Svetlana Krivtsova read for us “Life in three volumes. Selected Literary Works» by Nikolai Burlyaev.
“The three-volume edition of Nikolai Burlyaev is, at first glance, a very personal publication, for his own people, like a photo album with family photographs. For the most part, the books are diary entries, individual impressions, poems, short essays about meetings with legendary and simply interesting contemporaries, personal photographs and comments on them. One reads and one gets the impression that the author is a passionate person, who does not hide his commitment, who has dedicated his life to serving the ideas of goodness and Orthodoxy. Gradually, the reading begins to complement the familiar image of Nikolai Burlyaev, who has been known since childhood for the roles of Vanya from Ivan’s Childhood and Boriska from Andrei Rublev, masterpieces by Andrei Tarkovsky. Perhaps it was the early experience of deep suffering (with the impressionability of his nature, it is obvious that the tragic roles in Tarkovsky’s films left such a mark as if he himself suffered the same as his characters), the encounter with the cruel, shadowy side of life paradoxically taught Burlyaev so keenly feel the good in life. In his own author’s and director’s work, he strives not for suffering and demonism, which so intrigues many talented people, he does not live a «rupture of the soul», but its integrity and harmony. Goodness and faith, mercy and love are the directorial and acting works of Nikolai Burlyaev about this.
The first volume is dedicated to Mikhail Lermontov. But rather, the story of the author’s falling in love with the poet, about whom Burlyaev made a film in 1986, acting in it as both a screenwriter and a leading actor. The picture caused a lot of controversy and criticism, but gave the author a reason for self-knowledge. In the book «My Lermontov» Nikolai Burlyaev collected diaries of that period, his own childhood photographs, photographs of his children and portraits of little Lermontov: a merger without borders, as happens in love. The second volume contains scripts for films about Bambi and Pushkin, poems, articles and speeches. Particularly fascinating are Burlyaev’s stories about the films in which he starred, full of respect and warmth, stories about colleagues — actors, directors. The last book tells the story of the Golden Knight International Film Festival, which has been uniting many, many creative people for 20 years.
Three volumes about good deeds, harmonious relationships, good people and eternal values. Agree — we have before us the rarest reading for the present time. Many will say — «it’s simple», but it turns out that simple things cease to be banal if you touch them with your heart.