Gennady Fedorovich Shpalikov - Soviet screenwriter, director, poet. According to the scripts written by him, his favorites were shot by many: “I am walking in Moscow”, “Zastava Ilyich”, “I come from childhood”, “You and I”. He is the very embodiment of the sixties, in his work there are those very lightness, light and hope that were inherent in that era. The biography of Gennady Shpalikov also has a lot of lightness and freedom, but it looks more like a fairy tale with a sad ending.
Childhood
Gennady Shpalikov was born on September 6, 1937 in the Karelian region, in the city (then still a village) of Senezh. He appeared in a family of military personnel: his father was a military engineer and built a paper and pulp mill in Karelia, and his maternal grandfather was a general, a hero of the Soviet Union. After the construction was completed in 1939, the family returned to Moscow. In 1941, the war broke out and his father went to the front, and his family was evacuated to the village of Alarga, located near the city of Frunze. From the war, his father never returned alive - he died in Poland in the winter of 1944. Perhaps military childhood and the early death of his father played a large role in the formation of Shpalikov’s personality: both his work and his fate are filled with a sense of youth and carelessness - as if he refuses to grow up.
School
In 1945, Gene Shpalikov entered school, and in 1947 he, as the son of a deceased officer, was assigned to study at the Kiev Suvorov Military School. His talent manifested for the first time: he began to write stories, keep a diary, became interested in poetry (moreover, the early poems of Gennady Shpalikov were already popular among his peers - girls from a neighboring school composed and sang a song to his poem “Forbidden Love”, which subsequently made him very proud, and other verses - “official” - were even published in the newspaper). After graduating from the Kiev school in 1955, he went to the Moscow Higher Military Command School, but a year later he injured his leg and was commissioned for health reasons.
VGIK
In 1956, Gennady Shpalikov, despite the huge competition, almost without preparation, the first time entered the scriptwriting department of VGIK. There, he meets his first wife, a student of the screenwriting faculty Natalya Ryazantseva (they married in 1959), as well as his future friends and colleagues in the profession - Andrei Tarkovsky, Andron Konchalovsky, Pavel Finn, Julius Fight, Alexander Knyazhinsky, Mikhail Romadin, Bella Akhmadulina. From the moment Shpalikov arrives, a new life begins: creativity, interesting communication, a bohemian environment, funny feasts. He was the soul of the company - witty, sociable, charming, open-minded, always ready to participate in fun and partying. Perhaps it was from that time that his addiction to drinking began, which would accompany him all his life and ultimately lead to death. This perniciousness was not discovered by him immediately: the peculiarity of Shpalikov was that he could easily work while intoxicated, so at first he believed that alcohol did not bring him any serious harm, and when this harm was discovered, it was too late.
“Outpost of Ilyich”
While still in his last year at VGIK, Shpalikov began to collaborate with director Marlene Khutsiev in working on the script “Zastava Ilyicha”. The film was completed by the end of 1962 and was warmly received by critics, but the fate of the picture was difficult: it was criticized by Nikita Khrushchev himself, so the script had to be rewritten heavily, and as a result, after many years of rework, the film turned from “Ilyich’s Outpost” to “I am 20 years old ”(Viewers were able to see the original directorial version of the film only almost thirty years later).
At a meeting of Khrushchev with artists in 1963, Marlene Khutsiev admitted his mistakes and confirmed his willingness to change the picture, but the young and inexperienced Gennady Shpalikov behaved more boldly: he said that once cinema workers in the USSR would be just as glorified as the heroes astronauts, and that he asks those present not to judge the film too harshly, because they must have the right to make mistakes in order to discover something new in cinema. His statement provoked outrage among those present, but no negative consequences for Shpalikov followed; Moreover, he was given an apartment.
A family
At this time, in the personal life of Gennady Shpalikov, great changes took place. Shortly before that, he broke up with his first wife and in 1962, by great and mutual love, married Inna Gula, a young actress who recently starred in the movie When the Trees were Big and became a real star.
March 19, 1963 their daughter Dasha was born; it seemed that Shpalikov had started drinking and that an idyll reigned in his personal life. However, the happiness did not last long - the addiction to alcohol took up and subsequently led to discord between the spouses. Two bright personalities could not get along together, quarrels and scandals began, and as a result, the relationship between them deteriorated so much that Shpalikov almost did not live at home, but wandered around the homes of friends and acquaintances, and their daughter periodically lived in the family boarding school.
Glory
But this will happen later, and now Shpalikov enjoys mutual love, creativity and fame. The films “Tram to Other Cities” and “Star on the Beach” are shot according to his scripts. In the early sixties he is the most famous screenwriter; Despite his youth, articles are written about him, directors appreciate him. He is sincere and poetic, bright and full of hope. He believes in his talent and refuses to compromise, defends his right to free creative expression. Shpalikov draws inspiration from the street: like his heroes, he loves walking most of all - just wandering the streets, observing different life stories and human characters. His poetry is composed of everyday circumstances, but it feels a special melody, a certain rhythm. The stories that he tells are simple, but in this simplicity - soaring lightness, optimism inherent in youth, a sense of celebration, elusive tenderness. More precisely than many others, he knows how to convey the inner state of people of that era, their thirst for freedom and openness, hope for a bright future. Gennady Shpalikov’s films are loved by the public, he is respected by colleagues and friends, and it seems that he has a long and happy life.
“I am walking in Moscow”
In 1963, a film appeared that brought the greatest fame to Gennady Shpalikov - “I am walking in Moscow”. The director of the film, George Danelia, in his memoirs, says that the text of the famous song of the same name was written by Shpalikov impromptu directly on the set in a matter of minutes after the director rejected his previous version. Initially, they didn’t want to accept this film either because of the lack of a clear ideology, and then a scene with a writer and a polisher appeared in the film, the role of which was played by Vladimir Basov. After appearing on the screens, “I am walking in Moscow” becomes one of the most beloved films of Soviet viewers, and Gennady Shpalikov experiences the highest peak of his creative biography.
“Long happy life”
In 1966, the first (and, as it turned out, the last) film of Gennady Shpalikov as a director appeared - “A Long Happy Life”. There, Kirill Lavrov and Shpalikov’s wife, Inna Gulaya, starred for whom this role was written.
The film won first place at the Bergamo International Film Festival of Authors' Cinema, but in the USSR it was not appreciated by ordinary viewers or critics. In the same year, according to Shpalikov’s script, the film “I come from childhood” was shot, which is considered the best in the history of the creation of Belarusian cinema. However, from that moment on, Shpalikov’s career and personal life began to roll down. As in his film of the same name, the promise of a “long happy life” turned out to be a mirage that would melt sooner or later.
Decline
We came to the saddest part of the biography of Gennady Shpalikov. In the few years before the suicide in 1974, only two films and one cartoon were shot in his scripts. For some time the family lives on the fact that Inna Gulaya makes money in the theater, but Shpalikov’s addiction to alcohol leads to a conflict between the spouses. In the end, he leaves home, having thus lost both his livelihood and housing, wanders around the apartments of his acquaintances and lives on what his friends still borrow.
Despite the fact that now the last two films based on Shpalikov’s scripts are considered classics of Soviet cinema, then they did not bring him either money or recognition: in 1971 the film “You and Me” was released, directed by Larisa Shepitko - the picture received an award at the Venetian film festival, but the audience did not appreciate it; and in 1973 a film was released about Sergey Yesenin “Sing a song, a poet” - Shpalikov hoped that he could pay off his debts for this picture and improve his financial situation, but the film was also unsuccessful, it was released only in sixteen copies, and the fees were quite small. Shpalikov is in a depressed state of mind, drinks a lot, but continues to write scripts. However, having remained in his sixties spirit, he cannot fit into the new reality and speak in a new language, combine his creative gift with the surrounding reality. He has a huge number of ideas, but none of this he can not realize. His scripts are not accepted, his poems and prosaic things turn out to be useless to anyone.
Shortly before his death, Shpalikov tried to drastically change his life: he became addicted to alcohol, tried to make peace with his wife and friends. However, this attempt failed.
Death
On November 1, 1974, Gennady Shpalikov came to the opening of a memorial plaque on the grave of director Mikhail Romm, at the Novodevichy Cemetery. After the event, Shpalikov, together with the writer Grigory Gorin, went to the Creative House in Peredelkino. There Shpalikov drank cheap wine for the first time in several months, and then hanged himself in his room, making a loop from a scarf. Before his death, he left a suicide note in which he wrote: “It’s not cowardice at all - I can’t live with you anymore. Do not be sad. I'm tired of you. Dasha, remember. Shpalikov. ” It is difficult to say what was the true cause of the death of Gennady Shpalikov. There were probably several reasons: this was creative lack of demand, and a break with the family, and lack of housing and money, and loneliness, and the inability to fit into the changed reality. As his relatives say, Shpalikov from his youth believed that a poet in Russia should not live for more than 37 years. When he died, he was just 37 ...
The fate of relatives
After the death of Shpalikov, the life of his family members was quite tragic. Many accused Inna Guluy of the fact that their rupture caused his suicide, which probably put pressure on her psychologically and led to depression, alcoholism and, subsequently, death. She completely stopped appearing on the screens, and in 1990, when she was 50 years old, she died from an overdose of sleeping pills. The most common version of her death is suicide. The daughters of Gennady Shpalikov and Inna Gula Dasha, were then 27 years old. Her acting career, which began with the main role in Svetlana Proskurina’s film “Playground”, gradually came to naught, and the clinic for the mentally ill became her home.
Heritage
Despite the fact that in his last dying verses Gennady Shpalikov writes “I will only bequeath to you a daughter, there is nothing left to bequeath”, it is now clear that this is not so. He left us the fruits of his work, perfectly retaining the air of the sixties. Shpalikov was flesh from the flesh of that era, his very life was concentrated in this time period. It is difficult to imagine him solid and prudent, he forever remained a “singer of joy” - young, carefree, talented.
To honor the memory of Gennady Shpalikov, in 2009, a monument was erected in front of the VGIK building along with two other famous Soviet directors - Andrei Tarkovsky and Vasily Shukshin.