Nato in Unione Sovietica il 4 settembre 1935, vive una vita costellata di difficoltà, in cui conosce miseria e lavori duri ma anche l’amore per il cinema, che lo porterà a trasferirsi dalla Sučan della sua infanzia a Mosca per studiare al VGIK (l’Istituto Statale Panrusso di Cinematografia). Qui, per uno scherzo crudele del destino (un colonnello del KGB, padre della ragazza che all’epoca Kanevskij frequentava, percepisce uno sgarbo da parte del giovane), viene incarcerato per sette anni con la falsa accusa di violenza sessuale. Una volta uscito di prigione riprende a fatica il suo percorso: lavora un po’ per la televisione pubblica, per cui filma la regia di un episodio di una celebre serie (Il segreto che tutti conoscono, 1976), e in seguito si trasferisce a Leningrado per lavorare nella Lenfil’m, per i cui studi dirige un lungometraggio (Una storia di campagna, 1981). Nel frattempo, però, inizia a scrivere il soggetto di quello che diventerà il suo vero debutto e la chiave di volta di tutta la sua carriera, Sta’ fermo, muori e resuscita, che girerà nel 1989 tra mille problemi produttivi (in addirittura un anno di lavorazione), durante gli ultimi mesi della Russia comunista.
Vitali Kanevskij’s childhood and adolescence (he was born on September 4, 1935 in Vladivostok) were marked by harsh living conditions. He grew up in the eastern-most corner of the Soviet Union and neither the State institutions nor his family were able to support him. Hunger, cold and hard work were his daily companions, as were the world of crime and violence. At 25 years of age, a trained worker with a few years of military service behind him, he was able to change his life when his raw, unschooled talent was recognized and he was accepted at the national film institute in Moscow. After graduating he worked at the margins of the Soviet productive system until the end of the 1980s, when, despite adverse conditions, he made his masterpiece
Freeze, Die, Come to Life (1989),
which was selected for the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and won the Caméra d’Or; he was 55 years old. The film, which happened to be released at the same time as the Soviet Union was crumbling, became one of the most emblematic films of perestroika. The film returns to the events, the places and the emotions of his difficult adolescence and his tireless battle to make a name for himself in a hostile society.
This was the first of a series of films the most recent of which was made in 2005 that are suspended between fiction and documentary; they affirm an original idea of cinema in which subjective memory entwines with a harsh neorealist style and offers a complex reflection on the difficult realities of the new Russia.
Kanevsky’s father, a musician of Polish origin, died prematurely when he was hit in the forehead by a stray bullet during WWII. Thus, at seven years of age, young Vitali found himself living in the Siberian city of Sucan (later renamed Partizansk following the elimination of Chinese names in the territory of Primorsky Kraj, the Maritime Territory, in 1972), after his mother decided to move there in search of better opportunities for herself and her children. After spending a few years at school, Kanevsky left the city and went off to seek his fortune in Nikolaevsk-na-mure, where he divided his time between factory work and night school and completed a course to become a specialized welder. He then began his long military service. In 1960, he enrolled at VGIK (the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography) but shortly before receiving his degree, in 1966, he was accused of sexual assault and arrested. Despite the fact that the charges proved to be unfounded, he spent eight years in a prison camp. In 1974, after being released from prison, his friend Vasily Shukshin, a filmmaker, author and artist, helped him get back into VGIK and to find work as an assistant at Bielarus’fil’m in Minsk. There, Kanevsky made Sekret Cetvërtij, an episode of the TV series Po sekretu vsemu svetu, and thus was able to receive his diploma from VGIK in 1977. That same year, he moved to Leningrad, where he worked for Lenfil’m, not without difficulty. In 1989, he made Bouge pas, meurs, ressuscite, which was presented at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and received the Caméra d’or. He next collaborated with the French producer Philippe Godeau and made An Independent Life; a sequel of his preceding film, it was selected to compete in Cannes in 1992. That same year, the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, named him “Chevalier des arts et des letters.”
In 1994, he made the documentary Nous, les enfants du XX siècle and, in 1999 and in 2002, two other documentaries about the new reality of post-Soviet Russia: Kto Bol’še and À l’automne d’une nouvelle vie. In 2005, he wrote the screenplay of a fiction feature film, Znak Sud’by [t.l. Sign of destiny], which was published in 2006 in the Russian Film Almanac, nr. 6. In 2009, he finished the script for the seven episodes of a TV series in collaboration with the screenwriter Eduard Volodarskij, who has supported Kanevsky right from the beginning of his career. He spends his time between Saint Petersburg and Paris, where, since 1992, he lives and works with his wife Varvara Krasil’nikova, who has collaborated on almost all his films, and with their daughter Katja.
Filmografia:
Bouge pas, meurs, ressuscite !
Interview
Samostoyatelnaya zhizn: meeting Vitalij Kanevskij (director) and Dinara Drukarova.
Vitalij Kanevskij: Samostoyatelnaya Zhizn is the ideal sequel to Freeze, Die, Come to life! And the protagonist is always Dinara. However in the second movie she couldn’t play Galia anymore, since she dies at the beginning of movie one. Durin the shooting of Samostoyatelnaya Zhizn I was just getting out of teenage starting the Arts and crafts school. It wasn’t much but I remmber I liked that life anyway.
When I began shooting Freeze, Die, Come to life! I had a strange feeling, there was something in the air was saying something would change, eventually Communism fell and the dissolution o f U.S.S.R. followed. Consequence I could make a movie otherwise I couldn’t do because of ideological reasons. After having passed ten years in prison, the political and cultural Institutions would’ve never let me make film. Therefore Freeze, Die, Come to life! was going to be my first and last work. Then things went on and as you know came the Cannes Prize.
Freeze, Die, Come to life! was all in all an author movie, though I wanted to make a normal movie, do some proper directing. Well, now you’ll watch the movie and you can make your own considerations.
Dinara Drukarova: Acting in Freeze, Die, Come to life! Was a crazy yet amazing adventure. When Vitalij contacted me to ask me to take part in the cast of the sequel of his first movie, I was happly surprised. I told him Galia died at the end of the first movie and we answered “don’t worry, you’ll be her sister!”. Both the movies are the most important oin my whole carreer.
Vitalij kanevskij: Certainly they’re your mos important movies! I’ve always dreamt of making tree movies. Two are alredy here, I already have the script ready for the third one: it’s about a young hoodlem who loves freedom and reluctant to rules. He grows up without adapting to any social level. If I ever make it, I’ll call it The Sign of Destiny. When I was young I was just like this young man and I remember my mother would hit me with a stick. God then gave me a direction and I became director, here I am today.
If there were a Rockfeller in the audience, willing to invest on my project, I shall make him immortal. Money comes and goes, art doesn’t, it’s the only immortal thing.
note:
Su n.1, Boundless mercy:
“This film portrays a Russian woman, the kindness of suffering and a limitless compassion. And if you think that beauty can save the world, then this documentary is the confirmation.”
Su n. 3, The autumn of a new life:
Bringing together songs and poetry and entwining the tones of tragedy with those of comedy, the documentary gathers the memories of public servants in the running of state organizations such as orphanages, prisons, the internal revenue service, hospices for war veterans and those for blind children. The representatives of the Duma, Moscow’s municipal government, talk with young people, offering faint glimmers of hope for the future of the new Russia.
Il soggetto di À l’automne d’une nouvelle vie è tratto dalla raccolta di racconti Deniskiny rasskazy di Viktor Dragunskij che è anche autore della scenografia.
Sul n. 7, Samostojatel’naja shizn
Regie: Vitalij Kanevskij; Darsteller: Pavel Nazarov, Dinara Drukarova, Toshiro Vatanabe.
Der 1935 in Russland geborene Vitali Kanewski beschreibt mit seiner zweiteiligen Mini-Saga das Leben in einem kleinen sibirischen Dorf kurz nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Warwara folgt ihrem von der zaristischen Polizei deportierten Verlobten nach Sibirien und bleibt auch nach dessen Tod und nach der Revolution von 1917 dort. Sie will als Dorflehrerin eine neue, sozialistische Jugend erziehen – die sie 1941 dann in den Krieg ziehen lassen muss.
Der weltanschaulich engagierte und künstlerisch beachtenswerte Film wurde in Deutschland unter dem Titel “Erziehung der Gefühle” gezeigt.
Hanno scritto:
1.
L’âge ingrat. Nevers, Camille. In: Cahiers du Cinéma, 460, oct. 1992, p. 55-56
2.
«Bouge pas, meurs, ressuscite»”, in Universalia 1991.
In: Paris, Encyclopaedia Universalis, 1991, p. 452-53
3.
Le foutoir de Kanevski.
Daniélou, Laurent. In: Cahiers du Cinéma, 446, juil.-août 1991, p. 30-32
4.
Les rapaces.
Baecque, Antoine de. In: Cahiers du Cinéma, 457, 1992, p. 25-26
5.
«Nous les enfants du XXe siècle», documentaire couleur de Vitali Kanevski.
Atoneli, I.J.. In: Chronique d’Amnesty International, 96, nov. 1994, p. 24
Inoltre: 2006 , the Russian Film Almanac, nr. 6., sceneggiatura di V. K. Sul film futuro.
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