I take my 80th birthday quite lightly, but life does not allow me to treat my anniversary in this way. It is impossible to spend the anniversary in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere, as I would like. Therefore, I do not feel satisfaction, a sense of passing an important moment, etc. – all my time is spent working. For me, this is just another birthday. The numbers mean nothing. I don't feel them.
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When people ask me what I think about the use of artificial intelligence in theater and cinema, it's like asking me about my attitude to the destruction of humanity. How can I feel when some being, devoid of conscience, compassion and love, takes over the world?
If, say, artificial intelligence - and we have already had such experiences - forces a person interacting with it to kill his mother and then commit suicide, then we need to understand what questions it asked and what answers it received in order to achieve this. That's why I approach this very cautiously and I firmly believe that it is impossible to use artificial intelligence to revive deceased actors on screen or in the theater, giving them lines that they would probably never say in real life. This is violence against God, atheism.
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To achieve something significant in the film industry, a certain level of personal development is necessary for the director, actor, creator, etc. Personal development and the search for meaning are, in my opinion, the stumbling block. Of course, technologies can attract viewers, which leads to the emergence of, say, fairy tales that captivate children with effects unattainable before. If you are not interested in the search for meaning, if you do not understand what you want to achieve, how you can help the viewer live, then all this will gradually cripple cinema as an art.
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In my opinion, Western cinema, which has always been a leader, is currently losing its position precisely because the search for meaning for it is already obsolete. When someone makes a film about a woman living in a car, it means that the creator has ceased to be interested in everything else human; he is already looking where there is little human. Any distortion is always initially interesting, like the Overton Window. How does this happen? Take, for example, cannibalism. Can you seriously imagine wild tribes devouring human flesh? It is scary to even think about it. And then - why not talk about it? After all, they are also people, why do they do this? Maybe there is no other meat or do they have such customs? Or maybe we should try this too? Or maybe make it mandatory? And so we see how gradually what was generally taboo among humanity becomes not only possible, but also mandatory. Like, say, the Church of Satanism or the very idea that the church can approve of same-sex marriage. That is, the foundations of human morality and humanism are being destroyed, which leads to the complete destruction of everything.
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Look at contemporary art. The image of the world has become a deception – one thing is presented as another. Today, mastering a craft is absolutely not necessary to become very rich.
Steve Jobs' children wrote with pens and read paper books. They were allowed to spend an hour a day on the gadgets created by their father. Because he understood the horror, fear and danger of all this and tried to protect his children. But since global corporations and huge sums of money are behind it, it is difficult to wage a struggle. As a result, this struggle turns into an individual feat of a particular person in terms of his own life or the lives of his loved ones. To oppose this is a feat. If you do not understand the global nature of this danger, you may not even notice how you cease to be human. This whole trend towards “green” energy, globalization, the creation of a world government, the “golden billion”, childless same-sex marriages - it is all connected with what Anthony the Great said: “The last times will come when nine sick people will come to one healthy person and say: you are sick because you are not like us.” And this is a huge danger.
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My mother used to say: “You have to educate the child while he is still lying crosswise on the bed. If he is lying lengthwise, it is already too late.“
This should be explained from childhood. Moreover, it does not matter at all what religion the family professes; what is important is the awareness of one's origins, understanding of the moral, divine laws by which humanity has developed. Russia is a cauldron in which everything exists naturally. Why did Orthodoxy, academic, serious Islam, Buddhism and Judaism coexist so peacefully in Russia? Why are people of completely different religions fighting side by side for their homeland in the North-Eastern Military District today, on full equality? But a special military operation brought them to this... But it is important to understand the meaning of a person's life and faith, without it leading to such cataclysms.
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If we are talking about children, the entire system of education and upbringing should start from the very beginning. A person should be considered a person in the womb, and not when he is born. Then it is important how he was raised, what he reads, what is the atmosphere of his existence. I know how it was with me, how it was with my children, how my children communicate with their children. And if it is possible in a family, then it is probably possible in a country. This is a very serious issue that requires the most subtle development: how to communicate with young children, what to talk to them about, how to talk to them, what they should learn from the very beginning, what should be the basis of what they will learn about the world, about God, about their country, about its history. Thus, step by step, a person begins to realize his civic position - such a member of society will not doubt whether to defend this country or not.
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It is important to look back with a retrospective look at the lives of people who have become "someone" in the country, how they lived, how they were brought up. For example, how did Pushkin appear? How did a person appear who was quite wrong and at the same time absolutely and endlessly devoted to everything that surrounded him? As he said: “I would not like to change my fatherland or have any other history than the history of our ancestors.“ Or he declared to the emperor that despite the criminal plans of his fellow Decembrists, he would stand by them. What kind of person should he be who recognizes the criminality of the actions of his comrades, but nevertheless declares to the tsar his readiness to stay with them? After all, if he had stayed with them, perhaps the Decembrist uprising would not have happened? Education and upbringing are very serious, delicate issues and should be considered by people who have the right to do so.
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Yes, some people may not like the fact that I am a principled anti-liberal, but this is not because I am a supporter of Stalinism or militant conservatism. I simply see who liberals are. I have read what our ancestors thought about them - Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Aksakov, Turgenev or Pushkin - and I understand that this is far from a problem today. As George Bernard Shaw said: “Democracy is a balloon that hangs over your head and makes you look up while other people rob you.“
The eternal topic is the Debate between liberals, monarchists and conservatives. And it will always be so. What is important is what is created and what is not.
If I were asked how I see Russia in 50 years, I would answer that it is enough for me to know that it will exist.