The director, the script author Viktor Tikhomirov, the producer Natalia Debizheva and the actress Lyubov Tolkalina presented the film Eugene Telegin participating in the Russian Premiere Competition of 46th Moscow International Film Festival.
Eugene Telegin is an adaptation of Viktor Tikhomirov's book Eugene Telegin and Others following the path of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The setting is the youth community of rockers of 1980s–1990s. Love remains the main topic, as "to love all ages are obedient" and it chooses whom to give its favour and whom to punish. In the background, there is a conflict of genuine life and art with "false thoughtfulness", impossibility to avoid disappointment and remorse. But it is always possible to see light ahead.
Viktor Tikhomirov: "Pushkin's image has been close by since my childhood. My mother was a teacher, there was Pushkin's portrait on the wall, which looked really strange because of the whiskers, I couldn't understand how come it could be attractive at all. That's why I have a film Pushkin Did Not Like Cheek Kisses which might explain something partly. Earlier I postponed this next film, and I never thought it could transform into something like this. However, at my age there is no place for embarrassment: I already have more sufferings than Pushkin. Well, I haven't shot at a duel, but maybe I will. Then I had some critical comments, I beg Pushkin researchers' pardon. I felt Pushkin simply got tired of writing this novel and he cut it short. Because it stops at the most interesting moment. Pushkin researchers give high and deep explanations for this, but they often backslide to wombling and false thoughtfulness. I am not afraid of all this. I just depict what I like. My previous film "Chapayev-Chapayev" clung to Chapayev's fame, if I may put it like this. The Mitki even have such a phrase "scratch a doll's nose". So, I scratched Chapayev's doll nose and then I scratched "Pushkin's" nose. Well, it's no big deal, and, again, postmodernism is leading the way".
Lyubov Tolkalina: "I and Viktor Ivanovich have known each other for quite a long time. And I visit his workshop in St. Petersburg with pleasure, we have many common acquaintances. So, he sent me his book Eugene Telegin and Others, which is a great book, by the way. I was astonished by Viktor's boldness, as he took to adapt my favourite novel in such a "surgical" manner. I feel some new cinema language emerged from this film. If Sergey Solovyev sat here right now, he would probably like this film because it in some way builds on Bananan's dreams. It is a discovery of a new area, which the documentalist Sergey Debizhev called a new Russian sincerity. Russian neo-romanticism".
Natalia Debizheva: "It seems to me people are tired of the Hollywood pattern when in the middle of a film you understand how it will end. This is not for us. This mystery, this great mystery, for which our audience is prepared, is the groundwork for future cinema based on our internal, some sacred dreams. I hope that this film, despite its festival focus, as many might think, will reach wider audiences".
Eugene Telegin is an adaptation of Viktor Tikhomirov's book Eugene Telegin and Others following the path of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The setting is the youth community of rockers of 1980s–1990s. Love remains the main topic, as "to love all ages are obedient" and it chooses whom to give its favour and whom to punish. In the background, there is a conflict of genuine life and art with "false thoughtfulness", impossibility to avoid disappointment and remorse. But it is always possible to see light ahead.
Viktor Tikhomirov: "Pushkin's image has been close by since my childhood. My mother was a teacher, there was Pushkin's portrait on the wall, which looked really strange because of the whiskers, I couldn't understand how come it could be attractive at all. That's why I have a film Pushkin Did Not Like Cheek Kisses which might explain something partly. Earlier I postponed this next film, and I never thought it could transform into something like this. However, at my age there is no place for embarrassment: I already have more sufferings than Pushkin. Well, I haven't shot at a duel, but maybe I will. Then I had some critical comments, I beg Pushkin researchers' pardon. I felt Pushkin simply got tired of writing this novel and he cut it short. Because it stops at the most interesting moment. Pushkin researchers give high and deep explanations for this, but they often backslide to wombling and false thoughtfulness. I am not afraid of all this. I just depict what I like. My previous film "Chapayev-Chapayev" clung to Chapayev's fame, if I may put it like this. The Mitki even have such a phrase "scratch a doll's nose". So, I scratched Chapayev's doll nose and then I scratched "Pushkin's" nose. Well, it's no big deal, and, again, postmodernism is leading the way".
Lyubov Tolkalina: "I and Viktor Ivanovich have known each other for quite a long time. And I visit his workshop in St. Petersburg with pleasure, we have many common acquaintances. So, he sent me his book Eugene Telegin and Others, which is a great book, by the way. I was astonished by Viktor's boldness, as he took to adapt my favourite novel in such a "surgical" manner. I feel some new cinema language emerged from this film. If Sergey Solovyev sat here right now, he would probably like this film because it in some way builds on Bananan's dreams. It is a discovery of a new area, which the documentalist Sergey Debizhev called a new Russian sincerity. Russian neo-romanticism".
Natalia Debizheva: "It seems to me people are tired of the Hollywood pattern when in the middle of a film you understand how it will end. This is not for us. This mystery, this great mystery, for which our audience is prepared, is the groundwork for future cinema based on our internal, some sacred dreams. I hope that this film, despite its festival focus, as many might think, will reach wider audiences".