"I don’t consider myself a comedian. For me, laughter is not an end in itself, although I have only shot funny films. Laughter is a method to narrate for me. Perhaps, I cannot do otherwise …"
Giorgi Danelia.

Nobody can ever express substance better than him… It is true that laughter is for him a form to express his thoughts and not the desire to entertain people. The genre of his films, as a rule, is defined as "comedy". However, watching Danelia’s films you get some strange and sad feeling that sometimes makes you want to have a good cry. And, in the process of laughing and crying you realize that something different, something new, was awaken in you and everything is seen in a different light.

Giorgi Danelia was born on 25 August, 1930 in Tbilisi. In 1955, he graduated from Moscow Institute of Architecture, in 1959 from Advanced Studies of Film Directing.

His selected works are:
"Seriozha" – 1960. The film won the main prize at the Karlovy Var Film Festival.
"I Am Striding Along Moscow Streets" – 1963. Prizes in: Cannes, Milan, and Rome.
"Don’t Grieve" – 1969. Prizes in: Mar de Plata, Kartakhene.
"Affonya" – 1975. A prize in Tashkent.
"Mimino" – 1977. Prizes in: Moscow, Avellino.
"Autumn Marathon" – 1979. Prizes in: San Sebastian, Shamrus.
"Kin-Dza-Dza" – 1986. A prize in Rio de Janeiro.
"Passport" – 1990.
"Fortuna" – 2000.
 

"Valiko, which one is stronger, the chain or your helicopter?"

"Of course the chain…"

The little boy trusted him and tied the helicopter with the chain. He did not want Mimino to leave. However, as soon as the helicopter took the air, the chain broke. It was just iron, and iron cannot stop the machines that are designed for flying in the sky.

A long time ago, one similar chain was broken in Giorgi Danelia’s life as well. This happened at the time when a young architect went to one of the design offices in "Mosfilm" and enrolled for Advanced Studies of Film Directing. Some time later his first film  "Seriozha" was released. Giorgi Danelia and Igor Talankin, his fellow student, created the film. "Seriozha" won the main prize at the Karlovy Var Film Festival and since that time Danelia’s helicopter has never landed on the ground.

Before each shoot, and in accordance with the Georgian wedding tradition, he breaks a plate and wishes his team many happy days. Then the work starts. Some say that it is extremely difficult to work for him. Others disagree.

In either event one gets used to Giorgi Danelia. He gets used to actors and actors do the same, they get used to him. He likes to work with one and the same people. This is easier and more comfortable as everybody already knows each other before filming starts. There is always a role for Buba Kikabidze, and Eugenie Leonov is present in almost all his films. The director explained this fact by saying that "it always worked well for me".

It may sometimes happen that an actor’s appearance does not fully correspond to the script image of the character. For instance, it was clearly stated in the script for "Seriozha" that the hero was a fair-haired man with blue eyes. However, after auditioning three thousand men of that description, Danelia gave the role to Boria Barkhatov, a black-haired boy. The same happened when shooting "Don’t Grieve". Benjamin, i.e. Buba Kikabidze, was a slim and black-haired man, whilst according to the script he was supposed to be "red-haired, fat and clumsy".

Although Giorgi Danelia was born in Tbilisi, before shooting the film "Don’t Grieve" he had never visited Georgia. This was his very first film shot in his homeland, and the first in colour. It was also the first time that he "forced" Rezo Gabriadze to write six or seven versions of the script and the first time he invited Buba Kikabidze, the singer, to play in his film.

After so many "firsts" and experiments, the unanimously recognized masterpiece was created. The French story about the life of doctor Benjamin was transformed into a Georgian story.

In some films Giorgi Danelia played some episodic roles himself, spontaneously, without preliminary planning. In general, he does many things without pre-planning. He has been a cameraman, artist, and composer, especially the latter.

Music is as important in his films as the film itself and he is often found improvising on his own synthesizer, never letting his composers rest until they write the music he needs. The task of composing music for his films can be difficult. It is generally known that Danelia has a very good taste and he may not like everything. Gia Kancheli joked about this once: "Look how gloriously this jackal understands music". And indeed, if in other films one can hear music in only a few scenes, in Danelia’s film it always exists, even at that time when you cannot hear it.

When actors speak about Giorgi Danelia, even there, a tender melody touches your ear.

Buba Kikabidze: "Once I felt ill and was taken to my room. In the morning I was disturbed by something and opened my eyes. I saw Gia sitting at my bed, asleep, with my right hand tightly grasped in his hands. He had not slept the whole night. Do you know why he held me? Gia is an extraordinarily kind person and I think he believes that he can transfer the warmth and kindness, of which his personality is full of, through his hands".

Many films have been created on the basis of the above warmth and taste, and they have become popular in society…

"None of the Danelia family have ever been taught to play music. They would simply pick up an instrument and play it", said Gia Danelia’s wife, and nothing seems to be incredible in those words, only too natural.

Giorgi Danelia often indicates smilingly that there are seven lawyers in their family, but if we count the remaining members too, i.e. the servants of art, there will be rather more.

Veriko Andjaparidze was his aunt.  His mother, Meri Andjaparidze, was also a film director in the "Mosfilm". Nikolai Danelia, the son of Giorgi Danelia and Lyubov Sokolova, the actress, was a film director and artist as well. Unfortunately he died at the age of twenty-six. Danelia’s younger son Kiril is a wonderful painter too.

They say, that he has been filming one and the same story during his entire life. This is the story where strange things happen and where the people are not very bad or very good. He films a story that will never exist in reality: no one will ever think to take a cow by helicopter to a market to sell; neither will an ordinary man going to his work suddenly appear on an alien planet. However, if these events indeed occurred, the film would be about something else and  not about the infinite human warmth and love, which the film director wants to convey to us.

It is quite natural that in Georgia the films about this country are favourites. These are the films that are shot according to Rezo Gabriadze’s script: "Don’t Grieve", "Mimino", "Kin-Dza-Dza" and  "Passport."

Giorgi Danelia recalls that shooting of  "Mimino" was a real mess.  The script was changing all the time and nobody knew what the next scene would be. As for the idea of the film itself, here is how it was conceived: "I remembered Rezo Gabriadze’s story  about  a pilot, who lived somewhere in the mountains. Every morning he would walk out in his shirt and slippers. He checked his helicopter’s tires by hitting the top of his foot on them and then flied." The entire film was built on this short story. Unexpectedly enough, Frunzik Mcrtichian appeared in the script whose role was not yet envisaged in the film, and then, it was supposed to be played by an actor of a Russian nationality. Many other things were changed. The hit "Chito-Gvrito" was written and ultimately "Mimino" was a sellout for a long time in Soviet movie theatres.

Rezo Gabriadze: "After meeting him, the very first impression of mine was of surprise. I discovered that Danelia himself was very good at writing. Frankly, I could not understand why he needed a scriptwriter at all. For me to work with him is both very easy and very difficult. It is easy to invent, to seek for unexpected thematic movements, but it is physically hard to work non-stop for fourteen hours, every day…

"The most important fact is that Gia Danelia precisely expresses the epoch. He is a very strong and very modern film director."

Probably, this is of key importance – Giorgi Danelia has a unique talent to be always relevant and always contemporary.

Giorgi Danelia has recently turned 60 years old. However, they still discuss and write about him, not as a respected film director in the past, but as a very valuable one in the present.

It is amazing how Giorgi Danelia could preserve the most important and valuable through these years. Despite destruction and transformations, despite perpetual spiritual and economic crises in this period of permanent re-appraisal of values.

Eugene Leonov, a wonderful actor, said in one of his interviews: "If he offered, I would even agree to play in a crowd scene in his films, as I know that it would be very interesting and a great opportunity to work with Danelia…"