Rezo GABRIADZE: A person needs to have time for thoughts, above all

Georgia. There is an unusual, an almost fairytale-like tower near the theater in quiet Shavteli Street in Tbilisi. There is a tree in its upper part and a house for living birds below. The building has a Latin inscription made in gold letters on the stone, which means “I wish all your tears to be caused only by onion.” This is Rezo Gabriadze’s theater of marionettes.

It opened in November 2010 after several years of long-lasting reconstruction. Rezo Gabriadze is an outstanding artist, writer, and director. He authors the screenplays of famous movies, like Don’t be Sad, Mimino, and Kin-dza-dza. He agreed to meet with The Day and share what his theater is living by these days.

In the short story “On the Departure of Neanderthals” the writer says “As a species I should go extinct. Regrettably, my cousin Makvala as well as another cousin Rusik, an employee of Soyuzpechat, who blushed when asked about the fresh newspaper and looked like a Byzantine Madonna, will depart together with me. No, I don’t like people without complexes, I am not interested in their plastic or their face expressions, or any other attributes. For in complexes I see the manifestations of a soul. It means that this person is immersed deeper in his inner world and sees more around himself than a person without complexes. I for one has been observing myself from above (a 45-degree angle, from a two-meter distance) and always with reproach. People without complexes immediately start addressing me in an informal manner, never place their legs under the chair, always straighting them before themselves, and stink of toilet deodorant. But there are people who will leave, like tender and dear to my heart Neanderthals, who could not understand the tall and slender Homo sapiens. True, I can leave my complexes, too. When I sing Rigoletto’s aria in the shower. But I always keep this right for myself.”

Do you still love Neanderthals considering them better than Homo sapiens?

“Yes. Everything is getting worse around us, so we need to assume the reverse thing: Neanderthals were better than us. People these days communicate with the speed of light, and they have completely ceased to understand each other. They lack time for this.”

What should a person have time for above all?

“Thoughts. Now the world is overloaded with information, but the person lacks time to think over at least something. This is sad.”

What’s new in your theater?

“We are doing repairs inside the theater while it is summer. And of course we have new productions. But as always in this case I will dare hide the details from you. People of theater are very superstitious, more than writers, painters, or even sailors. But please don’t make a headline of this phrase. It is impossible to talk in this sense, because journalists are always looking for a headline. I used to give spacious interviews, and one of the reasons I stopped doing so is that I always saw in the hungry eyes of your colleagues how they, poor things, were looking for a headline.”

Did it take them long to find it?

“I often helped them, especially the young: sometimes you need to help people. You say a risky thing and they immediately start blooming.”

Gabriadze Theater goes on numerous tours. When will you come to Ukraine?

“Indeed we went several years ago to France, Great Britain, the US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Norway, Moscow, but we have never been to Kyiv. You know why? There are many reasons, but one of them is that our people don’t believe puppets. In my opinion, this is rather a prerogative of the West. By ‘our people’ I mean those who live in Petersburg, Odesa, Tbilisi, etc. Of course, there are many economic factors. But who knows? Maybe we will come if we are invited.”

Do you agree with the fact that “the youth have become worse, and knows less”?

“The youth is worse. They tell about me: ‘He is a fool hard to understand.’ This is a law of life, so it does not make me upset.”

Have you heard this phrase at least once?

“Of course. I have a cafe in the theater premises. Many times I have leaned against the wall in silence and listened to what the youth was saying after the plays. It was interesting for me, so I often observed them.”

Does life make you meet young talented people?

“Old age has a very interesting quality: it looks for even more ancient things.”

In an interview you said that you think Georgian. Considering the movies shot after your screenplays, maybe they are so successful because you managed to implement Georgian intonations to the Russian language?

“I have never thought about it, but it is hardly so. A screenplay is dramaturgy above all. The rules of dramaturgy are quite strict, very well known and have remained unchanged for the past 5,000 years, it seems to me. Maybe some words, some phrases from these movies have stuck in the Russian language. But I cannot ascribe the whole authorship to me only. We were writing together with Georgy Danelia. There was something elusive in our work then. Actually, I am bilingual. My languages are Georgian and Russian. But sometimes I think: it would be good to know French, English, or Turkish.”

French would come in handy in Paris, as your creative life is connected with this city these days.

“The morning in Paris always starts with a cafe. On the whole, French cafes are a great culture. It has been known for a long time that the French easily resolve in the cafes in the morning the problems Germans examine when defending their theses. You know, it is so nice to have breakfast there, enjoying the music and language. But unfortunately in my understanding of the beauty of the French language I remain on the level of music, because people don’t start learning languages at my age. But I manage to see even our world in a different light from there, see how many colors and shades of colors surround us.”