Why 13-year-old Natasha Rostova is most often played by adult actresses

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

- an image that has been embodied in films by actresses from different countries more than ten times over the past hundred years. Each adaptation of the novel "War and Peace" became an event, and each time it was Natasha Rostova who received special attention from both viewers and critics. Even eminent stars in this role did not always achieve success, because it requires both childish spontaneity and special inner greatness. Which Natasha is the best?

Silent movie stars

It is interesting that before the revolution, in 1913 and 1915, three film versions of the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy were created at once. Unfortunately, during the Civil War, all these tapes were lost, and today we only know that Natasha Rostova was then played by Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Vera Coralli. Both were stars of their era, and Vera Coralli, like her most famous follower in this role, was a ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater. True, the actresses were 35 and 26 years old at the time of filming, respectively, but the cinema of that time had its own laws, and this did not bother anyone.

Audrey Hepburn, USA-Italy, 1956

It is believed that in the 1950s in Hollywood, Leo Tolstoy's great novel was "remembered" thanks to Prokofiev's opera. "War and Peace" was staged for the first time outside Russia in 1953 in Florence, it was a tremendous success, and immediately a gramophone record was released. Three years later, the Paramount film company took up the film adaptation and invited 26-year-old Audrey Hepburn to the role of Natasha. The choice of the director seemed perfect - indeed, Audrey has always been great at portraying young ladies, but this particular work of hers is considered far from the best. As the actress later admitted, the role was the most difficult in her life.

Audrey Hepburn received a record fee for those times for "War and Peace" - $ 350 thousand, not counting a car with a personal chauffeur and $ 500 a week for daily expenses. Despite the solid investments, the picture did not become mega-popular in America and Europe, but it provoked a new film adaptation: in the USSR they considered it a shame that our classics were being filmed on such a large scale abroad, and we still do not have a good film version of the main novel of our literature.

Lyudmila Savelyeva, USSR, 1967

One of the most prestigious projects of the Ministry of Culture was entrusted with filming Sergei Bondarchuk. Among many others, Gurchenko, Fateeva, Kustinskaya and Vertinskaya auditioned for the role of Natasha Rostova, but the director, having screened out the recognized stars, settled on an unknown 19-year-old girl who had recently graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School, who was not even a professional actress.

At the first auditions, the fragile blonde could not fully show herself, and if it were not for the director's assistant, who insisted on re-filming, perhaps someone else would have shone in this role. Fortunately, on the second day, in a black wig and suit, Lyudmila Savelyeva suddenly really felt like Natasha, and further Bondarchuk did not even consider other applicants for this role.

Morag Hood, UK 1972 TV series

Appreciating the titanic work that had to be done for the previous film adaptations, the English producers immediately planned "War and Peace" in the format of the series. The adaptation from the BBC is considered not the most successful, although 20 episodes allowed the creators to stop not only on the main lines, but also to show minor characters. Anthony Hopkins won a BAFTA for the role of Pierre Bezukhov, but young Natasha, played by a 30-year-old Scottish actress, was, by all accounts, not very successful.

Clemence Poesy, 2007 TV series

The large-scale project, in which five countries united their efforts at once: Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, caused contradictory responses from the audience. The creators of the TV version of the novel in the new millennium decided to break some of the established patterns. Natasha Rostova, performed by Clemence Poesy, turned into a blonde, and Pierre Bezukhov acquired a toned figure. The film adaptation starred Russian actors: Igor Kostolevsky (Alexander I), Vladimir Ilyin (Mikhail Kutuzov) and Dmitry Isaev (Nikolai Rostov).

The French actress, who gained fame for her role as Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in general, according to critics, coped well with the role. Today she is ranked among the best actresses who managed to embody Natasha Rostova on the screen, but the discrepancy in hair color and the fact that during the film the heroine's age has not changed at all, are considered the disadvantages of this version. At the time of the release of the film, Clemence was 25 years old, so in terms of age she was not too far from Natasha.

Lily James, UK, 2016

Usually the British are very scrupulous in details when adapting their classics, but, unfortunately, this rule did not apply to the new version of the novel "War and Peace" from the BBC. The release of the series was expected all over the world with interest, but the audience was disappointed: the description of riotous revelry and far from authentic costumes turned out to be another half of the trouble. When the new Natasha Rostova performed by 27-year-old Lily James was compared to Lolita, it became clear that the new film could not serve as an example of an accurate attitude to the original source. Especially critical viewers were outraged by the new storyline - the love affair between Anatol Kuragin and his sister Helen.

In the life of the genius of Russian literature Leo Tolstoy, you can find many unusual little-known facts, because it was not for nothing that he was considered an eccentric.