Behind the Scenes of The Thief: How One of the Highest Grossing Cinema Hits of the 1990s Appeared

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

On October 14, a Soviet and Russian film director, a representative of the famous cinematic dynasty, celebrates his 71st birthday Pavel Chukhrai … One of his most famous films was the film "Thief", which appeared on screens 20 years ago and still makes people talk about itself. In addition to the fact that he received many film awards, "The Thief" went down in history as one of the highest-grossing films of the 1990s, enjoyed success not only in Russia, but also abroad, and one of the few Russian films that were nominated for "Oscar".

The thief performed by Vladimir Mashkov turned out to be such a charming character that the director often heard accusations against him: they say, his father shot a "ballad about a soldier", and he himself - "a ballad about a thief." Its protagonist really was the complete opposite of the characters from his father's films "The Ballad of a Soldier" and "Clear Sky". However, the director did not set himself the task of romanticizing the image of a thief - on the contrary, he tried to convey the idea that even behind an attractive appearance and an officer's uniform an ordinary swindler could be hiding, because of whom the fate of a child collapses. After all, the handsome military man, who presented himself as a retired tank officer, actually turns out to be an ordinary thief who needs his family first of all for cover.

The plot of the film cannot be called entirely fictional. The director said: "".

Nevertheless, the main character of his picture, Pavel Chukhrai, saw not a charismatic thief, but a little boy who had lost his father and was desperately trying to find him in a stranger. The director admitted:.

According to the director, in this film work he tried to figure out what the people who were in power in the 1990s were like - what shaped them, what their childhood was like, where their fears and weaknesses came from. As a result, the film was inspired not only by nostalgia for one's own childhood, but also by a philosophical reflection on fatherlessness as the main misfortune of the post-war generation, about where the cult of violence and cruelty appeared in Russia as a result, and about the fact that several generations were just as afraid and they adored the Tyrant Leader, like this boy of their father, and then they also debunked him. As they wrote in the newspapers,.

They were looking for the main character for the role of a boy in schools and kindergartens - the director wanted to see the maximum spontaneity, sincerity and touching on the screen. Misha Filipchuk was found in an ordinary school near Moscow. Chukhrai was worried about how he would cope with his task and how free he would feel on the set - after all, this was his first film work. The result exceeded all expectations. "", - said the director. Misha starred in three more films in 1997-1998, but did not associate his life with cinema - after school he entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Yaroslavl was chosen as the filming location - it was there, in the barracks, in the area of the Krasny Perekop factory, where the heroes of the film rent a room. Then, when they move according to the plot, the shooting actually continues in the same Yaroslavl, on Sovetskaya Street. The director managed to masterfully recreate the unsettled post-war life of communal apartments.

The film "The Thief" was highly appreciated both in Russia and abroad: in 1998he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, Phoenix for Best European Film, received a special jury prize at the Venice IFF and several awards at the Nika-1998 festival. "The Thief" enjoyed great success in the American box office - however, foreign producers asked the director to change the ending of the film, making it more optimistic. Pavel Chukhrai is one of the few Russian directors whose name is widely known to the Western public.

The most famous works of the director were the films "Thief" and "Driver for Vera", and recently, after a ten-year pause in his directorial career, Pavel Chukhrai released a new film that closes this trilogy about the Stalinist and post-Stalin era - "Cold Tango", which also had a great resonance both in the cinematic environment and in the audience.

"Thief" became one of the best Russian films that have been nominated for an Oscar over the years.