Dovlatov (film)

The film tells the story of a few days in the life of the writer Sergei Dovlatov in Leningrad in the early 1970s, on the eve of the emigration of his friend, future Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky . This is a cycle of paradoxical and ridiculous situations, a collision with crime and the literary life of Leningrad, the Lenfilm film studio, music, poetry reading, the craft of a journalist, a passionate desire to buy a doll for your daughter that is nowhere to be found ...

“We made a sensation film, jazz improvisation, which should not be fun and spiritually elevating. In addition, Dovlatov himself is not a classic writer, but an interlocutor and comrade who sits next to you in a chair and does not teach you anything. He got rid of the curse that the poet in Russia is more than a poet, ”director A.German says about his idea ^[3] .

The proposal to make a film about Dovlatov came from his daughter, then S. Govorukhin made his film “ The End of a Beautiful Era ” based on Dovlatov's stories. In 2013-14, Herman returned to negotiations about the film with the writer’s family and it was decided to try not to make an adaptation of the autobiography, but to freely interpret the fragment. They began to prepare a script with Yulia Tupikina, then details about Leningrad artists of the early 1970s began to be added. And gradually, the authors asserted themselves in the understanding that there are Dovlatov as a lyrical hero and as a real person. “The most difficult thing was to decide who to move to. Talk about an era or follow a prosaic personal story, ”recalls A.German. “And at some point we decided to abandon his prose in order to better try to catch the spirit of the era, the feeling of the Leningrad company, rather than slavishly repeat Dovlatov’s incredible literary humor” ^[3] .

Script writers: Alexey German Jr. , Julia Tupikina

Stage Director: Alexey German Jr.

Director of Photography:

Set Designer, Costume Designer: Elena Okopnaya

Make-up artist: Natalya Ratkevich

Sound Engineer: Ivan Gusakov

Second directors: Maxim Elagin, Natalya Kalashnikova

Music Editor: Mikhail Kovalev

Installation: Daria Gladysheva, Sergey Ivanov

Work on the picture started in early 2015 ^[4] . Filming began in February 2016 and lasted 61 shooting days ^[5] . The full work on the film was completed at the end of 2017 ^[6] .

The authors kept the name of the leading role secret for a long time, on September 2, 2016 it became known that this is Serbian actor Milan Marić . According to the director: “There was no artist in Russia who did not provoke a second, third, fourth row of thoughts. A famous artist would provoke a rejection reaction ” ^[3] .

Among other performers ^{[7] [8]} : Elena Lyadova , Danila Kozlovsky , Anton Shagin , Svetlana Khodchenkova , Helena Suecka, Eva Herr, Arthur Beschastny and others.

To achieve the greatest credibility in recreating the past, the filmmakers turned to the residents of St. Petersburg for help. Petersburgers were asked to bring clothes, photographs, household items and even furniture to the Lenfilm film studio — everything that relates to the period before the early 1970s. However, this turned out to be not enough: authentic things for filming were collected in other cities of Russia, as well as in Italy, Georgia, and Armenia. “In a movie about the 1970s, artists walk through the first material series, recorded as much as possible in the memory of the majority. And I’m interested in a personal story through which objects begin to come to life, ”says A. German. “We actively communicated with Katya and Lena, the wife and daughter of Dovlatov” ^[3] .

Before starting work on the picture, the producers of the project ordered an all-Russian opinion poll : "Do I need a film about Dovlatov?" 28.6% of respondents said yes. Moreover, most of them are young people, students and high school students. Moreover, the team of Alexei German Jr. conducted a mini-poll on the streets of St. Petersburg. At times, respondents did not simply answer “yes,” but confessed their ardent love for the writer. The bartender of one cafe led filmmakers into the back room, where he proudly showed his bare leg - there was a tattooed Dovlatov.

During the European International Film Market (EFM), held in the framework of the Berlinale, the rights to display the film were acquired by almost 30 countries, Netflix was involved in screening in English and Scandinavian countries ^[9] .

The distributor of the film in Russia was WDSSPR , the number of copies was 397 pieces ^[10] . Initially, it was planned to rent a movie rental from March 1 to March 4, but due to increased audience interest, it was extended until March ^{11 [11]} . By February 28, the presale of the painting was 6.5 million rubles high for auteur cinema (the film “ Ice ”, the leader in this indicator, had 13 million rubles ^[12] . Over the four days of rental, the picture collected 98 570 099 rubles, 316 433 people watched it ( final fees amounted to 122.742 million rubles, the number of spectators amounted to more than 396 thousand people ^[13] .) ^[14] , at a cost of 150 million. Part of the proceeds was planned to be used to support the A. Lyceum literary award established in 2017 . Pushkin for young writers ^[15] .

On March 13, 2018, the picture was shown in the editorial office of Rossiyskaya Gazeta , thanks to the publication of which investors were found for this project ^[16] .

Film critic Yuri Bogomolov considered Alexei German Jr.’s decision to show the time of that era a continuation of his father’s style, citing the film “ My Friend Ivan Lapshin ” as an example ^[17] .

Film critic Anton Dolin called Dovlatov "the most mature, integral and intelligible" picture of Alexei German Jr., which also became the most personal for the director. It was also called a successful choice of the leading actor ^[18] .

Interfax journalist Yekaterina Zagvozdkina noted the general feeling of illusion and sleep, the manner of cinema narration in the spirit of Alexei German Sr., and high directorial skills ^[19] .

The journalist Anna Narinskaya considered the transfer of the atmosphere and intonation of the 1970s to be a success of the film, at the same time seeing the discrepancy between the cinematic Dovlatov as its real prototype and the presence of a number of discrepancies and omissions ^[20] .

The writer and journalist Alexander Genis , who personally knew Dovlatov, generally reacted positively to the picture, which in his opinion was not so much about Dovlatov, “but about his environment, that is, about all of us, stagnation invalids who have wintered and survived, and now look at the past, not yielding to him a single nostalgic sentiment ” ^[21] .

The film participated in the main competition of the 68th Berlin Film Festival :

• "Silver Bear" for outstanding achievements in the field of cinema - set designer Elena Okopnaya. ^[22]
• Independent Jury Prize for the Berliner Morgenpost at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. ^[23]
• Golden Eagle Award for 2018 in the nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role ( Svetlana Khodchenkova ) ^[24] .
• Prize " Nick for 2019 " in the nomination "The best work of the artist" ^[25] .

• Dovlatov German Jr. will compete for the prize of the Berlin Film Festival // Ria.ru
• The creators of the film "Dovlatov" revealed the name of the lead actor // Lenta.ru
• German Jr. will make a film about Sergey Dovlatov // Lenta.ru
• Alexey German Jr. started work on the film "Dovlatov" // Rossiyskaya Gazeta , April 21, 2015
• Filming of the film "Dovlatov" by Herman Jr. began in St. Petersburg // Year of Russian Cinema 2016
• Alexey German: Dovlatov is our myth // RIA Novosti
• Serbian actor Milan Maric was fed fat for six months with lard and dumplings for his role in Dovlatov // Vokrug.tv
• German Jr. will make a film about the young Dovlatov // BBC.com
• Alexander Butenin. Two days with Dovlatov and Brodsky. Experience reporting on the set // Sergeidovlatov.com
• Bazaars of Zhanakov. "Dovlatov" Alexei German Jr. became a participant in the main competition of the Berlinale // Brod.kz