Secrets of "The Man from Boulevard des Capuchins": stunts "on a bet", fights, seduction of the general and unknown heroes of the film

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

On January 23, the famous stuntman, who staged stunts and dubbed actors in many legendary Soviet films, turned 74 years old - Alexander Inshakov. One of his most famous works was the cult Man from Boulevard des Capucines. The western genre involved a large number of battle scenes and stunts, so a group of stuntmen was involved in the work. The real "action" took place behind the scenes: some actors refused doubles and started fights themselves, horses disappeared from the set, men played women, and director Alla Surikova smashed bottles over their heads and even … seduced the general!

Alla Surikova later told about the shooting of this film in her book "Love at Second Sight". Of course, the classic western "The Man from Boulevard des Capucines" could not be called, screenwriter Eduard Akopov and director Alla Surikova themselves defined its genre as "ironic fantasy in the style of a western" and "ironic comedy". But even with all the parody and comicity, it was technically very difficult to shoot a western. It is no coincidence that at the Zoloy Duke-87 film festival in Odessa, this film was awarded a special jury prize "For a reliable portrayal of the Wild West in the wild conditions of Soviet filmmaking", and another prize was awarded in the nomination "For the best fight between Soviet actors."

Firstly, this genre was rare for Soviet cinema, and secondly, it demanded significant expenses for staging stunts. In the late 1980s, during the era of Perestroika and total shortages, there were interruptions even with gasoline. Surikova solved this problem easily and quickly: she sent male movie stars to the gas station, and the girls-tankers immediately got everything they needed. The rest of the material was more difficult. "Wild West" had to be collected bit by bit. A Czech film studio managed to get hold of several sets of harnesses and cowboy saddles. The costumes and hats were made at Mosfilm. Feathers for the Indians were brought from the Crimea.

The horses were provided by a special cavalry regiment created at Mosfilm during the filming of War and Peace. But the director failed to find a common language with the captain in command of the detachment. Either this captain himself wanted to star in one of the episodes, or he was counting on additional material "encouragement", but at first he said that he would not let the stuntmen near the horses, and then he took both the horses and the soldiers away. The situation seemed hopeless, but then local residents came to the rescue, bringing their horses to the shooting. But the difficulties did not end there: one of the horses was stolen! Then Alla Surikova went to the head of the police in the company of Andrei Mironov, and the horse was immediately found and returned to the site.

In Western classical westerns, Alla Surikova saw how the heroes smash furniture, smash chairs and bottles on each other's heads and asked the question: how can you do without injuries? She found out that for these purposes, all furniture must be made from a special lightweight, very rare balsa tree that grows only in Ecuador. Naturally, there was no question of traveling there. Through her acquaintances, Surikova learned that the general of DOSAAF had copies of the necessary material (such a tree was used in hang gliding). She tidied herself up, did her hair, dressed more smartly and went straight to the general. From the doorway, she said to him: "I came to seduce you!" True, she later added that this is a seduction by creativity, and that his help is necessary to save art. The director was so eloquent that she got hers: the general donated a cubic meter of this tree to her.

With bottles and glass, the situation was simpler: so that the fragments did not hurt anyone, a special resin was ordered in St. Petersburg, from which the glass was cast. The composition of this substance was such that upon impact it easily shattered and scattered in all directions, but the fragments were absolutely safe. Alla Surikova decided to test this on herself, breaking the bottle on her head!

A large group of stuntmen, real professionals in their field, were involved in the work on the film. The stunt was directed by Alexander Inshakov, who has extensive experience in such work in the cinema. Surikova was amazed at how he was always restrained, calm and unfazed. From this state, she more than once tried to bring him out and provoked an explosion of emotions, about which she told: "".

The stuntmen not only performed stunts, but also played bit parts themselves. At the same time, they had to transform into cowboys, and Indians, and even women. Alexander Zhiznevsky played an old woman with a stick, who comes to the pharmacist for drops, and then dashingly jumps into the saddle and is carried away. In the scene with the jump of the heroine Natalya Fateeva, 4 people dubbed her: the actress herself ran, Natalya Darieva climbed the wall with a pole instead of her, Alexander Zhiznevsky ran further on the roof, Vasily Shlykov jumped from the roof, and Viktor Grigoriev completed the trick. In the scene where the saloon girls are carrying Mr. Fest in their arms and chanting: "We want a movie!", In fact, stuntmen dressed in women's dresses were filmed.

Despite the professionalism of the stuntmen and the thoroughness of the preparation of the stunts, it was not without injuries on the set. Surikova worked with Nikolai Karachentsov for the first time and did not know what to expect from him. From the doorway, he told her that he was not interested in the role of Black Jack offered to him - they say, he had already played this, and that he himself sees himself in the image of Billy King. And according to the script, this character was a hefty cowboy, from one blow of which 10 people fly around. Outwardly, Karachentsov absolutely did not correspond to this image. But in character he even surpassed.

At first, Karachentsov seemed like Surikova a bully and a bully looking for adventure. He immediately announced that he was refusing the help of understudies and would perform all the tricks on his own. During the tests, he was offered to enter into a duel with the main stuntman - Alexander Inshakov, and Karachentsov got into a fight without hesitation. Initially, Alexei Zharkov claimed the role of Billy, and when Surikova decided to approve Karachentsov, Zharkov harbored a grudge against the director and did not speak to her for several years.

But Surikova did not regret her decision - Nikolai turned out to be a selfless and courageous person and really practiced all the tricks himself, even after he broke his toe. The actor improvised a lot, directed some episodes himself and practiced tricks "on a bet" - such as, for example, capturing the opponent's head with his feet with a coup. Said - did! Many tricks with his participation began with the phrase: "Let's do it myself for a bet!" He fought selflessly, but at the same time he was very accurate and collected. In addition, he demonstrated the highest aerobatics of acting: the scene of the death of Andrei Mironov's character, where Billy had to go through the whole range of emotions, from tears to laughter, was filmed in one take! As a result, Karachentsov created an image that became one of the best in his film career.

The director managed to gather on the set a brilliant cast, all the color of Soviet cinema. Even in tiny episodes in the film, real stars were filmed: the pharmacist was played by Mikhail Svetin, the pianist in the saloon - Oleg Anofriev, one of the cowboys - Borislav Brondukov, the leader of the Indians - Spartak Mishulin, his wife - Natalya Fateeva, mother of many children - Galina Polskikh, Mexican - Natalya Krachkovskaya, ticket collector Bobby - Anton Tabakov. However, not all roles were played by professional actors. In most of the scenes, stuntmen appeared in images of both cowboys and Indians.

The role of the well-fed son of the Indian leader was played by Yuri Dumchev, a professional athlete, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR in athletics, six-time USSR champion in discus and shot put, European champion, world record holder in discus throw. His height was about 2 meters, and his weight was almost 150 kg. In 1979, he first starred in a documentary about athletics, which put his photo in the Mosfilm filing cabinet. His type was so colorful that soon he began to receive offers from directors, and he began to actively act in films. After his role in the film "The Man from Boulevard des Capucines," he was awarded the II acting category.

The scenery of the American town of Santa Carolina was built between Feodosia and Koktebel in the Crimea. Outwardly, they looked like real buildings, but in fact, the facades of the buildings at the back were propped up by beams. The cacti were painted at all. In this area, a strong wind often rose, and once it raged so violently that the entire structure began to collapse in front of the director. As it turned out, the beams holding the walls were not dug deep enough. Without thinking twice, Surikova immediately grabbed a shovel and rushed to save her brainchild. Fortunately, the stuntmen came to her aid in time, and the "city" survived. After filming, the scenery was offered to be left for tourists, but later for some reason they burned it down.

The names of the actors who played the main roles in the film "The Man from the Boulevard des Capucines" (by the way, there was a mistake in the name - in fact, the Paris boulevard, on which the cinema was located, where the world's first film shows took place, was called Boulevard des Capucines), were known throughout the country, but those who performed all the most difficult and dangerous work for them, most often remained in the shadows: Soviet cinema stuntmen.