Sean Connery in the USSR: Why Soviet viewers twice ignored the visit of the famous James Bond

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

Foreign cinema stars, especially Hollywood ones, were infrequent guests in the USSR, and each such visit became a big event and was widely covered in the press. Sean Connery not only came to the USSR twice, but even participated in the filming of films here, but both times Soviet viewers showed no interest in the famous agent 007. Abroad he was called the best James Bond, he was the idol of millions, and in the USSR the famous actor was even did not recognize…

In the mid-1960s. at the international film festival, Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov received an offer from a foreign producer to make a joint film about the international Arctic expedition led by Umberto Nobile, about the catastrophe that befell it and the rescue of the participants by Soviet pilots and sailors of the icebreaker "Krasin" in 1928. It was assumed that roles in the film would play English, Italian and Soviet actors. At first, few believed in the success of this venture - in the USSR, projects with European and Hollywood stars were rarely filmed. But Kalatozov still did not abandon his decision and in 1969 began filming.

The incident was indeed unprecedented - "The Red Tent" was the first film jointly produced by the USSR and Italy, fully funded by Western producers. The budget at that time was huge - $ 10 million, which made it possible to invite movie stars of the first magnitude to the project. It was not difficult to secure the consent of Claudia Cardinale - her husband, Franco Cristaldi, was the producer of the film from the Italian side, but difficulties arose with the rest of the foreign stars.

Lawrence Olivier, Paul Scofield, John Wayne were invited to play the role of the famous Arctic explorer Amundsen, but all the actors refused to work with Soviet filmmakers in protest against the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968. The producers almost lost hope of finding one of the stars for this role of the first magnitude, but then Sean Connery unexpectedly gave his consent to participate in the filming.

By that time, the 39-year-old actor had already starred in 5 parts of the James Bond film and was pretty tired of the James Bond image. This hero brought him worldwide popularity, but made him hostage to one role, and the actor dreamed of serious dramatic roles. True, Amundsen was already 55 years old according to the script, and Sean Connery was too young for this role, but the filmmakers were not embarrassed by this - thanks to his extraordinary acting talent and skillful makeup, Sean Connery looked very convincing in this image. He pronounced all his remarks in English, and the actor Yuri Yakovlev dubbed him.

In addition to Connery, other foreign stars also participated in the project: English actor Peter Finch played Umberto Nobile, and German actor Hardy Kruger played Einar Lundborg. The stars of Soviet cinema - Nikita Mikhalkov, Donatas Banionis, Yuri Solomin, Boris Khmelnitsky - also starred in the film along with eminent colleagues. However, none of them could then compare in popularity with Sean Connery - the legendary James Bond had millions of fans all over the world. Everywhere except the USSR.

Films about James Bond were not released in the Soviet Union at that time, and the name of Sean Connery did not mean anything to the Soviet audience. Nobody even knew him by sight, and when the Soviet filmmakers met the actor at the airport, they had to urgently look for his photograph in order to recognize the crowd of arrivals. Boris Krishtul, the deputy director of the film "The Red Tent", recalled: "".

Sean Connery received a worthy welcome in the USSR and even satisfied his desire to watch Tarkovsky's film "Andrei Rublev", which at that time was "on the shelf". When the filming process came to an end, the actor decided to organize a feast for his Soviet fellow filmmakers. However, the dialogue did not take place - none of them knew English. Vladimir Vysotsky recalled: "". 5 years later, Vysotsky played this story in his "Song about James Bond, Agent 007".

After 20 years, the "Soviet theme" reappeared in the life of the actor. In 1990, Sean Connery starred as the captain of a Soviet submarine in the American film The Hunt for Red October. In addition, he participated in the writing of the script. "" - said the actor. In the same year, he again visited the USSR.

The shooting of the American film "Russian Department" took place in Leningrad, Zagorsk and Moscow. It was the second Hollywood film after the action movie "Red Heat", filmed on the territory of the USSR. Sean Connery played a British publisher in love with an employee of a Moscow publishing house and embroiled in a spy game between British and Soviet intelligence.

And again, Soviet viewers ignored the visit of the Hollywood star, although by that time several films with his participation had already been released in the USSR. He was unpleasantly surprised not only by the fact that he was not recognized again, but also by how leisurely the Soviet members of the film crew worked. "" - said the actor. And his partner on the set, actress Michelle Pfeiffer, made a real scandal when she noticed that Western filmmakers were served completely different dishes during lunch breaks than their modest Soviet colleagues were content with. The outraged actress demanded that they be allowed to eat the same.

And only years after the filming of Sean Connery in the USSR, our viewers finally appreciated his work, including the James Bond films. True, now the actor can only guess about it, because after that he did not come here anymore …

On August 25, Sean Connery celebrated his 90th birthday, and on October 31 he passed away: How the actor is radically different from his movie hero James Bond.