Rostropovich said that I have offended the Russians
Isabelle Adjani called the films of Andrzej Zulawski
an «emotional pornography». After the release of «The Devil» Zulawski was
thrown out of Poland; the shooting of «On the Silver Globe» was stopped and
only in 1987 Zulawski got a chance to release his great unfinished masterpiece.
Almost every release of Zulawski’s films was surrounded by a negative press and a societal ostracism.
In 1989 Zulawski filmed the opera of Mussorgsky called
«Boris Godunov». After watching the final cut, Mstislav Rostropovich tried to
sue Zulawski in a French court on the ground that his film offended the Russian
soul. Undoubtedly, he lost the suit, but Mstislav Rostropovich insisted that
his disapproval would be added in an opening titles of the film.
The Pushkin’s play, which was a basis for the opera,
took place during the reign of Boris Godunov and the opening months of the Time of
Troubles. Andrzej Zulawski saw in the opera a parallel with the Soviet history and
the socialistic countries as a whole: «I desperately wanted to show that
Pushkin’s drama, which inspired Mussorgsky, reminds us of the cruelest plays of
Shakespeare; it depicts the ideological issues, which concerns us tonight with
the most modern passion».
True, the decorations of the XVII century Russia are
shown along with Soviet guardian posts. Andrzej Zulawski thinks, that the death
of Ivan the Terrible parallel the ending of an authoritarian Soviet regime (the
1940-1950s) and the reign of Boris Godunov depicts the ideological Thaw, which was
destroyed be the reactionary forces. Prince Vasili Ivanovich Shuisky depicted
as a cunning nobleman, who at first helped to secure the throne to Boris and then
called for the foreign intervention and stabbed the Tsar in the back. The same
thing happened with some reformists in the Eastern Europe.
As in «The Third Part of the Night» and «Possession»,
Andrzej Zulawski uses the theme of duality. The part of the Innocent and Grigory
Otrepiev was played by the same actor. It is rather symbolical because the
Innocent was the first person who publicly accused Boris Godunov of the murder
of Prince Dmitry and Grigory Otrepiev claimed that he was Prince Dmitry and
became Tsar himself. Also one actor played the part of the murdered Prince
Dmitry and Tsar Fedor II Romanov.
Andrzej Zulawski, as in his previous works, took great
liberty with the rules and the frames of the genres. In the Zulawski’s opera characters
sing as they run, decorations of the XVII century Russian look like avangardist
paintings and blood sometimes is pictured in blue. In addition, sometimes opera
settings are mixes with filming crew and from time to time characters speak
straight to the public.
Compared with many conventional operas, Andrzej Zulawski
didn’t shy away from showing blood and violence. It was done in full accordance
with his cinematic philosophy in which no attempts to shy away from real
history are not tolerated. Truly, why should you try to get away from real
history or paint it white. The history of the XVII century Russia was full of
blood and we should accept it in this way.
The late Andrzej Zulawski made another controversial picture.
It is not a Russophobic vomit of the crazed psychopath, as some
critics tried to say, it is his view of the history and literature. For some
banal phobias, Andrzej Zulawski was too clever and sophisticated. You too,
throw away your stereotypes and try to preserve the legacy of Andrzej Zulawski
by watching and discussing his films.
