Как Николай Ващилин учил Холмса борьбе Баритсу/Chief-stuntman of Russian Sherlock series

Невозможно пройти мимо такого текста. Николай ВАЩИЛИН, постановщик трюков к фильму «Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона», специально для сайта www.221b.ru написал статью:

Как я учил Холмса приёмам борьбы Баритсу

Рекомендую к прочтению! Можно на форуме сайта

http://221b.borda.ru/?1-10-0-00000015-000-80-0#000

 или в сообществе «Ру_Шерлокиана»

http://ru-sherlockiana.livejournal.com/371065.html

Вот цитата оттуда:

Николай  Ващилин

«Через несколько дней мы уже жарко спорили в самолёте, несущим нас к горным вершинам Абхазии. После виляний на автобусе по ущелью, мы приехали к водопаду, ещё не проснувшимся от зимней спячки. За это время я начал склонятся к тому, чтобы поставить эту схватку с приёмами английского бокса. Прототипом мне послужила сцена поединка в ринге лорда Байрона из английского фильма 1972 года "Леди Каролина Лэм", жестокая и реалистичная. Масленникову эта идея понравилась, но он выразил желание, чтобы зритель смотрел на драку с некоторой долей иронии. Не юмора, свойственному дракам в фильмах Чарли Чаплина, а тонкой иронии людей, понимающих бессмысленность происходящего. Как у Рабиндраната Тагора:

Вчера здесь гремела битва,
от крови намок песок.
А кто победил в итоге -
утренний ветерок.
      
Мой личный жизненный опыт борьбы со злом, воспитанный моим тренером  по самбо Александром Массарским подводил меня к тому, что зло само должно погубить себя, наткнуться на преграду. Её, эту преграду, только нужно вовремя подставить. Размышляя и пробуя схему поединка, в котором роли бойцов исполняли Игорь Масленников и Марк Каплан стало ясно, что такой изнурительный бой на краю пропасти, должен был привести противников к полному изнеможению. Да ещё не выходила из головы фигура полковника Морана, добивающего убийцу профессора Мориарти — Холмса.

Так в моей голове родилась финальная фаза смертельной схватки и гибели противников».

How I trained Sherlock Holmes to Baritsu technique

Story from the Chief-stuntman of LenFilm studio’s Sherlock Holmes series

Nikolay VASCHILIN, (c) 2011, segments of the article -- written specially for the site

www.221b.ru

In the early spring of 1979 in LenFilm studio’s cafe I have met director Igor Maslennikov.

He invited artist Mark Kaplan and me to a cup of coffee to talk about a new Sherlock Holmes film.

A year earlier, I staged a scene of knights’ fight in Maslennikov’s film "Yaroslavna, Queen of France"; there I had well studied a plasticity of actor Vasily Livanov. We started with the question: what is the Baritsu martial art? As USSR Master of Sports in Sambo and Judo, I should know it. But I honestly admitted that I heard nothing about such martial art. From the Conan Doyle stories, I've read only ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles.’ But I have suggested that the ending of a word «Baritsu» should point of its Japanese origin. Well-known in Russia the kinds of Japanese judo and ju-jitsu wrestling gave this idea. Cameraman Yuri Veksler has confirmed my guesses and promised to find the story in which he read about Japanese roots of Baritsu. A story was called "The Empty House". It could be no doubt, as in the end of the nineteenth century in Europe, the Japanese martial art was very much in fashion. My request to the Public Library gave nothing… Nobody knew about Baritsu.

A few days later we already debated with fervency inside the plane which carried us above the mountain peaks of Abkhazia. After a travelling by the bus on the gorge, we arrived to the waterfall, which didn’t wake up yet from hibernation. In this time I have been inclined to agree staging this fight with the British boxing techniques. As a prototype to me was a duel scene of Lord Byron in 1972 British film "Lady Caroline Lamb", it was cruel and realistic. Maslennikov liked the idea, but he expressed his desire that a viewer to look at fight with some irony. (…)

My life experience of struggle against evil (thank to Alexander Massarsky, my Sambo trainer) taught me that evil must ruin itself, run into an obstacle. This barrier needs just to be put under in time.

(…)
So I imagined the final phase of deadly fight and the destruction of opponents. In my opinion, they should finish the fight, getting one with another on the ground and rolling inevitably down to the brink of abyss.

(…)

Now it was necessary to study the nature of both adversaries, to look at their natural plasticity, to think up their attacks and defence techniques throughout all fight scene, and then to train them these techniques to automatism. In essence, it needed to staging a dance with them, a pas de deux, in which they will show own characters, will intrigue the audience and will come to the ending, which will make a viewer to shout of joy because a favourite hero wins.

By the end of rehearsals we decided to refuse the boxing punches as they meant the comfort place and a quick change of distances. The stones didn't allow the adversaries to move in leaps. … Moriarty represented an attacking, aggressive school of English Crime World. Sherlock Holmes represented school of Oriental wisdom and an intellectual resourcefulness, quite suitable for a Conan Doyle’s hieroglyph "Baritsu".

(…)

My task was that they will develop an automaticity and speed of techniques performance, so they could show the professionalism of the fighters.

Once we arrived after the pouring rains and were stunned by a show. The waterfall was crashing down like Niagara. The area in front of the waterfall was wet of the water. It was impossible to set foot on the ledge rock, which the actors should catch of. The suits get wet through in a minute. The make-up became wet and streamed on cheeks. But it was magnificent. It created very suitable atmosphere. … I insisted on the shooting.

… Director Maslennikov has decided to portray a vile character of Professor of the Crime World with that Holmes like a clairvoyant will guess about Moriarty’s knife. The idea astonished by its simplicity.

-----------------------------------

Cross-posted by Daniel Dubshin:

http://ru-sherlockiana.livejournal.com/371065.html

- in Russian (!)

written by Nikolay Vaschilin specially for the site

www.221b.ru