This is a catastrophe! Interview on the set of «Metro»
In the fall, a film was being shot in Moscow in a rare genre for our cinema — the disaster film. Sensing something was amiss, Interview descended into «Metro» a year before its premiere.
In the tunnel the water is knee-deep, the windows are broken, «corpses» lie on the seats. One of them suddenly moved — it turns out this is a crew member who simply decided to rest. «Don't scare us like that,» I say, «okay? Heart attacks have been striking younger and younger these past ten years.» The jokes only add to the absurdity of the atmosphere of total claustrophobia.
The sets of the underground were built in that very place on Kashirskoe highway where the capital's «Moscow» sign greets visitors. Across the shooting location walk extras with various degrees of disfigurement on face and body — it feels as if you've stumbled into a zombie-infected zone. The walls of the cars are plastered with fake advertising («Come to the theater's 25th anniversary!», which exact theater is not specified) and maps to which, in addition to real stations, a «Sadovaya» has been added. According to the plot, due to reckless construction above, a crack forms in the metro wall — and water bursts into the tunnel during rush hour. The main character, played by Sergey Puskepalis, tries to save not only himself and his daughter, several hundred people, but also his wife's lover.
Today scenes with actor Anatoly Bely are being filmed, so inside the four cars are the crew, dummy victims, and the photographer Alena Chendler and I. A little later another «Metro» passenger appears on set — Alexey Bardukov, who came for the interview and brought along his pregnant wife, actress Anna Starshenbaum. «I liked the script because the main thing in it is not the tragedy itself and not the action. Disaster films of this scale have not been made in Russian cinema for thirty years, since «Crew»,» — says the 27-year-old actor of the «Satyricon» theater. «My character is, at first, a light-hearted guy whom extreme circumstances bring together with a girl and force him to reevaluate his life. However banal it may sound, such terrible events really do unite strangers. The film is about this. And not just about a metro that flooded and a handful of unfortunate people trying to get out of it.»
Generally speaking, Moscow, like any big city such as New York and Los Angeles, is overdue for a battering on screen. Bardukov agrees: «That's an understatement! On the one hand, everyone comes here. On the other, there's already so much in it that one wants to bring it back to its senses, clear it of people and traffic jams. At least in the movies.»
Anatoly Bely is being prepared for a climb to the roof of the car — a safety cable is threaded through the fastener of his trousers. «It doesn't reach,» says the costume designer. «We need to make another hole.» «Please, no more holes!» laughs the actor, who meekly looks down at three people trying to manage his fly. After several takes, director Anton Megerdichev («The Dark Side of the Moon» and «Shadow Boxing 2: Revenge»), watching Bely on the monitor, demands a repeat of the stunt. Assistant director Maria Gangus, an energetic girl in a headscarf, shouts into the megaphone: «Power outlet and a hair dryer on the roof! This is no joke! Talents sweat too, even the camera is all wet!»
«Get an outlet and a hair dryer up on the roof! Talents sweat too».
Alena Chendler leans halfway out of the car door and, at the risk of falling into the icy water filling the tunnel, photographs what's happening on the roof. When the command comes that everyone is satisfied with the last take, the director concludes: «At the very least, it's like in the movies.»
Photo: Alena Chendler
Text: Gennady Ustiyan