Video: Behind the scenes of the film "It Was in Penkovo": How Tikhonov became a tractor driver, and a livestock technician Tonya - a resident of Australia
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
10 years ago, on December 4, 2009, the famous actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov passed away. People called him "Stirlitz", and he himself considered the role of Matvey in Stanislav Rostotsky's film "It Was in Penkovo" to be the main work in his film career. No one imagined a sophisticated intellectual in the image of a village tractor driver-hooligan, who was also imprisoned, and few believed in the success of the film. But the result amazed everyone. The melodrama became a recognized classic of Soviet cinema, the song "There are so many golden lights" went to the people, but the actress who played the main role soon disappeared not only from the screens, but also from the country …
The script was written on the basis of the novel by Sergei Antonov, published in 1956. This film was Stanislav Rostotsky's second full-length directorial work after the film "Earth and People". Sergei Gurzo was initially approved for the role of Matvey Morozov, but when the shooting had already begun, the director decided to replace the main character. This is how Vyacheslav Tikhonov appeared in the film. To the management of the film studio. Gorky, this choice of Rostotsky seemed strange - no one imagined an actor with an aristocratic appearance in the role of a villager, before that he got exclusively images of noble, sophisticated, intelligent heroes. And then he had to play a tractor driver, a rowdy, and even a prisoner!
Nevertheless, Tikhonov not only met the director's hopes, but also surpassed them! This film began a long-term cooperation between the director and the actor, which eventually grew into a strong friendship. Tikhonov admitted: "". After Penkov, Tikhonov starred in four more films by Rostotsky, repeatedly demonstrating the full breadth of his acting range.
Many were surprised by the choice of the actress for the main female role - zootechnician Tony, who came to the village of Penkovo after graduating from the institute in Leningrad. Many famous actresses, recognized beauties, applied for this role. But when Rostotsky first saw Maya Menglet in the pavilion, modestly sitting on a suitcase in the corner while another actress was being tested, he was subdued. It was such a heroine that he was looking for - timid, touching and meek. For Maya Menglet, this role was the first, and members of the artistic council doubted that the 22-year-old debutante would cope with the main role. But after the premiere of the film "It Was in Penkovo" Maya, unexpectedly for herself, became a star of the all-Union scale. And when she first appeared at a foreign film festival, she was called the Soviet Sophia Loren - they really were somewhat similar.
Later, Maya Menglet admitted that in fact she was absolutely not like her heroine: "". Thousands of viewers fell in love with the debutante. They say that even the director could not resist her. Svetlana Druzhinina, who played the role of Matvey Larisa's wife, said: "".
Everyone expected that the film "It Was in Penkovo" would become a springboard for Maya Menglet's successful film career, but this did not happen. In the 1960-1970s. she continued to act in films, but she no longer got such bright roles as Tonya. In addition, the theater always remained in the first place for her, and if she had a choice: shooting a movie or rehearsing in a new performance, she always chose the latter. Until the mid-1990s. Maya continued to act from time to time, but she was invited less and less. At the same time, difficulties began in the theater with the arrival of a new leadership, and in 2002 he and her husband, actor Leonid Satanovsky, had to resign from there.
Back in the 1970s. Maya's eldest son went abroad - he married a student at Moscow State University, who was from Germany, and went with her to Hamburg. Later, the younger son also decided to emigrate. Both of them settled in Australia and invited their parents to move in with them. So "livestock specialist Tonya" became a resident of Melbourne. Later she said: "".
Nonna Mordyukova (who in real life was also Tikhonov's wife) and Lyudmila Khityaeva claimed the role of the protagonist's wife, but the director even here gave preference not to famous actresses, but to 22-year-old student Svetlana Druzhinina. At the auditions, she had to play a passionate kiss scene with each of the applicants for the role of Matvey. In the end, the actress rebelled: "". When the tests finally ended, Rostotsky asked Svetlana Druzhinina and Maya Menglet which of the candidates they would choose themselves. Both, without saying a word, pointed to Tikhonov: ""
When the film was already ready, the censorship did not want to release it on the screens - the film disgraced the collective farmers: the main character is not only a leader, but also a bully and an unfaithful husband, his wife almost becomes a poisoner, and the zootechnician Tonya sent to revive the village, instead of seduces a married tractor driver to get busy! And all three are too sophisticated and well-groomed for the village (although the director forbade the actresses to paint)! But despite all the objections of the artistic council, the film was shown to the party bosses, and, surprisingly, they approved it!
The song "There are so many golden lights" became the hallmark of the film. The poet Nikolai Dorizo was the author of the poems, but for a long time he could not find a composer - everyone refused to write music for a text that seemed immoral to them! When the shooting was over, the composer Kirill Molchanov still wrote a song about how "I love a married man." She turned out to be so good that the director even decided to complete the whole scene for this song to be included in the film. Time has shown that he was not mistaken!
After the release of the film on the screens, the audience filled up the director with letters with requests to change the ending - everyone really wanted the main character to stay with Tonya, and not return to his wife. As a result, Rostotsky decided to leave everything unchanged: ""
After this film, the actor played many more roles and did not like very much when he was called "Stirlitz": Who Vyacheslav Tikhonov really felt like.
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