Where did the star of the film "June 31" disappear: Turns of fate by Natalia Trubnikova

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

When the musical film "June 31" was released on New Year's Eve 1978, everyone was amazed at the beauty of the unknown actress who played the role of Princess Melisenta. However, almost immediately after the premiere, the film was sent to the shelf, and for 7 years was not repeated on television, and the mysterious beauty, having played several more subtle roles, disappeared from the screens as suddenly as she appeared. Why Natalya Trubnikova called herself a "screen test actress", and how her fate developed after a loud, but short-lived success - further in the review.

Natalia never dreamed of an acting profession. At the age of 3, she first saw the performance of Maya Plisetskaya and since then she could not think of anything other than ballet. She began going to kindergarten and ballet club almost at the same time. Since childhood, she was accustomed to great physical exertion and was ready to work hard and hard for the sake of her dream. The choice of the further path was obvious for her - Natalia entered the choreographic school at the Bolshoi Theater.

Classes were not easy and tempered her character for the rest of her life. Trubnikova recalled: "". The efforts were not in vain: together with the troupe of young ballet dancers, Natalya traveled all over Europe, and by the time she graduated from college in 1973 she had been performing on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater for several years and hoped to get into the main cast after the final exams. However, she was given a "four" and assigned to the Musical Theater. K. Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

For the first time, Natalya Trubnikova came to the set thanks to a fluke: director Mark Zakharov, who started filming 12 Chairs, was looking for a dancer who could stage and perform a dance number with the main character, Ostap Bender. And although Natalia got only one small episode - she played the captain of the ship in a scene depicting Bender's fantasy, but she was lucky to make her debut in a pair with Andrei Mironov himself. Trubnikova was so inspired by this work that she caught fire with the dream of continuing her film career.

However, for several years, the dream remained a dream: Trubnikova was often invited to screen tests, but never approved. Therefore, when director Leonid Kvinikhidze invited her to audition for the main role in his musical film "June 31", Natalia did not even count on success. To her own surprise, she was finally approved for the role of Princess Melisenta. At the same time, she managed to bypass very serious competitors - Irina Alferova and Elena Shanina. The director had his own vision of the musical: there were many dance numbers in the film, and he wanted the main roles to be played not by dramatic actors, but by professional ballet dancers. So the soloists of the Bolshoi Theater Alexander Godunov and Lyudmila Vlasova got the roles of the court musician Lemison and Lady Ninet, who rejected his love. The management of the film studio did not approve of this choice of Kvinikhidze, because the ballet dancers were considered unreliable - during the tour, some of them did not return to the USSR. But the director insisted on his own, which he later had to regret.

Trubnikova was again very lucky with a filming partner - her lover was played by Nikolai Eremenko. Natalia recalled: "". Eremenko himself had no idea what he would do in such a company, and even in a musical, where it was necessary not only to dance, but also to sing. He said: "".

The fears of the leadership were not unfounded: in 1979, during a tour of the Bolshoi Theater in the United States, Alexander Godunov asked for political asylum there, becoming a "defector". As a result, the film with his participation was sent to the shelf for 7 years shortly after the premiere.

For Trubnikova, this decision of her colleague also had fatal consequences: the directors continued to invite her to auditions, but were afraid to claim her as a potentially unreliable artist. Natalia said: "".

And after her short triumph, she again turned, in her words, into a "screen test actress." She could have starred in the films Through the Thorns to the Stars, The Wizards, The Flying Hussars Squadron, Garage, but she was not approved in any of them, otherwise her film career could have developed completely differently. The actress explained her failure by another reason: she was a prominent beauty, and the directors often made her unambiguous offers, which she refused: "".

The directors who had already worked with Trubnikova gave her the opportunity to continue acting - she played for Kvinikhidze in the film "The Hat", for Mark Zakharov she appeared in the episode "Formulas of Love", but all subsequent roles were subtle. Her name was often not even mentioned in the credits. Until 1994, Trubnikova still starred in films, but after that she disappeared from the screens forever.

Meanwhile, in the musical theater, her professional life was developing quite successfully - there she performed more than 30 solo and leading roles. At the same time, Trubnikova received a second education - she graduated from the ballet master department of GITIS. In 1990, Natalia, together with her husband, artist Anatoly Kulakov, founded the Russian School of Models, where she taught girls coordination, musicality and the ability to move beautifully.

However, after the film "June 31" returned to the screens, a new wave of success came to Trubnikova. She was afraid that in a new, changed era, a fantastic love story of an artist from the XXI century. and the princess of the kingdom of the time of King Arthur will seem funny, ridiculous and outdated to the audience. "" - says the actress.

Trubnikova today considers her most correct decision that she did not leave ballet for the sake of cinema. She says: "".

Despite the fact that Natalia Trubnikova's film career cannot be called successful, her only major role was remembered by the audience, who still consider the actress one of the the most beautiful princesses of Soviet cinema.