Speaker A
I’ve always adored Chekhov. And then the idea of filming in the Soviet Union for 9 months of shooting.
Marina Vlady shares her memories of Vladimir Vysotsky, Soviet Russia, and her artistic journey in an intimate interview.
Key Takeaways
- Vysotsky was a beloved but censored artist in the Soviet Union, with a complex legacy.
- Marina Vlady’s personal and artistic life was deeply intertwined with Soviet cultural and political realities.
- Her literary and theatrical work reflects a commitment to preserving Russian cultural memory.
- Modern cultural environments in Russia and France face significant financial and political challenges.
- Understanding historical and personal context is key to appreciating Vysotsky’s art and Vlady’s narrative.
What the video covers
- Marina Vlady discusses her admiration for Chekhov and her experience filming in the Soviet Union for nine months.
- She recounts meeting Vladimir Vysotsky during the shoots and their subsequent life together amid political difficulties.
- Vysotsky faced censorship and was only allowed to work in theater, with his poetic and musical work underground.
- Vlady lived in Moscow for 12 years and explains the complexity of understanding Vysotsky’s dense and layered lyrics.
- She shares personal family history, including her father’s role as a Russian pilot in WWI and her mother’s emigration.
- Vlady wrote a book about her life with Vysotsky, expressing the pain and necessity of telling their story.
- She critiques modern culture’s focus on violence and pornography and prefers vintage films and theater.
- Vlady is preparing a theater play about Casanova searching for his estranged mother, highlighting challenges in cultural funding.
- She reflects on the state of freedom and self-expression in Soviet times versus modern Russia and France.
- Vlady’s Russian language skills developed over time, enhancing her connection to her heritage and artistic work.
Chapters
- 00:00Admiration for Chekhov and Soviet filming experience
- 00:22Meeting Vysotsky and life during filming
- 00:55Vysotsky’s censorship and underground work
- 01:18Challenges of being a couple and Vysotsky’s complex lyrics
- 01:51Vysotsky’s identity and patriotism
- 03:08Family history and Vlady’s literary work
- 04:10Writing about Vysotsky and cultural critiques
- 05:21Favorite films and cultural reflections
- 06:04Current theater project and cultural funding challenges
- 08:10Learning Russian and personal growth
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
That’s not 3 weeks, it's 9 months. So I invited my mother there, who hadn't been to Russia for 50 years after the revolution.
Speaker A
And everything went like that. My children were visiting me all summer long before school started. So all of that was very good. And most importantly, I met Vysotsky during those shoots. So that’s why this film is very dear to me. Basically, we
Speaker A
started living together with Vysotsky, and then everything became very difficult because he was absolutely hated. The authorities hated him. He was considered an odious personality.
Speaker A
They wouldn't let him work, except at the theater, of course. Well, acting in films, but as a poet, as a performer of his own lyrics and songs, they wouldn't give him the chance. He always did that underground.
Speaker A
So it was all very complicated. And we were offered several films together, but the censors always refused.
Speaker A
Just because we were a couple. Just because he was Vysotsky. Well, I lived in Moscow for 12 years. It was 12 years, after all. Understanding Vysotsky is quite difficult, even for some Soviet people. His lyrics are very dense and have many layers of subtext
Speaker A
too. Of course, I learned to love him and his poems over time. But his voice, of course, captivated me immediately.
Speaker A
Overall, my father was a singer, he also had that same kind of voice, well, you know. Vysotsky wasn't obligated to leave. He didn't want to leave. He wanted to live in Moscow. He was a Muscovite. And besides, he had his own
Speaker A
audience in Russia. Nobody in the world knew him at all. Well, he gave a few concerts there in Mexico or in New York, or in America, or in France. But that’s nothing, really. There were a few hundred people, mostly Soviet folks
Speaker A
from the embassy and so on. So he had no outlet for his art. Besides, he loved Russia; he was a great patriot.
Speaker A
No, he didn't even think about moving somewhere else. My father arrived in France in 1915 to fight for liberty, equality, and friendship as a pilot. So he’s definitely not an émigré.
Speaker A
He’s a Russian man who wanted to fight against the Germans. And he fought for 3 years. And by the way, he took a bullet and was in the hospital for, I think, a year and a half and so
Speaker A
on. My mother was an émigré, yes, she left Russia in 1919. Well, I also wrote a whole book about that, My Cherry Orchard, because my grandmother had a large cherry orchard. Imagine that, near Kursk. Just like that. I wrote the
Speaker A
entire story of my mom, my mother. And the book was translated into Russian, by the way, very well. You know, writing a book is an art, it's not like a conversation between two people in front of a camera, on top of that.
Speaker A
Was it difficult for you to write your first book? No, because it was specifically about my meeting and my life with Vysotsky.
Speaker A
Why he died at 42, and so on. It was a kind of cry. It was a very painful book, but it was necessary. I needed to, and I needed to tell how we lived and what it was like. There. And then I realized
Speaker A
that I could write, and I started writing. And I have written 10 books already. I don't really like all this, well, pornography, all this violence, yes, everything that is very trendy now, showing how people die, how people love
Speaker A
, how people tear themselves apart and so on. I’m not very interested in that. So I mostly watch old, old movies.
Speaker A
And what are your favorite movies? Oh, that is such a question, it is practically impossible to answer. Well, I adore Tarkovsky, for example. He was our friend. He was at my home until the end of his life, practically. Uh, well,
Speaker A
I love music and theater most of all, so I don't watch much cinema. And when I do watch cinema, I watch vintage films most of all. What was happening there at that time? How interesting it was on one hand, because there was an
Speaker A
amazing cultural life in Moscow, of course, I'm not speaking for the whole country, I wasn't everywhere, but, of course, in terms of freedom and possibilities for self-expression, yes, self-expression, it was simply nightmarish. Ooh, but now there are also many problems in
Speaker A
that sense, so it hasn't improved in that regard. So everywhere has its pros and cons, or how?
Speaker A
Yes, well the cons are very big for me, in my opinion. Now now even more so.
Speaker A
Now, perhaps not more, but it’s the same level, a police-state sort of cap. I am currently preparing a play for the theater.
Speaker A
And where? Well, for now there is no theater and no money. So for now, it's just a project.
Speaker A
And what is the idea of the project? It's a play about Casanova, who searches for and finds his mother, whom he hasn't seen for several decades. And they are both already old, well, elderly. Both of them are already on in
Speaker A
years, let’s say, and she is an actress, she was a very famous Venetian actress, his mother. And this play is about their meeting, how they meet, love each other and hate each other.
Speaker A
And, well, it’s like that, it’s very interesting. I was offered a play, it’s a group of actors and a director who are offering me a role. So I said yes, while they are looking for money for the theater. There.
Speaker A
That is to say, here in France it is also difficult to get money for various projects.
Speaker A
Well, you know that culture is in a bad state in France right now, always. Well, all the money, yes, they cut off all the aid to small troupes. This is a small troupe. These are not very famous people. So the last
Speaker A
time I performed in the theater was two years ago with Marcel Maréchal. But that was a big production. There were 12 of us on stage. I played three roles there. My Russian was a child's language. Then I lived in Russia, then
Speaker A
I started to read and write in Russian. Things I didn't know how to do. Well, I could write something there with letters, like a child. No.
Topics:Marina VladyVladimir VysotskySoviet UnionRussian cultureChekhovtheatercensorshipRussian literatureSoviet historyartistic freedom
