Russians revered Russian writer Ivan Turgenev: they praised him for his accurate images and exquisite style; they created a museum at his family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo; they wrote many biographies about him; and they made films based on his novels. Outstanding people are often given such an honor. Only one thing was missing: a film about Turgenev himself and his Russian-European, cosmopolitan life. (He lived in France and Germany for a long time.)
Mark Zwigilski, a young French film director, graduate of the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography and the director of several films that have been shown on major Russian television stations, decided to make such a film. The director can talk for hours about Turgenev and Turgenev's friends, Pauline and Louis Viardot, Flaubert, Maupassant, the Goncourt brothers, George Sand, Chopin and Liszt. The director's family knows Turgenev's biography extremely well. Mark's father, Alexander Zwigilski, a professor at Sorbonne, specializes in comparative literature (Russian and Spanish), chairs the Society of Turgenev's Friends and is one of Europe's leading Turgenev experts. In 1983, a century after the writer's death, he founded a museum in Bougival, the suburbs of Paris. Outstanding pianist Svyatoslav Richter partially funded the museum by performing there.
In 1874, Ivan Turgenev bought this estate in Bougival for the talented singer Pauline Viardot. He lived there with her family and his only and illegitimate daughter, Pauline. The estate was a gift for Pauline Viardot. Turgenev built a house on the estate which slightly resembles his home in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. He wrote his final books there and died in Bougival in 1883.
The Zwigilski family carefully restored the house's interior, organized trips to the museum and discovered new facts of the writer's life. Mainly Russian specialists, literary critics, writers, musicians and museum curators go to Bougival. Mark Zwigilski said a film about the Russian European should be made for the general public.
"I would like to show his route across Europe," he said. "Unlike Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov, Turgenev is less known in Europe. Meanwhile, Turgenev was at the center of 19th century European culture, influencing many people. He popularized European culture in Russia and Russian culture in Europe. He was a philosopher and an advocate of Russia's rapprochement with Europe. Ivan Turgenev knew Russian history and philosophy very well. He was an intellectual and had a quick mind. He liked to meet with people and exchange ideas with them. In France, the writer popularized the works of Russian composers Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Borodin."
Because of Turgenev, books by Zola, Maupassant, Flaubert and Daudet were published in Russia earlier than in France. At an international literary congress in Paris in 1878, Turgenev was elected vice president. He delivered a speech about Russian literature, which was a great success.
"His novels prophesized terrorism," Mark Zwigilski said. "As an honest artist and realist, he objectively -and in a very humane way - portrayed the Russian revolutionaries, including the nihilists, who overthrew many century-old values. However, as a liberal philosopher and a man, he worried about the fate of Russia and denounced all attempts to solve political problems through terror." The questions Turgenev rose about terrorism, nihilism, Russia's path and its relations with Europe are still extremely important, the director said.
"Turgenev's life was like a novel with many plot lines," he said "He traveled extensively, met Pauline Viardot and fell in love with her. All the arts co-existed in Bougival. Turgenev wrote prose, as well as verses to the operas and songs Viardot composed. In Bougival, Georges Bizet composed his opera Carmen. Impressionists used to go there, to the picturesque bank of the Seine to paint in nature." However, Bougival became famous in the early 19th century already. The house where Viardot lived from the spring to late fall first belonged to Josephine Beauharnais, therefore, her husband, Napoleon Bonaparte, might have visited it.
The ambitious film and documentary will be made in Bougival, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, Baden-Baden and Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. The director wants to capture the feeling of the quiet pulse of the 19th century. Andrei Konchalovsky, who directed a film based on Turgenev's novel, Home of the Gentry, succeeded in conveying the spirit of the time of leisurely talks and walks, music, painting and long letters. Mark Zwigilski will interview Konchalovsky in the new film.
The Russian Culture Fund, headed by director Nikita Mikhalkov, who is just as famous as his brother - Andrei Konchalovsky - might sponsor the project. The feature film portion of the project will be shot in Bougival. "Michael Lonsdale, an actor and intellectual, who even looks like Turgenev, could play the main part," Zwigilski said. Arte, a television channel in France and Germany, shows films about Russia and has already displayed interest in the film.
The Zwigilski family is planning to create a cultural, musical, art and movie center in Bougival. "Ivan Turgenev stood at the crossroads of countries," he said, "traveling between Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain. He was the true example of what being a European means."
