In the winter of 1945, on the banks of a German river, a scene worthy of an absurdist movie unfolded.. On the enemy side, Nazi propaganda was played from loudspeakers around the clock.. From the American one, an 18-year-old Jewish youth, whose daily job was clearing mines under fire, took a bullhorn and shouted over the loudspeakers with the repertoire of pop singer Al Jolson.

This sapper's name was Melvin Kaminsky. Even then, among the trenches, he felt the truth from which his directing method would later grow: any dictatorship rests on monumental seriousness. It is impossible to defeat a tyrant with logic or pathos - he must be exposed to ridicule.

To the centenary of the outstanding director ZN. UA tells the life story of Mel Brooks.

The drum that didn't fit the name.

American comedy of the 20th century was created by the children of immigrants. Melvin James Kaminsky was born on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn.. His father Max came to the USA from Gdansk, and his mother, Kitty Brookman, was a Jewish emigrant from Kyiv: her family fled overseas from poverty at the end of the 19th century without any property.

When Melvin was just two years old, his father died suddenly of kidney disease.. Kitty was left alone with four sons on the eve of the Great Depression and worked several jobs from morning to night..

Melvin grew up weak and short and quickly learned a simple rule: you can’t survive on the harsh streets of Brooklyn without strong fists, but a well-aimed joke works even better. Laughter became his way of protecting himself from older bullies and at least a little cheering up his always tired mother..

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As a teenager, the boy became interested in music and worked part-time as a drummer in the clubs of the Catskills resort, where the Jewish community vacationed. There a problem with the name arose: the rather famous jazz trumpeter Max Kaminsky played in the same clubs, and so that they would not be confused on posters, the young man needed a pseudonym.

Melvin wanted to pay tribute to his mother and decided to write her maiden name - Brookman - on the bass drum. But the letters did not fit on the skin of the instrument, and the musician simply discarded the end of the word. Thus the laconic “Brooks” was born.

Sapper with a megaphone.

In 1944, 18-year-old Brooks was drafted into the army.. At first, after high scores on an army test, he was sent to engineering training - he was taught electrical engineering, horse riding and even fencing. Later they were transferred to Europe as part of the 1104th Engineer Combat Battalion of the 78th Infantry Division.

Brooks cleared German mines, checked mined bridges and cleared the way for infantry, participated in the Battle of the Bulge (Operation of the Bulge), and after it his battalion established crossings over the Rur (Rur) and the Rhine.

It was at the front that the incident with the bullhorn occurred. Humor, as Brooks recalled, was often the only way not to go crazy in the midst of a disaster.. By the way, the director’s signature intonation is also rooted in the Yiddish-language culture of Brooklyn emigrants.

After the war, Brooks returned to New York, where television was just beginning. He got a job writing lyrics for the Sid Caesar show - and ended up in the most legendary writers' room in the history of American television..

Working alongside Brooks were Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart and a young Woody Allen.. It was with Rainer that Brooks subsequently created the cult number “The 2000-Year-Old Man,” and their friendship would last until Rainer’s death in 2020: the two widowed comrades would watch movies together every evening.

Scandal with "

In 1967, Brooks released his first big film, The Producers.. Two Broadway swindlers want to get rich from a guaranteed failure and stage the worst musical in the world - "

Society was shocked. A comedy about the Nazis - just twenty years after the war? Large studios refused to finance the project, distributors were afraid to take the film to cinemas.

But it was for this daring script that Brooks won an Oscar.. The Producers initially flopped at the box office and caused a split among critics.. The film was put on its feet by British actor Peter Sellers, who was delighted and ordered advertising at his own expense..

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Brooks explained: a dictator cannot be defeated by logic, arguments or tragic speeches - tyrants feed on fear and their own monumentality. And one has only to expose them to ridicule - and their greatness is instantly blown away. This was the conclusion of a sapper who went through the war and saw its consequences.

Brooks turned this principle into a method. In 1974, two famous films were released at once: Blazing Saddles, where the director satirized racism in a Western format (with the final Nazi gag Ja, ja), and the black and white Young Frankenstein, a parody of old horror films.

Then there were the almost silent “Silent Movie” (1976), Hitchcock’s “Fear of Heights” (1977), “World History, Part I” (1981), “To Be or Not to Be” (1983), where Brooks himself played a Polish actor during the Nazi occupation, “Spaceballs” (1987) - a parody of “Star Wars”, “Robin Hood: Men in. The director boldly broke the “fourth wall” and brought film cliches to homeric absurdity.

Brooks rarely hid behind the camera - he was also his favorite actor and often played several roles in one film. In Blazing Saddles, he played both a clueless governor and a Yiddish-speaking tribal leader.. In "

And in “World History, Part I” he immediately appeared as Moses, the Roman comedian, the inquisitor Torquemada and Louis XVI, whose remark “It’s good to be a king! " Add to this the main roles in “Silent Movies,” “Fear of Heights” and “To Be or Not to Be” - and it becomes clear why Brooks looks at the viewer from almost every second frame of his films.

In 1980, Brooks founded Brooksfilms and began producing dramatic films.. He was the executive producer of David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) - but removed his name from the credits so that audiences would not expect another parody. Under the same roof came David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), starring Brooks' wife..

Club of the elite and love for life.

Today, Brooks belongs to the elite club of EGOTs - those who have won all four major awards in the American entertainment industry: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony..

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He received the latter in 2001, turning his controversial film “The Producers” into a Broadway musical. The work collected a record 12 Tony statuettes - still unsurpassed for a single performance..

This proved the main thing: Brooks' jokes have no statute of limitations.. For his episodic role as an eccentric uncle in the sitcom Mad About You, he received three Emmys in a row (1997, 1998, 1999).

But Mel always considered his family to be the main achievement in his life.. For more than forty years he lived in marriage with the outstanding dramatic actress Anne Bancroft - in his words, his harshest critic and best friend.

Even after Ann's death in 2005, Brooks did not give up: he produced, voiced cartoons, and wrote best-selling books.. At 95, he published his memoirs, All About Me.! , and in 96 he returned to the screen with the series “World History, Part II” - a continuation of his film, shot almost 40 years ago.

Brooks remains sharp as he crosses the century mark. His personal recipe for longevity: never take difficulties too seriously. After all, it is laughter, Brooks proved to the whole world, that makes a person truly free.

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