ENDMOSFILM
The Association
of TV Films
The State Committee on Radio
and Television, USSR
'Dip your brushes, artists,
into things imagined,
'Into colours of Arbat yards
and the dawn.
'And like magic wands
your brushes' magic:
'Like November,
like November leaves forlorn...
'Doing magic now,
your brushes magic:
'like November,
like November leaves forlorn...
'Dip your brushes
into blue paint of the air,
'In traditions urban,
so urbane and sweet.
'Make your lines so true-to-life,
so fair:
'Make a picture of the live
Tverskaya street.
'Make your lines so true-to-life,
so fair:
'Make a picture of the live
Tverskaya street...'
Written by
Leonid ZORIN
Directed by
Mikhail KOZAKOV
Director of photography
Nikolai NEMOLYAEV
Production designer
Lyudmila KUSAKOVA
Music by G. GARANYAN
Sound by V. KURGANSKY
The songs written and performed
by Bulat OKUDZHAVA
Moscow, the fifties...
It seems like it was yesterday...
Oh, come on:
30 years have passed!
But if I close my eyes,
I can clearly see...
This guy vrooming on the bike
with Savransky is me.
As you can see, I am very young.
I came to Moscow and studied
at the university there.
The moment I saw Moscow
I came to love it.
It embraced me passionately
with its Boulevard Ring,
with its Garden Ring:
it beckoned me into its streets,
into its curving by-streets,
until it left me be, totally
dumbfounded, to have some rest
in a communal flat
near the Pokrovsky Gates.
THE POKROVSKY GATES
This is my auntie.
Coming.
My auntie Alice,
a noble-hearted refined woman,
kindly sheltered me, her nephew.
Hello?
You want to speak with Kostya?
Your humble servant, my nephew,
is still sleeping.
He came home only at dawn.
Be so kind to leave your number.
Just a second, I'll take a pencil.
One moment.
Lev Evghenievich!
Well... Oh Jesus!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...
Lev Evghenievich dear,
you stole the pencil again!
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 21,
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35...
Yes, my dear?..
42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,
48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53...
Some culinarian!
Savva, the breakfast is ready!
Call Khobotov, let him come too.
Sehr gut', Margarita Pavlovna.
Lev Evghenievich! Did you hear?
Go and have some breakfast!
Margarita Pavlovna Khobotova -
a woman of imposing virtues.
At that time she turned over
a new leaf in her life.
She was preparing herself for
a new marriage - with Savva Efimov.
'Danke schon', Margarita Pavlovna.
But her ex-husband,
Lev Evghenievich Khobotov,
shared their daily
repast all the same.
It was a triple unity, and
it aroused my quick interest.
- You don't eat enough.
- Thanks, I don't feel like eating.
What do you mean? You should
fill yourself in the morning,
'cause brains need energy too.
And my lastmost neighbor -
an artiste Arkady Velyurov.
He was a stand-up comedian...
'So here I am, before all of ye,
A serious and a funny guy.
'I make no bones of telling ye:
Who, how & what & when & why...
'Hey, stop the war, keep saying we.
Thus humour - is a remedy.
'A storm without? - 'tis no big deal.
Our sense of humour makes it still.
'The USA had quite a shock:
Is Eisenhower a hawk?
'Guys, I'm all for peace', he lied.
Oh what a cunning proselyte!
'Sing, sing nightingales!
Spring, spring in the veins.
'War-loving viper hisses and stings!
But Dove spreads its wings!
Did you like my punch lines?
Thank you very much,
my dear Muscovites,
and guests of our city, for having
come on a rendezvous with an artiste.
We're having the rain in the street,
but you're having fun at my concert.
The jokes are showering...
It's autumn now in Moscow, friends,
a fine and beautiful autumn.
But the Soviet barometers
can only show 'clear sky'!
Switch on the radio,
and you will hear:
'Clear sky in Moscow -
compared to the London fog...'.
I do hope, my dear friends...
That one nice day,
we'll hear on the radio:
'It's a clear sky worldwide,
the fog has melted