On our plans and the Higher Powers

"Do you love planned days?"

This question was recently addressed to me by a close person. I could not unambiguously answer this question "yes" or "no", but during our dialogue we just came to the conclusion that it is often necessary to plan the days, because otherwise I will forget half of those things that I have to do. The probability of an enterprise quite often depends on various factors, and plans start branching out, because in fact you could not know which branch will work and which one will fail. Sometimes it happens that something intrudes into a carefully planned schedule, something which forces us to move away from all schedules and plans, or be more and more late for each of the subsequent meetings. In any case, it seems to me that the planning of the day is a kind of discipline, by following which we just learn to be prepared for any surprise, be it an unpleasant coincidence, a pleasant meeting or an amazing adventure.

There is also a category of disruptions of our plans called force majeure. These are situations when we are forced to submit to the will of the Higher Powers. Such situations are specially noted in official papers and legal documents, with special reservations that, so to say, in case of force majeure, this or that side is not responsible for the consequences. The situation is not pleasant, so when we hear "force majeure" negative associations unconsciously appear in our minds. However, sometimes the Higher Forces create small, sometimes insignificant or inconspicuous force majeures, which cause some surprises to happen.

This year the annual Armmono Festival was held from April 29 to May 3. Fortunately, these dates basically coincided with the days off and holidays celebrated in our country, and so I dissolved in the theater halls, running from one to another in between performances to catch up with the start. As always, regular viewers managed to make friends, maintained interesting conversations, made the atmosphere of the festival even more festive.

A couple of weeks before the festival, one of my new acquaintances, a promising young actor, invited me to attend their graduate production. I'd just seen some photographs of the stage layout, and I was very interested in what will come out of it all. I promised to come, and so I was waiting for the announcement. And so, a few days before the festival, I am getting an invitation from this very actor, I am agree to attend, I am opening the schedule for the upcoming week to add a note... and I realize that the premiere falls on the very middle of the third day of the festival – May 1. "Well, I'll have to miss three performances: a mono-opera (I have not yet seen such performances yet), a performance by a famous actress from Ukraine, and one of our debuts, which were quite many this year.

No. The play to which I was invited was not that force majeure I am going to talk here about. Those were a bottle of beer with a nourishing cheburek (deep-fried flat patties filled with minced meat), which I, having got hungry, bought after the planned visit of the first of the 1^st of May performances. I was sitting on a bench in the garden near the Republic Square, I was eating and drinking without any rush, and during that process something somehow made me believe that between 17:00, which was the end of the very debut that I was going to miss, and 17:00, which was supposed to be the start of the play, which I had to visit, there were enough minutes and seconds for me to have time to run from the Sundukyan State Academic Theater to the National Theater. In reality, the distance between them is 0.87 miles, which usually can be traversed in 17-18 minutes.

So now I had to hurry to make it to the beginning of the debut "Վերադառնում եմ, մոռացեք..." ("I am returning, forget about it..."). Fed and happy, I was ready for any continuation of the day. After all, I could get out before the end of this performance, to be in time for the beginning of another one. Having got into the space under the main stage, I realized that I would have to stand behind a massive beam that would cover 80% of the view I got if I had to sit. But I could move freely, and so I kept track of what was happening on stage. And on the stage a young actress Nvard Dudukchyan (Նվարդ Դուդուկչյան) was telling the story of a woman who lived in those cold and hungry years in which I happened to live. She painted images and situations so accurately that I was going from bitter memories into optimistic laughter, out of admiration for the beauty of the human nature into the darkness and cold of that time.

The only thing I did not quite understand was her age: the debutante looked very fresh, young, but she was about thirty years old, no less.

And I understood all the rest, I accepted it, and accepted again and so for an hour, while she was devoting herself to her play. I liked what I see more and more, and I realized that I would definitely be late for that another performance, but I did not resist. I increasingly believed in what I saw, more and more often repeating "Yes! Yes! Yes!" inside of me, my spirit was calm, and I felt euphoria of happiness, when suddenly ...

... someone’s cell phone rang.

Not only people in our audience do not turn their phones off prior to the beginning of a performance. This disease is inherent in all. I remember how during two out of the three Peter Hammill concerts in London this year at the very beginning of the songs (with quite a dramatic content) someone’s cell phone started ringing. But then the person in the audience, embarrassed, interrupted the call, turned the phone off and tried not to meet the eyes of those who were there until they forgot about him (or her). But in our case, a man collapsed in his seat in the middle (!) of the first (!!) row answered (!!!) the call and, as if nothing had happened, began to find out his relationships with someone.

This was the force-majeure that was due to happen to Nvard, and it depended solely on her through which of the branches of the unforeseen, unplanned situation she would get out of it. "Hold on! Hold on! Do not break! Take it! He will finish his stupid conversation soon..."

...

I had to hurry after the performance, but the audience kept on and on and on applauding, congratulating, wiping away tears and glowing with smiles, but I had to tell her one phrase, and only after that I could leave the theater. "It was a debut worthy of Triumph," I said (this is the name of a certain category of the festival awards).

Nvard is an unusual person (as well as each of us). The range of her interests is really pleasing, the desire to create commands high respect, and the openness with which she challenges the new, gives confidence that our youth deserves admiration and attention. Confusion with age was resolved when I found out that she was not yet twenty. She was among those who came to my concert at the end of June and we even had some time to briefly talk in "how are you doing?" manner.

A week ago, I learned that a slightly modified version of the same performance was to be played on the 3^rd of July in the Winter Hall of the Sundukyan State Academic Theater. "Winter – that would be great with our forty-degree heat!"

Despite the evening time, the heat was still persisting, but we somehow coped with it. This time I was lucky with my seat: I was sitting in the first row next to the left side of the stage, so I could see everything that had escaped me on the first of May ... But were there, during the debut, those very tears, real tears, tears alive that I was seeing now? I do not remember, but it was not important now, now, when she was once again telling the story that happened in the years when she was not even born, and when listening to it, we were crying, smiling, weeping again, then laughing – and applauding! She was talking about those cold days, wearing a few woolen sweaters, a hat, gloves, winter boots, a handkerchief (yes, we clothed like that in those years!), and understanding how unbearably hot it was now for her, we still felt that cold of the early 90's. Ropes in her hands came to life and became people with different characters and destinies. She was creating pictures, she was working, she was trying...

... and only after the performance did she learn that on the same day, the first of May, when she appeared before the real audience, many of whom did not understand a word of what she said, when she masterfully turned into a woman who could had a daughter of her age, when she did not break down in front of an indifferent audience occupying the most privileged place – on that very day she had grown to become an actress, and as confirmation of this came the news that she had received an invitation to take part in an international theater festival, about which we soon, I hope, will learn firsthand.

Nvard did not make plans for the future prior to her debut. She correctly assessed her strength and worked conscientiously on here and now basis. She read her role, she did everything right, but added a little touch of Life – and so she was able to stand the force majeure, which was specially created to test her for strength. She made everything as it should on last Monday, but she invested even more Life. By the way, this time there was someone with the phone among the audience again (more than once the phone rang), but Life does not like to repeat itself, and so this call had no more power over Nvard. Life is already preparing for her and for each of the Young Generation something new, something special, something that they all have to face and not to break. Then the new horizons will open for them.

In the meantime, I want to wish them all to love what they are doing and to do what they love. They are so good at it!

The Higher Powers laugh at us when we are planning our days. So, probably, I would say I love the planned days, because on such days so many unexpected things can happen.

The Spirit of our Cinema

As you know from these pages of my journal and my Facebook posts, I have been actively working on his new music album. But now I give my Musician-self a day-off, and let my Actor and Writer incarnations step forward, which already cannot wait to tell you what fills me now as a Human. And so, I begin.

I first met with actor Samvel Tadevosyan in the Summer of 2016. He was playing together with Aram Karakhanyan in the "Я здесъ" ("I am Here") play. The performance was notable for his original stage direction, design and the main character performance by Aram. Samvel complement everything well and perfectly played his supporting role. The play was played several times with different actor, but I was unable to visit the Puppet Theatre on those evenings, where the play is being staged. Therefore, I remembered Samvel Tadevosyan like that – an assistant director. When I saw his face on the posters announcing the upcoming premiere of «Կյանք ու կռիվ» ("The Line", 2016), I was curious to see him in one of the main roles of a new Armenian film.

I did not go to the cinema. I did not really believe the fact that I would not blame myself for time lost, which was the least of the reasons for not going to the cinema. Some personal experience also spoke for that: even when you see yourself on the big screen, but do not get pleasure from what you see, you begin to involuntarily think about the lost time and lost opportunities, to say "the whole country is in a similar situation, so what could one expect from a movie", and joking when your friends tell you, "we have seen you there!". Also, I happened to participate as extras in a movie directed by Mher Mkrtchyan, but I did not get to the final cut of the film. "Well, I’m not alone whose career began with deleted scenes," I kept on joking off. And a few months later posters appeared in the city to promote the second part of the film. "It’s all plain to me," I said to myself, and continued to live quietly.

But on the 28^th of January, the sensational film was broadcasted on our First Channel. On that evening I made significant progress in recording demo versions of the songs for my new album, so I decided to make myself some snack, to bring a cup of coffee and to try this new production of our national cinema.

...

No, you won’t hear me retelling the story in the movie. Instead, I will say that exactly two hours later I was watching the same movie for the second time, but already necessarily accompanied by someone who invisibly and constantly keeps me up to date with the interests, aspirations, ideals, and experiences of the progressive part of today's youth – my eldest daughter. I knew that she... that they all need such a Movie. It tells them not only about the generation of their parents who lived in those years, but it also carries the meaning of something bigger, something more generic and valuable, so that that very quarter of the century that separates the events of both movies would require to explain it.

Direction, script, actors, musical design, camera work and lighting – everything is in harmony here. The historical events do not dominate over the personal lives of the characters in the movie, so you cannot definitely say that the movie is about the war. Anxiety is always implicitly present in scenes that show relationships between characters and their drama, and in the battle scenes increasingly reveal the personal qualities of the characters. Laughter and tears, pain and joy, resentment and pride – everything is just like in the real life, and most importantly – everything is not like in middling movies made in “anyhow” genre.

Many of us enjoy watching the annual ceremony of one of the most prestigious awards in the world cinema – The Award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, or simply Oscar Award. Each of the contenders for the title of best film of the year is presented by a short fragment, for which this film is remembered, even if you won’t be watching the whole movie. Those fragments are able to catch potential viewers, to deliver or to convince them in something that is sometimes much bigger than just "Imagine how good is this movie!". In my opinion, the fragment below is worth representing the movie, even at the most prestigious festivals.

I’ve already lost the count of how many times I have replayed this scene, but there are so many great episodes in the movie. We see people with both their weak and strong points: friends, putting a spoke in wheel, love expressed in the form of hatred, betrayal built upon brotherly love. All of this exists in our daily lives, and nothing of it is to be judged categorically. It can happen to anyone of us.

The creators of this movie need to know that they did something very important, extremely necessary to all of us, and they did it so good. Very good! So good that I did not want to go to the cinema to watch the second part of which I had heard a couple of scrappy but consonant comments, the basic meaning of which was: “It’s not the same already”. But I watched the first part once again yesterday, this time accompanied with representatives of the older generations: my mother with whom I discuss theater and cinema topics quite often, and my grandfather who had long lost his normal hearing and hardly understands the Armenian speech, yet who watched the whole movie through. Two hours after the movie started playing, it was decided that we will go to the cinema today in the morning to watch «Կյանք ու կռիվ 2: 25 տարի անց» ("The Line 2: 25 Years Later", 2017).

Common in that pair of the unflattering comments were "not that spirit" and " disharmonious casting". I am already able to leave my own comments about what I saw, but they will sound different. Not that spirit? Yes, the Armenia 1991 has changed significantly over the past 25 years. People have changed, their attitude to life too, so did the balance of power, but the main component did not change: the human essence. Wrong faces? A just remark. Yes, faces are different. And if in the cases of Anna, Eduard and Levon casting team still coped well, I myself cannot imagine if it is possible to make Sophie (played by Ellen Sargsyan) look old, who sheds youthful energy both on screen and in the real life. I think the producers have decided when casting actors for the roles of grownup Sophie and Arman, betting not on their appearance but on something else, most likely on their experience and acting skills. It seems to me that they were right in their decision. After all, the actors team worked perfectly, like everything else.

"Isn’t there anything negative I could mention here?", you may ask. I can note the dinner scene filmed taken “from the shoulder” which added undue walking frame effect, blurred sound of quiet low voices, and, maybe, glued piercing, if it actually was so. That's all.

However, by the end of the movie when I’ve got the overall impression from the movie already, I was still missing something that could make me applaud. Still, I was waiting for something; still I could not give my laconic "Yes". Everything was clear, somewhat predictably, plain as life itself. And here, close to the end, rather in the penultimate scene, we hear (in the case of Sophie – see) the conversation of four, at the end of which one phrase is sounded, which not only adds bold exclamation point to my laconic "Yes!" and bursts my applause out, but also puts the cinematography of my country far ahead of where it stood a year ago.

We were able to make movies, and we were making great movies. Times were tough, so we changed cameras, clapperboards, pens and microphones on car wheels, tradesman bags, carnival costumes and guns. Life forced us to. We had to fight – so we fought. You can fight the whole life through and still did not get what you want. But 25 years passed, and some of us were able to look around and see the way that we have already passed, look forward again and say, "Ready! Camera! Action!".

And then we hear the sound of shot...

... But we continue to live. We can fight, and we can and know how to speak, write or sing about war, but at some point we just want to start to live again and  to love this life (by the way, a literal translation of the movie title is "Life and War"). And we will be able to sing of life and to choose hope instead of despair. And again, like it or not, give it or take it, call it whatever you like and however would you renounce it, the ground for everything is Love!

Was that a miracle or just the result of realization of someone's dream, today we have a small collection of our modern cinema of a high quality. Even in the most difficult times, we did not stop laughing, and it is not surprising that one of the first successes in the Armenian cinematography we got really successful comedies, for example, «Ալաբալանիցա» ("Alabalanitsa", 2011) and Poker.am (2012). Now it's time to show ourselves in serious movies, during which you will be thinking, worrying, crying, certainly laughing, but you will definitely not be losing your time in vain! Here it is, the main merit of our producers and directors, writers and casting professionals, cameras and lights, composers and sound designers, make-up artists, costume and production designers, and of course, actors and actresses. United by the idea, they are able to lead the next generations and give hope for the future. They just need a little support, we should not hinder them, or tell them "how to live" – just what we all need today. I think, we have already learned so much, and are now returning to our path to, for the journey upon which we have come into this world.

So let's all unite in that Love, in creativity, in mutual understanding, just like all of those in the audience today – of all ages, who packed (!) the cinema hall for the earliest (!!) Sunday (!!!) show in the "Moscow" cinema today to view together all two hours through, who suffered together, laughed together and gave standing ovations...

Who they applauded? Actors, directors, script... Oh, come on, what I am talking about! They applauded not someone or something, but that same Spirit, the meaning of which they can comprehend, but which does unite them!

So if you ask me now about the film, I will tell you: "The Spirit is still there!"