"…Something From Mozart, Please!"
© Svetlana Ovchinnikova and Igor Ovchinnikov, "Moscow Magazine", October-November 1998
© Translated by Anna Romashkevitch
There's a proverb: "Those who trust in fate, it leads, those who don't, it drags". Oleg Menshikov seems to be a selfleader and a selfdriven. He himself makes his fate. And there's no one for him to blame.
And there's no reason for blaming: he is the winner of almost all possible prises in cinema and theatre - from the most prestigious Russian award "Triumph" to the most honorable British the Laurence Olivier Prize. The main parts in Oscar-winning "Burnt by the Sun" and still not so well-known "Barber of Siberia" were written especially for him. However, any part played by Menshikov seems to be written only for him...
A PROPOS. Two superstars aspire the opening of Menshikov as an actor. Nonna Mordukova, one of the top 10 best actresses of the world, insists that it was her who found a photo of student Menshikov and showed it to Nikita Mikhalkov in order to shoot Oleg in "Kinfolk". And Nikita Mikhalkov says that he noticed Menshikov among Oleg Tabakov's students when they were hanging around the shooting area of "Oblomov". He remembered him and invited into "Kinfolk".
We must disappoint Nikita Sergeevich - Oleg Menshikov has never been either Oleg Tabakov's student or played at his theatre. Menshikov graduated from Shepkin Drama School at Maly Theatre.
THE BEGINNING
After the graduation he was invited to Ostrovsky House [unofficial name for Maly Theatre]. But he became popular earlier - when he still was a student and made his debut in "Kinfolk". His part was an almost silent and a very long close-up. And silently he said so much and so bitterly that everybody began to speak: "Mikhalkov shoots some unique actor..."
In the graduation performance "The Stairway of Glory" he played a young creature - ingenious to virtuosity and liberated to impudence. He acted with almost a musical comedy grotesque, dancing cancan of his own staging and elegantly jumping from a significant height with an umbrella in his hand.
And his Kostik in "Pokrovskie Gate" - nostalgic and beautiful film by Mikhail Kozakov - was so skillfully and winningly charming that it seemed he could live with similar roles quite comfortably for a long time. Playing brilliant playboys. And collecting admirers. When critics compared Menshikov with young Delon they were not exaggerating...
A PROPOS. Menshikov is spoken about much and willingly. Colleagues, friends. Not long ago the four talked about Oleg. They told the truth and only the truth dressed with a great deal of tenderness. Here are the fragments of this conversation.
FROM A NOT SERIOUS INTERVIEW.
Corr.: Is Menshikov a romantic hero? A character actor? Or a unique intellectual actor?
- He, as Oleg Dal, can play anything: a buffoon in "King Lear" or Zilov in "Duck Hunt" by Vampilov.
- Take any good play and you will find there a part for Oleg. It may be Chatsky, it may be Khlestakov.
- It's not even an individuality, it's a theatrical character - Menshikov. By the way, in "Invitation to Execution" by Nabokov he wanted to play not the part of Cincinnati, but a character part of Piere.
Corr.: Is it true that he himself wrote the dramatization based on Nabokov?
- The dramatization was ordered to three venerable playwrights, but they didn't manage it. We were in despair and even wanted to refuse the performance. And at this moment Oleg, sitting peacefully on the sofa, asks lazily: "How much do they pay for the dramatization?" - "Eight hundred roubles", I say. - "Well, I can do it". We nearly took offence at him - it was not the right time for jokes. But he did it! Exactly what we needed. Identical to Nabokov and very theatrical.
CONTINUATION
The Theatre of Soviet Army, where Menshikov was called up, was glorified by him in Dostoevsky. It might seem he is doomed to play Myshkin in "Idiot". As they say in theatre - "according to his psychophysical qualities". But he was given the part of Ganya Ivolgin. But his Ivolgin possessed the vulnerability of Myshkin. Only it was the vulnerability of mediocrity in a marginal situation of mortal choice. Menshikov's hero was not traditionally disgusting - the public wasn't allowed to wipe their feet on this soul.
Menshikov played the part tragically. Without contradiction, but enlarging Dostoevsky's ideas. There's multiplication the role by oneself (necessary for a big actor) - and then in theatre, as well as in mathematics a product is created. When an actor is small, he divides the part by himself. And the result is only a quotient.
By the way, when asked about the most meaningful things in his life, Menshikov answers with Dostoevsky's words: "A human being is a mystery. It should be discovered, and if it takes you the whole life, never say you've wasted time. I devote myself to this mystery, because I want to be a human being". Having served out, Menshikov was invited by Valery Fokin to the Ermolova Theatre. By that time he had acted in a dozen of films. Destroying every stereotype which critics tried to catch and formulate after each of his roles. Thus, in Balayan's "Flights in Dreams and Reality" charming youth was just a mask hiding tough, all-conquering - or all-destroying? - selfconfidence. That indifference which was becoming the characteristic of the generation. And Menshikov expressed his generation quite frankly.
And also in the performance "Sport Scenes of the Year 1981" by Edward Radzinsky where he played Serge. Played having cancelled his previous conquerness, having mixed his charm - there was "antiMenshikov" on stage. An ignoramus with a plait, week-willed and powerless, nearly asexual dweeb, clutching to love as if to crutches, a milksop, spreading under the feet - trample me but never leave... The next premiere of the Ermolova Theatre was "The Second year of Freedom" where Menshikov courageously betrayed his youth and charm. His Robespierre is a dryish intellectual in eye-glasses with his hair combed back, distilled bearer of revolutionary ideas, reflexing, possessing might and power tyrant. A tyrant? Or a victim of bloody machine of terror started by him?
The actor refused in this part any external brightness. It seemed he never raised his voice during the performance. But plain scientific and historic thoughts turned to be amazingly vivid on his lips, and his Robespierre suffered because he couldn't join them into real life and real death... He was great and frightful, appearing from the depths of unexpectedly lighted sedan.
FROM A NOT SERIOUS INTERVIEW
Corr.: What is a Menshikov's mystery? About which even not lavish in praises Mikhalkov said: "Menshikov is a man with a mystery..." What is there inside of Oleg?
- There's a director inside of Oleg. The famous "N" ("Nijinski") after the failure of many directors was produced by him.
A PROPOS. Oleg started directing. Not betraying his acting skills. There's a striking episode in "Prisoner of the Mountains" when the shackled prisoners start to dance to the song by Armstrong. As the director of the film, Sergey Bodrov, confessed: "It was Menshikov's idea, he directed this musical episode and rehearsed it with the partner to the smallest details. When simple-hearted Americans watched our material, they cried out with one accord - "Menshikov is a young De Niro!"
He's compared sometimes with Delon, sometimes with De Niro, sometimes with Andrey Mironov... But he is on his own. He is separate. Out of the flock. He is Menshikov.
Actor and director who was co-producer of famous "Bashmachkin" having toured round half of the world. Who now has produced "Woe from Wit". The preformance tours a lot. And it is said to have huge success.
FROM A NOT SERIOUS INTERVIEW
- Did you know Oleg graduated from music school the grade of violin? And plays the piano, sings perfectly, dances and fences?
- Oleg is a very closed person. Though on the surface - open-hearted, life and soul of a company. But the more famous he becomes, the more he closes.
- On the surface he is a charmingly smiling superman, constantly showing somebody. And you get a kind of a creative orgasm from his theatre and cinema works: unearthly, incredible feeling. His appearance on stage creates a holiday. Not without a reason Vanessa Redgrave chose him!
Corr.: And how did Vanessa Redgrave choose him for the part of Esenin?
- She examined the actors who came to demonstration. She went to the performances. And accidentally came to "Caligula"...
CALIGULA
Menshikov played him in the performance staged "Under the Roof" of the Mossovet Theatre by Petr Fomenko. Circled by viewers, nearly at the ends of their noses, during more than two hours Ceasar Caligula - Oleg Menshikov was seeing the light, raging, amusing himself, experimenting, killing, dying himself and leaving for immortality.
It is hard to picture oneself a play as great, and at the same time as unactable, as the work by Camus. It's not even a play, but a philosophical dispute. And there are no harder part than the main part of this play: some continuous heart-rending monologue, infernal mixture of bloody cruelty and lyricism, despair and recklessness, weakness and power, treachery and sincerity...
Actor Menshikov played actor Caligula. Pretending to be a child, playing a cruel tyrant. Almighty juvenile, absorbed in this game and depressed by it. He makes carnivals, wearing bathing caps, woman's wigs, some impossible costumes. He portrays gods and elements, himself - dead and ill. He imitates the flight of a plane and grimaces of a courtesan. He mocks at both The Most High and his suite, he turns his palace into a theatre, but in this theatre it is not cranberry juice that flows, but human blood, even when a comedy is on...
In this buffoonishly tragic role Menshikov charmed Vanessa Redgrave.
ESENIN
And left for Great Britain to rehearse and act in "When She Danced" in the Globe Theatre - a play about Sergey Esenin and Isadora Dunkan. The performance wasn't on in Russia. But here's what Andrey Voznesensky, a poet who saw the play in London wrote about it: "The performance was the hit of the season. At the English stage the Poet (Oleg Menshikov) speaks only Russian, Isadora (Vanessa Redgrave) responds in English. What a magnetism and something besides technique, you must have to make the audience hold its breath and listen to poems and confessions in a foreign language!.. Without make-up, brown-eyed, dark-haired contemporary actor, foolishly rocking on a chandelier over the whole stage like a pendulum, understood and revealed irresistible essence of every poet's earthly destiny - Misunderstanding and Superunderstanding. That strangled the poet. I came to the performance invited by Vanessa and left it staggered by Menshikov".
Oleg Menshikov was awarded with The Laurence Olivier Prise for the role of Esenin. The first and the only of Russian actors. Later, in Paris, in Comedy Theatre he played Esenin with Isadora - Annie Dupreit. And again in England, in English this time - Ikharev in "Gamblers" by Gogol.
FROM A NOT SERIOUS INTERVIEW
- Everything in Oleg's life seems "so easy".
- Maybe because - let's call things by their right names - he is just a genius.
- He is a mammoth, do you understand?
Corr.: Frankly, not exactly.
- He still doesn't have a car. And taxi-men ask him amazed: "Is your Mercedes in a service center?"
- Unselfish. Absolutely. He will give you the last he has.
- He is a non-typical person for a theatre environment: honest, pure.
- He is always falling in love. And very soon falls out of it.
Corr.: And how does he part with the ladies?
- Beautifully. And with great difficulty.
- As every honest man.
- If he had a house, a car, diamonds, he would leave everything to them...
- But with Oleg's nature he will never have them...
Corr.: Ladies?
- A house, a car and diamonds.
Corr.: Why did he quit a repertory theatre?
- He prefers to choose roles and directors. Oleg is invited to different theatres, to play different parts, but he waits for his one...
- He never acts in films even abroad, if he doesn't like the part. Refuses both the money and prestige.
Corr.: What does he like from his already played roles?
- He likes "The Pokrovskie Gate", "Duba-Duba", "Burnt by the Sun"...
- "Caligula", though one day he said: enough...
- "Nijinski".
NIJINSKI
This performance of Bogis Agency was composed by Oleg. And he acted together with Alexandr Feklistov. A critic wrote very well: "There's a doubtless coincidence between Menshikov and Nijinski - both are above the earth". A genius played a genius: the rarest and stunning combination. A genius played an insane genius. Whether pretending in Gamlet's style, whether truly suffering, brokenly catching the rare moments of blooming... On the verge of pathology and art, but never beyond...
And at the end the actor, in some reckless leap or flight, flew over the stage and - flew out of the window. It was the second floor, by the way. There was nothing impossible for him in theatre. And in cinema too. What a miracle did he make in "Burnt by the Sun" from the very first appearance to evoke an inexplicable (till the very last scene) alarm in a viewer?
Nikita Mikhalkov: "I don't know, I don't understand... This easiness, just like Mozart... This is his own method. What is it? A mystery."
A Mozart mystery.
A PROPOS. When Oleg is asked where he is really happy, he answers: "At the piano..." And it seems if you ask him: "...something from Mozart, please!" - he will play. Caligula. Esenin. Nijinski...
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LIFE. PRESS
