…Did you know that April 1st is considered the day the $ sign was invented? And what is this – International Bird Day? Surely someone has read or heard about this. But most of us know for sure: April 1 is April Fools’ Day! And in honor of this good holiday, we decided to remember…
Humor in the CITY OF MASTERS
Laughter, as we know, is a serious matter, and comedy is the most difficult genre. There are so few specialists in this field that comedies (especially successful ones) are a real rarity. And, mind you, not only in domestic cinema: in world cinema there are too few real comedians. And therefore, the fact that it is Igor Dobrolyubov’s folk comedy “White Dews” (based on the script by Alexei Dudarev) that is the “calling card” of the National Film Studio “Belarusfilm” is a real reason for pride.
…Paradox: the more difficult times are, the more people want to laugh. “Humanity, laughing, parts with its past,” Karl Marx, it seems, once wrote. It is not for nothing that many Soviet comedies, dating from the dramatic period before and after the Great Patriotic War, have outlived their time, and even today they are still quite competitive. They “won” together with the country and the people, and maybe, at least a little, they brought the Great Victory closer…
It would seem that a comedy film can pave the shortest path to the viewer’s heart. The temptation to make a “funny” movie is so great that the brave – and undoubtedly talented! – directors again and again rush to comedic “embrasures” and “barricades”. However, they are not for everyone. Skill, talent, and even a personal sense of humor have nothing to do with it. What is the solution to this paradox? One of the secrets, one of the wonders of cinema…
Belarusian humor, as part of the national mentality, is special. Calm and reasonable, Belarusians often “extract” humor from situations rather than getting personal. Therefore, in our comedies there are practically no “gags”, no one, as a rule, slips on the peel, and cakes do not fly into the face. And there is a special nobility in this, if you like. At our comedies, the audience may not “die of laughter,” but their mood will certainly improve.
Belarusian cinema has more than once turned to the comedy genre, most often to film adaptations of literary works. The potential scenario basis for this is quite rich and varied: both in classical and modern literature there are many successful comic works; comedy and satirical plays by K. Krapiva, A. Makaenko and N. Matukovsky are successfully performed on the stages of our theaters. It is along this path, trodden by the theater, that many of our film directors have followed, especially at the beginning of the biography of Belarusian cinema. But, oddly enough, successful performances did not always become equally successful films. Even if we were talking about classics. However, the opposite also happened: simple, almost anecdotal stories sometimes had a long and happy fate on screen.
What films come to mind when we talk about the first Belarusian comedies? “A Girl Hurries to a Date”, “Seekers of Happiness”, light and graceful “Chekhov” miniatures (“Mask”, “Bear”, “Burbot”), filled with music “My Love”, the forever young “Peacock”, “Who Smiaetstsa Aposhnim” ”, “Our Neighbors”, “Horned Bastion”… Not all of these films can be counted among the creative successes of their creators: among them there are both masterpieces and fairly passable films. But each had its own audience. And, of course, each of them became a certain step towards the development of Belarusian cinema.
Important clarification. Regardless of what genre filmmakers prefer, for the most part, these are people with a good sense of humor – by definition, as they say. There is nothing to do in cinema without a sense of humor: the number of emergency situations on the way from concept to screen is sometimes off scale. How to get out of the crisis? There are many options that can be listed, but laughter, as a universal means of solving creative problems, has not yet been canceled.
Therefore, there are a great many cinematic tales related directly to the film process – much more than, in fact, comedies. The history of our cinema remembers the names of “great storytellers”, among whom are people of various film professions – from actors to serious film critics. In any interview taken with a cinematographer, there will definitely be a place for a joke or an interesting story, usually from the set. Where there is often “no time for laughter,” laughter is heard, sometimes at the most inopportune moment. (….)
Comedy is immortal! More and more generations of filmmakers entering the profession are trying to master this genre. By laughing we welcome our future. The full version is in “NE” No. 4, 2024
