In the early 80s, the Soviet people were half-secretly watching Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Tango in Paris” movie. Naturally, similar movie could not be screened at any cinema or over the television as the only driver of the movie was the VHS tape (very few people had the player to it), the technical quality of the picture was terrible, and the “underground interpreter” was especially talking through the so that no one would recognize his voice. People who had seen this film had a kind of “intellectual advantage” over to those who had not seen it and were delightedly sharing their “sacred knowledge” with those who have not seen it. I personally do not like this movie.I do not like the unhealthy and extreme manifestation of any feeling, although critics say that it is a deep philosophical drama. However, the seducer of the Soviet people, perhaps, was erotic, as the sex, as we know, was missing in our country at that time.
About 10 years before it, in early 70s, I remember what queues existed at the cinemas for the movie “Angélique, the Marquise of the Angels”. The deputy director of the cinema “Aragats” in my neighborhood, though having physical problems, but was able to keep the things in order by extreme tough methods, given the fact that we, Armenians, do not know how to stand in the queue. Today, the film seems pretty boring, but at those times, the youth was attracted by Michel Mercier’s beauty of the body and the same erotic, in fact, was utterly “innocent.”
Under the modest choice, the degree of responsibility was small, we were consuming what was given to us and we could not have a serious impact on this process. Today, everything is affordable – any movie, any book, and information. It is, of course, wonderful, the youth nowadays has opportunity to have much more in-depth and comprehensive knowledge. In that case, you would ask, why they do not take this chance fully and are often more limited than we were at their age. Cinema and culture are brought here as an example, the same can be said about the politics or the economy.
The problem is actually quite simple. The bigger the degree of freedom, the more difficult to make a choice, and along with it, the more you bear responsibility for your choice. I think the post-Soviet people are lost in this forest of the opportunities and information and are reluctant to be responsible for their choice. They want to go back to the world of restrictions and the obligation, which seems more convenient and safe to them. But such a situation will not happen again. The formula “we had to” is just an excuse, which allows seeking the problems elsewhere. Actually, the problem is with us, no one will any longer guide us to anywhere.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
