Karen Shakhnazarov is a person known not only in Russia, but also abroad. A film director, screenwriter, producer and just an outstanding personality - it is always interesting with him.
Famous people, revealing the formula for their success, always mention hard work, self-confidence and a little bit of luck among the components. All this is also characteristic of the life of Karen Georgievich, however, his family largely influenced the formation of him as a person and the formation of his life path .
Shakhnazarov - a descendant of the princely family
The parents of the future filmmaker, although they had no direct relationship to art, were always people who were enthusiastic and versatile, surrounded by creative theatrical representatives. In their house were Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuri Lyubimov. Young Karen had the opportunity to constantly attend numerous theatrical productions, a pleasure that was scarce and inaccessible in those days for most comers. And this did not pass without a trace, but in many respects influenced the formation of the personality of the filmmaker, his views and role in art, left an imprint on the mental organization. It should be added that, among other things, Karen Georgievich is a native of the ancient Armenian princely family, whose history dates back to the Middle Ages, in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karen Shakhnazarov came to the cinema, driven by vanity, and, as he himself admits, at first he incorrectly put emphasis, giving an assessment to the director’s work, because in his youth everything is seen differently ... He believes that in reality the world of cinema is a cruel world, where it is extremely difficult break through, and whoever succeeds is the one we keep in heaven. Karen Shakhnazarov graduated from VGIK. His debut picture is considered the film "Good Kind", although in 1975-1977. two short films saw the light: “Wider step, maestro!” (thesis) and "On a slippery road." In 1980, the lyrical comedy “Ladies Invite Cavaliers” was released, in which Shakhnazarov acted as a screenwriter.
How it all began
Karen Shakhnazarov’s films are very different. There are 15 films in the director’s track record: some brought him fame, others, according to Shakhnazarov, turned out to be less successful. Among the early films of Karen Georgievich can be distinguished paintings "We are from jazz" (1983), "Winter evening in Gagra" (1985), the lyrical comedy "Courier" (1986).
One of the director’s paintings is compared with the film “Funny Guys”. This is a film, even more a musical comedy, with the sonorous name “We Are From Jazz”. The action of the tape takes place in the 20s of the 20th century, during the time of the NEP - a period historically ambiguous. The main character of the film loves music and wants to “carry it to the masses,” but it's not so simple. Jazz is music for which they can be expelled from an educational institution and arrange difficulties in life. The film about friendship, youth, love so pleased the viewer that he was dismantled for quotes. The film was one of the leading box office films in the 1983 Soviet film distribution.
Unlike other directors
In 1988, Shakhnazarov’s picture “The City of Zero” was released on the screens - a very peculiar mixture of human realities and strange obscure events bordering on the absurd. The film tells how the protagonist, heading to the city of N on business matters, finds himself in a certain space in which things are inexplicable and not amenable to the logic of the Soviet person. Time there freezes, then races frantically.
Everything is exactly the same as in the era when the picture came out - it is difficult for a person to realize and comprehend, to accept everything that happens in troubled times. But he is an adaptable creature, and what seemed at first inconceivable to come to terms with, later does not cause a storm of negative emotions ...
It should be said that all the films of Karen Georgievich are not like the tapes of colleagues in the shop. Filmed as mystical manifestations in a fictional space (such as, for example, the mystical City of Zero), they are endowed with thoughtless heroes and facts. And this is due, first of all, to Shakhnazarov’s opinion that any director brings to the masses his point of view and vision of something, therefore he must confirm all his words and messages with real knowledge, real life.
Films that saw the light during the perestroika period include:
- The Regicide (1991);
- Dreams (1993);
- “American Daughter” (1995);
- “Full Moon Day” (1998).
The beginning of the 2000s it was also marked by the presentation of several paintings by Shakhnazarov, including: “Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning” (2001), “The Horseman named Death” (2003), “The Vanished Empire” (2008).
They make the viewer think
Love, dreams, hopes and expectations are feelings familiar to everyone. In the life of any person, sooner or later a moment comes when you have to make a choice, sacrifice something in the name of someone or something. In Karen Shakhnazarov’s painting “The Vanished Empire” are intertwined into one knot of the fate of several people. The characters are two friends who have feelings for one girl - a classic love triangle. Their friendship and personal relationships are developing against the backdrop of political events in the country, which in the near future will disappear from the face of the Earth, it will not be on the maps, descendants will soon forget about it.
What will remain? What will happen to the guys after many years? The film provokes conflicting feelings among moviegoers who leave reviews on various Internet resources. Someone scolds Shakhnazarov for the implausibility of the created images, scenery and the atmosphere of the Soviet Union as a whole. Others, on the contrary, express interest, sympathy for the film and words of gratitude to the director for those forgotten nostalgic memories, sweetheart, about a country that has not been around for a long time, about childhood, about past youth ... In fact, it is not so important who is more right, who is less. The main thing is that the film makes you think, argue, which means that it causes real human emotions, not allowing people to remain indifferent. By the way, in 2012, Shakhnazarov made a remake of his picture, though under a different name - “Love in the USSR”.
According to the story of the same name by A.P. Chekhov, in 2009 the painting "Ward No. 6" was shot. The film, like the story in classical literature, tells the story of a doctor in a psychiatric hospital in a county town, who, having conversations with a mentally ill patient, soon loses his mind. Everything is the same as in prose, however events happen today. And again, a certain isolated space (hospital ward No. 6), in which uninvented events occur with uninvented heroes. Feelings, feelings, thoughts - all present. The director intertwines the realities of life and ephemeral fiction in the film.
Karen Shakhnazarov films about the war
For a long time, Karen Georgievich was not able to work on military paintings (only as a producer in the film "Star" in 2002). According to Shakhnazarov, making films about the war is too responsible, difficult and “costly” from the point of view of moral returns. In 2012, the film was released, the theme of which for years has been sidestepped by Karen Shakhnazarov. "The White Tiger" is a military picture, standing apart from the other works of the master, because the decision to shoot the film was made at a time when Shakhnazarov, as he himself admits, realized that there was nowhere to delay. The film can be safely called the first-born of the director, a certain tribute to his front-line father. An interesting fact during the filming of the picture was that people participating in mass scenes were carefully selected at the auditions.
The director was looking for faces, types, characteristic of the military era, non-modern. In the film, the viewer can see a huge number of tanks, and all of them are the property of the Mosfilm material and technical base, the subject of Shakhnazarov’s pride. The main idea of the director, reflected in the film, is reflections on what war is and whether it can be called a natural person a phenomenon. Does war in principle have a logical conclusion or will it periodically arise in the history of mankind? A rhetorical question that has no answer ...
In addition to working in the cinema as a director, Karen Georgievich repeatedly starred in documentaries dedicated to Russian film actors - Natalya Gundareva, Leonid Kuravlev, Oleg Yankovsky and others.
About Shakhnazarov
Karen Shakhnazarov is a man with a core. And he has an absolutely unexpected point of view on many things. For example, speaking of cinema, he notes that he always keeps abreast of the pulse - if you have to, he’s ready to leave the profession at any time (once this has almost happened), because cinema is the business of young people.
The director believes that he has been afloat for too long. Comparing himself with his colleagues in the shop who are trying to figure everything out logically, he says that he always does what he feels by his own heart, as he feels, by virtue of his character.
Shakhnazarov is an outstanding person. In addition to directing, he runs the huge Mosfilm film studio and believes that she has no equal in the world, because only here you can complete a full production shooting cycle. Managing is not an easy task, and looking back, Karen Georgievich frankly admits that he wouldn’t take it today. There were people who supported him in difficult times, but there were also those who turned away from Shakhnazarov, indifferently watching his progress.
The main thing in life for the master is the movement, he believes that if you constantly do something, strive for something, then it will certainly result in something.
Thoughts about the future
Speaking about the future, director Karen Shakhnazarov notes that the fate of the cinema is rather ambiguous, many professions will go down in history due to the development of the “figure”, and the “kitchen” of the filming process will change beyond recognition. After all, today, technology allows you to do things that even before seemed incredible fiction. At the same time, the master emphasizes that making films that will be watched by future generations is difficult and impossible to guess which picture will resonate in the heart of the viewer. In addition, the movie is not the creation of one person with whom descendants can associate you, but the whole industry, in which a huge number of specialists from various fields are involved.
Shakhnazarov is a doubter. He always thinks a lot, weighs, and this is normal, this should be inherent in a sane person. It can be said unequivocally that Karen Shakhnazarov’s films are for everyone and everyone, he tries to make films without separating people according to moral, religious or political grounds. He likes to read - a lot and everything, loves to swim and drive a car, hates swearing, dreams of making a fairy tale film.
Prizes and awards
Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov - People's Artist and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, he is awarded the Order of Honor and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland for his contribution to the development of art. In his biography there is a place for numerous regalia, including the Lenin Komsomol Prize, numerous Golden Eagle awards, diplomas of international film festivals in London and Chicago, and the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art. But Shakhnazarov considers the award of the Moscow Film Festival, which marked the film "Courier" in 1987, to be the most important for himself. At the film festival, the director had a chance to chat with his idol - Fellini. The Italian took part in the event.
Shakhnazarov is an amazing person. I would like to wish him creative and physical longevity, inexhaustible inspiration, an irrepressible thirst to learn, create, surprise and wonder himself, to stay afloat for a long time in the stormy world of cinema. And let Karen Shakhnazarov’s films for many more years leave a mark not only in the history of world cinema, but also in the hearts of many fans.