Soyuzmultfilm
THE SMILE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI Inspired by the writings of Leonardo Da Vinci
Written by Genrikh Sapgir
directed by Ivan Aksenchuk
art director Yelena Fyodorova camera Mihail Druyan
music Igor Tsvetkov sound Vladimir Kutuzov
animators Oleg Safronov, Vladimir Shevchenko, Aleksandr Panov
artists Tatyana Stroyeva, Irina Sobyanina, Georgiy Dorn, Anna Atamanova, Nikolay Mitrohin, Aleksey Razuvayev
assistant director Olga Apanasova marrator Yuriy Yakovlev montage Elena Beliavskaya
executive producer Lubov' Butyrina script editor Tatyana Paporova
One day, a sheet of paper started scolding an inkwell:
"Inkwell, why do you have to inflict such an incredible humiliation upon me?"
Your indelible ink tarnishes my whiteness.
Who will want me in such a state?"
"Do not grieve, - said the inkwell gently -
how can what is written here humiliate you?
Listen to its content.
"In the glass workshop work was in full swing."
The fire in the huge, red-hot furnace was burning night and day.
The fire was very proud of itself and ascribed all the glory to itself alone.
Then one day a tongue of flames broke out.
Suddenly it noticed a burning candle.
Immediately a desire to absorb this faint light took possession of it.
The insatiable flame in an instant swallowed the fragile candle,
but then it did not manage to escape from the clutches of the melted wax,
and thus ends this cautionary tale.
Here is another...
"Once there was a kind king in the world,
but he had thousand enemies.
His obedient and loyal cranes were very worried for what might happen to him.
"What can we do?" said their leader,
"The king's soldiers are a useless bunch,
his dogs are so exhausted by the daytime hunt that they can not be relied upon.
No other option remains than to guard the castle ourselves."
"But what if one of us gets overcome by sleep on duty?" - worried a young crane
"Let each one of us, standing on a post, hold a stone in his paw.
If someone, in an odd hour, falls asleep - the stone falls and its noise will alert the others. "
Since then, for their nobility of spirit and devotion to duty
the birds were named Royal, or crowned, cranes.
"Why overstrain yourself? Leave me here."
"If I leave you here, we are left without food,
and we are many.
"I understand your concern, honest worker, but you must understand me too;
my purpose is to generate new life.
Let's make a contract: leave me in the ground...
and in the autumn you can collect one hundred like me in return."
"One hundred-for-one? But such miracles happen only in fairy tales.
And how would you do that?"
"Oh, that's the great mystery of life!" "Oh, well - never tried, never gained!
Where is that grain? Nothing here. Not even one.
That grain deceived me!
One, two, three. Oh-oh-oh!"
The great mystery of life...
The good inkwell was right:
This sheet was preserved. For us now, it represents a great value -
It saved the thoughts of this man and the insights of his mind.
The End 1986 Subs by chapaev & Eus, ed. Niffiwan