The beginning of “The Beginning”. Excerpts from the discussion of the screenplay by E. Gabrilovich and G. Panfilov

Abstract

The publication is concerned with the discussion of the screenplay (“literary script” in the Russian screenwriting terminology) of the film, which was released in 1970 under the title “The Beginning”. Excerpts from the previously unpublished discussion of the screenplay at the Artistic Council of the Second Creative Association of the Lenfilm Studios on January 14, 1969, in the presence of one of the screenplay’s co-authors and the future director of the film, Gleb Panfilov, shows both the emerging general attitude towards the future film at the studio and the typical objections that fellow filmmakers directed at the theme and the construction of the screenplay. In particular, the very name of the future picture is being analyzed; as well as the division of its plot into “layers” or storylines and, in particular, the “layer” of filmmaking itself (the career of a film actor, the working conditions on set, etc.); the juxtaposition of the heroine and the characters surrounding her, which turns out to be the most important ideological moment of the screenplay for the representatives of Soviet film industry; and, finally, the ending of the film, which has not yet been worked out in the screenplay, but outlines for which, however, are already discernible in the discussion. Such materials relating to the making of key films in the history of Russian cinema help not only to clarify their genesis, but also to visualise the functioning of the Soviet film production system, as well as the formation of its themes and style at a crucial moment of the transition from the cinema of the Thaw to that of Stagnation.