The film by P. Lungin "Taxi Blues". Rebuilding for rebuilding
The events of the film unfold in Moscow in the late 80s. Taxi driver Ivan drives around the city a drunken group of young people headed by jazz saxophonist Alexei Seliverstov all night. But at the end of the evening, the passenger escapes without paying the driver as much as 70 rubles …
The feature film Taxi Blues was released in 1990 and won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. In his work, the film's director and screenwriter Pavel Lungin was able to clearly show the realities of that difficult time for Russians.
It was the time of perestroika. Much has changed - values, worldview. There is a shortage of goods, dry law, endless queues in stores, and all with coupons. One historical stage was coming to an end, the era of European standards was approaching. Some people just got lost and walked through life by touch, while others were able to adapt, while others called this era of complete freedom and opportunity.
For P. Lungin himself it was more of a period of opportunities when he was able to shoot his first film "Taxi Blues". He wrote the script for himself, simply describing on paper his inner feeling of that time. Possessing a sound vector, Pavel Semenovich always felt a desire to find the essence of what was happening and express his thoughts in written word.
The owner of the sound vector is a person who unconsciously seeks answers to questions about the universe, about the meaning of life, a person's place in it. Working with word, meaning, sound is especially close to sound people. As a true sound engineer, P. Lungin received the specialty of a linguist and, at a more mature age, graduated from the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors.
For his author's project, he chose a unique cast. The main role of the talented and always drunk saxophonist is brilliantly played by the musician and leader of the group "Sounds of Mu" Pyotr Mamonov. Later he starred in two more famous projects of P. Lungin - "Tsar" and "Island". The role of the Soviet taxi driver Ivan Shlykov is perfectly played by Pyotr Zaichenko, who became in demand in Europe after the participation of "Taxi Blues" in the Cannes Film Festival and to this day actively starred in Russian films. Elena Safonova, Natalia Kalyakanova and Vladimir Sharpur complement the talented team of actors. The jazz compositions by Vladimir Chekasin that sound in the film also create a special mood.
Ask forgiveness
The events of the film unfold in Moscow in the late 80s. Taxi driver Ivan drives around the city a drunken group of young people headed by jazz saxophonist Alexei Seliverstov all night. But at the end of the evening, the passenger escapes without paying the driver as much as 70 rubles.
Ivan Shlykov himself is the owner of the anal vector, a person by nature honest and does not accept meanness and lies. “The surname is as reliable as a brick. It's probably good with you at logging. When the minus 40 and the matches are over,”- Alexey characterizes the taxi driver very accurately.
For Shlykov, truth and justice are the main values in life, and the saxophonist passenger is a deceiver and a scoundrel, because he did not pay the bill. Having an excellent memory by nature, Ivan Shlykov does not forget the offender and the next day he finds him to collect the debt. In the toilet, using vocabulary appropriate to the occasion, he teaches Lech about life "like an anal". Demanding his honestly earned money, which the windy Leha does not have, Ivan takes his saxophone as a pledge. Later, having learned the real cost of the instrument, he suddenly realizes that he has deprived Seliverstov of his main income. Under the yoke of a sense of guilt, which also characterizes the bearers of the anal vector, he searches for Leha, returns him the saxophone and lodges him with him until he fulfills his debt. This happens only in our Russian urethral-muscular mentality, which contains a simple truth aboutthat you can only survive together and therefore you need to help each other.
After another drunkenness with a neighbor's cologne, immersed in the music and not noticing anything around, the sonic Seliverstov manages to flood someone else's communal apartment and now has to pay the money for the damage caused by 475 rubles. Ivan is outraged by Leha's behavior. It was not so important for him to repay the debt, as he wanted to hear words of remorse from Leha, so that he would ask for forgiveness. He does not understand that Lech is sounding in the clouds, in his thoughts, he does not notice and does not attach importance to such "small" earthly things as the need to turn off the tap in the bathroom.
There is another significant moment in the film when Ivan longs to hear the words of apology addressed to him. After Leha's next trick, an enraged Shlykov drives through Moscow and is stopped by a group of young guys who are tipsy. He takes a truncheon, gets out of the car and starts chasing them, ruthlessly beating up anyone who comes to hand.
He catches one of the guys, brings him to his knees and demands his forgiveness for calling him a fascist. “You didn't hold a hammer in your hands. They've sold out in the bud, creatures,”Ivan tries to shame his offender. He generalizes all young people who already have other values, inspired by the West, and feeling dislike, gives out their mental stress, beating the guys. Having calmed down in this way, he now, with a sense of guilt, returns to the police and tears up his statement, which he in the heat of the moment wrote about Seliverstov an hour ago.
Every phrase said speaks of a person's shortcomings. Thanks to the knowledge of System-Vector Psychology, it is possible to deeply understand the true motives of people, simply by observing them, listening to their speech. So, Shlykov was deeply touched by the words about the fascist, since anal people are very patriotic. He constantly repeats that “all of Russia is working hard” and that “we, the Russian people, we must be together. Like one fist. “To be hunched over like a Russian peasant hunchbacks every day,” he says to Seliverstov, forcing him to wash his car on account of his debt.
The cruelty of an offended person
For a person with an anal vector, the basic values are equality between people, family, professionalism. He loves to learn and then teach others. His good memory and natural diligence help a lot in this. With sufficient development, such people find themselves in pedagogy or mentoring, where they pass on their knowledge and skills to the next generation. When they realize their properties in society, they receive a well-deserved reward - honor and respect. And when a person fails to realize his properties or when they are deprived of what they honestly deserve, resentments arise that can be expressed in cruelty to others - in fights, swinging an ax, violence against a woman. This is an attempt to compensate for what he was not given. Moreover, a bad experience is always projected further, from a specific offender to a whole group of people (for example, young people or women).
The lack of constant sexual realization also causes stress in a person with an anal vector, because by nature he has a high libido, which he directs to only one woman, becoming a caring husband and a good father. In general, children and family are a very important component for any person with an anal vector. But Ivan is an inveterate bachelor who lives in a tiny room in a communal apartment with an eternally disgruntled old man neighbor. So he accumulates tension and dissatisfaction with life, which periodically erupt in the form of cruelty, fights and sudden aggression.
People with an anal vector are slow, diligent and hardworking. The acceleration of the pace of life is a constant stress for them. The violent social changes that began during perestroika, when Russia entered the cutaneous phase of development, served as a severe stress for the carriers of the anal vector.
The consciousness of such people is turned into the past, they, as a rule, are interested in history, traditions of past eras. What was before will always be better for them than it is now. After all, they are hostages of their habit, they lead a measured lifestyle and perceive any changes negatively. These people like to remember the past, flip through old photo albums. The settled and familiar gives a comfortable state to any person with an anal vector.
But perestroika required adaptation to new conditions. The cutaneous phase of development began with a fast pace of life and vivid individualism. In post-perestroika Russia, she showed herself especially ugly - lawlessness, corruption, theft. The benchmarks that people with an anal vector (and Soviet society in general) relied on - honesty, brotherhood, professionalism - were devalued, life in the new conditions seemed impossible for them. It was against this background that anal people massively lost their health, a wave of heart attacks went through the country.
He talks to God
Accidental circumstances pitted Shlykov and Seliverstov. And Shlykov teaches life in a simple way and makes a real man from Seliverstov, not realizing that they are made of different dough. A lone taxi driver and former weightlifter Ivan Shlykov takes up the "re-education" of the musician Leha, pulls him out of the sobering-up station and teaches him how to get rid of the "black stuff" out of his head, just pushing himself off the floor several times, makes sure that he does not drink, works physically, feeds his "vitamins for seven rubles a kilo."
But Lech is a sound engineer. Seliverstov seems to be living in another world. Chernukha for him is not just a bad mood, it is an internal difficult state of mind, from which he sees no way out. “Everything is crumbling for me, there is nothing! Give me back to the madhouse! - in a moment of despair Lech shouts.
“Now he is in the tie, then he is in the denouement. Now he is depressed, now he is inspired,”the former entrepreneur Lekhin is indignant.
Lech found his realization and became a virtuoso saxophonist. However, modern sound musicians are born with a huge volume of desire, which music alone can no longer fill. Each next generation is born with a lot of desire. For the sound engineer, this is an ever-increasing unconscious desire to search for the meaning of life. Music, philosophy, the study of foreign languages, science are only sublimates of this desire. During all these activities, the sound engineer, to one degree or another, feels the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life. That is why Leha is feeling bad all the time, that is why he falls into depression, tries to drown her out with alcohol when he becomes completely nauseous, or swallows pills, sounding like wanting to expand his consciousness, go beyond his head, his body.
“I am a genius, I am a saint,” Lech shouts, trying to get out of a police motorcycle. The natural egocentrism of the sound engineer makes Seliverstov feel his own genius. “Your ceiling is two twenty. Such apartments were built and such people were brought out,”Leha says condescendingly to Shlykov.
It seems to him that he is not like everyone else, that he is the chosen one. “I'm talking to God,” he declares. For him, an eternal internal dialogue with himself is a conversation with a Higher Power, and from the outside Lech is mistaken for a madman.
Being in a constant half-drunk state, Alexei would be glad to just turn off his always aching and suffering consciousness. Music brings him back to reality. As soon as he picks up the saxophone, he begins to talentedly improvise various jazz compositions.
“I can play anything. This pipe, this string bag, this light bulb, this cabinet."
Once the American musician Hall Singer becomes a witness of his magnificent performance. The sound engineer recognizes from afar. Of course, by the purity of the sound produced on the instrument, by the depth and brightness of the improvisation. A well-known jazzman arrives at the Moscow recording studio and, having heard Lehi play, immediately invites him on a tour to America.
Possessing also a skin vector, Seliverstov perfectly appreciates the benefit-benefit from this proposal and, dryly saying goodbye to his fellow taxi driver, flies abroad. Alexei's talent is well paid in the USA, and he returns to his homeland as a rich and recognizable musician. At the airport, in the company of noisy friends, he rushes past the car of Shlykov, who, like a faithful friend, came to meet his old friend. And Ivan becomes offended, and the feeling of injustice so familiar to him again seizes him.
Without truly close friends, Ivan feels lonely. For the period of communication with Leha, he finds a friend whom he wanted to make a man. The concept of friendship is sacred for a person with an anal vector. In search of a meeting, Ivan goes to Seliverstov's concert and is touchingly imbued with Leha's sensual play. Unable to get through the crowd of fans to the artist after the concert, Shlykov shouts out to Lech and invites him to come in.
Ivan is looking forward to visiting his friend, having prepared a beautiful table with drinks and snacks in advance. But, without waiting for anyone, full of annoyance, Shlykov sits down alone in front of the TV. Only then does Seliverstov's belated company with his friends appear on the doorstep. Instead of intimate conversations, Ivan receives from Leha as a gift a pair of foreign clothes and a rubber woman. The humiliated and offended Shlykov runs out of the house, takes the car from the first taxi driver he sees, and drives after Lyokha in search of justice. But he mistakenly takes another foreign car for Seliverstov's car. As a result, the senseless pursuit ends in an accident. Ivan gets out of the car and gets the stranger out of a nearby foreign car, managing to drag him off before the cars explode.
Afterword
Pavel Lungin shot such a talented and piercingly truthful film about perestroika thanks to his ability to subtly, sonically, feel other people, their pain and suffering, generalizing the lack of the whole society in the images of his heroes. Some of us recognize ourselves or our loved ones in Lech, another in Shlykov, the third is trying to guess what is behind the behavior of the main characters of the picture.
During the 90s, such films had a massive psychotherapeutic effect, especially for people with an anal vector who were extremely difficult and painful to endure the era of change. And for young sound musicians who were already beginning to experience suffering from the inability to realize themselves through intermediate sublimates and were looking for their own fulfillment, some in religion, some in drugs, some in overseas countries.
The film was shot truthfully and recognizably, and understanding the true motives of the behavior of the main characters of the picture, the reasons for the events taking place makes the viewing even more interesting. Knowledge of system-vector psychology helps to reveal the psychological background of everything that happens to us and around us and in real life. When you understand the patterns, you realize what you can expect from tomorrow, and this significantly increases our stress resistance. Communication with people is filled with joy, interest and thirst for knowledge. You can get to know Yuri Burlan's system-vector psychology more closely at free introductory online classes by following a simple registration link.
