Video: What's left behind the scenes of "Brother" and "Brother-2": how the cult films of the late twentieth century appeared
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Controversy about these works of the director Alexey Balabanov continue to this day. Someone claims that "Brother" and "Brother-2" - naive and primitive films, and someone calls them cult for a whole generation "film textbooks of the 1990s" and believes that Sergey Bodrov managed to create the image of a "hero of our time". Be that as it may, there is probably no person who has not seen these films. Balabanov himself did not even expect that his paintings would become so popular. After all, they were filmed, as they say, on sheer enthusiasm.
In the 1990s. the state stopped funding cinematography, and the production of feature films came to a standstill. Alexey Balabanov was one of the few directors who managed not only to stay afloat during the crisis, but also to become a cult figure in the cinema of the late twentieth century.
In 1996, at the Kinotavr festival, Alexei Balabanov met the young actor Sergei Bodrov. This was the beginning of their friendship and creative union. About his hero Bodrov later said: “I generally have a strange attitude towards him. He is both like me and not like me. And it's easier in some way, and more mature like … Well, in general, really, Brother !!!.
They had only 100 thousand dollars at their disposal, so during the filming they had to save on everything. They rented from each other in apartments and dachas, clothes were often chosen in their wardrobes and in second hand. The famous stretched sweater of Danila Bagrov was bought for 35 rubles. Money was spent only on film and shooting equipment, the actors were filmed almost free of charge.
After the release of the film, the actor Sergei Murzin, who played the bandit Krugly, had fans from the criminal world. Once he was even presented with a new foreign car - they considered it "undignified" that the actor was driving an old broken "five". Balabanov strove for maximum reliability in everything. Yuri Kuznetsov was filmed with real homeless people, and they believed that he was really one of them.
Not only films became cult, but also music, which was their integral part. In "Brother" it is "Nautilus Pompilius", in "Brother-2" - "Bi-2", "Spleen", Zemfira, "Agatha Christie" and others. The film crew specially came to Moscow for the concert of Vyacheslav Butusov, as extras used ordinary viewers, and the main characters were filmed without takes. In "Brother-2" songs "DDT" were supposed to sound, but Yuri Shevchuk refused to participate in the film, which he described as "a monstrous, terrible, disgusting, nationalist cult movie."
About how the idea to shoot a sequel to the film appeared, Bodrov later said: “After“Brother,”I once received a letter from a woman. Her youngest son is serving in Chechnya, the eldest is unemployed, sick, knocking around, drinking. The youngest son writes that he will return soon, and all the time asks about his favorite motorcycle, which he left … And now the woman writes that the motorcycle was stolen, crooks climbed in, his brother was beaten, and the money was also taken away. "What to do?" She asks. It's useless to go to the police … You were so great at the movies with these bandits, you and I watched the cassette together, and now he'll be back, I don't even know whether to tell him or not … And then I realized that this movie is something very important, and it means a lot to people … In general, we decided to shoot "Brother-2"."
In 2000, the second part of the film was released. The cost of shooting several times exceeded the budget of "Brother", as filmed not only in Russia, but also in America, in the criminal areas of Chicago. When the Americans, who were involved in providing the filming process, were asked to make a self-propelled gun, they did not understand what was at stake. Then the operator made it himself. The American in charge of special effects refused to guarantee the safety of filming this episode.
Producer Sergei Selyanov recalled: “Our American group treated us slightly patronizing, but not without fear. Indeed, what to expect from the Russians, who run around with a camera on the highway, drink beer in the car, trample the lawns and refuse stuntmen. They bring with them a suitcase of counterfeit money (almost $ 2,000,000), painstakingly printed with a color copier on Lenfilm. They need real police officers who, by the way, can arrest them for this. And they must shoot in a black area, where it’s scary to go even during the day”.
Irina Saltykova, a popular singer at that time, starred in Brother-2, and the shooting took place in her apartment. And here Balabanov wanted to achieve authenticity: a real weapon, a real TV presenter Ivan Demidov, a real Saltykov star and her real apartments.
In 2002 passed away under tragic circumstances Sergei Bodrov: tragedy in the Karmadon Gorge … And 11 years later, the director Alexei Balabanov was gone - he died of a heart attack.
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