Video: Start without the main character and the UFO over the set: what remained behind the scenes of the film "The Wizards"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
One of the most popular New Year's movie tales is still a wonderful musical and comedy K. Bromberg's film "The Wizards" (1982). A fairy tale for children and adults might not have appeared on the screens, and during the filming there were many incredible incidents.
According to S. Farada's recollections, a real UFO hovered over them during filming in Suzdal. While the operator was turning the camera, the object disappeared. The second director Y. Konstantinova also speaks about this episode: “The fact that it was not an airplane or a helicopter, but some kind of unearthly flying object, can be confirmed by dozens of people. The girls screamed, Sasha Abdulov froze in surprise. It’s a pity that we didn’t have time to remove the plate”.
The script for the film was written by the Strugatsky brothers based on their story "Monday Starts on Saturday". Director Bromberg rejected this script, as he foresaw that it would not pass the censorship. The Strugatskys completely rewrote the script, and as a result, a completely new New Year story was created, in which only some of the characters and names of NIICHAVO employees were used. Bromberg miraculously managed to break through the script on television - then the Strugatskys, like Bulgakov, were read only in samizdat.
Boris Strugatsky spoke about the film in the following way: “The musical turned out to be not bad. At first, I must admit, I didn't like it at all, but after looking at it a couple of times, I got used to it and now I remember it without disgust. In addition, this musical is regularly and annually shown on TV on New Year's Eve. So I like it. This means that the people love him. Means - there is a reason."
Filming began without the main character - the television authorities did not approve Alexander Abdulov for a long time, in addition, he then starred in four films at the same time, so in some scenes he was replaced by an understudy.
Actors Alexandra Yakovleva and Valentin Gaft on the set disliked each other so much that they had to be filmed separately and brought together only during editing. Gaft was incredibly annoyed that the actress was confused in the text and forgot the words. The director said about her character: "She will play a witch, but Alyonushka is unlikely."
The role of the director of the NUINU Institute, brilliantly played by Ekaterina Vasilyeva, could go to Natalia Gundareva or Alisa Freindlich. Shemakhanskaya did not have a book prototype - it was invented by the filmmakers as a synthesis of images of medieval sorceresses and a modern boss like Kalugina from "Office Romance". And the surname was taken from "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" by A. Pushkin ("Shamakhan queen").
Semyon Farada says that initially his role was conceived as an episodic one - a guest from the south with 4 phrases. But in the process of filming, his improvisations turned out to be so successful that there were more episodes. The famous phrase, which has become a winged one, "Well, who builds like that?" suggested by the actor himself after one day he really got lost in the Ostankino television center, where the shooting took place.
In the final cut, the censorship cut out almost the entire role of the talking cat Vasily - so that the audience did not have associations with Bulgakov's cat Begemot. The cat was voiced by Georgy Vitsin, but his name was not indicated in the credits, because as a result his character had only two words left - "Ham!" and "Hurray!" Vitsin was very upset because of this. And 18 animals auditioned for the role of a talking cat! They chose the one who would snort more expressively than others.
The idea for a white suit for the hero of Alexander Abdulov was borrowed from the movie "Saturday Night Fever" (1977) with John Travolta in the title role. Vitorgan, Svetin and Abdulov performed their songs in the film themselves, but Larisa Dolina sang for the girl Nina - the sister of the protagonist Ivan! No one could even suspect that this was not a child's voice. But Irina Otieva and Olga Rozhdestvenskaya sang for Alena Yakovleva and Ekaterina Vasilyeva.
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