Offscreen secrets of "Station for Two" and "Cruel Romance": Legends of Soviet cinema through the eyes of cameraman Vadim Alisov

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

On May 9, at the age of 80, Vadim Alisov, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, an outstanding cameraman, passed away. He worked with the best directors of the USSR - Leonid Gaidai, Vladimir Menshov, Eldar Ryazanov, and made films that became iconic: "Station for Two", "Cruel Romance", "Forgotten Melody for Flute", "Shirli-Myrli" and others. When they write about the filming of these films, they usually recall the work of the director and actors, but the masterpieces are created by the efforts of the entire film crew, and a lot depends on the operator. It was through his eyes that millions of viewers saw these legendary footage.

Creative family

The fate of Vadim Alisov could have turned out quite differently, because he did not come to the cinema immediately and achieved success largely thanks to the efforts of his mother, the famous actress Nina Alisova. He did not remember his father, because he was not even two years old when the artist and director-animator Valentin Kadochnikov passed away at the age of 30. He graduated from the directing department of VGIK and was a favorite student of Sergei Eisenstein in the second half of the 1930s. became the production designer of the animated films "The Wolf and the Seven Kids", "Little-Remote", "Silver Rain" and others, "revived" the dolls during the combined filming of Alexander Ptushko's "Golden Key".

At the beginning of the war, Valentin Kadochnikov was released from military service for health reasons, but he died in evacuation in Alma-Ata, unable to withstand the hard work of harvesting saxaul (shrubs used to heat the stoves). Upon learning of this, Eisenstein wrote an obituary in which he spoke of his departure: "".

Vadim's father was a distant relative of the famous actor Pavel Kadochnikov, the same surname was borne by Vadim's sister Larisa, who also became an actress, and he himself received his mother's surname - she wanted her family to continue. In the late 1930s, while still a student at VGIK, Nina Alisova played the role of Larisa Ogudalova in Yakov Protazanov's film The Dowry, which brought her all-Union popularity. Then she could not even imagine that many years later her son, as a cameraman, would shoot another film adaptation of this play by A. Ostrovsky - "A Cruel Romance".

After returning from evacuation to Moscow, Nina Alisova with her children settled in the same house where Sergei Gerasimov, Tamara Makarova, Ivan Pyriev, Marina Ladynina, Mark Bernes and other famous artists lived. Since childhood, Vadim grew up in a creative atmosphere. His stepfather, who was a cameraman, often took him to the studio with him and greatly influenced his decision to choose the same profession. Vadim believed that of all the cinematographic professions, the work of the cameraman was "the most masculine". True, his path to the cinema was very long and thorny.

The beginning of the way

After school, Vadim Alisov tried to enter VGIK, but did not pass the exam on the history of the USSR. He got desperate and got a job as a laborer at a brewery, where, however, he worked for only 2 months. After that, Nina Alisova contributed to the fact that her son was taken on television as an assistant operator, but even there he did not last long and was fired due to his own disorder. From his next place of work - the film laboratory of the Research Institute - Vadim resigned himself.

The mother had already begun to lose hope that her unlucky son would get involved in at least something seriously, when he himself finally decided to go towards his goal. Vadim said: "".

Tandem with Eldar Ryazanov

Vadim Alisov's diploma work was Eldor Urazbayev's film "Trans-Siberian Express". And after that he started working with Eldar Ryazanov. At first, he was assistant cameraman Vladimir Nakhabtsev on the set of the films "Zigzag of Fortune", "Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!" and Garage. Alisov said: "". "The irony of fate …" was filmed in winter, but there was no snow, and the administrators applied thick layers of shaving foam to the tree branches, and instead of snow they let finely cut paper down the wind.

Later Vadim Alisov worked with Ryazanov as the chief director of photography. He directed the films "Station for Two", "Cruel Romance", "Forgotten Melody for Flute", "Dear Elena Sergeevna", "Andersen. Life without love. " They began filming “Station for Two” from the finale, as winter was coming to an end, and it was necessary to have time to shoot winter scenes in the colony. And these final shots, shot at the very beginning, largely predetermined all further work on the film.

Later Alisov said: "".

When Ryazanov started working on "Cruel Romance", he first of all "received a blessing" from the first performer of the role of Larisa Ogudalova Nina Alisova. The actress was delighted with this film, first of all, because all the works of her son seemed to her genius. The operator recalled the filming: "".

The cameraman said that on the set Ryazanov was considered a despot - he swore, shouted, waved his hands and could even start a megaphone or a cup, but so as not to hit any of the people. But with the actors, the director behaved very restrainedly, because the upset performer of the role could not have played well.

During the filming of the film "Promised Heaven", they parted ways with Ryazanov: the work began, they chose nature, but then Alisov was offered to take part in the filming of another film and he, taking advantage of the pause, left. And later he found some other excuse not to continue working - he admitted that he did not like the script of this film by Ryazanov at all. Later the cameraman worked with many other directors, filming a total of about 60 films, and also taught at VGIK.

This film caused a lot of controversy: Why Cruel Romance received devastating reviews.