Video: Behind the scenes of the film "Old robbers": How Ryazanov's comedy prompted the idea of stealing a painting from the Tretyakov Gallery
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
December 21 marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of the famous actress, People's Artist of the RSFSR Olga Aroseva. In her film career, director Eldar Ryazanov played a significant role, who more than once invited her to his films. One of the brightest of these films was her role in the comedy "Old Robbers". In 1972 this film was watched by 31.5 million viewers. And today it does not lose popularity, however, it is not only creative people who are inspired by it - a year ago a picture was stolen from the Tretyakov Gallery in exactly the same way as in Ryazanov's film …
The idea of a new film was born to Eldar Ryazanov in a difficult life period: at first he was not allowed to make the film "Cyrano de Bergerac", which he had dreamed of for a long time, then his mother passed away, there was a long creative downtime, because of these experiences the director began health problems, and as a result Ryazanov ended up in the hospital. There he met an elderly man, who told him how his colleagues from the prosecutor's office, against his wishes, sent him out to retire. Ryazanov told this story to his permanent co-author, Emil Braginsky, and together they decided to write a script about a 60-year-old investigator who really did not want to retire, and his friend suggested that he arrange the theft of the painting from the museum, and then immediately solve this high-profile case to prove his indispensability in the service.
The director did not doubt who he wanted to see in the main roles: the prosecutor's office investigator Myachikov was played by Yuri Nikulin, and his friend, engineer Vorobyov, was played by Yevgeny Evstigneev. The main female role - the collector Suzdaleva - went to Olga Aroseva. True, Ryazanov doubted her candidacy - by that time, the whole country knew this actress as Mrs. Monica from the “Zucchini“13 Chairs”, in whose image she appeared for 14 years! Ryazanov feared that the audience would inevitably have associations with this heroine, and therefore warned Aroseva: "" The actress could not miss such a chance, because it was thanks to Ryazanov that significant roles in the films "Girl without an address" and "Beware of the car" appeared in her filmography, which became her ticket to the big cinema. And she actively began to work on the image and even mastered pistol shooting, which was required according to the script.
The comedy on the set took place not only in the frame, but also outside the set. Yuri Nikulin was a big fan of pranks and did not miss the chance to prank his colleague, Evgeny Evstigneev. He often read scripts "diagonally", without delving into the details, and therefore did not know all the details and plot twists. Nikulin took advantage of this: once he, as it were, casually asked Evstigneev if he was ready for shooting tomorrow. He was worried, because he did not understand what was at stake. Nikulin feigned surprise: "" The seriously puzzled and alarmed Evstigneev immediately went to the director to demand an understudy for a dangerous stunt. Ryazanov's surprise was genuine - in none of the episodes were any tricks with the participation of Nikulin and Evstigneev envisaged, let alone parachute jumps!
The comedy continued after the completion of the film. Eldar Ryazanov said: "".
With viewers, Eldar Ryazanov's new comedy enjoyed great success: in the year of its release, it was watched by 31.5 million people, and the film became one of the leaders of the Soviet film distribution. Even then, "Old Men-Robbers" began to grow into legends: allegedly during the filming in Lviv, criminals robbed a local museum, declaring themselves artists rehearsing a scene from the film. In fact, this story was a fiction, but what happened 47 years after the release of the film on the screens is already a real robbery, carried out exactly according to the plan of the screen kidnappers.
According to the plot, the "robbers" take out the Rembrandt painting from the museum in broad daylight, in front of the visitors, who mistake them for museum employees, since they leave a sign "Painting under restoration" in place of the painting. None of the witnesses of this incident even occurs to report the theft, and the museum staff also do not notice the loss. The grief-kidnappers have no choice but to return the painting to its place, because in the end, no one called the police, and there is nothing for Myachikov to investigate. But in real life, events developed a little differently.
In late autumn 2018 - early winter 2019, an exhibition of paintings by Arkhip Kuindzhi was held at the Tretyakov Gallery. On January 27, a young man, dressed in jeans and a turtleneck, entered the hall, in front of numerous visitors, approached the painting “Ai-Petri. Crimea”, took it off the wall, took it out of the frame and left the building. None of those present sounded the alarm - everyone was absolutely sure that this was an employee of the Tretyakov Gallery doing his job. Director of the Department of Museums of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladislav Kononov admitted: "".
In Ryazanov's film, no one notices the theft, but in real life, after the abduction of Kuindzhi's painting, the alarm was raised a few minutes later. But by that time, the kidnapper had already managed to escape. Of course, unlike the heroes of the film, he was not going to return the picture to its place. The search did not last long: the very next day, the police detained a 31-year-old robber who hid the painting on the territory of a facility under construction in the Moscow region. He denied his guilt. Fortunately, no visible damage was found on the canvas and was returned not to the exhibition, but to the Russian Museum.
This incident had a very wide resonance, and as a result, it was decided to equip all paintings at subsequent exhibitions with alarm sensors that would not allow the canvas to be taken out of the hall unnoticed.
Eldar Ryazanov was one of the few directors who risked shooting this actress, whose violent temperament and sharp tongue many were afraid of: Why Olga Aroseva was compared to a hydrogen bomb.
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