For which the director of "Gentlemen of Fortune" was called "Mosfilm Othello": Alexander Sery
For which the director of "Gentlemen of Fortune" was called "Mosfilm Othello": Alexander Sery

Video: For which the director of "Gentlemen of Fortune" was called "Mosfilm Othello": Alexander Sery

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Most people believe that the famous crime comedy was directed by Georgy Danelia. This confusion happened by accident and has always greatly offended the real creator of Gentlemen of Fortune. Alexander Sery had to fight not only with this mistake - for many years he had won his right to "trustworthiness" and even just the opportunity to work, because the director of the most famous comedy about re-educated criminals himself had experience of imprisonment, moreover, under a very serious article.

Many directors are distinguished by their explosive nature and are considered unbalanced people, but Alexander Ivanovich Seryi, even among his colleagues, always seemed to be an unusual person. He came from an intelligent, but completely non-creative family, made his way in Moscow himself, having arrived to enter from the Voronezh region. Moreover, he studied first at the Moscow Energy Institute, and then at the Aviation Institute. For many years he did not even think about cinema, he worked as an engineer at a factory, head of a laboratory, gradually rose to the rank of senior engineer at the Moscow Radio Center.

Alexander Sery in his youth
Alexander Sery in his youth

However, there was one unusual hobby in the life of Alexander Ivanovich. While still a student, he was almost forcibly brought into a theater group, he had to enroll on a Komsomol assignment. In this new place for himself, Gray at first rebelled, refused to go on stage immediately and abruptly, but after sitting at two or three rehearsals, he suddenly began to help the director and gradually got involved in an unusual occupation. A year later, he himself staged student performances, and after graduating from the institute, he traveled from the other end of Moscow to his native theater studio to work there in the evening with students.

By the age of thirty, Alexander Seryi realized that he wanted to try to change his life. He enrolled in the Higher Directing Courses at the Mosfilm Film Studio and got on the same course with Georgy Danelia. Immediately after completing the courses, he was lucky - the young director was hired to the staff of Mosfilm. He was preparing for his first independent work when a tragic event happened that turned his life upside down.

Alexander found his girlfriend visiting another young man and was jealous of her. Grabbing a hammer, he attacked the "opponent" and hit him hard on the head. Apparently, the hot temper deceived the lover, in fact, the girl was faithful to him. She waited for her unlucky "Othello" from prison and married him, but the victim remained disabled for the rest of his life. Due to the severity of the injury, Alexander was sentenced to eight years, but he served only five, for good behavior he was released on parole.

Still from the movie "Gentlemen of Fortune"
Still from the movie "Gentlemen of Fortune"

After his release, work at Mosfilm was lost for him, but, fortunately, a former classmate helped. By that time Georgy Danelia had already shot the films "The Way to the Pier" and "I Walk Through Moscow", so he entered the office of the director of the film studio. He managed to convince the leadership to take Gray on a trial period. Of course, for many years after that, he could only apply for the position of assistant director, but at first the former prisoner was happy about that. By the way, Pyryev himself gave the beginning director the nickname "Mosfilm Othello" - the luminary of Soviet cinema believed that a talented person should have a restless and explosive character.

It so happened that "Gentlemen of Fortune" became the first independent work of the disgraced director. For seven years he sought this right, and finally got it, again with the help of Danelia. Georgy Nikolayevich himself finalized the promising script and became the artistic director of the picture, on these conditions it was possible to make Alexander Sery the chief director. By the way, the former "prisoner" added all the slang words and reliable details from the life of the prisoners to the film himself. Because of this "color", the comedy did not receive the approval of the authorities for a long time, until Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev saw it. The general secretary, having watched the film at his dacha, noticed that thieves' words are already known to every boy, and gave the "Gentlemen of Fortune" the green light.

Alexander Sery on the set of the film "Gentlemen of Fortune", 1971
Alexander Sery on the set of the film "Gentlemen of Fortune", 1971

The film was an incredible success, but the director was in the hospital at the time of its release. He was diagnosed with leukemia. Alexander Seryi managed to delay the terrible end for a while, bargained with fate for several more years of work, but he was not at the premiere of his brainchild at the House of Cinema, at all premiere events, instead of the director, Georgy Danelia appeared on the stage, and because of this, the same confusion.

Alexander Seryi managed to stage two more comedy films: "You - to me, I - to you" and "Take care of men!", But they turned out to be less successful than "Gentlemen of Fortune". The disease progressed, and on October 16, 1987, a few days before his 60th birthday, the director passed away. He made this choice on his own, causing great grief to his loved ones. Perhaps, if not for the illness, we could see the continuation of the brilliant comedy and learn about how the heroes of the Soviet crime comedy led an honest life, because Alexander Ivanovich dreamed of filming the continuation of this story.

Unfortunately, Alexander Seryi became another example of a Soviet director who did not receive even some of the well-deserved awards for an incredibly popular film. The fate of the famous Vasily Alibabaevich from the comedy "Gentlemen of Fortune" was also not very happy: The drama that ruined the life of Radner Muratov

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