Anybody Seen My Girl? (2021) Movie Script
Studio SLON TRUEMEN Pictures
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
present
Hello, you've reached
the editorial office of Lueur magazine.
Please leave a message
after the tone.
Kira...
Kira, pick up the phone.
I know you're there.
Anya CHIPOVSKAYA
Alexander GORCHILIN
in a film ANYBODY SEEN MY GIRL?
It's been seventeen years
since you're gone.
But I keep on talking to you,
in attempt to understand
what happened to us.
And how I ended up here...
without you.
Music Artyom IVANOV
Director of photography
Gorka GOMEZ ANDREU
Art director Savva SAVELIEV
Produced by
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
Produced by
Vyacheslav MURUGOV, Mikhail KUCHMENWritten and directed by
Angelina NIKONOVA
What happened?
FRANCE, 2010
Your back aches?
I've died...
Without you here.
I'd also die working on Sundays.
You weren't home, I had to run.
Feel the pulse.
I've survived.
But my life's divided
into before and after.
I just talked about myself,
and you, yourself.
You should've talked about
me, and me - about you.
LENINGRAD, 1990
I don't want to be in love with you.
That's why I called the police.
I stayed with you to make sure
I was in love with you.
Or that I wasn't.
And since I'm being mean to you,
it proves I'm not in love with you.
Say that again!
And since I'm being mean to you,
it proves I'm not in love with you.
They say there's no happy love.
It's too complicated.
On the contrary,
there's no unhappy love.
I want people to let me be.
I'm independent.
Maybe you love me?
You believe that.
But you're not free.
That's why I turned you in.
Well done, Shura!
You let us experience the original.
Right, Liza? The talent.
- Where did you get the copy?
- The man knows the places.
Thank you! A real gift for us
on your birthday!
It felt like Paris.
You're welcome.
My gifts to you are more fun.
I don't feel like
we're in Paris.
Oh, yeah?
I wish I did.
Keep in mind that "Breathless"
divides cinema
into before and after.
- Thank you!
- I'll tell you more at lectures tomorrow!
- Thanks, guys! Bye!
- Good bye! Thank you!
- Come with me.
- Where to?
I need company.
I don't have a gift.
We'll find something on the way.
Come on, let's go.
See you!
You can not fall in love with books
when you're just learning to read...
- Happy Birthday, Dobrovolsky!
- Katya!
- You're psycho!
- Are you out of it?
Let's go!
Anatoly will give us a lift.
Come on, get your ass in.
There's no way I'm going.
It happens once a year, yes.
Let's drink to you,
why always me?
Thank you for coming.
Very nice of you.
It's really grand.
What's new in Moscow?
There's a Rauschenberg exhibition,
thanks to Tair Salakhov.
It's really cool.
- It starts happening, huh?
- Yes. Time's changing.
Is it playing?
Sergei, may I steal a minute?
Be right back.
Got something for you.
- No way. Ray-Ban?
- Took me six months to get them.
Wow, Anatoly...
Unbelievable.
Check it out, there's more...
For personal usage only.
Uh-huh.
Wow! "The Police Academy".
What are you two up to?
I spread some light
onto the dark spots...
in Anatoly's film education.
What was I saying?
Griffith introduced storytelling
into films,
Eisenstein - editing,
Welles suggested a structure
and a content...
Fellini proved that both
structure and content
can be as vague as night dreams
or child memories
and then came Godard...
freeing cinema
from all of the above.
Look... Godard didn't use
scripts in his films.
He didn't write dialogues.
He allowed actors to improvise,
to involve passersby,
by provoking them.
I see.
Anyone can make films now.
Katya, let's make a movie.
We'll provoke passersby together.
It's interesting, they say
"make films"...
But what do actors make?
What does camera make?
Make believe?
Sounds interesting.
Katya...
that was grand.
Try them on.
In English they shoot films.
They shoot actors.
They shoot actors
aiming at the viewers.
You're such a smartass, Katya.
- Ass?
- Katya Smartaz...
Your new nickname...
Katya Smartaz...
- Not bad.
- That's it!
It's insane to come uninvited.
Stop right there!
Sergei Pavlovich,
sorry to come with no gift...
But I brought Kira.
Look what Mikhail gave me
for my birthday.
Hello.
Bravo, Mikhail!
Very original.
Kira Stein.
A student of Yakov Borisovich.
You specialise in theater...
We're all about films here...
Come.
Look. Isn't she beautiful?
My birthday gift.
I'd say too beautiful.
When did I fall
in love with you?
I think it was love
at first sight.
You were giving us
a lecture on film history
when I was in my final year
of theatre studies.
Perhaps Castle saw his true calling in
Clouseau's pathological love triangle -
to violate the boundaries of
the permissible.
Although Castle was happy
in his love life,
the theme of a traitor wife
and a murderer husband
was prominent in his films.
He came up with two endings
for one of his films.
At a certain point the film stopped.
And in total darness
the audience voted
with special, luminous signs:
To keep the villain alive,
or to kill him...
After that, the film continued
depending of their choice.
Castle was nicknamed
"a cut-price Hitchcock".
Which was unfair.
Hitchcock never went outside
the boundaries of the game -
his plots were very precise.
Castle was the opposite.
He violated the limits of the screen,
thereby repeating the path
of the most radical artists of
the twentieth century.
We were swept with your looks,
with sophistication
and erudition.
Your first lecture lasted
three hours,
but no one got tired
or distracted.
Ok, let's do it again.
Just like the first time.
Katya, Peter,
take your positions.
Vasily's here.
Move a bit to the right,
not so close to her.
Have you loosened up, Katya?
Ok, hold it.
Let's do it.
Katya, please note -
you spin and lose the dress
in one smooth motion.
The dress should fall.
Then I bring you closer
and will turn you
thirty degrees.
We'll repeat the moves.
Why don't you
just move the camera?
Because you will see.
What are you doing here?
Writing a pathetic article on you.
You chose me as your hero?
You're an accepted hero...
I couldn't find anyone
more heroic.
Here's Sorokin.
A real hero.
Vasily Sorokin - a hero
of our times.
His music marks
the beginning of history's end.
Is something beginning
or ending?
One's not possible
without the other.
Let's find the silence.
Carry on without me.
Vasily, stop!
It's awful. One more time.
Are you a film director?
A film critic?
A professor?
A theater studio runner?
I'm a film expert.
But you're prepping your film?
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
So, you're in for the sake
of the process?
Depends on what you
consider a result.
Kiss me.
I love you.
I love you.
You promised not to.
I promised you too much.
What're you gonna do?
Fire me?
I'll bite your tongue off.
What if I was French?
You'd also shut me up?
I wouldn't care about the words.
When did we move in?
September? October?
I remember it was Fall.
The hot summer madness was over.
It felt like the most natural thing
in the world.
Voila!
Please, come in.
There's all the stuff?
Ta-dam!
These are my new jeans!
- I defeat!
- You're nuts?
You're cooking my pants?
There's no such a thing as love...
without a proof.
Your turn.
Go ahead! "Red Heat"!
"What is your proof?"
- Here is mine.
- Are you mad?
Where is yours?
Why I never told you
how happy I was with you?
I didn't know then
that I'd never be happy
with anyone ever again.
and then
I stopped thinking of you...
I stopped talking to you...
I just heard your voice everywhere.
All the men I met
spoke with your voice.
Every one of them
sounded like you...
No, not like that. Stop it.
Katya, Vasily!
Try to listen to the slides!
One, two, three.
Vasily, I'm begging you,
just listen.
There is a rhythm,
Shura sets it.
- Just listen to him.
- Sergei, we can't hear the slides.
Well, come down,
listen and memorize.
Then go back on, and repeat it.
What's the problem?
- I can't find a theme.
- Let's see.
- What else do you have?
- Guitar, keyboards...
They won't work.
You're doing it well.
You, too.
But all your children will die.
What did you say?
Nothing.
Cool! Give me more!
Perfect!
And... some more!
What's the word there?
- The love boat got hit by...
- mode of life.
Finally! Here they are.
- Hi.
- What are you doing here?
Watching your table.
- Our table?!
- It's yours now.
Give us a hand.
You're serious?
Where did you get it?
The man knows the places.
- Oops, plagiarism.
- Pure improvisation!
- I'll get it.
- Yeah...
- It rocks.
- We rock.
You and the table.
- Did you see Mikhalkov's latest?
- "Urga"?
- Right.
- Yes.
- And?
- What?
Is it gonna be a nice review
or a killer?
An analytical one.
Listen... Did you like ever
criticize anything? Anyone?
Like Shura does.
Intimidate them with his brainpower...
But you're just
too noble, I guess...
Thank you, Liza.
Your moral ethics are the key.
And you respect
the filmmakers...
That's why you're
a unique film critic.
Liza, is there something
you want?
What? Piss off.
If there's something,
just say it.
Spare me off this wood.
That's it. Let's turn.
What's this?
Cool. Where did you
get it from?
Those need to be translated.
They also need intros
to the films.
For simple folk.
How much are they
paying for intros?
The same as for the translation.
Go ahead, stab my back.
He refuses to write
for my film periodical.
And this stupid job
gets him excited.
Ah, that's why the compliments.
I see now.
I can write for your periodical.
Sour cream...
on your face.
Let's do the beginning
once more.
Fine.
- Shall we?
- Yes.
Tsibulsky died twice...
In the end of "Ashes and
Diamonds", that you're going to see,
and in January of 1967,
when he fell off the night train,
tortured by vodka.
By that time Tsibulsky's persona
was associated with all
of his film characters.
He was perceived as someone
bigger than an actor.
Audiences perceived him
as a legend.
In the mythology of the sixties
Tsibulsky died from a bullet,
not from vodka.
Vodka part was too much.
Nothing was too much.
What would I do without you?
You'd blow your chance
to make a film.
Listen, I think we can
do without the crane.
But what about a pull out,
that you wanted?
I got it. We'll get on top of
the St. Peter and Paul Church.
- Remember what Wenders did?
- In "Wings of Desire"?
Yes. We'll set up
a camera on rails.
- And will pull it in through the clock.
- Cool!
I knew you'd like it.
Where're you going?
I'm meeting with our actress.
- We should buy the stock.
- I'll do it tomorrow!
- Don't spend it all on booze!
- My wife's a sobriety freak.
A freak she is.
Hi.
Hi.
Dafna, you're leading.
I have good news...
And very good news.
That's promising.
Which one first?
The very good one.
Take a guess.
What am I guessing?
A film?
A quote?
An event?
I'm shooting a film?
It is on a screen.
There's an audience.
They're terrified.
They're thrilled, they're happy.
You love me...
I'll cancel the shoot.
You've postponed it
numerous times,
and now you're cancelling?
Production will exhaust
our budget.
Sergei, I've got job.
There're my articles.
It's not like we need much.
There'll be food.
- What if there'll be no milk?
- Why wouldn't I have milk?
What if he eats too much?
Why so sure it's a boy?
Ok, she eats too much.
If you cancel the shoot,
I'll think you chickened out.
Don't you want good news?
You'll act in my film?
I'm flying to Paris...
to a theater festival...
as a reporter.
"She's just too hot for me.
She was in Paris.
And I've just found out,
she travelled more than that."
All these years I've been conversing
with a man, who's not there...
And then I fell in love.
His ease and carefree
youth reminded me of you.
Sorry, can I have a menu?
You forgot your glasses.
They're fake.
Do you wear them to look older?
I like you a lot.
When you don't try hard
to be liked.
- Is it alive?
- Yes.
And it squawks when you chew it.
Come on.
It tastes good...
What - liverwurst?
No problem.
Tit for tat.
Are you daring me?
You are indeed.
I'm afraid my fragile nerves
won't handle it.
Tell me about
your fragile nerves.
Me and the whole office.
My new Sergei
is a computer guru.
He came to the company
as a freelancer, and stayed.
Neither my status,
nor success intimidated him.
When I got promoted to run
a magazine in Paris,
he also moved to France.
A land you've always dreamt of,
but never been to.
Sergei didn't dream of France.
He just wanted to be near me.
Dear passengers, we will begin
our descent in half an hour.
The time of arrival is
23 hours local time.
The weather in Paris is good -
22 C.
Turbulence is a result of two air
volumes of different temperature meet.
It's completely safe
for the airplane.
In the long history of aviation,
there hasn't been a single case
when turbulence caused
an airplane crash.
So, your fear is
completely irrational.
However, the body's mineral balance
suffers during the flight.
Therefore, a glass of red wine
is recommended
an hour before the flight
and within two hours after landing.
It'll be my pleasure to treat you
to the famous Burgundy.
Thank you very much.
But not necessary.
I have a good job.
A fantastic personal life.
And I'm expecting a baby.
Congratulations.
Dear passengers, we are running into
a little turbulence.
Please remain in your seats...
It was my first pregnancy.
I couldn't bear a thought
of losing the baby.
When I was gone,
you started drinking.
Some dubious characters
appeared in our house.
You were willing to talk about
the cinema with anyone,
being carried away
with new people
and their impressions of you.
We were robbed.
And money?
In a few months
I lost the baby again.
I never heard
such an expression before...
a missed miscarriage...
There was something horrific,
irrational and...
desperate about it.
I didn't tell you about the third,
last miscarriage...
to save you from more pain.
Listen to Mikhail. As a true
St. Petersburg intelligentsia,
he continues the traditions
of Russian absurdist writers.
His script is absolutely brilliant.
Sounds like a toast!
Those are important
cinema people here.
Perhaps your fate
will be decided now.
Shura is the main specialist
in necrophilia...
It's necrorealism.
Ok, that's it.
Good luck, Mikhail.
Exterior. Forest. Night.
A flash of lightning
makes her see
a scary white object
floating in the river.
Let's remember:
A white object.
She heads straight to it.
The riverside bushes scratch
her face, tear her clothes.
Stop, you're distracting.
Once at the shore Tanya sees
that the scary white object
is an infant
with his arms spread apart.
You see, Liza
what I'm talking about?
swimming crawl or butterfly.
What a nonsense.
I agree.
Total nonsense.
Kira, dear, it's supposed
to provoke people.
It's a protest against pop culture.
Shura, are you ok
watching him waste his life?
What's gotten into you, Kira?
What's gotten into me?
You were gonna make your film.
You were renting lights, camera...
You didn't find an actress.
So, maybe it was my fault?
Or maybe you chickened out?
What really happened?
How did we end up here...
in this dead end?
seriously discussing this garbage...
this immature crap...
squeezing out a grand
statement over this necro nonsense!
You're already analyzing
this masterpiece?
Or you're saving it
for the premiere?
Let's drink, Liza.
It must hurt to have your friend
marry a bitch.
Perhaps I was too harsh on you.
Your impeccable taste must have
paralyzed you.
So did your immense knowledge
of cinema.
You couldn't make
just an average film.
But you're prepping your film?
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
Are you a film director?
I'm a film expert.
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
So, you're in it for the sake
of the process?
Depends on what you consider
a result.
Kiss me.
Sergei?
Look who's here...
Let me remember you...
Just like that... beautiful,
arrogant and...
a bit scared.
It's called a turning point...
And a sudden genre twist...
from a sweet melodrama...
into a slasher!
Sergei, you're scaring me!
Slasher I would translate like
"potroshilka".
John Carpenter introduced this
subgenre into horror films.
A few years ago Carpenter
got married for the second time.
The marriage was ok,
but his creative energy ran dry.
Open up...
He is now working
on a TV series...
Called "Bags for corpses".
Stop.
It's a wrap.
That evening I left home for
the first time.
When I finally came back,
you didn't want to believe
what had happened.
You were certain that at worst,
you could push me,
being drunk as a skunk.
I found us a puppy.
His pedigree name was
James Bond.
We called him Bonya
and bet high hopes on him...
as on a treatment
of our love.
Our life became quiet
and predictable.
You became a famous critic. You wrote
for a new trendy newspaper.
I also started writing for it.
We made better money.
But I could no longer
get pregnant.
And you couldn't start your
first film production.
- Who's there?
- New York Herald Tribune!
Hello, hello...
Hey, early bird.
Hi.
- Coffee?
- Yes, please.
Mikhail brought an article.
Hot off the stand.
And the paper!
Check it out!
Who's behind that newspaper?
Oil tycoons?
See? And they say
"money has no smell".
Well, where is it?
Here...
Let's see.
Independent as weather,
unpredictable as a nuclear reactor.
She blows up all around her,
a cynical opportunist,
who uses her sexuality
in a formula "product-money".
A girl who knows
the price of things.
A witch who cooks magic out
of broken hearts and gold.
A spontaneous feminist
and a gifted image maker,
who knows how to be
in the right place at the right time.
A romantic whore,
she eventually gets caught for
a bullshit reason.
These are not my words...
What is this "bullshit reason"?
Every large publication
has editors.
They clean up the text.
It's normal.
Sometimes it's easier to correct
without writer's approval.
Easier?!
So, why not write it themselves!
This is the easiest!
You just sit there and write,
find the right words,
find the most appropriate tone
for the films you analyze.
It's just a very easy process
all the way!
You were invited to New York
with your film lectures.
While you were gone, I started working
at the international film festival.
The night
before you were coming back
was the drunkest for me.
Vodka "Beast".
No hangover.
Shall go to my place?
I have all the proper drinks.
Soda, water, tea?
- And an oxygen cocktail.
- Watch your step!
Good evening.
Nevsky Prospekt.
Let's rock and roll.
Rock and roll!
No hangover.
Just hiccups.
Max was the publisher
of the trendy newspaper,
the quality of which pages
you admired...
We met before at work.
But that evening it felt
he saw me for the first time.
A forbidden feeling
for another man
spilled all over you.
I saw Max every week.
Sometimes twice a week.
My secret life lasted
almost a year.
I couldn't leave you and Bonya.
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya, here!
Dear Bonya!
Forgive me.
Then I told you everything.
I expected your anger...
Thought you would hit me.
But you just sat there.
It would hurt less
if I left you for money...
for the status,
for a better life...
But you knew my heart
wasn't yours anymore.
Told you this stuff
doesn't work with me.
You told me you never tried it.
Well, I smoked a joint once...
It's different.
Kira!
Kira!
Get up.
Relax.
You can't be here now!
Let me go!
It's all good.
Let's go.
Let me go!
Get away from me! No!
Why did I never tell you
how much I loved you?
With my new Sergei
I'm much more open,
though I don't have
those feelings for him.
"Splendid nights of love..."
Has something happened?
Do you write him every day?
How do you know?
I thought you could love me...
But you're trying to edit,
to enhance,
to upgrade a man version
that came your way...
But I am not a version...
Not a magazine...
Not a draft of an article.
Not a program
that needs an upgrade...
I'm a human being...
not just a mere function
in your busy life.
That's it.
Final destination...
for you.
Kira, hello, it's me.
Please, pick up the phone.
We need to talk.
What if I'd answered your call?
Would you've been able
to bring me back?
For how long?
I got pregnant with Max's child
three weeks after I left you...
I was nauseous for seven months.
As if something unnatural
was happening to me...
I tore myself out
of our life leaving it bleeding.
Godard insisted that absolutely
all films are love stories.
War films are about a love
of weapons.
Gangster films are about
a love of crime...
In his debut film,
the intellectual, rationalist,
cinephile and ex-film critic,
Godard explained
that love is more important to films
than the rules.
Character's heartless curses
in the end can relate to anything -
a girl who betrayed him,
a life, that left him breathless...
or films, that showed us
so many stories of life,
death, love and betrayal,
but didn't teach us to live,
to die,
to love and...
to avoid betrayals...
All these years
I lived in a cocoon,
protecting myself from pain.
Here's the family layer,
the work layer,
the social life layer.
Now I feel naked.
All this time I've been talking
to you in my letters,
hoping to bring you back
and ask for your forgiveness.
Have you seen...
my girl?
Watch out!
Your parents were told
that you died from a heart attack.
Our friends preferred to think
that you died
because I broke your heart.
It was more beautiful and poetic.
He's not a keen of sleeping.
I do hope your mom is right and
those magic drops will do their job.
Thanks.
Has something happened?
I am very guilty before you...
Max?
Max, look at me.
What happened?
Sergei has passed away...
Three months ago...
I'm sorry.
I just couldn't tell you then.
Kira, open up!
Kira, open it!
Kira!
Kira?!
Kira, forgive me.
Kira...
Kira, take the baby.
Kira, take the baby!
Kira...
Max kept your death a secret
from me...
He was afraid I wouldn't handle it
being nine months pregnant at the time.
He worried about our son.
Worried that I'd go into labor
at your funeral.
He made that decision
knowing that I could
never forgive him for it.
It all turned out
just like that.
Max and I broke up.
They say, a few minutes
before dying you said
"My girl will never
come back to me"...
You were wrong.
I did come back...
You died. And I lived with you
for the next seventeen years.
And now let me go.
Please.
SERGEI DOBROVOLSKIY
1964 - 1994
A second ago
it was tender and quiet
We whispered, we loved,
we soared our sky
Over again...
A second ago
it was tender and loving,
Caressing your face
when it was...
Next to mine.
I fall off the sky
burning out inside,
I'm freezing my heart
in the frame of the night,
Re-playing your laughter
that once I recorded,
Re-living the beauty of things
That I can no longer perceive...
Without you.
Based on a book by
KARINA DOBROTVORSKAYA
"Anybody seen my girl?
100 letters to Sergei"
Special thanks to
Roman ABRAMOVICH
Written and directed by
Angelina NIKONOVA
Produced by
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
Produced by
Vyacheslav MURUGOV, Mikhail KUCHMENDirector of photography
Gorka GOMEZ ANDREU
Kira - Anya CHIPOVSKAYA
Sergei - Alexander GORCHILIN
Kira - Viktoriya ISAKOVA
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
present
Hello, you've reached
the editorial office of Lueur magazine.
Please leave a message
after the tone.
Kira...
Kira, pick up the phone.
I know you're there.
Anya CHIPOVSKAYA
Alexander GORCHILIN
in a film ANYBODY SEEN MY GIRL?
It's been seventeen years
since you're gone.
But I keep on talking to you,
in attempt to understand
what happened to us.
And how I ended up here...
without you.
Music Artyom IVANOV
Director of photography
Gorka GOMEZ ANDREU
Art director Savva SAVELIEV
Produced by
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
Produced by
Vyacheslav MURUGOV, Mikhail KUCHMENWritten and directed by
Angelina NIKONOVA
What happened?
FRANCE, 2010
Your back aches?
I've died...
Without you here.
I'd also die working on Sundays.
You weren't home, I had to run.
Feel the pulse.
I've survived.
But my life's divided
into before and after.
I just talked about myself,
and you, yourself.
You should've talked about
me, and me - about you.
LENINGRAD, 1990
I don't want to be in love with you.
That's why I called the police.
I stayed with you to make sure
I was in love with you.
Or that I wasn't.
And since I'm being mean to you,
it proves I'm not in love with you.
Say that again!
And since I'm being mean to you,
it proves I'm not in love with you.
They say there's no happy love.
It's too complicated.
On the contrary,
there's no unhappy love.
I want people to let me be.
I'm independent.
Maybe you love me?
You believe that.
But you're not free.
That's why I turned you in.
Well done, Shura!
You let us experience the original.
Right, Liza? The talent.
- Where did you get the copy?
- The man knows the places.
Thank you! A real gift for us
on your birthday!
It felt like Paris.
You're welcome.
My gifts to you are more fun.
I don't feel like
we're in Paris.
Oh, yeah?
I wish I did.
Keep in mind that "Breathless"
divides cinema
into before and after.
- Thank you!
- I'll tell you more at lectures tomorrow!
- Thanks, guys! Bye!
- Good bye! Thank you!
- Come with me.
- Where to?
I need company.
I don't have a gift.
We'll find something on the way.
Come on, let's go.
See you!
You can not fall in love with books
when you're just learning to read...
- Happy Birthday, Dobrovolsky!
- Katya!
- You're psycho!
- Are you out of it?
Let's go!
Anatoly will give us a lift.
Come on, get your ass in.
There's no way I'm going.
It happens once a year, yes.
Let's drink to you,
why always me?
Thank you for coming.
Very nice of you.
It's really grand.
What's new in Moscow?
There's a Rauschenberg exhibition,
thanks to Tair Salakhov.
It's really cool.
- It starts happening, huh?
- Yes. Time's changing.
Is it playing?
Sergei, may I steal a minute?
Be right back.
Got something for you.
- No way. Ray-Ban?
- Took me six months to get them.
Wow, Anatoly...
Unbelievable.
Check it out, there's more...
For personal usage only.
Uh-huh.
Wow! "The Police Academy".
What are you two up to?
I spread some light
onto the dark spots...
in Anatoly's film education.
What was I saying?
Griffith introduced storytelling
into films,
Eisenstein - editing,
Welles suggested a structure
and a content...
Fellini proved that both
structure and content
can be as vague as night dreams
or child memories
and then came Godard...
freeing cinema
from all of the above.
Look... Godard didn't use
scripts in his films.
He didn't write dialogues.
He allowed actors to improvise,
to involve passersby,
by provoking them.
I see.
Anyone can make films now.
Katya, let's make a movie.
We'll provoke passersby together.
It's interesting, they say
"make films"...
But what do actors make?
What does camera make?
Make believe?
Sounds interesting.
Katya...
that was grand.
Try them on.
In English they shoot films.
They shoot actors.
They shoot actors
aiming at the viewers.
You're such a smartass, Katya.
- Ass?
- Katya Smartaz...
Your new nickname...
Katya Smartaz...
- Not bad.
- That's it!
It's insane to come uninvited.
Stop right there!
Sergei Pavlovich,
sorry to come with no gift...
But I brought Kira.
Look what Mikhail gave me
for my birthday.
Hello.
Bravo, Mikhail!
Very original.
Kira Stein.
A student of Yakov Borisovich.
You specialise in theater...
We're all about films here...
Come.
Look. Isn't she beautiful?
My birthday gift.
I'd say too beautiful.
When did I fall
in love with you?
I think it was love
at first sight.
You were giving us
a lecture on film history
when I was in my final year
of theatre studies.
Perhaps Castle saw his true calling in
Clouseau's pathological love triangle -
to violate the boundaries of
the permissible.
Although Castle was happy
in his love life,
the theme of a traitor wife
and a murderer husband
was prominent in his films.
He came up with two endings
for one of his films.
At a certain point the film stopped.
And in total darness
the audience voted
with special, luminous signs:
To keep the villain alive,
or to kill him...
After that, the film continued
depending of their choice.
Castle was nicknamed
"a cut-price Hitchcock".
Which was unfair.
Hitchcock never went outside
the boundaries of the game -
his plots were very precise.
Castle was the opposite.
He violated the limits of the screen,
thereby repeating the path
of the most radical artists of
the twentieth century.
We were swept with your looks,
with sophistication
and erudition.
Your first lecture lasted
three hours,
but no one got tired
or distracted.
Ok, let's do it again.
Just like the first time.
Katya, Peter,
take your positions.
Vasily's here.
Move a bit to the right,
not so close to her.
Have you loosened up, Katya?
Ok, hold it.
Let's do it.
Katya, please note -
you spin and lose the dress
in one smooth motion.
The dress should fall.
Then I bring you closer
and will turn you
thirty degrees.
We'll repeat the moves.
Why don't you
just move the camera?
Because you will see.
What are you doing here?
Writing a pathetic article on you.
You chose me as your hero?
You're an accepted hero...
I couldn't find anyone
more heroic.
Here's Sorokin.
A real hero.
Vasily Sorokin - a hero
of our times.
His music marks
the beginning of history's end.
Is something beginning
or ending?
One's not possible
without the other.
Let's find the silence.
Carry on without me.
Vasily, stop!
It's awful. One more time.
Are you a film director?
A film critic?
A professor?
A theater studio runner?
I'm a film expert.
But you're prepping your film?
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
So, you're in for the sake
of the process?
Depends on what you
consider a result.
Kiss me.
I love you.
I love you.
You promised not to.
I promised you too much.
What're you gonna do?
Fire me?
I'll bite your tongue off.
What if I was French?
You'd also shut me up?
I wouldn't care about the words.
When did we move in?
September? October?
I remember it was Fall.
The hot summer madness was over.
It felt like the most natural thing
in the world.
Voila!
Please, come in.
There's all the stuff?
Ta-dam!
These are my new jeans!
- I defeat!
- You're nuts?
You're cooking my pants?
There's no such a thing as love...
without a proof.
Your turn.
Go ahead! "Red Heat"!
"What is your proof?"
- Here is mine.
- Are you mad?
Where is yours?
Why I never told you
how happy I was with you?
I didn't know then
that I'd never be happy
with anyone ever again.
and then
I stopped thinking of you...
I stopped talking to you...
I just heard your voice everywhere.
All the men I met
spoke with your voice.
Every one of them
sounded like you...
No, not like that. Stop it.
Katya, Vasily!
Try to listen to the slides!
One, two, three.
Vasily, I'm begging you,
just listen.
There is a rhythm,
Shura sets it.
- Just listen to him.
- Sergei, we can't hear the slides.
Well, come down,
listen and memorize.
Then go back on, and repeat it.
What's the problem?
- I can't find a theme.
- Let's see.
- What else do you have?
- Guitar, keyboards...
They won't work.
You're doing it well.
You, too.
But all your children will die.
What did you say?
Nothing.
Cool! Give me more!
Perfect!
And... some more!
What's the word there?
- The love boat got hit by...
- mode of life.
Finally! Here they are.
- Hi.
- What are you doing here?
Watching your table.
- Our table?!
- It's yours now.
Give us a hand.
You're serious?
Where did you get it?
The man knows the places.
- Oops, plagiarism.
- Pure improvisation!
- I'll get it.
- Yeah...
- It rocks.
- We rock.
You and the table.
- Did you see Mikhalkov's latest?
- "Urga"?
- Right.
- Yes.
- And?
- What?
Is it gonna be a nice review
or a killer?
An analytical one.
Listen... Did you like ever
criticize anything? Anyone?
Like Shura does.
Intimidate them with his brainpower...
But you're just
too noble, I guess...
Thank you, Liza.
Your moral ethics are the key.
And you respect
the filmmakers...
That's why you're
a unique film critic.
Liza, is there something
you want?
What? Piss off.
If there's something,
just say it.
Spare me off this wood.
That's it. Let's turn.
What's this?
Cool. Where did you
get it from?
Those need to be translated.
They also need intros
to the films.
For simple folk.
How much are they
paying for intros?
The same as for the translation.
Go ahead, stab my back.
He refuses to write
for my film periodical.
And this stupid job
gets him excited.
Ah, that's why the compliments.
I see now.
I can write for your periodical.
Sour cream...
on your face.
Let's do the beginning
once more.
Fine.
- Shall we?
- Yes.
Tsibulsky died twice...
In the end of "Ashes and
Diamonds", that you're going to see,
and in January of 1967,
when he fell off the night train,
tortured by vodka.
By that time Tsibulsky's persona
was associated with all
of his film characters.
He was perceived as someone
bigger than an actor.
Audiences perceived him
as a legend.
In the mythology of the sixties
Tsibulsky died from a bullet,
not from vodka.
Vodka part was too much.
Nothing was too much.
What would I do without you?
You'd blow your chance
to make a film.
Listen, I think we can
do without the crane.
But what about a pull out,
that you wanted?
I got it. We'll get on top of
the St. Peter and Paul Church.
- Remember what Wenders did?
- In "Wings of Desire"?
Yes. We'll set up
a camera on rails.
- And will pull it in through the clock.
- Cool!
I knew you'd like it.
Where're you going?
I'm meeting with our actress.
- We should buy the stock.
- I'll do it tomorrow!
- Don't spend it all on booze!
- My wife's a sobriety freak.
A freak she is.
Hi.
Hi.
Dafna, you're leading.
I have good news...
And very good news.
That's promising.
Which one first?
The very good one.
Take a guess.
What am I guessing?
A film?
A quote?
An event?
I'm shooting a film?
It is on a screen.
There's an audience.
They're terrified.
They're thrilled, they're happy.
You love me...
I'll cancel the shoot.
You've postponed it
numerous times,
and now you're cancelling?
Production will exhaust
our budget.
Sergei, I've got job.
There're my articles.
It's not like we need much.
There'll be food.
- What if there'll be no milk?
- Why wouldn't I have milk?
What if he eats too much?
Why so sure it's a boy?
Ok, she eats too much.
If you cancel the shoot,
I'll think you chickened out.
Don't you want good news?
You'll act in my film?
I'm flying to Paris...
to a theater festival...
as a reporter.
"She's just too hot for me.
She was in Paris.
And I've just found out,
she travelled more than that."
All these years I've been conversing
with a man, who's not there...
And then I fell in love.
His ease and carefree
youth reminded me of you.
Sorry, can I have a menu?
You forgot your glasses.
They're fake.
Do you wear them to look older?
I like you a lot.
When you don't try hard
to be liked.
- Is it alive?
- Yes.
And it squawks when you chew it.
Come on.
It tastes good...
What - liverwurst?
No problem.
Tit for tat.
Are you daring me?
You are indeed.
I'm afraid my fragile nerves
won't handle it.
Tell me about
your fragile nerves.
Me and the whole office.
My new Sergei
is a computer guru.
He came to the company
as a freelancer, and stayed.
Neither my status,
nor success intimidated him.
When I got promoted to run
a magazine in Paris,
he also moved to France.
A land you've always dreamt of,
but never been to.
Sergei didn't dream of France.
He just wanted to be near me.
Dear passengers, we will begin
our descent in half an hour.
The time of arrival is
23 hours local time.
The weather in Paris is good -
22 C.
Turbulence is a result of two air
volumes of different temperature meet.
It's completely safe
for the airplane.
In the long history of aviation,
there hasn't been a single case
when turbulence caused
an airplane crash.
So, your fear is
completely irrational.
However, the body's mineral balance
suffers during the flight.
Therefore, a glass of red wine
is recommended
an hour before the flight
and within two hours after landing.
It'll be my pleasure to treat you
to the famous Burgundy.
Thank you very much.
But not necessary.
I have a good job.
A fantastic personal life.
And I'm expecting a baby.
Congratulations.
Dear passengers, we are running into
a little turbulence.
Please remain in your seats...
It was my first pregnancy.
I couldn't bear a thought
of losing the baby.
When I was gone,
you started drinking.
Some dubious characters
appeared in our house.
You were willing to talk about
the cinema with anyone,
being carried away
with new people
and their impressions of you.
We were robbed.
And money?
In a few months
I lost the baby again.
I never heard
such an expression before...
a missed miscarriage...
There was something horrific,
irrational and...
desperate about it.
I didn't tell you about the third,
last miscarriage...
to save you from more pain.
Listen to Mikhail. As a true
St. Petersburg intelligentsia,
he continues the traditions
of Russian absurdist writers.
His script is absolutely brilliant.
Sounds like a toast!
Those are important
cinema people here.
Perhaps your fate
will be decided now.
Shura is the main specialist
in necrophilia...
It's necrorealism.
Ok, that's it.
Good luck, Mikhail.
Exterior. Forest. Night.
A flash of lightning
makes her see
a scary white object
floating in the river.
Let's remember:
A white object.
She heads straight to it.
The riverside bushes scratch
her face, tear her clothes.
Stop, you're distracting.
Once at the shore Tanya sees
that the scary white object
is an infant
with his arms spread apart.
You see, Liza
what I'm talking about?
swimming crawl or butterfly.
What a nonsense.
I agree.
Total nonsense.
Kira, dear, it's supposed
to provoke people.
It's a protest against pop culture.
Shura, are you ok
watching him waste his life?
What's gotten into you, Kira?
What's gotten into me?
You were gonna make your film.
You were renting lights, camera...
You didn't find an actress.
So, maybe it was my fault?
Or maybe you chickened out?
What really happened?
How did we end up here...
in this dead end?
seriously discussing this garbage...
this immature crap...
squeezing out a grand
statement over this necro nonsense!
You're already analyzing
this masterpiece?
Or you're saving it
for the premiere?
Let's drink, Liza.
It must hurt to have your friend
marry a bitch.
Perhaps I was too harsh on you.
Your impeccable taste must have
paralyzed you.
So did your immense knowledge
of cinema.
You couldn't make
just an average film.
But you're prepping your film?
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
Are you a film director?
I'm a film expert.
It will help me to understand
filmmakers better.
So, you're in it for the sake
of the process?
Depends on what you consider
a result.
Kiss me.
Sergei?
Look who's here...
Let me remember you...
Just like that... beautiful,
arrogant and...
a bit scared.
It's called a turning point...
And a sudden genre twist...
from a sweet melodrama...
into a slasher!
Sergei, you're scaring me!
Slasher I would translate like
"potroshilka".
John Carpenter introduced this
subgenre into horror films.
A few years ago Carpenter
got married for the second time.
The marriage was ok,
but his creative energy ran dry.
Open up...
He is now working
on a TV series...
Called "Bags for corpses".
Stop.
It's a wrap.
That evening I left home for
the first time.
When I finally came back,
you didn't want to believe
what had happened.
You were certain that at worst,
you could push me,
being drunk as a skunk.
I found us a puppy.
His pedigree name was
James Bond.
We called him Bonya
and bet high hopes on him...
as on a treatment
of our love.
Our life became quiet
and predictable.
You became a famous critic. You wrote
for a new trendy newspaper.
I also started writing for it.
We made better money.
But I could no longer
get pregnant.
And you couldn't start your
first film production.
- Who's there?
- New York Herald Tribune!
Hello, hello...
Hey, early bird.
Hi.
- Coffee?
- Yes, please.
Mikhail brought an article.
Hot off the stand.
And the paper!
Check it out!
Who's behind that newspaper?
Oil tycoons?
See? And they say
"money has no smell".
Well, where is it?
Here...
Let's see.
Independent as weather,
unpredictable as a nuclear reactor.
She blows up all around her,
a cynical opportunist,
who uses her sexuality
in a formula "product-money".
A girl who knows
the price of things.
A witch who cooks magic out
of broken hearts and gold.
A spontaneous feminist
and a gifted image maker,
who knows how to be
in the right place at the right time.
A romantic whore,
she eventually gets caught for
a bullshit reason.
These are not my words...
What is this "bullshit reason"?
Every large publication
has editors.
They clean up the text.
It's normal.
Sometimes it's easier to correct
without writer's approval.
Easier?!
So, why not write it themselves!
This is the easiest!
You just sit there and write,
find the right words,
find the most appropriate tone
for the films you analyze.
It's just a very easy process
all the way!
You were invited to New York
with your film lectures.
While you were gone, I started working
at the international film festival.
The night
before you were coming back
was the drunkest for me.
Vodka "Beast".
No hangover.
Shall go to my place?
I have all the proper drinks.
Soda, water, tea?
- And an oxygen cocktail.
- Watch your step!
Good evening.
Nevsky Prospekt.
Let's rock and roll.
Rock and roll!
No hangover.
Just hiccups.
Max was the publisher
of the trendy newspaper,
the quality of which pages
you admired...
We met before at work.
But that evening it felt
he saw me for the first time.
A forbidden feeling
for another man
spilled all over you.
I saw Max every week.
Sometimes twice a week.
My secret life lasted
almost a year.
I couldn't leave you and Bonya.
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya!
Bonya, here!
Dear Bonya!
Forgive me.
Then I told you everything.
I expected your anger...
Thought you would hit me.
But you just sat there.
It would hurt less
if I left you for money...
for the status,
for a better life...
But you knew my heart
wasn't yours anymore.
Told you this stuff
doesn't work with me.
You told me you never tried it.
Well, I smoked a joint once...
It's different.
Kira!
Kira!
Get up.
Relax.
You can't be here now!
Let me go!
It's all good.
Let's go.
Let me go!
Get away from me! No!
Why did I never tell you
how much I loved you?
With my new Sergei
I'm much more open,
though I don't have
those feelings for him.
"Splendid nights of love..."
Has something happened?
Do you write him every day?
How do you know?
I thought you could love me...
But you're trying to edit,
to enhance,
to upgrade a man version
that came your way...
But I am not a version...
Not a magazine...
Not a draft of an article.
Not a program
that needs an upgrade...
I'm a human being...
not just a mere function
in your busy life.
That's it.
Final destination...
for you.
Kira, hello, it's me.
Please, pick up the phone.
We need to talk.
What if I'd answered your call?
Would you've been able
to bring me back?
For how long?
I got pregnant with Max's child
three weeks after I left you...
I was nauseous for seven months.
As if something unnatural
was happening to me...
I tore myself out
of our life leaving it bleeding.
Godard insisted that absolutely
all films are love stories.
War films are about a love
of weapons.
Gangster films are about
a love of crime...
In his debut film,
the intellectual, rationalist,
cinephile and ex-film critic,
Godard explained
that love is more important to films
than the rules.
Character's heartless curses
in the end can relate to anything -
a girl who betrayed him,
a life, that left him breathless...
or films, that showed us
so many stories of life,
death, love and betrayal,
but didn't teach us to live,
to die,
to love and...
to avoid betrayals...
All these years
I lived in a cocoon,
protecting myself from pain.
Here's the family layer,
the work layer,
the social life layer.
Now I feel naked.
All this time I've been talking
to you in my letters,
hoping to bring you back
and ask for your forgiveness.
Have you seen...
my girl?
Watch out!
Your parents were told
that you died from a heart attack.
Our friends preferred to think
that you died
because I broke your heart.
It was more beautiful and poetic.
He's not a keen of sleeping.
I do hope your mom is right and
those magic drops will do their job.
Thanks.
Has something happened?
I am very guilty before you...
Max?
Max, look at me.
What happened?
Sergei has passed away...
Three months ago...
I'm sorry.
I just couldn't tell you then.
Kira, open up!
Kira, open it!
Kira!
Kira?!
Kira, forgive me.
Kira...
Kira, take the baby.
Kira, take the baby!
Kira...
Max kept your death a secret
from me...
He was afraid I wouldn't handle it
being nine months pregnant at the time.
He worried about our son.
Worried that I'd go into labor
at your funeral.
He made that decision
knowing that I could
never forgive him for it.
It all turned out
just like that.
Max and I broke up.
They say, a few minutes
before dying you said
"My girl will never
come back to me"...
You were wrong.
I did come back...
You died. And I lived with you
for the next seventeen years.
And now let me go.
Please.
SERGEI DOBROVOLSKIY
1964 - 1994
A second ago
it was tender and quiet
We whispered, we loved,
we soared our sky
Over again...
A second ago
it was tender and loving,
Caressing your face
when it was...
Next to mine.
I fall off the sky
burning out inside,
I'm freezing my heart
in the frame of the night,
Re-playing your laughter
that once I recorded,
Re-living the beauty of things
That I can no longer perceive...
Without you.
Based on a book by
KARINA DOBROTVORSKAYA
"Anybody seen my girl?
100 letters to Sergei"
Special thanks to
Roman ABRAMOVICH
Written and directed by
Angelina NIKONOVA
Produced by
Sabina EREMEEVA, Natella KRAPIVINA
Produced by
Vyacheslav MURUGOV, Mikhail KUCHMENDirector of photography
Gorka GOMEZ ANDREU
Kira - Anya CHIPOVSKAYA
Sergei - Alexander GORCHILIN
Kira - Viktoriya ISAKOVA