It took five years of work, a crew of 850 professionals and a $12 million budget to bring to screens the long-awaited movie about Vladimir Vysotsky, the Soviet alpha-male musician.
But despite carrying the name “Vysotsky. Thanks for staying alive,” the film does not quite manage to accomplish that mission.
Last year Vysotsky (1938-1980) was named the second biggest icon of the 20th century in a Russian poll, but his popularity is also high in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union. In the Russian poll, some 31 percent of respondents gave their votes for this actor, poet and bard, trailing just 4 percent behind the first man in space Yuri Gagarin.
Vysotsky was adored for his rough looks and voice, as well as his ability to walk a fine line with authorities, which often did not like the dissident motives that featured in his work.
But strangely enough, Vysotsky does not even seem like the central character in the new movie. Nor does the movie go into any depth of the bard’s biography.
Nikita Vysotsky, the son of the musician, wrote the screenplay and produced the movie. On Nov. 28 at the Oscar Theater in Kyiv, he spoke at the premier and a press conference. The son warned before the premier that the film is a snapshot of just five dramatic days in Vysotsky’s life.
Nikita Vysotsky
It is set during his tour in the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, where he had a close brush with death in 1979, a year before he actually died of a heart attack, which was most likely caused by his drug addiction.
“All of my father’s hopes, fears, victories and tragedies are in this story,” Nikita Vysotsky said at the press conference.
The film is heavily promoted in post-Soviet countries, whose older generations still have stacks of Vysotsky’s vinyl records stashed away in closets.
Yet, somehow, the amazing man who provoked avalanches of emotions in men and women alike, somehow remained as dead in the film as his prototype is in real life. The name of the heavily made-up actor who played Vysotsky is still kept secret to preserve the drama and keep everyone focused on the persona he plays.
The makeup plastered on the actor to make him into an identical twin of Vysotsky reportedly cost $30,000. But by trying to achieve physical likeness, the filmmakers killed his ability to mimic the emotions. The mask stayed just that – the mask. In some scenes, Vysotsky’s reproduced face looked like waxwork.
For me it is very important that this movie becomes a box office hit. And not because of the profit – I’ve already got my fee, and I’m not getting anything more. It’s just that if this movie succeeds, it will be a victory of Vysotsky. If it doesn’t, it won’t be Vysotsky’s failure, but it will be miserable.
– Nikita Vysotsky
Apart from the face, the filmmakers reproduced his peculiar low, roaring voice – and stopped at that. You can’t tell from the movie what kind of a person Vysotsky was: was he kind, selfish or cocky? No answer.
He is surrounded by friends, lovers and enemies, but you can’t figure out what he thinks about those, or feels towards them.
Despite the shortcomings, Vysotsky’s clique is full of interesting and vivid characters, some of them representing real people. Vysotsky’s love, Tatyana Ivleva, performed by young Russian actress Oksana Akinshina, is the highlight of the movie. Another one is Vysotsky’s personal doctor Anatoly Fedotov, played by Andrey Panin.
The doctor fills the movie with his black humor, telling medical anecdotes with great charisma. Vysotsky’s primary antagonist in the movie is KGB colonel Victor Behteyev, also a vivid and emotional character.
And while all of them are chatting, arguing, yelling and plotting, Vysotsky remains nothing but a background, like a dead relic. He should have been the focus of the movie, but he is not. As a result, the movie lacks a focus.
Nevertheless, the filmmakers expect a great deal of people of all generations to watch the movie – and most likely they will.
“For me it is very important that this movie becomes a box office hit,” Nikita Vysotsky said. “And not because of the profit – I’ve already got my fee, and I’m not getting anything more. It’s just that if this movie succeeds, it will be a victory of Vysotsky. If it doesn’t, it won’t be Vysotsky’s failure, but it will be miserable.”
Despite all the flaws, the movie gives a good feel of what it was like in the old Soviet province in 1979. The key thing is to enjoy and forget that Vysotsky should be somewhere there too.
“Vysotsky. Thanks For Staying Alive” opened in theaters on Dec. 1. It is showing in Kyiv, Oscar, Zhovten, Ukraine and Kyivska Rus.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected].
