Video: Behind the scenes of "Pokrovskie gates": Why critics predicted a failure of the film
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Today "The Pokrovsky Gate" called the classics of Soviet cinema and one of the best films Mikhail Kozakov … And in those days, comedies predicted failure, the director was not given permission to shoot, and after the film was still shot, he lay on the shelf for several years. Today it is difficult to understand the logic by which this wonderful comedy could seem ideologically harmful.
"Pokrovskie gates" appeared thanks to the play of the same name by Leonid Zorin. First, Mikhail Kozakov staged a play based on it at the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, and a few years later he decided to make a film. Zorin's autobiographical play seemed very close and understandable to him, because the author recalled his teenage years in Moscow, describing real people with whom he happened to meet. Almost all the characters in the film have their own prototypes.
The author of the play Leonid Zorin said: "".
At Mosfilm, Kozakov's enthusiasm was not shared and permission to shoot was not given. Both critics and colleagues did not see any prospects, Danelia called the scenario very unfortunate. In order for the director to be allowed to stage a film for television, Danelia advised Kozakov to appease the leadership by agreeing to the role of Dzerzhinsky in the "State Border". He agreed, but even after that, the permission to shoot was delayed. They managed to get it thanks to the actress Sofya Pilyavskaya (who played the role of Kostik's aunt), who managed to convince the chairman of the USSR State Radio and Television.
Casting also took a long time. Kozakov wanted to assemble an exclusively stellar cast, he saw Andrei Mironov in the role of Hobotov, Natalia Gundareva in the role of his ex-wife, and even invited Nikita Mikhalkov to the role of Savva Ignatievich, but he refused, because he also found the script uninteresting and weak. About 20 actors auditioned for the role of Kostik, until the director's wife advised him to pay attention to the young actor Oleg Menshikov. As soon as the actor appeared on the set, Kozakov realized that he was in the top ten. He called Menshikov "God's gift" in this film.
For the role of Hobotov, a little-known theater actor Anatoly Ravikovich was approved, who later admitted that the director behaved on the set like a real tyrant: they say, his hero would certainly repulse Margarita Pallna, but Kozakov dictated to the actors every movement and every gesture, demanded follow his instructions unquestioningly and did not tolerate any other interpretations. (And thanks to him for that!)
When the work on "The Pokrovskie Gates" was finished, the opinion of the critics did not change: the comedy seemed to them a buffoonery, moreover, unfunny. At the premiere at the House of Cinema, the audience received the film coolly. In addition, the leadership considered it ideologically harmful: officials found it strange an idea in the early 1980s, during the Brezhnev era, to shoot a nostalgic film about Moscow in the 1950s. - the times of Khrushchev. And then there's the actress who played one of the main roles - Elena Koreneva - married a foreigner and left for the USA. And the film “lay on the shelf” for several years. Kozakov reacted to this with his characteristic wit:
Under Andropov, they demanded to remove from the film all the German phrases of Savva (“Naturlich!”, “Fershtein!”) That “defamed the image of a Soviet soldier,” while Chernenko also found ideological flaws. It was only under Gorbachev that the audience finally saw the film, but after all the drinking scenes were cut out. Nevertheless, the comedy was immediately sold for quotes and earned truly popular love. The audience did not agree with the critics and turned out to be much more insightful - "Pokrovskie Vorota" does not lose its relevance and popularity to this day.
Few viewers knew about how many tests the actress who played Kostik's aunt had to face, about how how the daughter of the "enemy of the people" Sophia Pilyavskaya was saved from repression, and about how tragically was the fate of the star of "Pokrovsky Gates" Elizaveta Nikishchina.
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