A screen adaptation of Pushkin's fairy tales was released on one of the streaming services. And not just, and "for adults". Screenwriter - fashionable theater director Zhenya Berkovich, showrunner (now that's the name of the producer, editor and series creator) — journalist Mikhail Zygar, who already undertook to refresh and explain the old in his book "The Empire Must Die": breakwater, Merezhkovsky and Gippius - they would be fashionable hipsters today, and the Mamontov case is the same as the Khodorkovsky trial.
Now here again - about Pushkin. Required for adults, otherwise they are bored of reading some dusty tales, which everyone seems to have gone through in school. The announcement of the series says: “it will be a very bold and bright interpretation of classic fairy tales… Pushkin’s heroes will fall into our reality, will fully master new technologies and indulge in modern vices ".
vices! Of course, such an argument strikes without a miss at the viewer's weakest point. Immediately remembered, how in the nineties there were “cartoons for adults” on TV in the evening (as it was written in the program), and if the student had time to peep, his reward was an ugly painted naked woman. And now remakes of famous films "for adults" are being released., Well, that is porn alterations. Sometimes, they say, better than the original.
The first series - based on "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish". Here, true, not an old man with an old woman, and quite young actors Denis Shvedov and Daria Zhovner, depicting a cunning provincial couple. At the same time, they still call each other an old man and an old woman - so that the viewer from shock does not forget, what is he looking at.
To “fix the material”, Ingeborga Dapkunaite recites entire lines from the fairy tale, in a golden dress. She is a fish here and at the same time a cool producer from Moscow. The fisherman caught her off the net, and on the web - in "Tinder". For his sexual services, Rybka undertakes to organize a new trough for the old woman and everything else.. I.e, in our reality, - take to Moscow, get a job, introduce you to the right people from the party (by TV series, this is lolita, Alena Sviridova and Klim Shipenko) etc.
unknown, true, why Rybka is messing with extortionists. Pushkin was clear, that it is not difficult for a magical animal to conjure a trough, and royal mansions, Yes, and the old man she was, of course, owe more. But the creators of the fashion series, apparently, We decided to, that the classic is all outdated. You, Pushkin, unworthy of himself. But here we are now “touching everything lightly”. "With a weak mania of the hand" we will transform. How to play something new!..
And there are vices too., as promised. At first, show sex, but with some high-level hypocrisy. It seems to be embarrassing, moving the camera aside, - and at the same time with such greasy interest: breakwater, look in the window, and here we are!.. Besides, mat is classified as a vice, which the characters Zhovner and Shvedova speak. And also: you had to be able to do it thick and tasteless, not tasty, but as if you were spitting on your shoe. It's all for adults, you know. With technology.
This, as they say in our reality, vibe - it's everywhere: everything is done simultaneously with some ironic embarrassment and impudence. Shamelessly vague script. Tasteless-expensive and, in the same time, poorly filmed, as if you are watching an advertisement for a residential complex. Actors who are not guilty of anything are shamelessly exploited. But the same Dapkunaite will not hurt anything, she has something to show. And here is Zhovner, which not so long ago made an excellent debut with Kantemir Balagov in "Closeness", it's just kind of a pity to see it here.
And before each episode - caption, so arrogantly flirtatious: “The characters in this series drink alcohol, smoke, swear, use drugs, having sex and fighting (Pushkin himself also did this). If it shocks you, don't watch the series. cute, do you really think, that it is very original to smoke and swear? what, except you, no one knows, how Pushkin behaved? And at the same time, as if you want to shock, Yes? very mature.
The character "Pushkin", by the way, here, too, flashes - actor Jean-Michel Scherbak. apparently, for color. Respect and taste in this - well, how to dress a black guy in a livery and put up flyers to distribute or invite to an institution, there is such marketing.
Further, everything is according to the same fresh formula “we will smear modernity”. In "The Tale of the Dead Princess" the king is a businessman, princess - blogger, and a poisoned apple is a drug. And endless musical inserts every five minutes, eloquently demonstrating: unclear, how to fill this vacuum. There is also Igor Vernik, but, on the other hand, where he is not?
And here is the third episode, about Pop and Balda, could just shoot (especially since there is a lot of shooting). The story is scandalous, it was not printed even under Pushkin, and recently the zealots of piety tried to "restore historical justice", replacing Pop with Merchant.
Simply amazing, that the creators of the series sided with the guards. It's not the priest who acts in the episode, and some incomprehensible enforcer (Andrey Smolyakov), who took himself a bodyguard-Balda (like Danila Bagrov) for protection from devils, i.e. bandits.
Understandably, that the priest was changed to a colonel simply out of caution: Surely someone saidthese better not touch, guys, you understand". But such longing rolls, that it would be better not to take at all. At least Pushkin with his poems, earned a link by no means in the current sense, clearly looks more mature than the authors of the series "for adults". I think, that if Alexander Sergeevich saw these attempts, it would not have been without epigrams. Or just slam someone to hell in a duel. And Saltan is still ahead, Swan and Cockerel ... "He hurts, and funny".
Fedor Dubshan
