation, the wounded Chapaev drowned while trying to cross the Ural River. This version was accepted as official and became widely known thanks to the film "Chapaev." However, according to other sources, the mortally wounded division commander was transported by soldiers across the river on a raft , died during the crossing and was buried somewhere on the left bank. The grave has been lost.

• Dolinsky I.L. Chapaev. Dramaturgy. - 1945.
• Lev Parfyonov (compiler). Chapaev. - M .: Art, 1966. - S. 212.
• Pisarevsky D. S. The Vasiliev Brothers. - M .: Art , 1981. - 320 p. - (Life in art). - 50,000 copies.
• Dolinsky I. L. History of Soviet cinema. 1917-1967. In 4 vols. T. 2. 1931-1941. - M .: Art, 1973. - S. 102-121.
• Kappel and Kappel people. 2nd ed., Rev. and add. - M .: NP "Sowing", 2007. - ISBN 978-5-85824-174-4 .
• “Soviet Screen”, No. 7/1974, p.14; No. 21/1974, pp. 14-15 (to the 40th anniversary of the film); No. 14/1975, p.6 (shooting features).

• Chapaev on the Internet Movie Database
• Chapaev on Red TV (video)
• "Chapaev" on the website of Filmweb.pl (Polish)
• Chapaev on russiancinema

Articles about the film:

• Alexander Karaganov. Chapaev (neopr.) . Date of treatment January 15, 2007. Archived on February 20, 2012.
• Sergey Osipov, Boris Rozhnov. Chapaev: A Love Story (Neopr.) (June 11, 2003). Date of treatment January 16, 2007. Archived February 20, 2012.
• Anna Veligzhanina. "Chapaev": after the film, the widow of Peter Isaev (prototype Petka) committed suicide (neopr.) (November 4, 2004). Date of treatment January 15, 2007. Archived on February 20, 2012.
• Vladimir Lugovsky. Petka, about which no jokes were composed (neopr.) (November 16, 2004). Date of treatment January 15, 2007. Archived on February 20, 2012.
• Victor Andon. "Chapaev" - a film-legend (neopr.) (November 19, 2004). Date of treatment January 15, 2007.
• E.V. Volkov. The image of the Kappelevtsev in the film of the Vasilyev brothers "Chapaev" (neopr.) (2001). Date of treatment January 17, 2007. Archived July 4, 2007.
• Vasiliev G. N., Vasiliev S. D. Chapaev directors about their work [on the film] (Proceedings of the CEC 278: 4 N'34)
• Vasiliev G. N., Vasiliev S. D. How we worked on Chapaev ( Truth 319: 3 N'34)
• Chapaev Alexander. I am proud of my father [About the movie "Chapaev." From the article by Alexander Chapaev in the newspaper " Red Star "]
• The book about Chapaev abroad [work of the Publishing house of foreign countries. workers in the USSR for the production and popularization of Chapaev and Furmanov abroad]. ( Truth 326: 6 H'34)