воскресенье, 31 июля 2016 г.

In memory of Andrzej Zulawski (Boris Godunov)

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.