ODYSSEY OF A SOVIET FILMMAKER
ODYSSEY OF A SOVIET FILMMAKER The presentation of Aleksandr Askoldov's Commissar at the San Francisco Film Festival in mid-March marked the fulfillment of an invitation originally proffered...
...That's why I have a lot of problems reaching a decision today...
...He was very enthusiastic, very warm about the film, and at 2:00 a.m...
...It didn't appear in any catalog...
...Quite unexpectedly, a short Brazilian journalist stood up and asked Klimov, "Have all the films been removed from the shelf...
...Then I picked up the constitution of the union and noted that it guarantees the right of any director within the walls of this establishment to show any picture of his or her own and to discuss it in a professional atmosphere...
...I never gave up hope that some remains of this picture existed somewhere...
...Q: How have you been occupying yourself these past 20 years...
...That tells you something about the insufficient moral consistency in the Soviet Union as a whole...
...I think you will understand what I'm driving at...
...The meanderings in my own life are very typical of what is going on in the Soviet Union...
...Unfortunately no microphone could be found, but a long press conference did take place...
...Not a single one of them ever mentioned to you that Commissar exists and that I am alive...
...After that Yevtushenko continued to struggle for the picture, but he never received an answer to the letter...
...Q: When there was mention of Commissari the Soviet press, did they mention the Jewish content...
...It is not only a question of removing little pieces...
...Q: Do you have any plans for a next movie...
...Even from the repertoire of great, prolific directors you often choose a film, not necessarily the best, but the one from that part of creativity that touches you...
...I was writing...
...Silently I made my way over to the Filmmakers' Union...
...As for me, this is simply an area where there can be no compromise...
...He warned me it was very long...
...That is something every viewer has to do for him or herself...
...So I decided, at last, to open my mouth...
...How to get rid of the envy...
...If it is needed then it was worthwhile...
...This is, I would suggest, something for you to think about...
...Askoldov: I have a feeling that Sovexportfilm isn't trying very hard to give this film a wide international showing...
...At that point, somebody gave me a jolting jab in the back...
...I have no judgment to make on those who made cuts...
...I made concrete suggestions that particularly irritated those sitting in judgment...
...The people in charge at the Cinematographic Institute decided that Commissar was the kind of film you really didn't need to show...
...As soon as I finished a break was announced...
...I was given the microphone and made a short speech...
...And that little dash represents life for all of us...
...Q: Is it true that Yevtushenko supported the film...
...Everything is fine...
...Q: What was the reaction after the film was shown at the Moscow Film Festival last year...
...Q: Can you tell us why Commissar was withheld for 20 years...
...He spoke about the return of people of all nationalities to their human worth, including the Jews...
...I was a graduate student when Yevtushenko was an undergraduate student...
...I wasn't accredited officially at the festival...
...It reminded me of Chekhov's Three Sisters when they say, "To Moscow...
...But after the film played at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, newspaper, radio and television reporters in attendance from all over the world spoke to me—except from the Soviet Union...
...I sat in the corner of a big room and listened to my colleagues talking about how much perestroïka they had achieved and how much they were doing for the business of Soviet cinematography...
...But I will allow myself, very briefly, to tell you about one of its underlying philosophical postulates...
...Askoldov: The Russian writer Ivan Bunin has a 10-line short story...
...I point this out because today in Moscow many legends are created...
...He went on, "Yes...
...When I discovered that the head of the Filmmakers' Union himself, Elem Klimov, said that this film need not be shown at the festival, I thought that 20 years was long enough to have kept quiet...
...I consider it of little artistic value...
...For example, I was accused of promoting Zionism, and at the same time of promoting imperialist chauvinism...
...On the left, numbers that are half erased from the stone...
...Twice he was condemned to death— once during World War I for agitating for peace on the German/Russian front, and once by " the Whites, " the Poles...
...Askoldov: By pure chance Yevtushenko happened to be in the studio when we held a preliminary screening...
...The years of stagnation ruined the souls and hearts of those considered "artists" in the Soviet Union...
...I don't claim that I've made a great picture, I continued, but I'm certain that I've made an honest one...
...For example, the Fellini film most dear to me is A marcord, and my favorite Tarkovsky film is TheMirror...
...I would like to try to do my own Amarcord...
...A year ago, a group of my colleagues from the Filmmakers' Union made several trips to the United States...
...I had no more strength left...
...I walked through the room up to Klimov and said that I would like to say a few words to explain myself to the auditorium...
...He's said to have been a brave man...
...Even before there was any discussion he invited the film to the San Francisco Film Festival...
...ODYSSEY OF A SOVIET FILMMAKER The presentation of Aleksandr Askoldov's Commissar at the San Francisco Film Festival in mid-March marked the fulfillment of an invitation originally proffered in 1967, when the film was suppressed by Soviet censors...
...Commissar actually made its international debut in February at the Berlin Film Festival, with the Soviet director in attendance...
...He received an affirmative answer from Klimov, and my eyes and Klimov's met...
...Following are excerpts from Askoldov's San Francisco press conference...
...A report on the Berlin Festival in the newspaper Soviet Culture included the names of 15 movie directors (I counted them...
...To Moscow...
...And when it came down to it, each individual acted with their film in their own individual way...
...He was all worked up...
...Askoldov: Quite recently, two or three weeks ago, in the Moscow News, a young journalist named Boris Berman wrote what I would call a very open and noble article...
...Unfortunately, I am afraid that the new leadership at the Filmmakers' Union doesn't really unite and collect talents...
...In West Berlin I noticed the article he wrote in Soviet Culture, but you should know that this article sat in Soviet Culture's offices for four whole months...
...I thank both the people who saw the film in Moscow and the people here for seeing the film in your hearts...
...I remember an official advising me, "I have two suggestions to save your career: Cut out that flash forward in the closing section where Jews get herded into gas chambers, and change the Jewish family into a family of some other nationality...
...At the same time Commissar is my personal biography...
...I consider Yevtushenko a very moral person...
...Following its screening, the organizers were forced to stage a press conference...
...Askoldov: This would seem to be a direct and simple question, but in fact it is rather a hard one for me to answer...
...My original education was philosophical...
...The only way I could keep in touch with what was happening was through press releases...
...For the first time I have thought that maybe it was worthwhile to spend the last 20 years as I did...
...I didn't know Yevtushenko before this, although we both studied within the walls of the same establishment, the Literary Institute of the Soviet Writer's Union...
...I worked in experimental theater for a living...
...My first dissertation was written on Bulgakov...
...Generally, our achievements are quite considerable, but we do, it is true, have problems with one particular film...
...There has to be an international of people of conscience, people of good faith...
...One name was left out: Askoldov...
...That's the problem...
...There are bad or mediocre pictures now and again that you have problems with...
...To Moscow...
...It was Yevtushenko on the line...
...I see all the scratches in the print in my mind...
...In between these two sets of numbers, a tiny little dash...
...Askoldov: Between the truth and the untruth, between those who want genuine perestroïka and those who don't...
...For the Soviet press, this was quite a unique moral position to take...
...There is documentary evidence for everything I'm saying...
...Klimov was a bit at a loss...
...He said he got home, sat do wn and wrote the government a letter about Commissar, and wanted to read it to me right there over the telephone...
...Clearly there was something in my eyes that didn't bode well for Klimov...
...It may be that this old new picture is still needed...
...That's the date on which the person was bom...
...For that reason, every film with a tragic fate is an individual tragedy, just as every person who has made a film has a unique face...
...And now, I concluded, for the first time, within the walls of this establishment, I see how in fact the mechanisms of democracy work...
...In general, the film's moral conception—and I think the basic conception is a moral one—came into conflict with the many ideological principles on which the Soviet State is based...
...I wanted to make a film about human values and human work...
...After I made the picture I was dismissed from the union under the formulaic finding that I was "professionally incompetent...
...After the screening, Askoldov responded to questions from the press...
...Askoldov: In my mind I've been making so many films...
...Q: Are there plans to release Commissar in the West...
...Someday we and Commissar will travel to San Francisco...
...these are the very categories that were trampled underfoot for so many years in our country...
...There were rumors that it had been burned...
...A grave stone...
...On the right, numbers also half erased: the date on which the person died...
...I don't expect a triumphal reception on the part of viewers...
...I think he was a good man...
...During my student years, I made my first tragic mistake working with the widow of Mikhail Bulgakov...
...Q: Did you have the support of your colleagues during these years...
...I'd like the film to reflect the experiences I've collected over the last 20 years, and the experiences that I gained prior to 1967...
...Recently, when we screened the picture for Soviet writers, Yevtushenko in his introductory remarks spoke very warmly and enthusiastically...
...I called the nationalism and chauvinism that are striking the whole of human society the "AIDS Number One" in the world today, and said that for the last 21 years I have been grappling with these issues...
...There's an unhealthy competition there, with those at the top most concerned about themselves...
...We have perfect relations now, even with Hollywood...
...We started collecting archival materials, hiding his manuscripts under the bed...
...He spoke out against the problem of anti-Semitism with vigor...
...But here we are in San Francisco...
...Yet "to come off the shelf means a film is being released from prison—it is not merely pieces of celluloid, it is a person's soul as well...
...Still, there are people in the Soviet Union who would like this movie to become part of the social fabric, to be part of the cultural framework...
...A great many harsh words, strong words have been exchanged between us...
...Your question is tough—it covers 20 years...
...My father fought in the Civil War...
...Everything's done...
...No mention of me on that list...
...A village graveyard...
...It would be naïve to think that today questions of morality and of human worth have been solved in the Soviet Union...
...The solution lies in conscience...
...It was like something from Kafka or Orwell...
...There are people like that in the new Filmmakers' Union, but within the same union there are people who do not wish this movie to be seen...
...We spoke for about three hours, then I begged to be let go...
...In 1937 he was shot by Stalin...
...I must say there were a huge number of often mutually contradictory charges made against me...
...Askoldov: They say a film has been removed from the shelf...
...I am not going to be an advocate for the movie...
...Q: Between whom are these harsh words being exchanged...
...Askoldov: So far, the film hasn't been released for the general public in the Soviet Union...
...During the Moscow Film Festival last summer there were unscheduled showings of the film...
...I produced analogies from recent and past history, and repression was the answer to my letters...
...Boris Berman mentions in his article that despite the fact that some reviews of Commissar have appeared, one area of the film, namely the Jewish problem, has been omitted...
...I didn' t listen passively when the film was initially discussed...
...A great letter it was...
...We were fighting an unequal battle...
...There is a danger in thinking that art and spirituality have been smothered by bureaucracy alone...
...I spoke about chauvinism, nationalism...
...The notion of bureaucracy doesn't only involve where you work or who pays you...
...There it won the Silver Bear A ward, as well as the International Critics' Prize for Best Film...
...I told him to go ahead and read it...
...I wrote a lot of letters to the government saying that the destruction of works of art was barbaric, inhuman, unpermissible...
...Thank you...
...I'd like to think that this film, even to some insignificant degree, will help the return of morality to my country...
...No one asked me for any identification...
...Some directors compromised, others did what their conscience dictated and refused...
...This has become almost a triviality...
...Askoldov: The tragic contradiction of our situation lies in the fact that the artists themselves contributed to the repression...
...It's not up to me to interpret it...
...The reason is that in these past difficult 20 years we've had a running joke in our family: "Don't worry about it...
...All of us have films that are particularly dear to us...
...It's not so bad...
...The film was shown only once in the studio and then completely suppressed...
...No, we're very far from solving those problems...
...After my speech, Commissar was shown at the Moscow Festival...
...But I'd like to do at least one more film...
...my phone started ringing...
...And he said the picture was being trampled on just as soldiers might trample on a pregnant woman...
...But after I drank a cup of coffee, I discovered that I still had some resources left...
...I walked like a sleepwalker past the entrance...
...Peter Scarlett [the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Film Festival] was the first to stand up and ask a question at that conference...
...Q: Did you compromise and make cuts in order to finally get your film released...
...Only one print of the final section of Commissar was kept by the authorities, who hid it away, and that had to be rejoined with the rest.—Ed.] He saw the film in a tiny auditorium on a small screen...
...I worked myself up into this particular state late in the evening of July 8. My wife gave me some tranquilizers, and by the next morning all enthusiasm had vanished...
...There was no planned screening...
...Only after Yevtushenko insisted was it actually printed...
...I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry...
...It was a bit of an absurd joke...
...That is clearly the reason this movie met the resistance it did...
Vol. 71 • May 1988 • No. 8
