«Бриллиантовая рука» Леонида Гайдая: окаянные мысли за завесой юмора

Abstract

The article deals with the genre features of L.I. Gaidai “The Diamond Arm”. It is noted that in this fi lm, in addition to a satirical denunciation of various shortcomings of Soviet reality, L.I. Gaidai gives a parody on numerous foreign and domestic fi lms, primarily fi lms about James Bond, foreign parodies of Bond and other spies, detective and crime comedies and individual comedy roles. The connection in the fi lm of numerous echoes with parodied prototypes required the director to turn to a special genre – the mockumentary fi lm, which began to actively develop in those years in Western cinema. Perhaps Gaidai’s “The Diamond Arm” turned out to be the fi rst domestic example of this genre. It is based on the technique of bricolage, which is expressed in a special combination of many borrowed plot situations and actors’ characters. The result is a believable story with easily recognizable intrigues and plot moves, made in the manner of realistic fi lming, without exact quoting of material borrowed from other fi lms, but with a recognizable reliance on it. Thanks to the layering of parodied plot details embedded in everyday situations that were widespread in the Soviet reality of those years, the director creates a story that is outwardly simple and understandable to the general public, unfolding in the frame. Thus, Gaidai managed to form a script, consisting entirely of parodied borrowings. The director offers not only to laugh at the so-called ‘individual shortcomings’, but also draws attention to conceptual criticism of the vulnerable aspects of the Soviet mass consciousness of the 1960s – over the main value priorities of the many-sided domestic bourgeoisie, focused on the life for ‘personal benefi t’. Accordingly, he criticizes precisely this ideal of false self-assertion, both by direct satirical denunciations of the negative aspects of Soviet reality, and by parodying models of acquisitiveness and personal comfort borrowed from the West, to which Soviet seekers of an easy life were committed.