How one role ruined the life of the star of the film "Gloom River": Valentina Vladimirova

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

She was in great demand during the Soviet era. For 37 years of creative activity, she managed to appear in almost 100 films and served in the theater-studio of a film actor all her life. In the filmography of Valentina Vladimirova there are many brilliant roles, but most of all she was remembered for her work in the films "Gloomy River", "Shadows disappear at noon", "Lyubushka", "Chairman". And only one role, which initially Valentina Vladimirova did not even want to agree, made many viewers and fans turn away from her.

The woman of the people

She was born in the Ukrainian village of Vasilyevka, Odessa region, and after graduation she decided to enter the Kharkov Engineering and Economic Institute. But there, in Kharkov, she first went to the cinema and fell ill with cinema forever. The profession of an economist no longer seemed to her interesting, Valentina Dubina (the actress's maiden name) began to dream of filming a movie. Two years after entering the institute, the girl decided: she must follow her dream.

She carefully prepared for the entrance exams, took the documents and went to Moscow to enter VGIK. At the audition, the applicant read Tvardovsky's poems and an excerpt from Alexei Tolstoy's story "Russian People", and yet she almost failed. Fortunately, the positive characterization of Valentina from the institute in Kharkov played a role.

On the course of Olga Pyzhova and Boris Bibikov, Valentina studied with enthusiasm, she eagerly absorbed knowledge, was happy to stage sketches and already at that time played the role of a comedy plan in Ukrainian classics in educational performances and appeared on the stage in the dramas of Alexander Ostrovsky in characteristic images. The course where the girl studied was truly legendary: Rufina Nifontova, Izolda Izvitskaya, Yuri Belov, Leonid Parkhomenko, Maya Bulgakova and many other wonderful actors. Later, Nadezhda Rumyantseva joined them, by the way, Valentina was the first to extend the hand of friendship to the newcomer.

Immediately after graduation, she was enrolled in the Theater-Studio of the film actor, whom she never cheated on. She was generally a very loyal person. Even in her student years, she met her future husband, cameraman Valery Vladimirov, with whom she lived until the end of her days.

Cinema and all life

In the cinema, Valentina Vladimirova first appeared along with the entire course in the film "Free" by Grigory Roshal. And after that she filmed almost without interruption, without giving up either episodes or big roles. All the film crews treated Valentina Vladimirova with great warmth, everyone loved her very much.

And how was it not to love her, because she directly radiated kindness. Moreover, she always appeared on the set with her own pickles: either she would bring a pot of homemade dumplings, or she would bake a whole mountain of delicious pies. And in addition to the load, he will certainly grab several bottles of liqueur or something stronger.

Valentina Vladimirova herself got great pleasure from what she was doing. I didn’t grumble when I had to work without vacations, and forever remembered my first big work in the film “Poem about the Sea” based on the script by Alexander Dovzhenko. Inviting the actress to his picture, Alexander Petrovich invited Valentina Vladimirova to choose the role herself, and she decided to embody on the screen the image of Maria Kravchina, the mother of four children. True, the picture was no longer filmed by the master himself, but by his widow Yulia Solntseva.

Later, there were many roles of ordinary women, and she accepted her role, did not wait for invitations to the role of royalty. I just soberly evaluated myself and my own appearance and gave myself up to my small and large roles entirely. And the viewer fell in love with the actress with all his heart. For Rufina in Young Wife, soldier Anisya in Virineya, Maria Kirillovna Gromova in Gloomy River, Nastasya in Lyubushka and many other roles. Valentina Vladimirovna in each of them was her own, simple and understandable, very close.

The actress was recognized on the streets, asked for an autograph, and was often associated with her on-screen heroines, expressed words of approval or support, empathized and sympathized. But after one single role, everything suddenly changed.

Fatal role

In 1976, Valentina Vladimirovna received an invitation to the picture of Stanislav Rostotsky "White Bim Black Ear" and, having familiarized herself with the script, categorically refused to take part in the filming. The heroine, which the director proposed to play the actress, brought the dog to death, and Valentina Kharlampievna did not want to transform into a negative character. But Rostotsky had an unsurpassed gift of persuasion, and yet he was able to persuade Valentina Vladimirova to withdraw from him. She played, as always, brilliantly, only now the audience and fans at first almost hated the actress.

Some fully associated Valentina Kharlampievna with the image of an evil neighbor who killed such a beautiful dog, while others could not understand how she could even agree to play such an unpleasant aunt, because of whom Bim died. The actress even had to get a dog in order to somehow convince fans that she really loves animals, and her on-screen image does not correspond to her own attitude towards dogs. But still, for a long time, she could not get rid of the stigma of a person who cruelly treats animals.

Loss of meaning in life

After this situation, something seemed to break in Valentina Vladimirova. She continued to act in films, but more and more often expressed doubts: whether she lived her life correctly, whether there was a point in what she was doing. And she sighed sadly, believing that she had lived her life in vain.

In recent years, the actress has starred less and less, retired from the Theater-Studio of the film actor, devoting herself to caring for her husband who suffered a stroke. It seemed that Valery Borisovich and Natalya Kharlampievna had already won the victory, the actress's husband began to move and speak on his own, and began to lead an almost familiar way of life. And once he got behind the wheel, promising his wife to come very quickly. But he never returned, died in a car accident. After the departure of her beloved spouse, Valentina Vladimirova simply lost the meaning of her life.

She settled in her house in the suburbs and led a very closed lifestyle. She planted and watered the garden, chopped wood, stoked the stove. And one day she sat down at the table, put her head on her hands and never got up. The body of the actress was found by a neighbor, and her colleagues found out about her death only a few months after the funeral …

When White Bim Black Ear hit the box office, 23 million people watched it. A year later, he was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film nomination. More than one generation of viewers cried over this film, and the book on which it was produced is still recommended to schoolchildren as a must-read. Behind the scenes there are many interesting moments left - another film could be made about the fate of the dog, who played the main role in it.