Red Moscow

"Comrade director, I didn't drink anything at all, so I didn't get drunk." Sokov explained to Petrov with a smile: "And I know that this kind of Chinese wine tastes good, but the The stamina is very strong. You are all drinking Chinese wine for the first time, so you don’t understand the power of Chinese wine, so you get drunk very easily."

"So that's it." After listening to Sokov's explanation, Petrov nodded slowly and said, "General Sokov, it seems you are right. I have drunk wine from many countries, but I have never tasted anything like this. Growing wine is as intoxicating as Chinese wine."

After Sokov and Petrov chatted for a while, he asked tentatively: "Comrade director, I think you are a little drunk too. Do you want me to help you back to your room?"

Sokov was just being polite, but he didn't expect that as soon as he finished speaking, he saw Petrov nodding vigorously and said in a positive tone: "That's great, please help me back to the room." .”

"Then what should they do?" Sokov nuzzled at the other drunk people and asked, "We can't just leave them here and ignore them, right?"

"Of course I won't leave them here." Petrov said: "Someone will come to take them back later. Now you take me back to the room first."

Seeing that Petrov repeatedly insisted on sending him back to his room, Sokov guessed that the other party might have something important to say to him, so he said to Asiya and Yakov next to him: "I will send Comrade Director back to his room." Room, you go back and rest first. Yasha, Asiya is pregnant, please send her back to the room first."

"No problem." Yakov replied very readily: "This kind of trivial matter will be taken care of by me."

Sokov helped Petrov back to the room, first helped him lie down on the bed, and then poured him a cup of hot tea, and then asked: "Comrade director, you asked me to come here, what's the special thing? Do you want to explain?"

Petrov sat up with his back on the bed, took the tea cup from Sokov's hand, drank a few sips, nodded slowly, and said, "Yes, I called you here just to Discuss some issues about the script.”

Hearing Petrov say that he wanted to discuss the script, Sokov suddenly felt on pins and needles. When other people discuss the script, it is always the director and the actress. It would be inappropriate for a big man like you to call me over late at night to discuss the script, right? However, due to the identity of the other party, he could not get up and leave, so he could only say tactfully: "Comrade director, Sergey showed me the script of "The Battle of Stalingrad" in the afternoon. I think it is very well written. Well, there is no need to modify it at all.”

"No, no, no, General Sokov, you misunderstood me." Petrov waved his hands and said, "I didn't call you here alone to discuss the script of "The Battle of Stalingrad." This script It was finalized after being reviewed by the Supreme Commander himself. Even if we have any new ideas now, we cannot change it casually. What I want to talk to you about is another script."

"Another script?" Sokov heard what Petrov said, and a bold idea suddenly came to his mind: "Is it the script of "The Attack of Berlin"?" However, he did not ask directly, but cautiously Question: "Comrade director, what is the script?"

However, Petrov did not answer him immediately. Instead, he pointed to a corner by the door: "Comrade General, have you seen that backpack? Please bring it to me. I have something to show you."

Sokov quickly stood up and walked to the door, bent down and picked up the backpack, turned over and walked to Petrov, handing the backpack to him.

Petrov thanked Sokov, first put the tea cup on the cabinet beside the bed, then opened his backpack and took out a stack of manuscripts: "Comrade General, according to the original plan, I should have a meeting with Ya General Cove rushed here together to participate in the filming of the movie. But before departure, I received a notice saying that someone wanted to see me and asked me to stay first."

Sokov guessed that the person who wanted Petrov to stay must be a big shot. Seeing that the other party paused at this point, he lost no time in asking: "Comrade director, who is the big shot who wants to see you?"

"It's Comrade Molotov."

"Molotov?!" Sokov couldn't help being stunned after hearing this: "Comrade Comrade People's Comrade for Foreign Affairs, what do you want to do?"

Petrov handed the manuscript in his hand to Sokov: "This is the new script he gave me, and it's called "Capture of Berlin." When I got here, I heard Sergey say, you once told me He mentioned that while filming "The Battle of Stalingrad", a new crew should be organized to film the film "The Capture of Berlin". He couldn't help but make a superfluous move and said to himself, I only knew about it less than two hours ago. How did you know?

Fortunately, after chatting with Sergey for a while, I finally found out what was going on. It is precisely because of this that I specially called you to my room and gave you this script to see if there is anything that needs improvement. "

Sokov took the script and wanted to start reading it immediately, but Petrov stopped him: "General Sokov, it's getting late, you'd better take the script back and read it. If you have any ideas, let me know tomorrow. It’s the same thing.”

Hearing what Petrov said, Sokov hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Comrade director, aren't you worried that I will leak the contents of the script?"

"There's nothing to worry about." Petrov said disapprovingly: "It's only a matter of time to film "Storming Berlin", but whether it will be filmed by our group is still unknown. Even if others know that there is such a script, It doesn’t matter much.”

Since Petrov said this, Sokov also took the opportunity to stand up and say goodbye to him. After all, Asya was still waiting for him in the room, and he had to go back early to accompany her.

Asya was washing her face when Sokov returned to the room with the script. Seeing that Sokov was back, she asked in surprise: "Misha, why are you back so soon?"

"Why, can't you come back early?"

"No." Asiya walked to Sokov's side and explained to him: "Director Petrov can actually walk back to the room by himself. The reason why he asked you to help him back is that he probably has something important to deal with." You said. Just thinking about this, I thought you would have to wait at least two or three hours before coming back."

"He brought me a new script and asked me to take a look." Sokov casually put the script that Petrov gave him on the table: "He said he would give him some feedback tomorrow to see what needs to be improved? "

"What script?" Asiya picked up the script and looked at the cover. She was a little surprised and said, "Oh my God, Misha, it's actually the "Storm of Berlin" that you mentioned to the deputy director Eisenstein this afternoon."

"Yes, I was also surprised when I saw the script."

"Does this mean they are planning to shoot two movies at the same time?"

"It is possible." Sokov said in an uncertain tone: "Otherwise Director Petrov would not have received the script today."

After arranging for Asya to rest, Sokov turned off the lights in the room, sat down at the desk by the window, turned on the lamp on the desk, and began to read the script Petrov had given him.

"Capture Berlin" roughly says: "On the grasslands of Ukraine, the beautiful female primary school teacher Natasha and the honest, kind-hearted steelworker Alyosha fell in love because of an interview about the latter's advanced deeds. Just as they were While swimming in the happy river of love, a plane with a white cross whizzed past their heads. After a violent explosion, the beautiful countryside became a scorched earth, and the German invaders invaded their hometown. The beautiful female teacher Na Dasha was caught and sent to Germany to do hard labor. Full of anger, Alyosha put down the steel drill, picked up the steel gun, and followed the great Soviet army on a difficult journey for himself, his relatives, and his troubled motherland. On a journey of revenge, he finally meets his beloved lover in the happy crowd of the Chancellery in Berlin. The script uses the joys and sorrows of two little characters as clues to panoramicly reproduce the entire Soviet history of World War II from the defense of Moscow to the conquest of Berlin. It reproduces the life-and-death struggle between the top leaders of the Soviet Union and Germany.

After reading the script, Sokov tried hard to recall the movie he had seen. He remembered that at the end of the movie, Stalin flew to Berlin on a plane, got off the plane and waved to the warmly welcoming soldiers and civilians. In fact, Stalin never visited Berlin and this episode is pure fiction.

The generals standing next to the plane to greet them were Marshal Rokossovsky, commander of the 2nd Belarusian Front, Marshal Konev, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, and General Chuikov, commander of the 8th Guards Army. Only Marshal Zhukov, the commander of the 1st Belarusian Front with outstanding military exploits, was missing. In reality, Marshal Zhukov has been "relegated to the cold palace" by Stalin.

He was thinking to himself that if the 1949 movie "The Battle of Stalingrad" had already portrayed Stalin as the "chief war hero", then "The Battle of Berlin" would have portrayed the "mythical Stalin". Petrov allowed himself to comment on the script, which was equivalent to putting himself on the fire, so no matter what he asked tomorrow, he would tell him that the script was very well written and there was no need to modify it at all.

Just when Sokov was about to turn off the desk lamp, a bold idea suddenly came to his mind: Although the two scripts "Battle of Stalingrad" and "Conquering Berlin" cannot be revised, why can't he write a new one? What about the script?

As soon as this idea came to him, he had an immediate urge to write. But when I opened the desk drawer, I found it was empty, with nothing in it, let alone the paper and pen I wanted.

He raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was already one o'clock in the morning. Calling the front desk at this time might cause unnecessary misunderstandings, so he could only temporarily put aside the urge to write a script, turn off the lights and go to sleep.

A night of silence.

Early the next morning, Sokov went to Petrov with the script.

"General Sokov, you are here!" Petrov glanced at the script in Sokov's hand and asked casually: "Have you finished reading the script?"

"Yes, Comrade Director, I have finished reading it." When Sokov said this, he placed the script on the table in the middle of the room.

"Any ideas?"

"No, no." Sokov answered very simply: "I think the script is very well written, and there is no need to modify it at all."

After hearing this, Petrov showed a bitter smile on his face, and then echoed what Sokov said: "You are right, General Sokov, I think so too. I will give it to Moloto later." Comrade Husband called and told him that the script was excellent and there was no need to revise it."

"Comrade director, I have an idea." Sokov said carefully after waiting for Petrov to finish speaking: "I want to write a script."

Hearing what Sokov said, Petrov looked at him with wide eyes and asked in surprise: "General Sokov, what did you just say? You want to write a script yourself. Did I hear you correctly?"

"No, Comrade Director, you heard that right." Sokov said in a positive tone: "I want to write a script about the Battle of Stalingrad. I hope you will let me give it a try."

"General Sokov, writing a script and commanding a war are two different things." But Petrov seemed not to be optimistic about Sokov writing a script at all. He said in a casual tone: "You can command a battle well, but you may not be able to command a battle well." Being able to write a script well is completely two different fields.”

"You are right, Comrade Director." Sokov did not deny Petrov's statement, but he continued: "I wonder if you are willing to listen to my idea and talk about whether you can write a script. ?”

After Petrov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, he stared at him for a while, then sighed and said: "General Sokov, then tell me your idea. But let me declare in advance that if your idea continues If you can't even impress me, then don't write this script as soon as possible."

Seeing that Petrov agreed to listen to his introduction to the idea of ​​​​the script, Sokov organized his thoughts and felt that he should take out the later version of "The Enemy". After a few modifications, he should be able to get Petrov's approval.

"Comrade director, before introducing my idea, I would like to ask you a question first."

"What's the question?" Petrov said, "Excuse me?"

"Have you heard of Vasily Zaitsev?"

"Are you talking about the sniper who killed 400 Germans?"

"Yes, that's him."

After hearing this, Petrov realized that the new script Sokov mentioned might be related to the sniper, so he tentatively asked: "General Sokov, is it possible that the script you are going to write has something to do with this legendary sniper?" Is it about snipers?”

"Yes, Comrade Director." Seeing that the other party had guessed his intention, Sokov said with a smile: "My script is going to have Vasily Zaitsev as the protagonist. After all, in addition to killing 400 people, he In addition to the amazing achievements of German officers and soldiers, they also led a small detachment to occupy a building in Stalingrad and persisted under the siege of the enemy for two months until we achieved the final victory."

"General Sokov," Petrov heard this and interrupted Sokov: "In the "Battle of Stalingrad" we filmed, there was a plot about the Vasily Building. You can write a special movie script. , it’s too similar. I don’t think it’s necessary to do anything extra.”

Sokov thought that because of his appearance, the "Pavlov's Building" in history had been turned into the "Vasily's Building", so what's wrong with letting the movie "At the Gate" be released ahead of schedule? It was out of this consideration that he continued: "Comrade director, please listen to my general idea and then decide whether you should write this script, okay?"