We'll Live Till Monday (1968) - full transcript
Ilya Semenovich Melnikov is a history teacher in an ordinary Soviet high school. He is a very good teacher and his students and colleagues treat him with a great deal of respect. However, Melnikov faces a lot of difficulties in his work. In particular, everybody at school is spreading rumors about Natalya Sergeyevna, an Enlish language teacher and a former student of Melnikov, being in love with him. Exhausted by his mental suffering, Melnikov asks the principal to allow him to quit his job. At the end of the week that is to become the last week of Melnikov's teaching career the students of his class write an in-class essay on how they understand happiness. Svetlana Mikhailovna, their Russian teacher, is shocked by what one of the students wrote in her essay, nevertheless, she allows her to read it in front of the class. The other students express support of their classmate. Melnikov gets involved in the conflict, after which he reconsiders his decision to quit...
Maxim Gorkii Central Film Studio
(Children and Youth Films)
LET'S LIVE TILL MONDAY
Scriptwriter G. Polonsky
Directed by S. Rostotsky
Camera V. Shumsky
Art department B. Dulenkov
Music K. Molchanov
Sound department A. Izbutsky
Song lyrics by Nikolai Zabolotsky
THURSDAY
Good morning, Ilya Semyonovich.
- Hello.
The broom, quick!
Why is it croaking?
- It's swearing
Such feathers, such a lovely beak!
It must be charming when you speak!
How do you call this bird in English?
A crow.
Crow, crow, crow!
Cherevichkina, give us your sandwich!
Get lost!
Don't be a cheapskate.
Enough!
It's a living being
You mustn't treat it like that.
Where are you going?
Take the broom away.
Rita, take the broom away.
Take your places.
Kostya, wait, sit down
Sit down everybody.
Quiet. Quiet, everyone
- Something is coming...
- You reckon?
They'll be ranting and raving, nothing more.
Where did the crow come from?
- You should have noticed.
You're a bureau member.
They will hold you responsible.
So what?
- So nothing.
Just when this thing is investigated
by the higher authority
You can tell them that it was me who brought the crow.
For a different reason though.
You?
- Yep.
It's very nice of you, actually.
I've been staving it off
but the day of reckoning was coming.
I've been neglecting English.
My crow is a clever bird.
It took care of it.
You should be going. Your bodyguard will worry.
- Because of you?!
Quiet, children, please.
You're not helping.
Natalya Sergeyevna.
- Wait, Shestopalov.
Come here, come, come.
I'll give you some bread.
Some wheat bread, and rye bread.
Come, come, come.
Come here, come.
I was teaching a lesson,
and suddenly it flew...
I did not enquire who'd brought it.
Maybe it came on her own?
- Sure it did.
To get warm.
It's cold out there.
Is it true that he used to be your teacher?
Ilya Semyonovich
Why are you like that?
Okay, I made a mistake,
but you could help.
How?
If you need their love, well,
they're crazy about you.
And you don't need love anymore?
Love's an evil.
Don't let them push you around.
Keep your distance, to not be sorry later.
I can't help you.
Never tried to catch crows.
Gotcha!
- Well done. Congratulations!
The only crow trainer in the world,
the show's sold out.
An only performance today, leave tomorrow,
hurry everyone.
Silence!
Take your places.
Take your place.
If you wish.
Silence!
Mommy told me
it's very bad to kill birdies.
No trial, no record.
It's high, Natalya Sergeyevna,
and it's all wrapped up.
Why did you do that?
The boys have captured it.
Stop talking.
Silence, please.
The memorial service may now start.
The deceased has sacrificed her life
to the public education.
Batischev, shut up!
Maybe it's okay.
I'll go have a look, okay?
I can even bring it back.
Dead or alive.
Don't bring it here.
Take it to Ilya Semyonovich.
He should know the sacrifices
made for him.
Cherkasova, go out.
Out!
Guys, our teacher's been replaced.
We had a great outgoing girl...
Batischev, go out.
Don't call me a girl.
A woman then, sorry.
And now a tyrant
You'll debate it behind the door.
Be quick.
You'll end up alone.
I'm not holding anyone.
Oh, go on, go on.
I enjoy listening to you.
I just don't like the darkness.
What was that you were playing?
Lonely Wanderer, Grieg.
Yes... few people understand good music.
I always say, we shouldn't
limit ourselves by our subjects.
We should have a broader view, right?
Then personal life of some would benefit, too.
If you start thinking about it...
If you start thinking, sure.
By the way...
Why aren't you heading home?
You don't long to?
- It's raining.
Raining...
Yes, sure.
"It is raining in my town...
...it is raining day and night...
...and whatever I say
you don't listen to me..."
Don't get upset.
You shouldn't.
You shouldn't be playing
the lonely pedestrian, either.
Wanderer.
A Lone Traveller
Exactly.
Nothing will happen to her.
The board will forgive her. And you, first of all.
Give me a cigarette.
She's just a girl.
She's only just started.
You and I, we can't allow ourselves
anything. Or forgive.
What's the matter with you?
Why have you changed so much?
"We're overweak to guide our lives
And in our youthful years
The hurried vows we tender
Do but amuse omniscient fate."
So simply said, so calmly.
And for all times.
Any wonder! Classic
Who?
Sounds like Nekrasov. No?
No way?
Not Tyutchev?
Still far
Fet?
Far. It's not from school curriculum.
I'm giving up
Baratynsky
Ah well, you know... No one can remember
all second-rate authors. Baratynsky!
He's been transferred
Where?
To the first-rate list.
Haven't you heard?
You've become mean,
indifferent and lonely.
You've retreated into yourself
nurturing your pessimism.
You're an historian. It's not good, you know.
Even politically.
I'm now teaching history
before 1917, Svetlana Mikhailovna.
So it's okay, politically.
Apparently, your mom's waiting.
Apparently. Good-bye.
Thanks.
5.80 for the sweets, please.
22 kopecks for bread, please.
Ilya Semyonovich
Rudnitsky, Borya!
That's right. How do you do?
How do you do, Boris?
Still living and working at the same place?
Yes. Borya, what's does this
chauffeured vehicle mean?
Our department treats its valued staff
better than yours.
I find it tragic that a man like you
bides his time in a secondary school.
You might be used with a higher ECE.
- With what?
ECE, energy conversion efficiency.
- Oh.
How are you?
I'm fine, Ilya Semyonovich.
No complaints.
Married?
Free.
By the way, I heard that one our common acquaintance has settled in your school.
How's she... Manages?
Too early to say. She's got some problems.
Everyone has.
Yeah, she loves problems.
She even creates them, additionally.
Not just for herself - it's her choice.
But for other people, too.
Damn it, I'll tell you.
Imagine a bride who
at the doorstep of the registry office
mumbles "I'm sorry",
dumps the flowers and runs away.
Noble. And honest.
It's not just humiliated me, it's also
disrupted my one-year business-trip to England.
You know how they 'like' to send single men.
But it's all for the best, of course.
Do you know the song?
"There's a place for everything in life,
The good and the evil live nearby,
If a bride leaves you for someone,
It's a big question who's the lucky one."
Maybe I'm wrong?
You're right, Borya, you're right.
Could you stop please?
- It's not Arbat yet.
I'll walk. I also need to go to a pharmacy.
It's raining. Shall I wait for you?
- No, thanks.
You're right, that my efficiency
could have been much higher.
Good-bye
Anyone called?
- Oh yes
Who?
- Moviegoers
Who?
- Those who want to visit "Progress" cinema
They were asking what's on and when.
I was saying that the rain was on, all the time.
What if they start asking for a bath-house?
Or the Holy Synod?
Poor you. At her 70 your mother's
not dumb yet.
The old hag wants to know the news - what a trouble!
She's interested in her son's thoughts,
and his work.
One could talk to the old witch for half an hour,
and it would last her a week, to think of the said.
It's not theatre, mom, just everyday stuff.
I don't know what to tell, honest.
Did I tell you that Gorelova came to work with us?
Who?
Natasha Gorelova... of our graduates, six years ago.
Do you remember?
- Natasha Gorelova. Of course I remember.
She had a romance with that one, what's his name... Your favourite.
- Come on
With Borya Rudnitski!
Do you remember that?
- Yes. Thanks, mom.
What are you looking for?
- Never mind... What is she teaching, then?
English.
- English... at your school.
My loafers disrupted her lesson today.
- Is she still in love with you?
What are you talking about, mom?
- Me? You used to tell me that she didn't let you teach.
Staring at you with those eyes of hers...
I don't remember. - Well, I knew it myself.
Do you know how she wept in our kitchen, in my lap
after the graduation,
lamenting that you're so old.
You got carried away, mom. Good night.
- Good night
What's on tonight?
"Progress" cinema
Really? How odd...
Natalya Sergeyevna, Melnikov here.
Sorry, stupid joke.
I saw you leaving...
in tears.
You shouldn't, really.
If every silly crow...
Ah, you'll sort it out yourself.
Okay, all right, all right.
I'm sorry.
FRIDAY
If you can tell me, what kind of person - good morning...
invites a boy for some music and dry wine?
- Indeed.
And why is it called "a birthday party"?
My Valery comes, and there's just that girl, alone.
- Well, they watch too many foreign movies.
Music, dry wine... you shouldn't believe it.
Your Valera's lying. She's the third one there, okay?
Can you imagine, I wake up at 1 AM, not on my pillow.
- Are you for real?
It's so interesting, Klavdia Sergeyevna!
- On copy-books, Igor Stepanovich.
I see, I see.
I've been marking them and fell asleep.
It's hanging outside the window.
Yes.
As usual.
At seven... yes.
Allochka, have a heart. There are others, too.
- Sure, sure.
Good morning. - Good morning.
- Hello.
So what's happened, huh?
Don't shrug.
Is it okay if I call you by your first name?
- Yes.
It's your home now.
You came of here, now you are back.
So it's not polite to be aloof.
I'm not aloof.
That's good.
What are you looking for, Raisa Pavlovna?
- Protractor, the big wooden one.
Behind the cabinet.
Come on, I want to know your opinion.
It's, you know, hair salon literature.
- Really?
- While you're waiting there...
Every line belongs to a complacent,
self-loving, indifferent author.
Hello there. - Hello. - Hello.
He can write this today and otherwise tomorrow.
I don't believe him.
- Strange. I liked it.
Oh, Natasha dear, yours are older at least.
But my, little ones,
bring mirrors too, and just primp and preen.
I'm telling them, 'Don't put no mirrors
in your desks,' but them do it anyways.
I say again, 'Don't put no mirrors,' but them do it.
For God's sake, it's horrible.
Yes, it's you I'm talking to.
Are you a teacher or...
You talking to me?
Don't use double negatives, my dear Taisia Nikolayevna,
where did you hear it? We're not in the marketplace!
If you don't care about the kids,
then at least spare our ears!
Hello.
Calm down, you shouldn't...
Wait a second.
What?
- Please ask kids not to touch anything. My lab lesson was nearly ruined yesterday.
- Why me?
- Your class was before mine
Well, Ilya Semyonovich?
You see a mote in other people's eyes.
The class you are responsible for
did not come for the lesson.
And there is not a single coat in the cloakroom.
Congratulations!
Please don't worry, I can do it myself.
Whose lesson should they be at?
Mine
Look, Sanya!
Ilya Semyonovich...
Where are you going?
Calm down!
Hello.
Good morning, Ilya Semyonovich.
A strike, huh?
A strike.
What are your claims?
- Ilya Semyonovich, we want
Our human rights to be respected.
Miss English should be called to order.
She's rude.
Yes, tell him, Batya...
- Tell him, Kostya.
Natalya Sergeyevna treated us very nicely at first.
- And you disrupted her lesson for that.
Let me say my thought to the end.
Express your thought, you mean.
I'm happy to listen, in the classroom.
It's warmer there, of course.
But we'll endure cold.
We'll come... to the next lesson.
Demidova, you're the class president.
Why is Batischev giving orders?
Because my willpower is weaker.
Class president is working-class aristocracy.
Okay, jokes are over. Enough.
We're not joking. It's serious.
- Serious, you say?
Long time ago, the Russian society
was shocked by the execution of
revolutionaries Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich.
Or pleas for help leaked from
the prisoners of Oryol penal colony.
They were being tortured.
In such cases, the kids your age
did not come for their classes.
They called it a strike and
a struggle for human rights.
Just like Syromyatnikov.
But hitting back a woman who's had a breakdown
is not decent.
Let's not prolong the bad things,
like the ancients used to say.
There you are!
Look
I'm sorry, guys,
I was out of line.
Come on, Natalya Sergeyevna, it's our fault.
- It's our...
Well, you are not blameless either. Behaved like pigs.
- Correct, Natalya Sergeyevna...
We're pigs.
- I'm alone to blame. It's my crow.
I brought it for a different reason,
but it got away.
Hm, I thought it was Syromyatnikov.
No way, Natalya Sergeyevna,
I'm all about cattle.
Okay, kids...
Close your books.
What is the English for 'yekhat verkhom'?
Syromyatnikov?
- To ride - rode - ridden.
Wonderful!
Ah, there you are
I'm sorry, Natalya Sergeyevna.
I thought I should help to sort this out.
What's up?
Who are you boycotting?
Sit down, sit.
You knew that the vice-principal is on sick leave,
that your teacher is young, and you used it?
No secrets, please.
No one is going to threaten you
with administrative action.
I just want to know what
got into your heads?
Whose idea it was?
We've sorted it out already.
Natalya Sergeyevna knows.
Everything is fine now.
Aha, I see.
You have your own secrets and relations?
Right. I won't be interfering, then.
"Who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth." - J. W. von Goethe
Come on, Yura, read that.
Who cannot draw...
- Okay, good, some more.
on three tho.. thousand...
Ilya Semyonovich, these are kids from class 1-A.
Their teacher got suddenly sick and left.
No one said what to do,
so I'm showing them around your museum.
Okay
Who's your teacher?
- Taisia Nikolayevna
Essay (choice):
1. The character of Katerina in Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm"
2. Bazarov and Rakhmetov
3. My Idea of Happiness
Is an epigraph necessary for "Happiness"?
- It's desirable.
Happiness is
Cherkasova, enough.
How long are going to look around for?
Concentrate!
Do you know why you can't write?
Because your mind is in a haze.
Who thinks clearly, expresses clearly.
Don't worry, continue.
What's happened, Ilya Semyonovich?
- Nothing.
Your face is...
- What about it?
It's not like you.
For conspiracy's sake.
A distance?
Shall we keep it?
You know better. I'm no longer your teacher,
Natalya Sergeyevna.
I see
Where are our kids?
They are writing an essay. My lesson has been taken for that.
- Do you regret?
Regret that not two.
Come with me.
Hello. - Hello.
"My Idea of Happiness."
She didn't offer us such topics.
We usually wrote about
typical representatives in literature.
Such serious faces.
Inspired.
Syromyatnikov's cheating.
Stealing someone's happiness.
You'll see things like that every single day.
You'll get sick of it.
I don't understand how they can write about it.
I couldn't.
It's impossible to explain. Happiness...
It's like trying to pin down a Sun ray.
No rays.
They'll write what is expected of them.
Want to come in?
I've got a lesson.
- I'm free.
Syromyatnikov
Happiness, I think, is to be appreciated
Do you realise what you've written?
Nadya, my little darling,
do you realise?
I'm all for being sincere, that's why
I offered this topic in the first place, but...
Such dreams at your age?
Just try to think of it!
I thought that you...
- What?
I'm stupid, Svetlana Mikhailovna.
I'm really stupid.
It's sad, but it's better than being depraved.
- What did you write, Nadya?
What did you write?
- It can't be read out loud.
Why not? Maybe we're all writing something wrong,
like her.
Don't worry. You wouldn't think of
anything like that.
Continue working.
- Give me back my essay.
Here
Take it and tear it up. I permit
And try to write about Katerina.
You may have enough time left.
Write on.
No. I'll read it.
If you can know, we can too.
Of course! Sure
Shut up!
- Why?
Don't you understand? There are boys here!
- Ha. So what?
Give back your essay!
- I won't!
All right. Read it.
You'll be ashamed of yourself.
Go on, read!
If we speak about happiness, it must be sincere.
Not just rational.
Many of us are shy to write about love,
even though every girl is dreaming about it.
Even the ugliest,
who doesn't have any hope.
I think one should always hope.
I want to meet a man
who would love children.
Because without children,
a woman cannot be really happy.
If there is no war, I'd like to have
two boys and two girls.
Shush!
Yes! Two boys and two girls!
Then, all their lives,
no one will feel lonely.
The older will take care of little ones,
and there will be happiness in the house.
I did not write anything about work,
but don't mothers have a lot of work?
So, where is the problem?
What's the problem, really?
What's wrong about that?
I can't believe it!
- You shouldn't worry so much.
She's going have children with
her own husband, not someone else's.
Enough!
This class is the world's end.
No shame, no modesty
Hand your essays over!
Happiness is to be appreciated!
Me again. Hello
Hi
Come in
Take a seat
You shouldn't be coming, comrade Levikova, really.
- I'm not just coming... I'm taking leave from work.
You called him out again yesterday, didn't you?
I did.
You're busy? Sorry.
Just two minutes, okay?
So you asked him questions in class.
Yes, I did.
And he told us that Herzen went abroad
to prepare the Great October revolution,
together with Karl Marx.
What should I do, cry or laugh?
I'll send you abroad at home, you'll see!
- Why are you fighting?
It's a bad approach.
That's not right.
Go away, go.
You know, Ilya Semyonovich,
we can't have a "Fail"
They will kick him out of Pioneers House, love,
out of the dance group.
Where will he go? Back on the street?
- I didn't give him a "Fail". He's got a "Pass"
"Limited Achievement"
Thank you!
- For God's sake don't thank me!
You should not.
You're reminding me again
that I'm lying for you.
No, it's not for me. It's not for me.
In any case, not for Vova's chance
to dance in that group.
It's not his legs he should be exercising,
it's his memory and speech.
Memory. Memory, yes.
Thanks for the advice.
Ever cared to wonder why his memory's poor?
And speech?
Maybe his father's a third-generation alcoholic.
Maybe my boy couldn't hold his head up until 18 months old.
No one believed he'd survive.
Kids on the street still call him "retard"
I apologize. I shouldn't be saying that.
The Russian teacher says "memory"...
and the physics teacher too...
This used to be my desk
Will you excuse me, Natalya Sergeyevna?
Come tomorrow, then
- Let's call if off, maybe?
- No, come tomorrow
Nikolai Borisovich... wait, don't go yet
I need a leave
- What?
I can't work anymore
- Off with you!
The school year's just begun
What's up with you?
Health problems? Liver?
- It's the geography teacher who's got liver.
Ah, right. So what's up with you?
Well... general condition
Aren't you dodging?
Have you decided to finish your thesis?
- Come on, it's a thing of the past.
A shame! I've been long wanting to tell you,
now's the right time for that subject.
Great recommendation for the research.
And a strong stimulus to finish it.
"The right time"
Did you try vitamin B12?
Bum injections?
It helped my wife
May I write a request?
It's not a sensible conversation, Ilya Semyonovich.
To get a leave at the beginning of the year,
one needs a reason so serious, that God forbid...
What if my reason's exactly that serious?
Who can determine?
Medical science, of course
Do you hear me?
- No. Because you don't hear me
Have you thought who am I going
to replace you with?
You can replace me with yourself.
We graduated in the same major.
Can you allow me to teach now?
Mangle young souls?
My views are malleable. I change easily.
I swear by fresh newspapers.
That's what you used to say.
- I did
"I did." Oh, brother,
the things you've been saying...
An historian! I'm an administrator, Ilya.
I get new equipment, and I'm happy.
I manage to get air-conditioners, and I'm proud
We are not thinking of others enough
Here's a simple example: Svetlana Mikhailovna
has been teaching here for 20 years tomorrow.
Fine, let's collect three rubles apiece and buy her...
a crocodile
Even jokes you make are principled
You know, Ilya... one can respect you
but it's hard to love you.
- Okay, don't love me. Give me my leave
I won't
You want to have rest?
To nurse your honesty?
Let others build?
Once it's all finished - welcome Ilya Semenovich -
and you won't shake our hands,
saying "You've got your hands dirty, while building"
Depending on what kind of dirt, I might not want to shake it.
- Exactly. That sums you up
You know, Ilya... Principles, they won't feed you,
or improve your health, or keep you warm
Principles are not kebab,
or vitamin B12, or hot-water bottle
Some eccentrics sacrifice their lunch for them
Sometimes even more than that.
In 1941, near Vyazma, you and I knew it very well
History is a discipline
which makes a human a citizen
Right?
- Okay, right
Here's a textbook published this year. This year!
- Come on, Ilya. Life goes on
Have you ever thought about the
huge importance of paper?
We should acknowledge its endless patience
You can write on it:
"Upon the hills of Georgia lies darkness of the night"
or a squeal about on a neighbour
One can rewrite the thesis to take out
just one name, one fact
to shift the accents.
If there's enough paper, why not?
It will withstand anything
But our souls and the kids' souls
are not made of paper, Kolya
Want to see how they pleased me today?
Interesting.
- Interesting, indeed
Strip-tease of the soul
I don't think so
- You don't have to
We have different experience
and different moral values
The goal is the same, though
You're a happy person, Natasha
Me?
Yeah, as happy as a clam
You know...
- I know, my girl, I know
Just don't delay with the baby, you both.
It's a common teachers' problem
That princess is right, after all
Though it's beyond her reach
Oh yes
Otherwise you'll be left to deal
with other people's happiness only
I've got it here, of 24 sorts,
for all tastes
Two Katerinas, one Bazarov
All the rest is about happiness
You go now
If you can't give me a leave,
just fire me then and the hell with it!
What are you going to do then?
Plant gooseberry? Write memoirs?
I can be a guide at a museum
You think the exposition there doesn't change?
It does.
- So what's the difference?
There, I'll deal with random people.
They come once, listen, and go away
And here...
- I'm not satisfied with your explanations
Are you satisfied with a teacher
who's no longer a teacher?
What do you mean, no longer a teacher?
To sow wise, kind and eternal things...
and see thistle and hemlock to grow.
- Enough of this symbolism
That's nonsense, dear Ilya.
Who's a teacher if you aren't one.
And who are you if aren't a teacher?
Let me have my leave
Honestly... after all,
can't I have my personal reasons?
Write your request. Take your leave,
go to the museum, to the circus, wherever you want.
Thank you
You came to see me?
- Not you, no
Let's discuss it, okay?
Syromyatnikov, either leave
or sit like a normal person
As if I need this!
You were saying, that things are boring,
no social work
Go on, make suggestions then
Write it down
Activity one: baptizing Nadya's babies
What was that for?
Is she crazy?
I was just kidding.
Not good, Kostya.
She's had her share today.
Who asked her to show her sincerity?
Everyone might have ideas. Why share them in essays?
Happiness for a grade. Nonsense
And you, what did you write, then?
- I didn't touch on that subject at all
I was peacefully writing about Bazarov
Enough!
Batischev's right. After this essay,
some look like fools, and others - like scoundrels
Why are you cursing?
- It's not why we gathered here, Shestopalov
Sit down, Sveta.
You're a good person, but you better sit down
I got it now. Those who wrote sincerely like Nadya,
they are fools and will be taunted
Who lied and used the P2 principle, those are scoundrels.
- What's P2?
The first P is for "pick right",
the second P - for "please"
When famous people's thoughts and quotes neatly prepared at home,
and an "HD" is virtually guaranteed.
Do we have people like that, Ella?
- I don't know. Perhaps
So what do you suggest?
- To go home
Everything's clear. Everyone's happy
Gena Esq.
Why are you so sad?
- Drop it, Gena
Are you familiar with the damn's worth theory?
Use it to look at things. It helps
- I'll try
You know what, let's go to my place?
I'm almost fixed with the tape recorder, you could help
I don't feel like it
I know what you feel like. You want me to scram,
and Rita to say with you. Am I right?
It can be arranged. I'm not greedy,
right, Rita?
Gena, say yes, or he'll change his mind
You'll walk and talk, or go to the movies.
Say something
I don't have any money.
- No need, I've got three rubles
No, I have to pay him rental.
How much per hour, Kostya?
Idiot!
Yeah, you can end up without an eye for such jokes.
- Nutcase!
You should see a doctor, Shestopalov,
you know
You've got a hypersensitive ego, like every shorty
You want a slap, too?
You'll get it!
Go on. Go
On my way home, I was thinking of you...
My scattered thoughts were wandering about...
The Book of Wandering, I thought it would not lie.
I hoped that in some chapter
your shore will appear out of the fog,
out of weightless mist
But the ship's chart is wrong,
I see it clearly now.
The Earth is spinning madly,
but we are as distant as ever
Some more?
You write much better now.
More artistic
Okay, we should go
Otherwise someone will come and start yelling
- There's no one else in the school
There's always someone in the school.
Even at night
Imagine that there's no one.
Just us
Don't count on me getting all lyrical
because of your poetry
I don't.
I'm not such an Utopian
After all, that's not what
verses are written for
Come on
I've warned you
Nothing will ever happen between us
You see...
You're a little boy, Gena
I was like that in 7th grade
You want the truth?
- Well?
Rationally, I know that, as a person,
you're nothing special
Not a ray of light in the darkness
That's interesting
- I know that
and yet I try to disregard it
What?
- I'm sorry, you won't understand it
I've only understood it 2 days ago myself
So what did you understand 2 days ago?
That everyone needs to be in love.
With someone, or something.
Always, all the time
Life is boring otherwise
For me, the easiest thing is to fall in love with you.
For the lack of better
So you don't care what I think of you?
- Nope.
It doesn't change a thing
What's important is the impulse inside
So you are free to think that it's not you
that I'm in love with
It might be, say, Cherevichkina
Poetry is easier, huh?
Dedicate your poems to Cherevichkina from now on
Good luck
Natasha!
Modelling different creative processes
defined by gifts, predispositions
and, finally, the talents,
is a daring but manageable task
I'm holding some sheet music. This music
was written by an electronic composer
Don't be surprised. Of course, humans
were setting tasks for this electronic composer
You be the judges of the composition's merits
There will be viewers who would say:
"A machine cannot feel,
and emotions are the essence of music"
But first of all...
First of all, we should define precisely
what is a human emotion, soul, human itself
Will he define, I wonder?
And then, the music you'll hear
isn't Mozart, of course
Thanks for that
Everything's got cold
Mom...
give me some vodka
And a glass
Oh, a strange letter arrived for you today,
I signed
"News of Music" program is over
In a few minutes, we will resume the broadcast
of the hockey match from the Sports Palace
Dear comrade Melnikov, I am very busy and therefore
forced to address you in writing.
My daughter has been regularly getting poor grades
for your subject, which is surprising and worrying.
After all, history is not mathematics,
one doesn't need be too smart to master it.
I have personally ... they have personally, you see?
checked her knowledge of the textbook's chapters 61 to 65,
and I consider B (High Achievement) to be an appropriate grade.
I strongly recommend you re-check my daughter's knowledge
of the above-mentioned chapters. Potekhin.
A big shot
All that on an official letterhead.
He couldn't be bothered to buy paper
Why are you so worried? You said once,
if someone is dim it's incurable
Voltaire said it, not me.
Mom, he's not so dim
He's inspired... by the memories
Hey, look what I found
Vanya Kovalyov. Remember the article about him?
A prominent physicist
- I remember
Thanks, mom. I'm full
To Polina Andreevna,
the mother of the man we admire.
From Natasha Gorelova. June 28, 1960.
Is it drizzling again?
Mom, have you ever noticed
some despair in impersonal sentences?
It's drizzling... it's windy... it's getting dark.
You know why?
No one to complain about
And no one to fight
If someone calls, I'm not here
Hello?
He's not in
Oh... hello... hello?
You said you weren't here
SATURDAY
Igor Stepanovich! I didn't notice you.
- I'm in soft slippers
Hello
- Good morning, good morning
I came to criticize you, Natasha
- What's the matter?
It's not right, you know.
You're our young promising specialist
And you don't want to share our life
You didn't even give me your phone number
- What for?
Just in case
No big deal, the registry will tell
By the way, agents informed
that you're waiting for comrade Melnikov every day
Don't deny it. Only sincere acknowledgement
might mitigate your fate
And the fate below average, dear Natasha
He's got the dust of centuries on his glasses
He's not interested in women,
except Joan of Arc
Hello.
- Hello, Svetlana Mikhailovna
I've got your number already, by the way
We'll continue our conversation, I guess
Natasha
Hello
You don't have the first lesson, do you?
- Really?
I must have mixed up days
Allochka, just from home and calling already?
- As usual
- Formally, everyone's here,
but the thoughts are either back home or God knows where
Good morning
- Hello
Hello
Good morning
- Good morning.
Taisia Nikolaevna...
I'm sorry for what happened yesterday
It's okay
No, no, no
Hey, Ilya Semyonovich...
This is for you
For me?
Working in school for 20 years is something
Not that easy, right?
- Wow, that's right!
Comrades, I think we must celebrate the anniversary
properly and solemnly...
Good morning
- Good morning
Didn't you receive anything from my dad?
A letter?
- I did, and could you please tell him...
Don't Ilya Semyonovich. Never mind, please.
He's writing letters like that to everyone
Like who?
- Everyone. Even the minister of culture
Complaining that they film actors in wrong postures.
Please forgive him.
Okay?
Here. Tell the kids the lesson will be in the classroom.
Let me sit at your lesson!
- What for?
Don't ask questions. Just let me in.
I came an hour before my own lesson
Bullshit
- I heard it myself. I sat behind
the principal's door and heard everything
Come in, Natalya Sergeyevna
Sit down
Borisov's not here?
He's kind of sick
Last time we talked about the 17th October
Manifesto... quiet, please...
About the beginning of the first
Russian revolution. We'll revise that and move on
Syromyatnikov
What?
- Are you prepared?
- More or less
I have to go out there?
- Right
We're listening
Okay. The tsar's policy was cowardly and perdifious.
- What?
Perdifious.
- Perfidious. That means, disloyal
Or treacherous.
- Yes
Okay, go on.
- Fearful for his tsarist position
the tsar, of course, issued a manifesto.
He was promising the people a paradise on earth...
Could you be more specific?
Different freedoms... of speech...
of assembly...
Really, what's the point? He didn't do what he promised,
why should I repeat his lies?
After, the tsar displayed his nasty nature again
and continue ruling as before
So... you know... there... what's it called...
No one could tell him a thing.
And... after Peter the Great Russia didn't have
much luck with tsars. That's my personal opinion.
Suppose I give him a "Fail",
then he grows up to be Yuri Nikulin,
And it will look like I nearly strangled the future of National Art.
- So don't. Why "Fail"?
For "more or less"
Here lies the happiness of class 9-B
Instead of firm actions,
Shmidt sent telegrams to Nicholas II
demanding democratic freedoms.
In the meanwhile, the authorities overcame
the initial surprise and gathered troops
The cruiser "Ochakov" was shelled and set on fire
Shmidt was executed. He reaped the fruit
of his political naivety and short-sightedness
His show of heroism had little effect
Poor Shmidt, if he could only foresee
this posthumous reprimand
I'm not inventing anything, am I?
I hear it all the time: "Jaures didn't consider",
"Herzen couldn't see",
"Tolstoy failed to understand"...
As if history was made by a gang of underachievers
Anyone wants to object? Add something?
There's only 15 lines in the textbook about him
At your age, people read other books, too
Other books? No problem. In "The Golden Calf," for example,
Ostap Bender and his cronies pretended to be sons of Lieutenant Shmidt.
Want to hear it?
- Some other time
Can anyone add something?
Fifteen lines
Most people only get a dash
between two dates
What kind of man he was,
Lieutenant Petr Petrovich Shmidt?
Russian intellectual, a gifted man, a brave officer,
a seasoned sailor, an artistic soul
He sang, played cello, drew...
he was a brilliant public speaker
But his most precious gift was the ability
to feel other people's suffering more acutely than his own
This gift produces rebels and poets
Just imagine, once he met a woman on a train.
They spoke for 40 minutes,
and he fell deeply in love. Forever.
With her, or with the image of her
he had invented...
But it was a beautiful story. 40 minutes, and then
there were letters, hundreds of them. They're published.
Read them, and you won't dare judge
this man's mistakes and illusions with such arrogance
But he did make the mistakes, right?
- Sit down for now
Petr Shmidt was against violence,
like Dostoyevsky's Ivan Karamazov
He rejected universal harmony, if a single
child was sacrificed for its sake
He couldn't, wouldn't believe, that the language of machine-guns
is the only one to speak to the tsar
Bloodless harmony
Was it naive? Yes.
A mistake? Yes.
But I invite Batischev and everyone else
to think again
and understand the high price
of such mistakes
Listen, Kostya
The rebellion has started, and it's to you,
living 60 years ago
the rebellious "Ochakov" sailors come and say:
"The navy and the revolution need you"
You know that the rebellion is doomed. Your only cruiser
doesn't have any armour, or shells, its speed is barely 8 knots.
What would you do? Leave the sailors alone under the guns
of admiral Chukhnin or go and lead the rebellion?
And stand under fire and surely die.
- Without a chance of success? What's the point?
You and your points!
- That's right, Rita.
Quiet, quiet
So, the question is: What is the point
of Shmidt's actions and his death?
It's obvious, right?
- If not for men like him, there'd be no revolution!
He explained it himself
in his final speech, in court.
He explained in such a manner that even the guards
put their rifles aside
and were tried afterwards for that.
Fifteen lines.
May I, Ilya Semyonovich?
- Yes
Pardon my intrusion
Sit down
Something outrageous has happened
Last night someone came into the teachers' room,
took the essays written by your class and burned them.
Yes, burned
And at the crime scene - I'm not trying to joke here -
he left this... explanation
Which is both impudent and abstruse
I don't need to explain how cruel, how inhumane
the perpetrator was to Svetlana Mikhailovna
I won't discuss the political implications of these actions either.
There's just one thing I'd like to know:
Who did it?
I hope, I won't be forced into humiliating you and myself
by comparing handwriting and the like.
You won't
You, Shestopalov?
- Me
Come with me
- With my things?
- Yes, take your stuff
Natalya Sergeyevna, why are you here?
Ilya Semyonovich allowed me.
- Right
Got the picture?
Sit down
Where was I?
You were saying that 15 lines
is a lot
Right
He went to the principal, Natalya Sergeyevna?
- Where else?
Guys, Shestopalov's finished.
- Why did he burn them without telling anyone?
Just to be special. To show off
Hello
- Hello
...you read this message. Read what it says.
He's judging everyone by his standards.
- He wrote an explanation, we should read it.
He's just a nerd.
- What? You're a nerd yourself
- I'm completely normal
I am absolutely against it. We know very little about them,
and we completely neglect our direct duty.
Which is?
- Education, Svetlana Mikhailovna
So what now, Shestopalov?
I think it's too early to fight.
You better think. It's rather strange
You've been studying with Shestopalov for 9 years,
and yet you don't know him.
We do. He's honest
Well, if he's honest...
Sit down
You know what I heard? That our principal had carried Ilya Semyonovich
from behind enemy lines, when he was wounded.
Is it true?
It is true
Is it true that Ilya Semyonovich is leaving?
Leaving? What makes you say that?
Rumour
That's bullshit, Natalya Sergeyevna.
- Never mind, it's just gossip!
So I won't come to school tomorrow
Give me a cigarette.
- A glass of water, maybe?
Damn no, give me a cig
Go to the classroom
Don't even think of coming tomorrow
without your parents!
It'll be okay, don't get upset
I'm sorry, Ilya Semyonovich.
- Go to the classroom, I said
Well, thank you, Ilya Semyonovich!
- The wrong end.
An excellent present. So, a teacher's authority is nothing?
Everything's allowed?
Svetlana Mikhailovna!
- You want me to quit?
That's not what you should be saying. You teach literature.
A student wrote you a piece of poetry. How is it a bad thing?
Don't!
I'm not completely crazy yet, you know.
We give them all we've got, and they...
- What do we have to give, that's the question
"The fools made fools of themselves", he writes - who are they?
- Well, in this case, I'm afraid, that's us.
If he's wrong, we still have time to prove
that we are better than we seem
Prove? To whom?
- To them. Every day, at every lesson
If we can't, we should take up another trade,
where bad job is less crucial
Are you rehearsing your speech for the board?
Excuse me, Svetlana Mikhailovna. They're waiting for me.
- Why do you hate me so?
It's not you... how can I explain so that you would understand?
- One should have a heart to do that
Natalya Sergeyevna, I'll go have a look, okay?
Sit, sit
Go
Thank you, Natalya Sergeyevna
Thanks.
The board's on Monday.
- They didn't expel you?
- Nope
He helped?
- Yep
This has been an amazingly productive lesson
And now it's time to say goodbye
Next time we'll discuss the December
armed rebellion in Moscow
and I sincerely hope you won't
burn the school down before that
Natasha... I salvaged this. Do you want to hear?
- I do
- Take a sit
"It is not a tale, it's not a fable.
I saw it, and the others saw it, too:
How they tried to turn a majestic crane
Into a silly tame sparrow.
To deprive him of the blue infinity,
to bind him to the ground
they ringed and restrained him,
and registered in the note book.
They hid the white bird of my happiness
in the cabinet, tied up his wings
and made him breathe lukewarm dust
and forget all dreams...
But the bird had grown strong in the skies!
The fools made fools of themselves
Broken cage, handful of ashes
and the crane's back in the clouds!
Do you know what he wrote in his essay?
- No one will ever know now
I happen to know, by chance. He wrote
"Happiness is to be appreciated"
Was that it?
- That's it
I deserved it
Get up, you'll catch a cold
LET'S LIVE TILL MONDAY
VYACHESLAV TIKHONOV
IRINA PECHERNIKOVA
NINA MENSHIKOVA
MIKHAIL ZIMIN
N. MALISHEVSKY and D. SCHERBAKOV
OLGA ZHIZNEVA
LYUDMILA ARKHAROVA
VALERY ZUBAREV
OLGA OSTROUMOVA
IGOR STARYGIN
ROZA GRIGORYEVA
YURI CHERNOV
(Children and Youth Films)
LET'S LIVE TILL MONDAY
Scriptwriter G. Polonsky
Directed by S. Rostotsky
Camera V. Shumsky
Art department B. Dulenkov
Music K. Molchanov
Sound department A. Izbutsky
Song lyrics by Nikolai Zabolotsky
THURSDAY
Good morning, Ilya Semyonovich.
- Hello.
The broom, quick!
Why is it croaking?
- It's swearing
Such feathers, such a lovely beak!
It must be charming when you speak!
How do you call this bird in English?
A crow.
Crow, crow, crow!
Cherevichkina, give us your sandwich!
Get lost!
Don't be a cheapskate.
Enough!
It's a living being
You mustn't treat it like that.
Where are you going?
Take the broom away.
Rita, take the broom away.
Take your places.
Kostya, wait, sit down
Sit down everybody.
Quiet. Quiet, everyone
- Something is coming...
- You reckon?
They'll be ranting and raving, nothing more.
Where did the crow come from?
- You should have noticed.
You're a bureau member.
They will hold you responsible.
So what?
- So nothing.
Just when this thing is investigated
by the higher authority
You can tell them that it was me who brought the crow.
For a different reason though.
You?
- Yep.
It's very nice of you, actually.
I've been staving it off
but the day of reckoning was coming.
I've been neglecting English.
My crow is a clever bird.
It took care of it.
You should be going. Your bodyguard will worry.
- Because of you?!
Quiet, children, please.
You're not helping.
Natalya Sergeyevna.
- Wait, Shestopalov.
Come here, come, come.
I'll give you some bread.
Some wheat bread, and rye bread.
Come, come, come.
Come here, come.
I was teaching a lesson,
and suddenly it flew...
I did not enquire who'd brought it.
Maybe it came on her own?
- Sure it did.
To get warm.
It's cold out there.
Is it true that he used to be your teacher?
Ilya Semyonovich
Why are you like that?
Okay, I made a mistake,
but you could help.
How?
If you need their love, well,
they're crazy about you.
And you don't need love anymore?
Love's an evil.
Don't let them push you around.
Keep your distance, to not be sorry later.
I can't help you.
Never tried to catch crows.
Gotcha!
- Well done. Congratulations!
The only crow trainer in the world,
the show's sold out.
An only performance today, leave tomorrow,
hurry everyone.
Silence!
Take your places.
Take your place.
If you wish.
Silence!
Mommy told me
it's very bad to kill birdies.
No trial, no record.
It's high, Natalya Sergeyevna,
and it's all wrapped up.
Why did you do that?
The boys have captured it.
Stop talking.
Silence, please.
The memorial service may now start.
The deceased has sacrificed her life
to the public education.
Batischev, shut up!
Maybe it's okay.
I'll go have a look, okay?
I can even bring it back.
Dead or alive.
Don't bring it here.
Take it to Ilya Semyonovich.
He should know the sacrifices
made for him.
Cherkasova, go out.
Out!
Guys, our teacher's been replaced.
We had a great outgoing girl...
Batischev, go out.
Don't call me a girl.
A woman then, sorry.
And now a tyrant
You'll debate it behind the door.
Be quick.
You'll end up alone.
I'm not holding anyone.
Oh, go on, go on.
I enjoy listening to you.
I just don't like the darkness.
What was that you were playing?
Lonely Wanderer, Grieg.
Yes... few people understand good music.
I always say, we shouldn't
limit ourselves by our subjects.
We should have a broader view, right?
Then personal life of some would benefit, too.
If you start thinking about it...
If you start thinking, sure.
By the way...
Why aren't you heading home?
You don't long to?
- It's raining.
Raining...
Yes, sure.
"It is raining in my town...
...it is raining day and night...
...and whatever I say
you don't listen to me..."
Don't get upset.
You shouldn't.
You shouldn't be playing
the lonely pedestrian, either.
Wanderer.
A Lone Traveller
Exactly.
Nothing will happen to her.
The board will forgive her. And you, first of all.
Give me a cigarette.
She's just a girl.
She's only just started.
You and I, we can't allow ourselves
anything. Or forgive.
What's the matter with you?
Why have you changed so much?
"We're overweak to guide our lives
And in our youthful years
The hurried vows we tender
Do but amuse omniscient fate."
So simply said, so calmly.
And for all times.
Any wonder! Classic
Who?
Sounds like Nekrasov. No?
No way?
Not Tyutchev?
Still far
Fet?
Far. It's not from school curriculum.
I'm giving up
Baratynsky
Ah well, you know... No one can remember
all second-rate authors. Baratynsky!
He's been transferred
Where?
To the first-rate list.
Haven't you heard?
You've become mean,
indifferent and lonely.
You've retreated into yourself
nurturing your pessimism.
You're an historian. It's not good, you know.
Even politically.
I'm now teaching history
before 1917, Svetlana Mikhailovna.
So it's okay, politically.
Apparently, your mom's waiting.
Apparently. Good-bye.
Thanks.
5.80 for the sweets, please.
22 kopecks for bread, please.
Ilya Semyonovich
Rudnitsky, Borya!
That's right. How do you do?
How do you do, Boris?
Still living and working at the same place?
Yes. Borya, what's does this
chauffeured vehicle mean?
Our department treats its valued staff
better than yours.
I find it tragic that a man like you
bides his time in a secondary school.
You might be used with a higher ECE.
- With what?
ECE, energy conversion efficiency.
- Oh.
How are you?
I'm fine, Ilya Semyonovich.
No complaints.
Married?
Free.
By the way, I heard that one our common acquaintance has settled in your school.
How's she... Manages?
Too early to say. She's got some problems.
Everyone has.
Yeah, she loves problems.
She even creates them, additionally.
Not just for herself - it's her choice.
But for other people, too.
Damn it, I'll tell you.
Imagine a bride who
at the doorstep of the registry office
mumbles "I'm sorry",
dumps the flowers and runs away.
Noble. And honest.
It's not just humiliated me, it's also
disrupted my one-year business-trip to England.
You know how they 'like' to send single men.
But it's all for the best, of course.
Do you know the song?
"There's a place for everything in life,
The good and the evil live nearby,
If a bride leaves you for someone,
It's a big question who's the lucky one."
Maybe I'm wrong?
You're right, Borya, you're right.
Could you stop please?
- It's not Arbat yet.
I'll walk. I also need to go to a pharmacy.
It's raining. Shall I wait for you?
- No, thanks.
You're right, that my efficiency
could have been much higher.
Good-bye
Anyone called?
- Oh yes
Who?
- Moviegoers
Who?
- Those who want to visit "Progress" cinema
They were asking what's on and when.
I was saying that the rain was on, all the time.
What if they start asking for a bath-house?
Or the Holy Synod?
Poor you. At her 70 your mother's
not dumb yet.
The old hag wants to know the news - what a trouble!
She's interested in her son's thoughts,
and his work.
One could talk to the old witch for half an hour,
and it would last her a week, to think of the said.
It's not theatre, mom, just everyday stuff.
I don't know what to tell, honest.
Did I tell you that Gorelova came to work with us?
Who?
Natasha Gorelova... of our graduates, six years ago.
Do you remember?
- Natasha Gorelova. Of course I remember.
She had a romance with that one, what's his name... Your favourite.
- Come on
With Borya Rudnitski!
Do you remember that?
- Yes. Thanks, mom.
What are you looking for?
- Never mind... What is she teaching, then?
English.
- English... at your school.
My loafers disrupted her lesson today.
- Is she still in love with you?
What are you talking about, mom?
- Me? You used to tell me that she didn't let you teach.
Staring at you with those eyes of hers...
I don't remember. - Well, I knew it myself.
Do you know how she wept in our kitchen, in my lap
after the graduation,
lamenting that you're so old.
You got carried away, mom. Good night.
- Good night
What's on tonight?
"Progress" cinema
Really? How odd...
Natalya Sergeyevna, Melnikov here.
Sorry, stupid joke.
I saw you leaving...
in tears.
You shouldn't, really.
If every silly crow...
Ah, you'll sort it out yourself.
Okay, all right, all right.
I'm sorry.
FRIDAY
If you can tell me, what kind of person - good morning...
invites a boy for some music and dry wine?
- Indeed.
And why is it called "a birthday party"?
My Valery comes, and there's just that girl, alone.
- Well, they watch too many foreign movies.
Music, dry wine... you shouldn't believe it.
Your Valera's lying. She's the third one there, okay?
Can you imagine, I wake up at 1 AM, not on my pillow.
- Are you for real?
It's so interesting, Klavdia Sergeyevna!
- On copy-books, Igor Stepanovich.
I see, I see.
I've been marking them and fell asleep.
It's hanging outside the window.
Yes.
As usual.
At seven... yes.
Allochka, have a heart. There are others, too.
- Sure, sure.
Good morning. - Good morning.
- Hello.
So what's happened, huh?
Don't shrug.
Is it okay if I call you by your first name?
- Yes.
It's your home now.
You came of here, now you are back.
So it's not polite to be aloof.
I'm not aloof.
That's good.
What are you looking for, Raisa Pavlovna?
- Protractor, the big wooden one.
Behind the cabinet.
Come on, I want to know your opinion.
It's, you know, hair salon literature.
- Really?
- While you're waiting there...
Every line belongs to a complacent,
self-loving, indifferent author.
Hello there. - Hello. - Hello.
He can write this today and otherwise tomorrow.
I don't believe him.
- Strange. I liked it.
Oh, Natasha dear, yours are older at least.
But my, little ones,
bring mirrors too, and just primp and preen.
I'm telling them, 'Don't put no mirrors
in your desks,' but them do it anyways.
I say again, 'Don't put no mirrors,' but them do it.
For God's sake, it's horrible.
Yes, it's you I'm talking to.
Are you a teacher or...
You talking to me?
Don't use double negatives, my dear Taisia Nikolayevna,
where did you hear it? We're not in the marketplace!
If you don't care about the kids,
then at least spare our ears!
Hello.
Calm down, you shouldn't...
Wait a second.
What?
- Please ask kids not to touch anything. My lab lesson was nearly ruined yesterday.
- Why me?
- Your class was before mine
Well, Ilya Semyonovich?
You see a mote in other people's eyes.
The class you are responsible for
did not come for the lesson.
And there is not a single coat in the cloakroom.
Congratulations!
Please don't worry, I can do it myself.
Whose lesson should they be at?
Mine
Look, Sanya!
Ilya Semyonovich...
Where are you going?
Calm down!
Hello.
Good morning, Ilya Semyonovich.
A strike, huh?
A strike.
What are your claims?
- Ilya Semyonovich, we want
Our human rights to be respected.
Miss English should be called to order.
She's rude.
Yes, tell him, Batya...
- Tell him, Kostya.
Natalya Sergeyevna treated us very nicely at first.
- And you disrupted her lesson for that.
Let me say my thought to the end.
Express your thought, you mean.
I'm happy to listen, in the classroom.
It's warmer there, of course.
But we'll endure cold.
We'll come... to the next lesson.
Demidova, you're the class president.
Why is Batischev giving orders?
Because my willpower is weaker.
Class president is working-class aristocracy.
Okay, jokes are over. Enough.
We're not joking. It's serious.
- Serious, you say?
Long time ago, the Russian society
was shocked by the execution of
revolutionaries Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich.
Or pleas for help leaked from
the prisoners of Oryol penal colony.
They were being tortured.
In such cases, the kids your age
did not come for their classes.
They called it a strike and
a struggle for human rights.
Just like Syromyatnikov.
But hitting back a woman who's had a breakdown
is not decent.
Let's not prolong the bad things,
like the ancients used to say.
There you are!
Look
I'm sorry, guys,
I was out of line.
Come on, Natalya Sergeyevna, it's our fault.
- It's our...
Well, you are not blameless either. Behaved like pigs.
- Correct, Natalya Sergeyevna...
We're pigs.
- I'm alone to blame. It's my crow.
I brought it for a different reason,
but it got away.
Hm, I thought it was Syromyatnikov.
No way, Natalya Sergeyevna,
I'm all about cattle.
Okay, kids...
Close your books.
What is the English for 'yekhat verkhom'?
Syromyatnikov?
- To ride - rode - ridden.
Wonderful!
Ah, there you are
I'm sorry, Natalya Sergeyevna.
I thought I should help to sort this out.
What's up?
Who are you boycotting?
Sit down, sit.
You knew that the vice-principal is on sick leave,
that your teacher is young, and you used it?
No secrets, please.
No one is going to threaten you
with administrative action.
I just want to know what
got into your heads?
Whose idea it was?
We've sorted it out already.
Natalya Sergeyevna knows.
Everything is fine now.
Aha, I see.
You have your own secrets and relations?
Right. I won't be interfering, then.
"Who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth." - J. W. von Goethe
Come on, Yura, read that.
Who cannot draw...
- Okay, good, some more.
on three tho.. thousand...
Ilya Semyonovich, these are kids from class 1-A.
Their teacher got suddenly sick and left.
No one said what to do,
so I'm showing them around your museum.
Okay
Who's your teacher?
- Taisia Nikolayevna
Essay (choice):
1. The character of Katerina in Ostrovsky's "The Thunderstorm"
2. Bazarov and Rakhmetov
3. My Idea of Happiness
Is an epigraph necessary for "Happiness"?
- It's desirable.
Happiness is
Cherkasova, enough.
How long are going to look around for?
Concentrate!
Do you know why you can't write?
Because your mind is in a haze.
Who thinks clearly, expresses clearly.
Don't worry, continue.
What's happened, Ilya Semyonovich?
- Nothing.
Your face is...
- What about it?
It's not like you.
For conspiracy's sake.
A distance?
Shall we keep it?
You know better. I'm no longer your teacher,
Natalya Sergeyevna.
I see
Where are our kids?
They are writing an essay. My lesson has been taken for that.
- Do you regret?
Regret that not two.
Come with me.
Hello. - Hello.
"My Idea of Happiness."
She didn't offer us such topics.
We usually wrote about
typical representatives in literature.
Such serious faces.
Inspired.
Syromyatnikov's cheating.
Stealing someone's happiness.
You'll see things like that every single day.
You'll get sick of it.
I don't understand how they can write about it.
I couldn't.
It's impossible to explain. Happiness...
It's like trying to pin down a Sun ray.
No rays.
They'll write what is expected of them.
Want to come in?
I've got a lesson.
- I'm free.
Syromyatnikov
Happiness, I think, is to be appreciated
Do you realise what you've written?
Nadya, my little darling,
do you realise?
I'm all for being sincere, that's why
I offered this topic in the first place, but...
Such dreams at your age?
Just try to think of it!
I thought that you...
- What?
I'm stupid, Svetlana Mikhailovna.
I'm really stupid.
It's sad, but it's better than being depraved.
- What did you write, Nadya?
What did you write?
- It can't be read out loud.
Why not? Maybe we're all writing something wrong,
like her.
Don't worry. You wouldn't think of
anything like that.
Continue working.
- Give me back my essay.
Here
Take it and tear it up. I permit
And try to write about Katerina.
You may have enough time left.
Write on.
No. I'll read it.
If you can know, we can too.
Of course! Sure
Shut up!
- Why?
Don't you understand? There are boys here!
- Ha. So what?
Give back your essay!
- I won't!
All right. Read it.
You'll be ashamed of yourself.
Go on, read!
If we speak about happiness, it must be sincere.
Not just rational.
Many of us are shy to write about love,
even though every girl is dreaming about it.
Even the ugliest,
who doesn't have any hope.
I think one should always hope.
I want to meet a man
who would love children.
Because without children,
a woman cannot be really happy.
If there is no war, I'd like to have
two boys and two girls.
Shush!
Yes! Two boys and two girls!
Then, all their lives,
no one will feel lonely.
The older will take care of little ones,
and there will be happiness in the house.
I did not write anything about work,
but don't mothers have a lot of work?
So, where is the problem?
What's the problem, really?
What's wrong about that?
I can't believe it!
- You shouldn't worry so much.
She's going have children with
her own husband, not someone else's.
Enough!
This class is the world's end.
No shame, no modesty
Hand your essays over!
Happiness is to be appreciated!
Me again. Hello
Hi
Come in
Take a seat
You shouldn't be coming, comrade Levikova, really.
- I'm not just coming... I'm taking leave from work.
You called him out again yesterday, didn't you?
I did.
You're busy? Sorry.
Just two minutes, okay?
So you asked him questions in class.
Yes, I did.
And he told us that Herzen went abroad
to prepare the Great October revolution,
together with Karl Marx.
What should I do, cry or laugh?
I'll send you abroad at home, you'll see!
- Why are you fighting?
It's a bad approach.
That's not right.
Go away, go.
You know, Ilya Semyonovich,
we can't have a "Fail"
They will kick him out of Pioneers House, love,
out of the dance group.
Where will he go? Back on the street?
- I didn't give him a "Fail". He's got a "Pass"
"Limited Achievement"
Thank you!
- For God's sake don't thank me!
You should not.
You're reminding me again
that I'm lying for you.
No, it's not for me. It's not for me.
In any case, not for Vova's chance
to dance in that group.
It's not his legs he should be exercising,
it's his memory and speech.
Memory. Memory, yes.
Thanks for the advice.
Ever cared to wonder why his memory's poor?
And speech?
Maybe his father's a third-generation alcoholic.
Maybe my boy couldn't hold his head up until 18 months old.
No one believed he'd survive.
Kids on the street still call him "retard"
I apologize. I shouldn't be saying that.
The Russian teacher says "memory"...
and the physics teacher too...
This used to be my desk
Will you excuse me, Natalya Sergeyevna?
Come tomorrow, then
- Let's call if off, maybe?
- No, come tomorrow
Nikolai Borisovich... wait, don't go yet
I need a leave
- What?
I can't work anymore
- Off with you!
The school year's just begun
What's up with you?
Health problems? Liver?
- It's the geography teacher who's got liver.
Ah, right. So what's up with you?
Well... general condition
Aren't you dodging?
Have you decided to finish your thesis?
- Come on, it's a thing of the past.
A shame! I've been long wanting to tell you,
now's the right time for that subject.
Great recommendation for the research.
And a strong stimulus to finish it.
"The right time"
Did you try vitamin B12?
Bum injections?
It helped my wife
May I write a request?
It's not a sensible conversation, Ilya Semyonovich.
To get a leave at the beginning of the year,
one needs a reason so serious, that God forbid...
What if my reason's exactly that serious?
Who can determine?
Medical science, of course
Do you hear me?
- No. Because you don't hear me
Have you thought who am I going
to replace you with?
You can replace me with yourself.
We graduated in the same major.
Can you allow me to teach now?
Mangle young souls?
My views are malleable. I change easily.
I swear by fresh newspapers.
That's what you used to say.
- I did
"I did." Oh, brother,
the things you've been saying...
An historian! I'm an administrator, Ilya.
I get new equipment, and I'm happy.
I manage to get air-conditioners, and I'm proud
We are not thinking of others enough
Here's a simple example: Svetlana Mikhailovna
has been teaching here for 20 years tomorrow.
Fine, let's collect three rubles apiece and buy her...
a crocodile
Even jokes you make are principled
You know, Ilya... one can respect you
but it's hard to love you.
- Okay, don't love me. Give me my leave
I won't
You want to have rest?
To nurse your honesty?
Let others build?
Once it's all finished - welcome Ilya Semenovich -
and you won't shake our hands,
saying "You've got your hands dirty, while building"
Depending on what kind of dirt, I might not want to shake it.
- Exactly. That sums you up
You know, Ilya... Principles, they won't feed you,
or improve your health, or keep you warm
Principles are not kebab,
or vitamin B12, or hot-water bottle
Some eccentrics sacrifice their lunch for them
Sometimes even more than that.
In 1941, near Vyazma, you and I knew it very well
History is a discipline
which makes a human a citizen
Right?
- Okay, right
Here's a textbook published this year. This year!
- Come on, Ilya. Life goes on
Have you ever thought about the
huge importance of paper?
We should acknowledge its endless patience
You can write on it:
"Upon the hills of Georgia lies darkness of the night"
or a squeal about on a neighbour
One can rewrite the thesis to take out
just one name, one fact
to shift the accents.
If there's enough paper, why not?
It will withstand anything
But our souls and the kids' souls
are not made of paper, Kolya
Want to see how they pleased me today?
Interesting.
- Interesting, indeed
Strip-tease of the soul
I don't think so
- You don't have to
We have different experience
and different moral values
The goal is the same, though
You're a happy person, Natasha
Me?
Yeah, as happy as a clam
You know...
- I know, my girl, I know
Just don't delay with the baby, you both.
It's a common teachers' problem
That princess is right, after all
Though it's beyond her reach
Oh yes
Otherwise you'll be left to deal
with other people's happiness only
I've got it here, of 24 sorts,
for all tastes
Two Katerinas, one Bazarov
All the rest is about happiness
You go now
If you can't give me a leave,
just fire me then and the hell with it!
What are you going to do then?
Plant gooseberry? Write memoirs?
I can be a guide at a museum
You think the exposition there doesn't change?
It does.
- So what's the difference?
There, I'll deal with random people.
They come once, listen, and go away
And here...
- I'm not satisfied with your explanations
Are you satisfied with a teacher
who's no longer a teacher?
What do you mean, no longer a teacher?
To sow wise, kind and eternal things...
and see thistle and hemlock to grow.
- Enough of this symbolism
That's nonsense, dear Ilya.
Who's a teacher if you aren't one.
And who are you if aren't a teacher?
Let me have my leave
Honestly... after all,
can't I have my personal reasons?
Write your request. Take your leave,
go to the museum, to the circus, wherever you want.
Thank you
You came to see me?
- Not you, no
Let's discuss it, okay?
Syromyatnikov, either leave
or sit like a normal person
As if I need this!
You were saying, that things are boring,
no social work
Go on, make suggestions then
Write it down
Activity one: baptizing Nadya's babies
What was that for?
Is she crazy?
I was just kidding.
Not good, Kostya.
She's had her share today.
Who asked her to show her sincerity?
Everyone might have ideas. Why share them in essays?
Happiness for a grade. Nonsense
And you, what did you write, then?
- I didn't touch on that subject at all
I was peacefully writing about Bazarov
Enough!
Batischev's right. After this essay,
some look like fools, and others - like scoundrels
Why are you cursing?
- It's not why we gathered here, Shestopalov
Sit down, Sveta.
You're a good person, but you better sit down
I got it now. Those who wrote sincerely like Nadya,
they are fools and will be taunted
Who lied and used the P2 principle, those are scoundrels.
- What's P2?
The first P is for "pick right",
the second P - for "please"
When famous people's thoughts and quotes neatly prepared at home,
and an "HD" is virtually guaranteed.
Do we have people like that, Ella?
- I don't know. Perhaps
So what do you suggest?
- To go home
Everything's clear. Everyone's happy
Gena Esq.
Why are you so sad?
- Drop it, Gena
Are you familiar with the damn's worth theory?
Use it to look at things. It helps
- I'll try
You know what, let's go to my place?
I'm almost fixed with the tape recorder, you could help
I don't feel like it
I know what you feel like. You want me to scram,
and Rita to say with you. Am I right?
It can be arranged. I'm not greedy,
right, Rita?
Gena, say yes, or he'll change his mind
You'll walk and talk, or go to the movies.
Say something
I don't have any money.
- No need, I've got three rubles
No, I have to pay him rental.
How much per hour, Kostya?
Idiot!
Yeah, you can end up without an eye for such jokes.
- Nutcase!
You should see a doctor, Shestopalov,
you know
You've got a hypersensitive ego, like every shorty
You want a slap, too?
You'll get it!
Go on. Go
On my way home, I was thinking of you...
My scattered thoughts were wandering about...
The Book of Wandering, I thought it would not lie.
I hoped that in some chapter
your shore will appear out of the fog,
out of weightless mist
But the ship's chart is wrong,
I see it clearly now.
The Earth is spinning madly,
but we are as distant as ever
Some more?
You write much better now.
More artistic
Okay, we should go
Otherwise someone will come and start yelling
- There's no one else in the school
There's always someone in the school.
Even at night
Imagine that there's no one.
Just us
Don't count on me getting all lyrical
because of your poetry
I don't.
I'm not such an Utopian
After all, that's not what
verses are written for
Come on
I've warned you
Nothing will ever happen between us
You see...
You're a little boy, Gena
I was like that in 7th grade
You want the truth?
- Well?
Rationally, I know that, as a person,
you're nothing special
Not a ray of light in the darkness
That's interesting
- I know that
and yet I try to disregard it
What?
- I'm sorry, you won't understand it
I've only understood it 2 days ago myself
So what did you understand 2 days ago?
That everyone needs to be in love.
With someone, or something.
Always, all the time
Life is boring otherwise
For me, the easiest thing is to fall in love with you.
For the lack of better
So you don't care what I think of you?
- Nope.
It doesn't change a thing
What's important is the impulse inside
So you are free to think that it's not you
that I'm in love with
It might be, say, Cherevichkina
Poetry is easier, huh?
Dedicate your poems to Cherevichkina from now on
Good luck
Natasha!
Modelling different creative processes
defined by gifts, predispositions
and, finally, the talents,
is a daring but manageable task
I'm holding some sheet music. This music
was written by an electronic composer
Don't be surprised. Of course, humans
were setting tasks for this electronic composer
You be the judges of the composition's merits
There will be viewers who would say:
"A machine cannot feel,
and emotions are the essence of music"
But first of all...
First of all, we should define precisely
what is a human emotion, soul, human itself
Will he define, I wonder?
And then, the music you'll hear
isn't Mozart, of course
Thanks for that
Everything's got cold
Mom...
give me some vodka
And a glass
Oh, a strange letter arrived for you today,
I signed
"News of Music" program is over
In a few minutes, we will resume the broadcast
of the hockey match from the Sports Palace
Dear comrade Melnikov, I am very busy and therefore
forced to address you in writing.
My daughter has been regularly getting poor grades
for your subject, which is surprising and worrying.
After all, history is not mathematics,
one doesn't need be too smart to master it.
I have personally ... they have personally, you see?
checked her knowledge of the textbook's chapters 61 to 65,
and I consider B (High Achievement) to be an appropriate grade.
I strongly recommend you re-check my daughter's knowledge
of the above-mentioned chapters. Potekhin.
A big shot
All that on an official letterhead.
He couldn't be bothered to buy paper
Why are you so worried? You said once,
if someone is dim it's incurable
Voltaire said it, not me.
Mom, he's not so dim
He's inspired... by the memories
Hey, look what I found
Vanya Kovalyov. Remember the article about him?
A prominent physicist
- I remember
Thanks, mom. I'm full
To Polina Andreevna,
the mother of the man we admire.
From Natasha Gorelova. June 28, 1960.
Is it drizzling again?
Mom, have you ever noticed
some despair in impersonal sentences?
It's drizzling... it's windy... it's getting dark.
You know why?
No one to complain about
And no one to fight
If someone calls, I'm not here
Hello?
He's not in
Oh... hello... hello?
You said you weren't here
SATURDAY
Igor Stepanovich! I didn't notice you.
- I'm in soft slippers
Hello
- Good morning, good morning
I came to criticize you, Natasha
- What's the matter?
It's not right, you know.
You're our young promising specialist
And you don't want to share our life
You didn't even give me your phone number
- What for?
Just in case
No big deal, the registry will tell
By the way, agents informed
that you're waiting for comrade Melnikov every day
Don't deny it. Only sincere acknowledgement
might mitigate your fate
And the fate below average, dear Natasha
He's got the dust of centuries on his glasses
He's not interested in women,
except Joan of Arc
Hello.
- Hello, Svetlana Mikhailovna
I've got your number already, by the way
We'll continue our conversation, I guess
Natasha
Hello
You don't have the first lesson, do you?
- Really?
I must have mixed up days
Allochka, just from home and calling already?
- As usual
- Formally, everyone's here,
but the thoughts are either back home or God knows where
Good morning
- Hello
Hello
Good morning
- Good morning.
Taisia Nikolaevna...
I'm sorry for what happened yesterday
It's okay
No, no, no
Hey, Ilya Semyonovich...
This is for you
For me?
Working in school for 20 years is something
Not that easy, right?
- Wow, that's right!
Comrades, I think we must celebrate the anniversary
properly and solemnly...
Good morning
- Good morning
Didn't you receive anything from my dad?
A letter?
- I did, and could you please tell him...
Don't Ilya Semyonovich. Never mind, please.
He's writing letters like that to everyone
Like who?
- Everyone. Even the minister of culture
Complaining that they film actors in wrong postures.
Please forgive him.
Okay?
Here. Tell the kids the lesson will be in the classroom.
Let me sit at your lesson!
- What for?
Don't ask questions. Just let me in.
I came an hour before my own lesson
Bullshit
- I heard it myself. I sat behind
the principal's door and heard everything
Come in, Natalya Sergeyevna
Sit down
Borisov's not here?
He's kind of sick
Last time we talked about the 17th October
Manifesto... quiet, please...
About the beginning of the first
Russian revolution. We'll revise that and move on
Syromyatnikov
What?
- Are you prepared?
- More or less
I have to go out there?
- Right
We're listening
Okay. The tsar's policy was cowardly and perdifious.
- What?
Perdifious.
- Perfidious. That means, disloyal
Or treacherous.
- Yes
Okay, go on.
- Fearful for his tsarist position
the tsar, of course, issued a manifesto.
He was promising the people a paradise on earth...
Could you be more specific?
Different freedoms... of speech...
of assembly...
Really, what's the point? He didn't do what he promised,
why should I repeat his lies?
After, the tsar displayed his nasty nature again
and continue ruling as before
So... you know... there... what's it called...
No one could tell him a thing.
And... after Peter the Great Russia didn't have
much luck with tsars. That's my personal opinion.
Suppose I give him a "Fail",
then he grows up to be Yuri Nikulin,
And it will look like I nearly strangled the future of National Art.
- So don't. Why "Fail"?
For "more or less"
Here lies the happiness of class 9-B
Instead of firm actions,
Shmidt sent telegrams to Nicholas II
demanding democratic freedoms.
In the meanwhile, the authorities overcame
the initial surprise and gathered troops
The cruiser "Ochakov" was shelled and set on fire
Shmidt was executed. He reaped the fruit
of his political naivety and short-sightedness
His show of heroism had little effect
Poor Shmidt, if he could only foresee
this posthumous reprimand
I'm not inventing anything, am I?
I hear it all the time: "Jaures didn't consider",
"Herzen couldn't see",
"Tolstoy failed to understand"...
As if history was made by a gang of underachievers
Anyone wants to object? Add something?
There's only 15 lines in the textbook about him
At your age, people read other books, too
Other books? No problem. In "The Golden Calf," for example,
Ostap Bender and his cronies pretended to be sons of Lieutenant Shmidt.
Want to hear it?
- Some other time
Can anyone add something?
Fifteen lines
Most people only get a dash
between two dates
What kind of man he was,
Lieutenant Petr Petrovich Shmidt?
Russian intellectual, a gifted man, a brave officer,
a seasoned sailor, an artistic soul
He sang, played cello, drew...
he was a brilliant public speaker
But his most precious gift was the ability
to feel other people's suffering more acutely than his own
This gift produces rebels and poets
Just imagine, once he met a woman on a train.
They spoke for 40 minutes,
and he fell deeply in love. Forever.
With her, or with the image of her
he had invented...
But it was a beautiful story. 40 minutes, and then
there were letters, hundreds of them. They're published.
Read them, and you won't dare judge
this man's mistakes and illusions with such arrogance
But he did make the mistakes, right?
- Sit down for now
Petr Shmidt was against violence,
like Dostoyevsky's Ivan Karamazov
He rejected universal harmony, if a single
child was sacrificed for its sake
He couldn't, wouldn't believe, that the language of machine-guns
is the only one to speak to the tsar
Bloodless harmony
Was it naive? Yes.
A mistake? Yes.
But I invite Batischev and everyone else
to think again
and understand the high price
of such mistakes
Listen, Kostya
The rebellion has started, and it's to you,
living 60 years ago
the rebellious "Ochakov" sailors come and say:
"The navy and the revolution need you"
You know that the rebellion is doomed. Your only cruiser
doesn't have any armour, or shells, its speed is barely 8 knots.
What would you do? Leave the sailors alone under the guns
of admiral Chukhnin or go and lead the rebellion?
And stand under fire and surely die.
- Without a chance of success? What's the point?
You and your points!
- That's right, Rita.
Quiet, quiet
So, the question is: What is the point
of Shmidt's actions and his death?
It's obvious, right?
- If not for men like him, there'd be no revolution!
He explained it himself
in his final speech, in court.
He explained in such a manner that even the guards
put their rifles aside
and were tried afterwards for that.
Fifteen lines.
May I, Ilya Semyonovich?
- Yes
Pardon my intrusion
Sit down
Something outrageous has happened
Last night someone came into the teachers' room,
took the essays written by your class and burned them.
Yes, burned
And at the crime scene - I'm not trying to joke here -
he left this... explanation
Which is both impudent and abstruse
I don't need to explain how cruel, how inhumane
the perpetrator was to Svetlana Mikhailovna
I won't discuss the political implications of these actions either.
There's just one thing I'd like to know:
Who did it?
I hope, I won't be forced into humiliating you and myself
by comparing handwriting and the like.
You won't
You, Shestopalov?
- Me
Come with me
- With my things?
- Yes, take your stuff
Natalya Sergeyevna, why are you here?
Ilya Semyonovich allowed me.
- Right
Got the picture?
Sit down
Where was I?
You were saying that 15 lines
is a lot
Right
He went to the principal, Natalya Sergeyevna?
- Where else?
Guys, Shestopalov's finished.
- Why did he burn them without telling anyone?
Just to be special. To show off
Hello
- Hello
...you read this message. Read what it says.
He's judging everyone by his standards.
- He wrote an explanation, we should read it.
He's just a nerd.
- What? You're a nerd yourself
- I'm completely normal
I am absolutely against it. We know very little about them,
and we completely neglect our direct duty.
Which is?
- Education, Svetlana Mikhailovna
So what now, Shestopalov?
I think it's too early to fight.
You better think. It's rather strange
You've been studying with Shestopalov for 9 years,
and yet you don't know him.
We do. He's honest
Well, if he's honest...
Sit down
You know what I heard? That our principal had carried Ilya Semyonovich
from behind enemy lines, when he was wounded.
Is it true?
It is true
Is it true that Ilya Semyonovich is leaving?
Leaving? What makes you say that?
Rumour
That's bullshit, Natalya Sergeyevna.
- Never mind, it's just gossip!
So I won't come to school tomorrow
Give me a cigarette.
- A glass of water, maybe?
Damn no, give me a cig
Go to the classroom
Don't even think of coming tomorrow
without your parents!
It'll be okay, don't get upset
I'm sorry, Ilya Semyonovich.
- Go to the classroom, I said
Well, thank you, Ilya Semyonovich!
- The wrong end.
An excellent present. So, a teacher's authority is nothing?
Everything's allowed?
Svetlana Mikhailovna!
- You want me to quit?
That's not what you should be saying. You teach literature.
A student wrote you a piece of poetry. How is it a bad thing?
Don't!
I'm not completely crazy yet, you know.
We give them all we've got, and they...
- What do we have to give, that's the question
"The fools made fools of themselves", he writes - who are they?
- Well, in this case, I'm afraid, that's us.
If he's wrong, we still have time to prove
that we are better than we seem
Prove? To whom?
- To them. Every day, at every lesson
If we can't, we should take up another trade,
where bad job is less crucial
Are you rehearsing your speech for the board?
Excuse me, Svetlana Mikhailovna. They're waiting for me.
- Why do you hate me so?
It's not you... how can I explain so that you would understand?
- One should have a heart to do that
Natalya Sergeyevna, I'll go have a look, okay?
Sit, sit
Go
Thank you, Natalya Sergeyevna
Thanks.
The board's on Monday.
- They didn't expel you?
- Nope
He helped?
- Yep
This has been an amazingly productive lesson
And now it's time to say goodbye
Next time we'll discuss the December
armed rebellion in Moscow
and I sincerely hope you won't
burn the school down before that
Natasha... I salvaged this. Do you want to hear?
- I do
- Take a sit
"It is not a tale, it's not a fable.
I saw it, and the others saw it, too:
How they tried to turn a majestic crane
Into a silly tame sparrow.
To deprive him of the blue infinity,
to bind him to the ground
they ringed and restrained him,
and registered in the note book.
They hid the white bird of my happiness
in the cabinet, tied up his wings
and made him breathe lukewarm dust
and forget all dreams...
But the bird had grown strong in the skies!
The fools made fools of themselves
Broken cage, handful of ashes
and the crane's back in the clouds!
Do you know what he wrote in his essay?
- No one will ever know now
I happen to know, by chance. He wrote
"Happiness is to be appreciated"
Was that it?
- That's it
I deserved it
Get up, you'll catch a cold
LET'S LIVE TILL MONDAY
VYACHESLAV TIKHONOV
IRINA PECHERNIKOVA
NINA MENSHIKOVA
MIKHAIL ZIMIN
N. MALISHEVSKY and D. SCHERBAKOV
OLGA ZHIZNEVA
LYUDMILA ARKHAROVA
VALERY ZUBAREV
OLGA OSTROUMOVA
IGOR STARYGIN
ROZA GRIGORYEVA
YURI CHERNOV