The elegy of life. Rostropovich. Vishnevskaya

According to the director, once in his house a telephone rang - Rostropovich suggested Sokurov put “ Khovanshchina ” with him in “ La Scala ”. The joint project, however, did not take place, but to prepare for it Sokurov met with Mstislav Leopoldovich in his St. Petersburg apartment. The dinner “with potatoes, vodka” prepared by Galina Pavlovna quickly brought the director closer to a couple of outstanding musicians.

There, I had the idea to make a documentary film "Elegy of Life" about Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya. They agreed to this with joy, paid great attention to the shooting, spent a lot of time - both he and she. Specially came for this to St. Petersburg. And I saw how life develops in their large multi-storey building, similar to a palace. How Rostropovich is rehearsing, and she is waiting for him ^[2] .

- Alexander Sokurov

Part 1

The beginning of the picture is shots taken at the Metropol restaurant. There, at one time, Galina Pavlovna and Mstislav Leopoldovich met, in the same place in 2005 they celebrated a golden wedding.

Then follows a black and white documentary chronicle: the young Vishnevskaya, who, having not received a musical education, managed to enter the Bolshoi Theater , and the young Rostropovich, who was always easy to climb and never refused concerts in the farthest corners of the Soviet Union .

A significant part of the film was shot in the apartment of Vishnevskaya - Rostropovich. Mstislav Leopoldovich in his office tells Sokurov about those composers to whom he had always respected with reverence: about Shostakovich and Prokofiev . But there is a man in the world who, as the maestro remarked, is superior to all “by the power of thinking,” is Bach .

The conversation with Vishnevskaya is structured differently: she suddenly remembers her son Ilya, who died in infancy: “Now he would be 60. And I was 18. Then I was a girl who survived the war, the blockade, the departure of loved ones, abandoned by the world, nobody not necessary. "My child was dying, I screamed in despair, lay on the floor and could not save him."

Part 2

Sokurov returns the audience to the Metropol restaurant and explains that such a royal person like Galina Pavlovna, and guests - to match. Among them are Boris Yeltsin and his wife , Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Sofia of Spain, wife of French President Bernadette Chirac , Prince of Jordan Hassan, Russian Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov . Outgoing Rostropovich is personally acquainted with each of the guests personally, and a human relationship without formalities connects him with them.

Central to the second part of the film is the premiere of a concert for cello and orchestra by Krzysztof Penderetsky . That day, spectators came from Vienna and arrived from different parts of the world. The Philharmonic is full, the composer in the hall, the conductor Seiji Ozawa and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich on stage. For Mstislav Leopoldovich, this was the last prime minister in his life.

Cinema expert Olga Sherwood notes the “non-invasion, understatement, delicacy” inherent in the film, the “museum distance” between the audience and the ideal that the director manages to maintain during the filming and when editing the tape ^[3] .

For him, great musicians and great people - this is the one hypostasis of the great, and the “Elegy of Life” turns for him into the life of saints. That is how Sokurov sees his heroes - ideal and ingenious, who have crossed the threshold of today's time ^[4] .

- reviewer Andrey Ferz

• Alexander Sokurov - Director
• Alexander Sokurov - script writer
• Egor Zherdin, Kirill Moshkovich, Mikhail Golubkov - operators
• Vladimir Persov - sound engineer
• Sergey Ivanov - installation
• Larisa Chirkova - consultant
• Alexander Sokurov - author's text

• Locarno Film Festival ( Switzerland , 2006)
• XVI International Film Forum " Golden Knight " (Russia, 2006)
• Jerusalem International Film Festival ( Israel , 2007)
• TEFI Prize ^[5] (2007):

victory in the nomination " For the best film "

victory in the nomination " For the best direction "

victory in the nomination " For the best cinematography "

• Marseille International Film Festival (France, 2007)
• Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan ( Armenia , 2007)
• Osaka European Film Festival (Japan, 2008)

• The Elegy of Life on imdb.com
• Information on the website of Sokurov Island
• The elegy of life. Rostropovich. Vishnevskaya // Encyclopedia of Russian cinema