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HomeLatest NewsRequiem for Ranevskaya and justification of old age

Requiem for Ranevskaya and justification of old age

Date: March 29, 2024 Time: 15:02:54

The new series “Ranevskaya” turned out to be kind and touching. Even despite the mistakes

We don’t know how to make biopics. I don’t know why, but every time you stumble. At the same time, I don’t even want to blame anyone. If the writers and the director fight for the historical truth, it turns out to be a deadly bore. If you fantasize violently, a person, a person, leaves. But then … But any film with a loud name in the title is a guarantee of increased interest and a decent rating. We’re all smart, we all like to fix our glasses on our noses and say, “It wasn’t like that.”

Perhaps that is why the creators of “Ranevskaya” searched and found words before the premiere to reduce the intensity of negative expectations: “These are rather myths and legends about Faina Ranevskaya.” And the leading actress Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk modestly raised her eyes and said that everything that was done was done with love for Faina Georgievna.

Ranevskaya lived a long life, leaving when she was 87 years old. Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk played both a 19-year-old girl and a lady of a very respectable age. And yes, the viewer will have to make concessions to artistic conventions in order to sincerely believe in the heroine’s years every time. But the actress, increasingly known as the daughter of the beautiful Lyubov Polishchuk and the artist Sergei Tsigal, seized the opportunity and gave her all to this project. Sometimes, depending on the plot, she repeats the images and roles of Ranevskaya and does it brilliantly. Even in the scene where the heroine voices the caricature of Carlson, the director did not succumb to the temptation to insert the real voice of Faina Georgievna, but relied on Marietta’s parody talent. And she did it!

Historical bug seekers will, of course, find something to profit from in this series. In 1915, when Russia was at war, and the people were as patriotic as possible, for some reason they show the strike movement and the armed resistance of the police by the revolutionaries. Yes, and in Taganrog.

Connoisseurs of plastic makeup will note a clear discrepancy between Ranevskaya’s “senility” and her real activities in the described years.

Yes, most of the locations, if we are not talking about the Moscow City Hall Theater and the Novodevichy Cemetery, are dubious. But…

Damn, it’s great that there are so many “buts”.

First about the main thing. About love. In fact, everything connected with Faina Georgievna turned out to be warm and touching. Ranevskaya, played by Tsigal-Polishchuk, did not become either a sad clown or a crazy theater fan. There is so much of the human in her and so little of the theatrical icon.

The authors of the script managed to walk on thin ice, spreading Ranevskaya’s comments and aphorisms about the characters. There was a fear that the project would turn into a collection of jokes, but this was avoided. And the characteristic humor of Faina Georgievna is, of course, present.

However, all this one way or another for the series in modern Russia is not a feat. What they do not throw with us and as soon as they do not play. But there is an inevitable story about old age at Ranevskaya. The lonely old age of a great man. Our cinema does not like the old. And they don’t like humor. An old man is always someone crazy, annoying, narrow-minded, careless, unpleasant… The vile catchphrase “No country for old men” flourishes in most movies and TV shows. The old people are bitter, they brandish their sticks and say that under the USSR (under the tsar, under Stalin, under Brezhnev…) it was better.

It is nonsense to argue whether it was or not. But at the end of the USSR, the elderly were a powerful force. When films appeared in which the elderly Arkady Raikin or Nikolai Kryuchkov spoke with his contemporaries, both of them were heard and loved. The plot of how a grandmother comes and solves all problems wandered from the films “The Yellow Suitcase” and “Beware of Grandma” to the sketches in “Yeralash”. Yevgeny Schwartz was seriously reprimanded for a pedagogical error in The Tale of Lost Time, where it turns out that being a pensioner is a shame.

The last series of “Ranevskaya” about old age. There are boring clichés about pigeons and carelessness. But at the same time, old age is shown respectfully, intelligently and with incredible tact. No obsessive sentimentality, very homely. When Ranevskaya’s meeting with her sister, who returned decades later to the USSR, is described, it sounds like a plot from a story about teenagers. They gossip, climb on the bed with their feet, curse, play cards recklessly…

People do not grow up, but it only becomes clear over the years that they are now joking about “grandpa who stinks.” People just have more wrinkles and disease. And weak gray-haired boys and girls are quite skeptical of the word old age.

The authors and actors of “Ranevskaya” have found such words for old age, which are now almost nowhere else. They raised a topic that we have forgotten how to talk about. And this definitely beats all the historical mistakes…

* This website provides news content gathered from various internet sources. It is crucial to understand that we are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented Read More

Puck Henry
Puck Henry
Puck Henry is an editor for ePrimefeed covering all types of news.
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