I first watched this brilliant satirical and humorous film, created with the close participation of the greatest, in my opinion, actor Arkady Isaakovich Raikin, both as the author and the main actor. After many unique plots and stories, I not only wanted to laugh, but I was often truly deeply sad. So what is the main secret of the mastery of this great professional of healing laughter, who simply has no equal in modern Russia at the moment? Dear reader! If you have ever seen this film, you will, of course, immediately recall the monologues of the characters from it: “In the Greek hall, in the Greek hall, why are you pestering me, white mouse, not letting a man have a cultural rest… It’s already three o’clock, Sunday will soon be over, and I am wide awake…” And you will, of course, quickly recall the boss, who is always on time for work, and who sternly reprimands his subordinates if someone is late for a few seconds. But this is where all his vigorous activity ends, he no longer does anything useful at work. This is a type that Raikin has amazingly noticed. In my 57 years and 40 years of work experience, I have, unfortunately, seen many such bosses. And even in our modern times. Let’s remember the “pants-wearing specialist” from some sharashka office, who was sent to a foreign exhibition to demonstrate a certain machine, because all his tests were in order, while its inventor, unfortunately, was not. And everything would have been fine, as another character of Raikin tells, but he was asked to turn on this machine. “Well, what happened next, what happened… The whole exhibition came running, the lights went out in the nearby neighborhoods… And what do they care that all my tests are in order!”
The connecting thread of all the plots of the film are the dialogues and monologues of a wise, no longer young taxi driver (played by the great master Arkady Raikin), who during his work shift meets dozens of people, diverse in character, behavior and passions, like life itself. A smart and observant taxi driver is a caring person, acutely reacting to human vices. He gives his assessment of all phenomena and types, opening and closing the next plots, in which Arkady Raikin is also the main performer. These plots are somewhere funny, and somewhere sad, but always satirical, immerse us in instructive stories from life itself, enriching us with their life-giving laughter. All this allows us to evaluate the film “People and Mannequins” as a masterpiece of satirical and humorous cinema. This is greatly helped by the music of Gennady Gladkov, the talented lyrics of Mikhail Zhvanetsky and Lion Izmailov, as well as the brilliant camera work of Yuri Zhuravlev and Evgeny Rusakov.
And what about the monologue of a man of Caucasian nationality, flying on a prestigious flight, savoring expensive cognac, snacking on sandwiches with black caviar. He touches on an important topic for that Soviet period, about how the shortage of some goods and products makes the most important figure in everyday and business relations of people “sitting” on the distribution of scarce goods and products. Raikin’s character says emotionally: “If there is no shortage at all, … then the respected commodity expert will become just like a simple engineer … And this is not good!” People of such brilliant and sparkling talent as Arkady Raikin are born in units, but they win their popularity among millions of viewers. His sharp and extremely witty satire found a response in literally everyone, also because the viewer partially saw himself in him. But often reasonable laughter at oneself cleanses and makes one wiser.
In modern Russia, the social system has long since changed, new, often dubious priorities and values have appeared. And we catch ourselves thinking that Raikin’s highly professional humor is still very relevant today! Often there is a feeling that the respected master of satire and variety art looked far ahead, and literally into our days. This is possible for truly brilliant people. His contemporaries were simply amazed by his tireless work capacity. While working on the film, Arkady Raikin admitted: “I take all my characters from the diversity of life … To create the image of a hero “from the Greek hall” I needed to synthesize many types that I spied in real life situations …” It is worth noting that high professionalism in general was characteristic of all Soviet art. But now, unfortunately, humor has become completely different. It has a very short formula – laughter for the sake of laughter. This is a product of those hypertrophied market relations that have engulfed all Russian art. And thus, the entire numerous army of modern Russian humorists in the real viewer’s perception are completely the same. Unfortunately, this is modern reality.
Eternal memory and gratitude to you, Arkady Isaakovich Raikin!
