In 1980 Suren Shakhbazyan starts to work on the film "I Wait and Hope" both as director and director of photography. Partly his directing attempt was caused by a tragic event. His friend and director Sergey Paradzhanov who was spiritually close to him, and also professed bright vividness, picturesque and metaphorical origin in cinema, was imprisoned in the late 70s. Shakhbazyan couldn't find a colleague as close as Paradzhanov. And for his directing debut he chose Viktor Smirnov's story about war which could hardly result in an exquisitely bright production.
...Menshikov was to play the main character Shurka Dominiani aka Shurok. Such work was a piece of luck for a 19-year-old student. Though at first sight Oleg didn't look like a courageous soldier, tall, broad-shouldered, bright-eyed fellow - the usual partisan heroes type.
...But if you read the story "I Wait and Hope" more carefully, it becomes obvious why director's choice was a young man of not a heroic appearance, but rather a contemporary Moscow boy with a guitar. First of all, the last name of the character is Dominiani. In fact, after his father Shurka - Shurok - is a descendant of an ancient Italian family, a distant ancestor, "one of impoverished European people having arrived in immemorial times and Russified quickly". The revolution of 1917 mercilessly scattered about the country the intelligent and wealthy Dominianis who settled in Ukraine. One of those lucky to survive - educated and well-bread graduate of Engineering School, Lieutenant Alexandr Dominiani - didn't emigrate as his relatives. When the first wave of revolution subsided, he came back to Kiev, married a farmer girl, who born him five children. Shurka was their eldest son and equally took after both parents, but still more after his father - when a child he was often called a "barin's son". Later he was often beaten for his unusual family name which was "improper" for a worker's society.
In the partisan troop Shurka studies fascist papers thus giving the Centre important strategic information. He is special in the troop, not like the others. Rough battle-hardened men hold guns and rifles. Shurka studies papers aside… Aside - this is the beginning of Oleg Menshikov-actor theme, which later will break out in capital letters on his way: aloofness, separateness of his characters absorbed in their own problems, internal freedom.
The shooting has begun when another director appeared in the crew - Roman Balayan, known for his talented screen version of Chekhov's "Kashtanka" and even the more interesting cinema interpretation of Turgenev's "Lone Wolf". Being a close Suren Shakhbazyan's friend, Balayan didn't accept any official functions. He simply decided to help shooting as he understood how hard it were to be a director and a director of photography simultaneously. Balayan mainly intended to work with actors and he especially succeeded in it in his own films.
"I came, looked at the material and didn't like it at all", recollects Balayan. "Including the young actor who played the leading part. The same evening we got acquainted. It happened in a make-up room. We cracked jokes, laughed, drunk a little. And then I liked Oleg. He seemed amusing, lively, interesting…
Of course in some way he intentionally played up to me, because he realized that there was another director in the crew and he would have to work with me… And I felt at once he was a very talented boy. May be even supertalented. A kind of non-cinema face - smart, intelligent. Witty, cheerful, sometimes touching… In a word, we started to work with him. And I found out that Oleg is actually is actor in his nature - in the positive meaning of the word. There are actors who are actors only when they are in frame or on stage. At that they can be talented and really great masters. But in everyday life they as if fade and don't show themselves. And this boy, Oleg, remained Actor all the time. Not because he was good at singing, dancing, playing the guitar or piano. Acting was his nature.
Once I watched a TV-program with the famous Spanish dancer Jose Antonio. Just like Oleg Menshikov he remained Actor all the time, no matter what he was doing - dancing or sitting in a café, talking to someone, laughing, listening… The same unique artistry. And in Menshikov it immediately stroke my eye. At all that Oleg is really shy, and reserved in his emotions. Like this he was and like this he remains, though very few can see his shyness…
And I realized that this boy must be promoted to be seriously noticed by public, and I knew that our film "I Wait and Hope" will hardly help him to attract the film-makers' attention he really deserved. But fortune smiled upon us…
In work Oleg proved to be light, quickly responding to improvisations and ideas. He was easy to talk to - educated, sometimes very ironic, but even then despite his age he was a personality…
Frankly, directors sometimes can be disdainful to actors, we feel kind of a kinder garden teachers with them. Like, we, directors, are grown ups, and they are just kids. Though I love actors, I know this sin of mine. But I felt an equal in Oleg. In some ways he was experienced in profession, in some ways - not yet… I taught him to pause which is very important in cinema. I taught him the basis of shooting life, which he of course couldn't know - it was his first shooting experience.
When I started to work with Menshikov, I didn't know that nearly at the same time he was confirmed as Shurka Dominiani, Oleg was also confirmed for a small episode in Nikita Mikhalkov's film "Kinfolk". And a sudden phone-call from Moscow to the back of beyond where we shot nature - Nikita Sergeyevich calls and asks to let Menshikov go for three days to his shooting! "You've gone crazy!" I told to my friend Mikhalkov. "First, I'm not a director here. Second, Menshikov plays a leading part and it means he must be always in the crew". But Mikhalkov keeps insisting: "Please, let him go, it is only three days…" and suddenly as if by the way drops: "Oh, his head will be shaved". I resist again, keep telling him I have no right to let people down. Moreover, formally Oleg is at monthly contract with us, and you haven't signed the proper contract with him as I could understand. And after all, why didn't you tell me about it earlier?
Saying all this I realize that if Oleg runs about only once in Nikita Mikhalkov's film, it would be enough for his name to be known… For film-makers to ask: "Who is this guy?" because everybody knows that Mikhalkov doesn't shoot ungifted people…
After all I managed to let Oleg Menshikov go to Moscow for three days. And then I went to our make-up woman and asked directly: "Do you like Oleg Menshikov?" "I adore him!" she cried. "Fine!" I explained to her that while Oleg was in Moscow we must choose a wig for him imitating the haircut he had had during the shooting before his departure. She had done everything and we met Oleg at the station with this wig when he came back. Put the wig on - everything is wonderful. But frankly, when the shooting began I was a bit uneasy. Suren Shakhbazyan is a professional cameraman and with his one eye sees more then us with our two. But he looked at Oleg through the camera and asked him: "Have you washed your head?" "Yes", answered scared Menshikov. "That's right, you should've done it everyday. Thank God, now you have good haircut…" When the film was shot we confessed to Suren everything…"
Roman Balayan was absolutely right. Oleg Menshikov's debut film almost immediately fell into oblivion. Not in vain it is listed neither in reference-books, nor in cinema dictionaries. Though today - through traditional shell of canonic portrait of a scout sacrificing his life to the escape of the troop, to the victory - some traces of unusual character can be seen. Special nerviness, impulsiveness, plays of emotions. Sense of his mission in this world…
(from the book by Elga Lyndina "Oleg Menshikov", Moscow - Panorama, 1999)
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