Secrets of the series "Thaw": What celebrities are hidden in the characters of the film by Todorovsky

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

May 8 marks the 58th anniversary of the famous director, screenwriter and producer Valery Todorovsky. His films "Love", "Country of the Deaf", "Hipsters" have won many prestigious film awards and audience recognition. And one of his most famous and sensational works was the series "The Thaw". The director claimed that he created a generalized portrait of the filmmakers of the 1960s, but famous people and events of those times are guessed in many of the characters and storylines. What parallels arise between the characters of The Thaw and Nikolai Rybnikov, Alla Larionova, Gennady Shpalikov and other stars of that era - further in the review.

The idea to make a series about the 1960s era. was born to Valery Todorovsky, when in America he met Matthew Weiner, the creator of the TV series about advertising in the 1960s. Mad Men. He told Todorovsky that his father was engaged in advertising, and from childhood he grew up in a creative atmosphere and watched the development of the advertising business in the United States. And Todorovsky had an idea: but he, too, knows firsthand about the life of a bohemian, because he also grew up in a creative environment - his father, Pyotr Todorovsky, was a famous Soviet cameraman and director who shot the films "Military novel", "Intergirl", "Anchor, another anchor!" and etc.

Valery Todorovsky worked on the script with Alena Zvantsova and Dmitry Konstantinov. As material, they used not only Todorovsky's memoirs, but also newspaper articles, memoirs of filmmakers and films of those times. Therefore, most of the images are conditional, collective, this is a declaration of love for an entire era, and not for specific people, although real famous personalities of the 1960s are easily guessed in individual features of the heroes and some plot lines. and the events of their lives.

This film is a dedication of Todorovsky to his father and the era in which the director himself spent his childhood. He said: "".

Details and plots associated with Pyotr Todorovsky are scattered throughout the picture, across different characters. The episodic hero Petya from Odessa plays the recognizable music of Todorovsky Sr. on the guitar and, like him, brings gifts from his hometown to the capital. Screenwriter Dmitry Konstantinov said: "". The episode in which the main character, the operator, volunteered to shoot a scene with a moving train from below and asked for a box of cognac for this work, was also taken from life. The same thing happened with Pyotr Todorovsky, and for the risk he was handed a bottle of vodka.

According to the plot, the main character, a talented cameraman Viktor Khrustalev (played by Yevgeny Tsyganov), after his friend-screenwriter committed suicide, decides to make a film based on his last script. This storyline evokes associations with Gennady Shpalikov, a famous poet, screenwriter and film director who killed himself at the age of 37. Later it was called a symbol of the generation of the thaw era and "the brightest legend of the 1960s." Based on Shpalikov's scripts, the iconic films of that era "I am twenty years old" and "I walk around Moscow" were shot. Many of his scripts have not been embodied in the cinema, he did not have time to implement many of his plans. Screenwriter Konstantinov recognized the obvious similarities between the hero and the prototype: "". Associations with Shpalikov arise inevitably because his poems are heard in the series.

Valery Todorovsky insisted that all the characters in the film are fictional and generalized: cameraman Viktor Khrustalev is the collective image of all cameramen, the head of the film studio performed by Vladimir Gostyukhin is the collective image of the film leadership of the 1960s. But at the same time, the features of real people in them are easily guessed. So, for example, in the character of Evgeny Tsyganov, the features of several legendary cameramen were intertwined: Peter Todorovsky, Vadim Yusov, Alexander Knyazhinsky, Pavel Lebeshev, but first of all - Georgy Rerberg. Screenwriter Dmitry Konstantinov says: "".

In the image of the wife of the protagonist, actress Inga Khrustaleva performed by Victoria Isakova, the features of Valentina Titova, who was married to Rerberg, are guessed. In an interview about their relationship, she said: "".

Pavel Derevyanko, who played the star of Soviet cinema, said that his image had many prototypes, including Mikhail Ulyanov, and even Clark Gable: "". The hero of Gostyukhin merged the features of Ivan Pyriev, the first deputy chairman of the USSR State Committee for Cinematography Boris Pavlenok and deputy chairman of the Cinematography Committee under the Council of Ministers Nikolai Sizov. Many recognized the features of Ivan Pyryev in the hero of Mikhail Efremov, director Krivitsky - a war veteran, a Stalin Prize laureate, filming naive comedies.

And in the hero of Alexander Yatsenko, film director Yegor Myachin, there is a lot from the young Eldar Ryazanov. Todorovsky admitted that his hero has the same passionate desire to make a comedy about real life. Ryazanov dreamed of such a comedy in the style of Italian neorealism at the beginning of his career. And it turned out "Carnival Night".

At the same time, the storyline of the relationship between Yegor Myachin and Maryana is very reminiscent of the story of the relationship between actors Nikolai Rybnikov and Alla Larionova. The Thaw writer Dmitry Konstantinov said: "". For 8 years Rybnikov unsuccessfully tried to win her attention, out of despair, he even wanted to commit suicide. And Larionova's heart was given to the actor Ivan Pereverzev. After he betrayed her and secretly married another woman, Larionova, out of despair, agreed to Rybnikov. And later this marriage became surprisingly strong, harmonious and happy.

According to the director's mother, Mira Todorovskaya, the story of their family served as the main source of plots, details and characters of the series. In the main character Maryana, performed by Anna Chipovskaya, she finds her own features: "".

When they talk about the era of the thaw, they usually always mention the poet who was called "Mozart of the 1960s": Crazy star Gennady Shpalikov.