Soviet screenwriter Braginsky Emil Veniaminovich: biography, activities and creativity

Soviet playwright Braginsky Emil Veniaminovich is well acquainted with several generations of domestic moviegoers. At least, the part of them that has a habit of carefully reading the credits of your favorite films. But the biographical details of the life of the person who wrote all these stories, the underlying movies, to the general public are almost unknown. Let's try to correct this omission.

From the biography of the playwright

Braginsky Emil was born on November 19, 1921 in Moscow. To his vocation, he walked a long and winding path through many life difficulties and problems, including a half-childhood childhood, and admission to a medical institute, and work as a hospital attendant in front-line hospitals during the war, and evacuation to the capital of Tajikistan after being wounded. All his free time while Braginsky Emil devoted to literary creativity, to which he felt a spiritual inclination.

He was good at telling the various stories that happened to him or to his acquaintances. People listened to them with pleasure, and the author knew how to make the most ordinary life situations interesting for the listener. Later this ability was very useful to the writer in his work. Why did not he enter the literary institute? According to his own assurance, he simply did not know about the existence of such an educational institution.

After the war

Not many know that Emil Braginsky by profession is a lawyer. He graduated from the Law Institute in 1953. But I did not make a career in this field. More importantly, it was during these years that Braginsky Emil decided on the final choice of the life path. As it often happens, a turning point in the fate of the writer was an accident. Once Emil Braginsky, whose biography had developed up to this point far from literature, received an invitation to become a freelance correspondent for the regional newspaper Sovetskaya Latvia in Moscow and the Moscow Region.

The reason for this suggestion for a budding writer was the essay on the chess tournament. Shortly before, Braginsky Emil sent this report to the newspaper without much hope of success. But the style and characteristic humor of the note were appreciated in the editorial office, which enabled the author to engage in literature on a professional basis and receive money for it. Chance of his Braginsky Emil did not miss.

In free swimming

Carrying out routine journalistic work for several years, the writer stubbornly pursued his goal. However, the path to recognition was long, and quite often his manuscripts returned from editorial offices of literary journals with negative reviews. But in the scenario version of "Mosfilm" everything was different. The works of the beginning writer were met with understanding there, and two of them - "Case in box 45" and "Mexican" based on the same story by Jack London - were accepted for implementation. However, Emil Braginsky, whose filmography numbered dozens of works, preferred to consider his biography in the big cinema biographical film about the great Russian artist Vasily Surikov. It was delivered in 1959.

"Open window"

With a special feeling, Emil Braginsky, whose plays in successive years went successfully in many theaters of the Soviet Union, recalled his debut on the theatrical stage. They became the play "The Open Window" staged by the director Alexander Aronov at the Stanislavsky Theater. The performance quickly gained popularity and gathered full halls. This circumstance caused a characteristic reaction of the official theater critics.

The author was accused of being addicted to small philistine themes and ignoring the global tasks of building a bright communist future. And, most surprisingly, in the absence of a sense of humor. In the play, over which throughout the entire course of her action the entire hall was contagiously laughing! But the author by that time already had a stable immunity to the sentences of such connoisseurs. Value for him had only the fact that in the professional theater community of actors and directors his work was accepted with respect. It was thanks to this play that her author received several proposals and applications for comedy scenarios for "Mosfilm".

Eldar Ryazanov

There is no point in proving that the meeting with the outstanding Soviet director Eldar Alexandrovich Ryazanov was decisive in the fate of the screenwriter Emil Braginsky. However, no less important was this for Ryazanov himself. And by the time of their meeting, his creative career was still starting, he was only to become a great director.

One way or another, the creative cooperation of these artists lasted about thirty years. And many of his results entered the classics of Soviet and Russian cinematography.

This creative union had its own established principles of mutual relations - any of the authors could object to this or that thought, the plot turn or simply the word. There were co-authors almost every day - then one, then another, at home or in the office of "Mosfilm".

"Watch out for the car"

Emil Braginsky, whose script books had become textbooks for several generations of Soviet and Russian screenwriters, usually opened collections of his film drama with this work. And not only because it had enchanting success in the entire Soviet Union and far beyond its borders. It was in the script of the movie "Beware of the car" that the most distinctive features of the author's style, which for many years will become the backbone for the creative community of Braginsky and Ryazanov. The script was based on a real story from the police chronicle. Emil Braginsky, whose films often amaze a bold flight of fantasy, in this criminal story about the theft of cars is not so much added from himself.

To the simple spectator this tape was remembered by brilliant actor's works of Andrey Mironov, Oleg Efremov, Anatoly Papanov, Innokentiy Smoktunovsky and Olga Aroseva. For Soviet cinema, the film was unique because of the circumstance that a purely negative hero evoked sympathy and empathy for the audience.

"The Irony of Fate..."

If the expression "cult film" has at least some real meaning, then in the first place it should be attributed to this New Year's fairy tale. This work is checked by time, and this test has stood the test. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the film is just getting better, the deeper into the past goes the New Year's premiere of "Irony ..." in December 1975. Like a good cognac, this film over time acquires new qualities. Meeting the New Year without the "Irony of Fate ..." on several television channels at the same time is almost as difficult to imagine as without champagne and Christmas trees. It is impossible to say whose merit in the success of this film is more weighty - the director or the actor's constellation.

With all certainty, it can only be asserted that without Emil Braginsky's dramaturgy there is nothing to say. Replicas and dialogues from "The Irony of Fate .." are written in such a way that they can be used as a methodical guide for teaching young screenwriters. There is nothing surprising in that they broke up into quotations.

Achievements and awards

It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say that the whole volume of Emil Braginsky's filmography consists entirely of masterpieces alone. However, their concentration on this list makes a strong impression. "Beware of the car," "Zigzag luck," "Old Robbers," "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia," "Irony of Fate, or With Easy Ferry!", "Office Romance," "Station for Two," "Forgotten Melody for Flute "is a gold fund of achievements of Soviet cinema.

Of course, the merits of the playwright were recognized and repeatedly noted at the highest level. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for the "Irony of Fate .." in 1977, and two years after that - the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasiliev brothers for "Office Romance." In 1976, Emil Braginsky was awarded the honorary title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR".

The final

In the early nineties, domestic cinema experienced hard times. Films were shot a little, and many filmmakers were in forced creative idle time. Only a few luminaries continued to struggle with difficulties, find new sources of funding and work on new films.

Among those who did not give up, was Emil Braginsky. In these years he continues to work on several scenarios at once: "The Imagination Game", "Moscow Vacations", "Paradise Apple". But everything ended for him suddenly and tragically. May 26, 1998 Emil Braginsky died suddenly of a heart attack. This happened when returning from Paris, in the arrivals hall of the Sheremetyevo airport, while passing passport control. The playwright is buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

In 2000, Eldar Ryazanov in his script shot the film "Quiet pools". He was the last work of Emil Braginsky in Russian cinema.