Yevgeny Yevtushenko: "Marilyn Monroe Kissed Me"

August, 2013

NEW YORK - "Should The Clover Rustle In The Meadow..." - this is the name of a new documentary about the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. It was filmed by director Nina Zaretskaya at the request of the Russian TV channel "Kultura" (Culture), where it was shown a few days ago. This is a film-reflection, film-essay. It has two main characters - a famous poet and the time he remembers. These are the war years, and Khrushchev's "thaw", and a long "stagnation", and the end of the Soviet empire. "Should The Clover Rustle In The Meadow..." is planned to be released on DVD.

The director of the film, Nina Zaretskaya, was interviewed by the correspondent of the Russian service of the Voice of America Oleg Sulkin. <…>

N.Z: To be honest, at first I did not know how to approach this complex and multifaceted figure. I began to understand my feelings, watched a bunch of films about him - many of them are similar to each other like twins. And I realized that I can make a film only about what I consider unambiguous for myself in this person. Namely: Yevgeny Yevtushenko is undoubtedly a genius lyricist. His lyrics are amazing. It is no coincidence that his poems have been translated into 72 languages. I deliberately left out of brackets his social, political, journalistic and other activities. In the film, Yevgeny Aleksandrovich reflects on friendship, betrayal, love: for a woman, poetry, homeland. About the main thing - about life and about death. I was very afraid to show the shot film to him himself – what if he didn’t like something, what if it seemed too explicit, intimate, inappropriate. But, fortunately, he took everything adequately. <…>

Oleg Sulkin for the Voice of America

Full text – on the Russian version of the site