„Forgotten Melody for Flute" – Soviet feature film in 1987 directed by Eldar Ryazanov based on a script by Emil Braginsky, an ironic melodrama with elements of phantasmagoria. The film shows the difference between the life of the nomenklatura and ordinary people at the end of the Soviet regime and tells about what happens when love arises between representatives of these classes.

The film was filmed after the announcement of Glasnost, therefore, it quite vividly reveals previously forbidden topics: the bureaucracy of the nomenklatura, sex, the meager life of ordinary Soviet citizens, mysticism.

History of creation

Ryazanov had long planned to shoot a film based on the play „Immoral Story", which he co-authored with E. Braginsky in 1976. He even wrote the words to the song "We don’t plow, we don’t sow, we don’t build," which will later be performed in the film by Tatiana and Sergei Nikitin. The first version of the script was not accepted at the film studio, as it was considered too sharp, but when the second version was written in 1986, the Perestroika that began did its job, and the script was accepted. But when Eldar Ryazanov was already ready to start the picture, Leonid Filatov, whom he initially saw in the lead role, was busy filming another film.

Ryazanov did not wait for Filatov to be released, and began filming on location in Crimea and Kazakhstan. During the filming, Ryazanov suffered a microstroke, as a result of which one ear stopped hearing. By the time Filatov was released, Ryazanov was seriously ill, and he had to start filming a picture and at the same time be treated in a hospital.

In January 1987, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union took place, which marked the beginning of the era of Glasnost, and the last obstacles to making the film disappeared. Now the hot topic of the film could be revealed in its entirety, without the need to smooth out the „sharp corners". The picture was released in November 1987.

Plot

Leonid Semyonovich Filimonov – a high-ranking official from the „Main Directorate of Free Time" – is constantly fighting with his own „I". He tries to prohibit or get rid of any folk art that can be interpreted in two ways. But at meetings, when there is a free minute, Filimonov imagines how he gets up and speaks the whole truth straight to the face of his boss with outdated views. But he does not do this because he is afraid of losing his job.

Once Filimonov’s heart suddenly seized, because of which he met a nurse Lida from his department, with whom he fell in love. She turned out to be the only one with whom he can be absolutely open. Filimonov’s wife, learning that he had got himself a mistress, kicks him out of the house, and he settles with a nurse.

Soon the wife, realizing that she was left alone, asks her husband to return to her, she agrees to forgive everything. In addition, she declares that she has not yet told about their separation to her father, who for many years helped Leonid grow up the career ladder. To top it all off, his colleagues also put pressure on him and persuade him to part with Lida, as this could damage his career – Filimonov is tipped to replace the old boss, who is retiring. As a result, career considerations prevail over feelings, and Filimonov succumbs to the persuasion of his wife and colleagues – he cowardly runs away from Lida, without even explaining to her.

The offended Lida resigns from management. During his first speech, already in the post of chief, Filimonov falls into dreams for a minute: feeling remorse and shame in front of Lida, he imagines how he expresses to his subordinates everything that he thinks about this senseless management, comes to Lida and speaks with tears of remorse that he voluntarily refused a commanding post, as she is dear to him. When Filimonov continues his performance, his heart again takes hold. Call an ambulance. Feeling that he is about to lose consciousness, Filimonov asks to call Lida. The arriving team of resuscitators begins to reanimate Filimonov, he is experiencing clinical death, and his soul is carried away to the other world (a scene with the corridors of the underworld is shown, where various people are waiting for the Supreme Court: the military who died in Afghanistan, liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, pilots, cosmonauts, Orthodox a priest, old people, youth, doctors, policemen, rescuers, as well as people who died from incurable diseases; Filimonov’s soul notices Adam and Eve in one of the rooms of the gloomy corridor). Filimonov’s soul meets his parents, who gently reproach him for not honoring their memory. At this time, Lida, seeing that the ambulance was rushing towards the management, guesses that Filimonov’s heart is again bad, runs into the office and begs him not to die, although the doctors are already going to state death. Filimonov begins to breathe, the doctors continue resuscitation, and Lida again leaves the department.

Cast

• Leonid Filatov – Leonid Semyonovich Filimonov
• Tatiana Dogileva – Lida
• Irina Kupchenko – Elena, Filimonov’s wife
• Vsevolod Sanaev – Yaroslav Stepanovich, head of Filimonov
• Olga Volkova – Evgenia Danilovna Surova, Filimonov’s colleague
• Sergey Artsibashev (as Artssbashhev) – Alexey Akimovich Ikshanov, Filimonov’s colleague
• Alexander Shirvindt – Myasoedov, Filimonov’s colleague
• Valentin Gaft – Odinokov, Filimonov’s colleague
• Elena Mayorova – Lucy, a policeman on duty at the Office of Free Time
• Vaclav Dvorzhetsky – Filimonov’s father
• Elena Fadeeva – Filimonov’s mother
• Alexander Pankratov-Black – Sasha, mayor on the stage of the folk theater
• Peter Merkuriev – choir conductor
• Evgeny Voskresensky – Cyril, Severe’s nephew
• Nina Agapova – Tatiana Georgievna, Secretary
• Tatiana Agafonova – chorus girl
• Tatiana Novitskaya – chorus girl with glasses
• Tatiana Gavrilova – the mayor’s wife on the stage of the folk theater
• Kapitolina Ilyenko – Kapitolina Ivanovna, Lida’s neighbor
• Leonid Maryagin – Fyodor Demyanovich, Filimonov’s father-in-law
• Valery Pogoreltsev – head of the folk theater

Film crew

• Stage Director – Eldar Ryazanov
• script writers: Emil Braginsky, Eldar Ryazanov
• Director of photography – Vadim Alisov
• Set Designer – Alexander Borisov
• Composer – Andrey Petrov
• Sound engineer – Semyon Litvinov