Few people know him by sight, but not among the older generation who would not watch or love his films, but even more actors with whom he opened the way to the big screen. These are Mikhail Kononov and Mikhail Boyarsky, early departed Natalya Gundareva and Nikolai Karachentsev. His authority in cinematic circles is so great that the artists in his last film “Fans” (2012), in the absence of funds, worked on credit, displaying creative heroism.
Vitaliy Melnikov, screenwriter and director who celebrated his 88th birthday on May 1, received the Nika award this year for his contribution to the development of cinematography, which is the exception rather than the rule. For the director does not have an affair with film festivals, he does not strive for public relations and exaltation of his own role in the success of the film, but he definitely has the people's love and recognition of the audience.
The son of an enemy of the people
It is hard to imagine how Vitaly Melnikov’s fate would have been if it weren’t for Eisenstein, who had the theory that young directors should be raised from scratch. And then a guy came to Siberia from VGIK to Moscow from VGIK, all of his cinematic experience was only in the fact that he played films in film transfer. And with this, he so ideally suited the theory that he found himself on the course of Mikhail Romm and Sergey Yutkevich.
But the guy’s experience was more than enough. Born in the village of Mazanovo on the Irtysh River (Amur Region) in the family of a teacher and forester, he and his parents roamed throughout Siberia, listening to the free conversations of exiles and immigrants who were not there of their own free will. His father's profession required living in remote places and small towns. After the promotion of Vyacheslav Vladimirovich, the family ended up in a hungry Blagoveshchensk, from where they “took” it forever.
Vitaly Melnikov remembers how the mother of Augusta Danilovna wrote to Stalin. She hoped and waited, leaving the city only after receiving news from her husband demanding to leave so that the wife of the enemy of the people would not be separated from her son. A difficult pre-war time was spent in deprivation among relatives and relatives who tried to somehow help a woman with a child. "Grandfather" was taken away, and then war broke out. Many years later, V. V. Melnikov, Vitaly's father, is being rehabilitated. But, alas, posthumously. Before the eyes of the director, the whole life of the mother will pass, boundlessly devoted to her husband and who kept love in her heart until her last hour.
The way to feature films
Vitaly Melnikov studied with former front-line soldiers Sergey Bondarchuk, Pavel Chukhrai and Vladimir Basov, not only learning the profession, but also comprehending the school of life. After receiving his diploma, he was assigned to Lenfilm, a young specialist working in documentary films. All his future life will be connected with St. Petersburg. Here he will find his fate, having lived all his life with one single woman, a former blockade of Leningrad.
Documentary film is another director’s life school. These are traveling around the country, communicating with hundreds of people, developing your own style and gaining versatility, which forced you to take up the pen and your own scripts in the future. He made films about everything: from scientific and educational about livestock specialists and land reclamators to biographical films - portraits ("Kibalchich", "Lomonosov"). Realizing that all this had a certain ideological component in those years, Vitaly Vyacheslavovich came to understand what the audience really needed in an art cinema. Ten years later, he begins to work in the game cinema.
The first films of Vitaly Melnikov
Today, the filmography of Vitaliy Vyacheslavovich consists of 22 works in the field of feature films. If you do not take into account his participation in the film as the second director of the short film of 1964, then the debut can be considered a historical tape in the style of the ironic passage “The Head of Chukotka” (1966). A great improviser, a brilliant storyteller and a good-natured mocker, Vitaly Melnikov, a director of a heroic comedy, managed to give historical and revolutionary material parody notes, including thanks to an ingeniously selected acting duet by recognized master Alexei Gribov and beginner Mikhail Kononov, who became one of his favorite directors.
Among the first works, the unforgettable “Mom got married” (1969) according to the script of Y. Klepikov, who fell into disfavor with the cinema authorities. A well-established debut film director is given the right to film a script, but the audience will not see a brilliant picture at the box office. It will appear on blue screens only in the seventies. Here, for the first time, Oleg Efremov appears as a former alcoholic, and Lucien Ovchinnikova plays a woman who dreams of simple human happiness. There has been a tendency for Vitaly Vyacheslavovich not to become a fashion director, focusing on the lyrical canvas and giving people the opportunity to better understand themselves.
Screenwriter debut
Melnikov had a lot in common with Alexander Vampilov, which allowed him to penetrate deeper into his drama, riddled with sad irony. Realizing that the author’s main thing is not the plot, but unexpected observations of changes in the human personality, Vitaly Vyacheslavovich writes scripts for his two paintings based on the works of A. Vampilov, although he always collaborated with the best screenwriters of his time: A. Zhitinsky, V. Merezhko , V. Valutsky. This is “The Eldest Son” (1975) and “Holidays in September” (“Duck Hunt”, 1979), which have become real masterpieces of the master.
Both paintings are the indisputable success of the inimitable Evgeny Leonov, which made the audience empathize with his touching and internally unprotected heroes. This is the talent of the director, who creates a situation of acting relaxedness on the set, mobilizes like-minded people to solve a common problem, and not gives a team convinced only of his own right person. In his scripts, sorrow coexists with fun, mockery is mixed with sensitivity, and observation is riddled with exaggeration. All together - this is a unique style of film story, the author of which is Vitaly Melnikov, screenwriter of seven of his films. In addition to the works of A. Vampilov, the most famous are “Marriage” according to N. Gogol (1997) and “Poor, Poor Pavel” about Paul I (2003).
Historical movies
In the 90s, when history was happening right before our eyes in Russia, the master wanted to make a whole series of historical films that would allow him to better understand his time through comparison. These are not epic paintings. Vitaly Melnikov does not change himself, peering intently at the characters of the heroes, their formation and development. Paul I for him is not a banal tyrant with the manners of a soldier, but a great visionary who dreams of making people happy, sitting in Gatchina for thirty years. Reality, dependence on certain circles and awareness of which country he rules makes him what he has become.
Vitaly Vyacheslavovich has a special gift to select actors. Talking with the applicant before the film, after a while he clearly understands whether he is suitable for the image of a movie hero or not. So Viktor Sukhorukov got the main role, for which no film screening was required. For this role, the talented actor received the Nika Award. Among the director’s historical paintings are the films “Tsarist Hunt” (1990) and “Tsarevich Aleksey” (1997).
Vitaly Melnikov: filmography, creative failure
Among the unsuccessful paintings, the author himself names two: “Unicum” (1983) and “Two lines in small print” (1981). This does not mean at all that he did not invest his talent and labor in them. Unfortunately, this is the case when the second won in the struggle of creativity and censorship. The 1981 film is a collaboration with the German Democratic Republic, which also had a hand in editing film.
Vitaly Vyacheslavovich believes that his filmography is closed today, it is too difficult for a respectable age - shooting a full-length feature film. But he is attracted to work on scripts, which means that many moviegoers can expect a lot of interesting things. In addition to the aforementioned works of the master, the following films are in the piggy bank of the People's Artist of the RSFSR: “The Seven Brides of Corporal Zbruev” (1970), “Hello and Goodbye” (1972), “Ksenia, Fedor’s Beloved Wife” (1974), “Another's Wife and Husband Under the Bed "(1984)," Marry the Captain "(1985)," First meeting, last meeting "(1987)," Chicha "(1991)," The Last Affair of Brewed "(1994)," The Garden was Full of the Moon "(2000) ), "Agitation Brigade" Beat the Enemy! " (2007).