Svetlana Druzhinina - 85: The unspoken pain of the "Girls" star and the director of "Midshipmen"

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

December 16 marks 85 years of the famous actress, screenwriter and director, People's Artist of the Russian Federation Svetlana Druzhinina. The audience is well aware of her acting work ("It was in Penkovo", "Girls"), and director's ("Princess of the circus", "Midshipmen, forward!", "Secrets of palace coups"). Her creative destiny was very successful, but in life behind the scenes she had to endure many trials, which Druzhinina talked about very rarely. What a loss in the late 1980s. divided her life into "before" and "after", and what the artist is still very hard to remember - further in the review.

Her parents had nothing to do with the art world: her mother was a kindergarten teacher, and her father, the son of a priest, worked as a chauffeur. Svetlana did not remember him well - when she was little, he went to war and died near Smolensk. Svetlana did not think about an acting career as a child - at first she studied in a group of circus acrobats, and then entered the choreographic school at the Bolshoi Theater. However, due to her injury, she was not destined to become a ballerina. She began to act as a presenter of the school evenings, which were held in the Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky and were broadcast on television. Thanks to this, she was noticed and offered to conduct children's television programs with actor Mikhail Derzhavin. Later they became the hosts of the first KVN programs.

Once, in one of the TV shows, Svetlana Druzhinina was noticed by director Samson Samsonov and invited her to the main role in his film "Behind a Department Store Window". So her film career began. After that, she entered the acting department of VGIK and became an actress in the Central Studio of Film Actor and the V. I. M. Gorky. In the late 1950s - early 1960s. All-Union popularity came to Svetlana - after the role of Matvey Larisa's wife in the film "It Was in Penkovo" and Toska's main rival, telephone operator Anfisa in "Girls", they started talking about her as one of the most beautiful and promising young actresses. But Druzhinina herself remained very dissatisfied with her role in "Girls", because during the editing all her close-ups were cut out - at the artistic council they said that the main character would never leave such Anfisa to Tosa, and it was decided to minimize the scenes from her participation.

Although she was put on a par with outstanding Soviet actresses, Druzhinina herself was not completely satisfied with how her creative destiny developed - she admitted that she had never felt herself an actress, she was cramped within the framework of this profession, and in 1968 she graduated directing department of VGIK. On the other side of the camera on the set, Druzhinina felt much more confident and freer. She said: "".

At the beginning of her studies at the acting department, Druzhinina met her future husband, Anatoly Mukasey, a student at the camera department. They met on the volleyball field - both were captains of their teams. At first, Druzhinina did not take him seriously, but the community of interests brought Svetlana and Mikhail closer together. Later, he confessed to her that he first saw her on the screen in the movie "Behind a Department Store Window" and even then said to his mother: "I will marry her!" And when he brought his chosen one to acquaint her parents, his father invited them to play a wedding. Svetlana did not hesitate long - she understood that with such a person an interesting creative future awaits her. In 2018, they celebrated 60 years of marriage.

The couple had two sons - Anatoly and Mikhail. The junior graduated from the camera department of VGIK and works as a clip maker, operator and producer. The eldest son Anatoly drew well and was a promising artist, but passed away in his youth. He became interested in illegal drugs, which caused him to develop mental disorders. Anatoly Mukasey Jr. did not want his son Daniel to see him like that. He considered himself a mentally unhealthy person, unable to bear responsibility for his family. And he killed himself. And soon after he left, his wife was gone. Her work helped her survive this tragedy, which became her salvation from depression.

This family tragedy forever divided her life into "before" and "after". The departure of her son became an unhealed wound for her. She never talked about her pain - she could not talk about it even after years. She always willingly talks about her youngest son Mikhail, and always answers questions about her elder son: “I don’t comment!”

Svetlana Druzhinina took her grandson to her place and raised him. She dreamed of Daniel becoming an actor and filming him in cameo roles in her films. However, he chose a different path for himself - carried away by computer technologies, he helped his grandmother to edit films. The artist was very happy with this development of events. “”, - she said proudly. But later, their relationship with his grandson soured. Excessive care and concern spoiled him. For some time he did not work anywhere, went to India, was engaged in creativity. They often quarreled and at some point even stopped communicating. Druzhinin also does not comment on this conflict.

Once Svetlana Druzhinina admitted: "". Despite all the difficulties and trials she experienced, she did not lose heart, did not despair and did not lose the ability to enjoy life and appreciate it in all its manifestations! It remains only to congratulate the wonderful artist on her anniversary, wish her many years to come and thank her for all her films, which have been delighting the audience for so many decades!

No obstacles could stop this strong and indefatigable woman, and she shot the first parts of her famous directorial work on crutches: Behind the scenes of the film "Midshipmen, Forward!"