The Soviet playwright Emil Veniaminovich Braginsky is well known to several generations of domestic moviegoers. At least the part that has the habit of carefully reading the credits of your favorite films. But the biographical details of the life of the person who composed all these stories that underlie the cinema are almost unknown to the general public. Let's try to fix this omission.
From the biography of the playwright
Braginsky Emil was born on November 19, 1921 in Moscow. To his vocation, he walked a long and winding path through many life difficulties and problems, among which there was a half-street childhood, and admission to a medical institute, and work as a nurse in front-line hospitals during the war, and evacuation to the capital of Tajikistan after being wounded. At the same time, Braginsky Emil devoted all his free time to literary work, to which he felt a spiritual inclination.
He was good at telling various stories that happened to him or to his acquaintances. People listened to them with pleasure, and the author was able to make the most ordinary life situations interesting for the listener. In the future, this ability was very useful to the writer in his work. Why didn’t he enter the literary institute? In his own words, he simply did not know about the existence of such an educational institution.
After the war
Not many people know that Emil Braginsky is a lawyer by profession. He successfully graduated from the Law Institute in 1953. But he did not make a career in this area. More significantly, it was during these years that Emil Braginsky decided on the final choice of his life path. As often happens, the turning point in the fate of the writer was an accident. Once Emil Braginsky, whose biography so far developed far from literature, received an invitation to become a freelance correspondent for the regional newspaper Sovetskaya Latvia in Moscow and the Moscow Region.
The reason for this tempting offer for a novice writer was an essay on a chess tournament. Shortly before that, Braginsky Emil sent this report to the newspaper without much hope of success. But the style and characteristic humor of the note were appreciated by the editors, which made it possible for the author to engage in literature on a professional basis and receive money for this. Emil Braginsky did not miss his chance.
In free swimming
Carrying out routine journalistic work for several years, the writer stubbornly went to the intended goal. However, the path to recognition was a long one, and quite often his manuscripts were returned from editorial boards of literary magazines with negative reviews. But in the screenplay of Mosfilm, things were a little different. The works of the beginning writer there were met with understanding, and two of them - “Case in square 45” and “Mexican” based on the eponymous short story by Jack London - were accepted for implementation. However, Emil Braginsky himself, whose filmography includes dozens of works, preferred to consider a biographical film about the great Russian artist Vasily Surikov his debut in great cinema. It was staged in 1959.
Open Window
With a special feeling, Emil Braginsky, whose plays in the following years were successfully performed in many theaters of the Soviet Union, recalled his debut on the stage. They became the play "Open Window", staged by director Alexander Aronov at the Stanislavsky Theater. The show quickly gained popularity and gathered full halls. This circumstance provoked a characteristic reaction of official theater critics.
The author was accused of being addicted to petty philistine topics and of ignoring the global tasks of building a bright communist future. And, most surprisingly, in the absence of a sense of humor. In the play, over which the whole audience laughed contagiously throughout its action! But the author by that time already had a stable immunity to the sentences of such connoisseurs. The only thing that mattered to him was the fact that in the professional theater community of actors and directors his work was accepted with respect. Thanks to this play, its author received several offers and applications for comedy scripts for Mosfilm at once.
Eldar Ryazanov
There is no point in proving that the meeting with the outstanding Soviet director Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov had a decisive role in the fate of the film playwright Emil Braginsky. However, it was no less important for Ryazanov himself. And by the time they met, his creative career was still beginning, he was just about to become a great director.
One way or another, the creative collaboration of these artists lasted about thirty years. And many of his results were included in the classics of Soviet and Russian cinema.
This creative union had its own established principles of relationships - any of the authors could put an objection to one or another thought, plot twist, or just a word. The co-authors met almost every day - either at one, then at another, at home or in the office of Mosfilm.
"Watch out for the car"
Emil Braginsky, whose script books managed to become textbooks for several generations of Soviet and Russian scriptwriters, usually opened collections of his film dramaturgy with this particular work. And not only because it was enchanting success throughout the Soviet Union and far beyond its borders. It was in the script of the film “Watch Out for the Car” that the most distinctive features of the author's style manifested, which for many years would become the main lines for the creative community of Bragin and Ryazanov. The script is based on a real story from a police chronicle. Emil Braginsky, whose films often amaze with a bold flight of fancy, didn’t add a lot to this criminal plot about car thefts.
For the ordinary viewer, this tape was remembered by the brilliant acting works of Andrei Mironov, Oleg Efremov, Anatoly Papanov, Innokenty Smoktunovsky and Olga Aroseva. For Soviet cinematography, the film was unique due to the fact that a purely negative hero caused sympathy and empathy for the audience.
"The Irony of Fate…"
If the expression "cult film" has at least some real meaning, then first of all it should be attributed precisely to this New Year's fairy tale. This work is time-tested, and this test has passed. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the film only gets better as the New Year’s premiere of “Irony …” in December 1975 goes deeper into the past. Like a good cognac, this film over time acquires new qualities. New Year's Eve without the “Irony of Fate …" on several television channels at the same time is almost as difficult to imagine as without champagne and a Christmas tree. It is impossible to say whose merit in the success of this film is more significant - a director or an acting constellation.
In all certainty, we can only say that without the drama of Emil Braginsky there would be nothing to talk about. The remarks and dialogues from "The Irony of Fate.." are written so that they can be used as a teaching aid for the training of young screenwriters. There is nothing surprising in the fact that they diverged into quotes.
Achievements and rewards
It would be an exaggeration to say that the entire voluminous filmography of Emil Braginsky consists entirely of masterpieces alone. However, their concentration on this list makes a strong impression. “Beware of the car”, “Zigzag of good luck”, “Old robbers”, “The incredible adventures of Italians in Russia”, “Irony of fate, or Enjoy your steam!”, “Office romance”, “Station for two”, “Forgotten tune for flutes "make up the golden fund of achievements of Soviet cinema.
Of course, the merits of the playwright were recognized and repeatedly marked at the highest level. He was awarded the USSR State Prize for "The Irony of Fate.." in 1977, and two years after that - the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasilyev brothers for "Office Romance". In 1976, Emil Braginsky was awarded the honorary title "Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR".
