Viktor Dmitriyevich Arsentyev (by Georgiy Borodin)
Viktor Arsentyev (1936 - 2005)
If anyone had asked me about my favourite animators
(meaning not directors or art-directors, but the character animators, in a more
professional sense), I would call his name in top-10, if not in top-5.
Alongside names of [Boris] Dyozhkin, Anatoly Petrov, [Violetta] Kolesnikova,
or, for example, [Yuriy] Norstein and Pavel Petrov of stop-motion division. A
name of Viktor Dmitriyevich Arsentyev.
To me, a favourite animator is someone, “eyeballing” whose
scenes from different films brings a special pleasure during the watch. Where in
a general “stream” of animation you suddenly notice something well-known and
close to you, something vivid and memorable. Doing it with Arsentyev’s cuts is
both pleasing and easy. He was an animator with an incredibly recognizable
style. Without a doubt, his manner was dating back to Dyozhkin’s school, that
Viktor Dmitriyevich went through in his youth. However, with time Arsentyev’s
style had evolved so drastically, that it doesn’t take much to distinguish his
scenes in late Dyozhkin’s films. For example, he did a drunken athlete’s “dancing”
walk in “Talent and Fans” (1978) or scenes with hockey players in “Come to the
Skating Rink” (1981). Here Arsentyev's authorship is identified unmistakably.
Many studio staffers regarded idiosyncrasy of
Arsentyev’s manner as a limitation, but even staying within his style, he was
diverse and inventive. Only in “Nu, pogodi!” he used a few unique drawings of
Wolf’s walk cycle, that he has not repeated ever again (like Wolf’s “double”
step in the 5th episode). Others accused his animation of being too
mechanical, “soulless”, repetitive. Of being too uniform in approach to
different characters. But the directors, with whom Arsentyev had been working
frequently, were satisfied with his work. L. A. Shwartsman said that Viktor
Dmitriyevich’s scenes were always 9 out of 10, and sometimes all 10. Nonetheless,
the best works of Arsentyev (just like Dyozhkin’s) come from the eccentric films,
for which his style fitted the most. His calling was not to explore
psychological depths [of character acting], but to bring viewers excitement,
joy from viewing the perfection of character plasticity.
Recognisability of Arsentyev’s is highlighted by the
usage of his beloved poses and gestures. For example, he frequently drew half-bent
arms with fists or a turn of the character around the body on one leg. But the
main thing in his style is the characteristic plasticity: "springy", striking,
to put it simply – "relishing". Being a great draftsman of academic
school, he created expressive layouts, filled with frenetic energy, that was
passed from screen to a viewer. In this aspect, he also was Dyozhkin’s
successor.
First of all, Arsentyev’s style is noticeable in
eccentric cartoons or sequences. In this case, ID-ing his scenes is not
difficult. The chase sequence in the 1st episode of “Baba Yaga VS.”
and the metro excavation in the second one. The bridge sequence in “Attention,
Little Monkeys!”, a fight between monkey momma and robbers in “The Monkeys and
the Robbers”, scenes of a canteen mayhem in “How the Monkeys had Dinner”, preparing
for the theatre in “The Monkeys at the Opera”. Scenes with the conductor and
orchestra musicians in “The False Note”, the night sequence in “He Got
Caught!”, the beginning and the ending song in “Who Bit Was Caught!”, campfire dances
in “On the Forest Trail’. Scenes with the Black Cat in “The Kitten Named Gav”
#2, “football-boxing” and “fencing hockey” duels in “The Topsy-Turvy Stadium”,
Prisypkin at the bowling in “Mayakovsky Laughs”, balcony walks in “The Return
of the Prodigal Parrot” #1 and many others. Moreover, it is simple to notice
Arsentyev’s animation in republican pictures – in Uzbekfilm’s “The Drop” or in
works by Ukrainian or Estonian animators.
Among the animation tasks Arsentyev had to solve were
some complicated, even demanding the virtuosity ones. In a film “Masha’s No
More a Lazy One” he brilliantly animated the character whose limbs don’t obey
her. His assignment in “How the Fox Tried to Catch up a Hare” was even harder –
a chase sequence with dialogue in a drawn, rotating background. For this cut,
the phases of continuous cyclical motion of the background were created, which were
alternated frame-by-frame under the camera. It was necessary to "fit"
the character animation into this movement, never making a mistake with the
angle or with the mise en scène (tree trunks constantly "covering"
the characters). A.I. Solin recalled how film’s cameraman M.Z. Druyan started
shooting this scene twice, and twice the shooting was disrupted due to an error
in the X-sheets (as it turned out later). In the end, the director sat down at
the machine himself and shot the scene, simultaneously correcting the wrong
record. Nowadays, this shot still impresses the viewer.
Arsentyev named four master animators as his teachers.
He had worked with each of them, and all of them left their mark in forming of
his manner.
The first one is Boris Petrovich Dyozhkin. After
graduation from animation courses, Arsentyev’s first production work was
Dyozhkin’s “Cipollino”. In later years, Arsentyev became a regular member of
Dyozhkin’s animation team, that itself was a great honour. He animated on
“Puck! Puck!” (where he did a wonderful waltz segment, according to X-sheets
kept in The State Central Film Museum), “Where Did I See Him?”, “It’s Not About
Me”, “Return Match”, “Meteor at the Boxing Ring”, “On a Visit to Summer” … As a
frequent “dyozhkinist”, he was recruited for [Vladimir] Pekar and [Vladimir] Popov’s
film “Adventures of the Red Neckties”, on which the directors attempted at
combining Dyozhin-esque plasticity with Popov’s character designs. And for this
purpose had assembled the animators’ team almost exclusively of Boris
Petrovich’s “co-creators”.
The second teacher is Georgiy Mitrofanovich Kozlov. It
was his film «The Case with the Artist» where Arsentyev learned many secrets of
his craft (this film is the second one in Arsentyev’s filmography). He would
later work on Kozlov’s “The Picture”.
The third one is Roman Vladimirovich Davydov. Arsentyev’s
work on “Ghunan-Bator”, “The Main Star”, “Foka – a Very Good Craftsman”, “Ratibor’s
Childhood” gave him a lot and became a priceless experience. Davydov also
created his magnum opus, “Mowgli”, with Arsentyev’s participation (in
particular, he animated many scenes with Bandar-logs). But after the third
episode (“Akela’s Last Hunting”) he switches to work with his fourth teacher,
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Kotyonochkin. Arsentyev's name disappears from the
credits of “Mowgli”, but it begins to appear in each of the “Nu, Pogodi!”
episodes. Arsentyev becomes the most essential animator on this project.
“Nu, pogodi!” is perhaps the brightest page in
Arsentyev’s animation biography. On his films, Kotyonochkin had been assigning
the animators not to specific scenes, but to entire sequences. so Viktor
Dmitriyevich no longer had just individual shots here, but rather large chunks
of action. His scenes here can also be identified almost unmistakably.
Wolf’s walk to the beach and his harpoon shooting in
the 1st episode; “house of mirrors” sequence (and, likely, a dance
on the stage) in the 2nd one; scenes with a lifting crane and
barrels – in the 3rd one; (obviously) fighting – in the 4th
one; a prologue with a phone booth and a sequence in a TV store – in the 5th
one; a huge fragment with a scythe, a combine harvester and chickens and the
subsequent river sequence with a fishing rod - in the 6th one; the
beginning of the 7th episode (with Wolf’s attempts to get on the
ship), a yacht chase, a "drake" of the deck and the finale
("Only us..." song). In the 8th episode, he did two of the
most "striking" segments: figure skating and "New Year's Song"
(V.M. Kotyonochkin later admitted that ice dancing was one of the few scenes in
his own films that he liked to re-watch). In the 9th episode -
fencing, in the 10th one – chasing through floors and Wolf’s immuring,
in the 11th one – the initial shots with binoculars, chasing in the
circus and (probably) the final ones with a horse, in the 12th one –
a battering cannon, in the 13th one – chess playing scenes…All of
that is Arsentyev’s key animation.
In titles of the 14th episode, Arsentyev’s
last name is already “leading” the animators’ list (being located in the center).
However, starting from this episode Arsentyev got a very strong rival – Alexander
Dorogov. “Nu, pogodi!” #15 and #16 are basically built on the animation of
these two masters, and it is not always possible to say with certainty where
whose "trace" is. In the 14th episode, clearly Arsentyev scenes
are the prologue with a bottle of cider, the combing of the Wolf and the first
dialogue with the robotic hare, Dorogov ones - the finale in the space
"pavilion". In the 15th – Arsentyev’s style is noticeable
in a sequence with a choir of bunny boys, Dorogov’s one - in ballet scenes. But
who did a wonderful scene of tricks with a cigarette – not so easy to figure
out “by eye” anymore.…
In 1986 “Nu, pogodi!” crew members were nominated for
the USSR State Prize for the third time (and again unsuccessfully). There were
no animators on the list of applicants for the award. According to Arsentyev,
this was the reason for his refusal to participate in the 16th
episode of the series, the last one made by the "classic" crew, and
the only one without Arsentyev’s involvement.…
Arsentyev failed to prove himself in directing, his
films are not only obscure, but probably partially lost. Although the first
attempt to try himself in this capacity was made back in 1963 (the plot for the
satirical film magazine "Wick" - "Chicken Principles"). His
first major [directorial] work was the short film "A Brave Sparrow", produced
at “Uzbekfilm” in 1969. It so happened that, as a director, Arsentyev made almost
exclusively commissioned films, opening titles (as an example, for the
"The Moviegoer's Companion” program) and "Wick" shorts. Each of
his directorial works, of course, is dominated by the "brand" Arsentyev-esque
plasticity. He made films about fire safety – " Among the
Ripe Breads" (with the participation of the Zavolokin brothers, about the
usage of spark arresters during the field harvesting) and "What a
Housewarming"; about traffic rules ("How Khryusha Went to Visit Stepashka"),
about medicine ("Take Care of Your Teeth"), advertised 8 mm. amateur
film equipment (in films like "The Magic Camera" and "Who Will
Stay with Children?"). In “The Magic Camera”, he used the “Nu, pogodi!” characters,
creating his own unique “advertising” episode of the cycle.… Unfortunately,
today it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a hold of these works – in the
1970s, the State Film Fund did not accept commissioned films for storage systematically, and most of these reels were either preserved in the
Soyuzmultfilm film library only, or simply lost.
One of the few not commissioned films by Arsentyev was
"By One’s Own Wish”, an attempt to continue the plot started in [Vadim] Kurchevsky's
film "Trouble Makers," an eccentric comedy about a cook, a cat, a mouse
and a boatswain. Besides that, Arsentyev made seventeen plots for “Wick” from
1982 to 1992, and was the last animation director to collaborate with the
former editorial board of the film magazine. It was his work in 1992 that finished
the tradition of producing animated shorts for “Wick”.
In the 1990s, when “Soyuzmultfilm” once again tried to
collect applications from directors for state financing, Arsentyev came up with
an initiative to create parodic hand-drawn series, but this project was not
approved by an Expert Jury. Apparently, studio’s competitors "took
revenge" on Soyuzmultfilm for the short-lived financing privileges in the
early 1990s. Now on, Arsentyev's main occupation was teaching. He taught
students of the last animator courses at “Soyuzmultfilm” (in the 1990s),
traveled with V.I.Tarasov and A.R.Davydov to India to teach local animators. At
the time, he rarely did animation on his own. Some of his last works are I.A.Kovalevskaya’s
"Dora-Dora-Pomidora" and E.V.Avakyan’s "A Knight's
Romance".
He was very fond of sharing his memories – about his
teachers (especially Dyozhkin), about colleagues, about the life of
Soyuzmultfilm. But no one had ever bothered to take at least one official
interview with one of the brightest animators of the Soviet school, the animation
star of "Nu, pogodi!” series...
In 2005, Arsentyev passed away.
Today, there are almost no masters of this level in
Russian animation. Moreover, there is a noticeable shortage of animators with
pronounced, easily recognizable style. Recognizable by a modest gesture, even
for non-professionals. One of the rare examples is Volodya Nikitin, who took
over the baton from Arsentyev in the 17th and 18th episodes of “Nu,
Pogodi!” and «The Little Monkeys. The Ambulance». The tradition of individualizing
character plasticity has become a thing of the past. It's very unlikely that
you'll find an animated film today during one’s watch you want to stop the
projection to shout, "Stop! This scene is done by the Master! By him and
no one else!" When you get satisfaction not from the scene’s content, but
from the plasticity itself, from the gesture or pose, from the WAY it is made. Satisfaction
of almost physiological kind. When you feel like the animator is pumping energy
into you from the screen.
The era of AUTEUR ANIMATION is going away
And one of its representatives was Viktor Dmitriyevich
Arsentyev – a "man of style", an animator “by singularity of whole
his expression”.
Today, he would have turned seventy-five years old…
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