Behind the scenes of the comedy "Chasing Two Hares": Why the director had to faint, why Prony was screwed on nails and other secrets

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

Almost half a century ago, the comedy "Chasing Two Hares" was filmed, the humor of which is still relevant, and jokes have become catchphrases and have firmly entered our everyday everyday speech. Director Viktor Ivanov did not expect such a success at all. Initially, the picture was not planned to be shown in all cinemas, therefore it was filmed in the original language of the play - Ukrainian. After the resounding success of the first screenings, the film was translated into Russian and he continued his triumphant march. But in order for it to be filmed altogether, the director had not only to cheat, but to lie corny and even regularly faint.

The script of the film is based on the play of the same name by the Ukrainian playwright Mykhailo Staritskiy, which he wrote, in turn, based on the play by another prominent Ukrainian writer - Ivan Semyonovich Nechuy-Levytskiy. The script for the picture was written by the director himself - Viktor Ivanov. It is he who is the author of all those catch phrases that later went to the people.

The Arts Council did not allow to shoot this film, for something they did not like there. Ivanov went for a trick: he said that the plot would be built on ridicule of the image of the dudes. At that time, the Soviet Union fought against such lovers of the sweet life. Officials considered the film ideologically correct, and gave the go-ahead for filming. They were looking for an actress to play the main role for a very long time. Expressive Prona Prokopovna, so passionately thirsting for love, no one, according to the director, did not match. Purely by accident, Margarita Krinitsyna, on the eve of the audition, broke a tooth while gnawing nuts. In her crack-toothed smile, Ivanov discerned "the very thing" that he had been looking for so long and fruitlessly. In the actress, he was not mistaken, she brilliantly performed her role.

To turn a pretty woman into a cinematic Pronya, make-up artists had to work very hard. The entire arsenal of means was used, the actress even had her eyebrows discolored. To make the hair look as unnatural as possible, they were wound not on curlers, but on nails. In order to distort the pretty features of the face, plugs were inserted into Margarita's nose. The sight that Krinitsyna began to represent frightened her family. The actress's husband never watched this film, and her daughter said that her mother was "very scary."

The actress herself says that the role of Proni Prokopovna put a stigma on her. The directors simply refused to shoot her, arguing that she, they say, does not correspond to the ideal female image. Unfortunately, those 70 roles that she played are not remembered, but everyone remembers Pronya. Margarita Krinitsyna, who once woke up famous, did not notice this. On the streets, the actress was not recognized, and when Krinitsyna said that it was she who played Pronya, no one believed her. For the film, the actress received an award of as much as 400 rubles, which she spent on expensive toys for her daughter.

The role of Svirid Petrovich Golokhvostoy, who proudly called himself Golokhvasty, was played by the brilliant actor Oleg Borisov. By this time he was already quite famous, starred in a dozen paintings. Borisov has established himself as a serious, even dramatic actor, and in "Chasing Two Hares" he discovered another facet of his boundless talent - the comedic one.

In addition, Borisov was one of those who were not afraid to argue with the director. Ivanov was very expressive, allowed himself to yell at the members of the film crew. Sometimes the director's emotions went off scale so that he fainted. His choleric temperament tormented the actors so much that some even had to call an ambulance on the set. Behind the eyes, the members of the film crew, nicknamed Ivanov "psycho".

Borisov did not allow himself to be treated like that. In the scene where Golokhvostoy is thrown over the fence, Oleg noticed that there was a solid pavement and invited the director to show himself how to do it. After the demonstration, during which Ivanov landed unsuccessfully, the director no longer offered Borisov such risky scenes. An interesting story is one of the central scenes of the picture: during a declaration of love for Pron, the actors crawl on the floor, picking nuts. Krinitsina and Borisov had to get down on all fours because Oleg came to the shooting well podshofe and simply could not stand firmly on his feet.

There was another very risky scene in the film. It seemed that nothing boded trouble. The episode consisted in the fact that the actors were poured with champagne, but it was not possible to get an abundant spectacular foam. To create the desired effect, chemists were involved. The resulting explosive mixture coped with the task with a bang, but the performers of the main roles risked getting chemical burns, and they had to masterly dodge.

Ivanov himself invented most of the phrases that were analyzed for quotations; these expressions are not in the original source. It is thanks to these phrases that the film became so popular. Viktor Ivanov even played one of the notable roles in his film. It was he who voiced … the parrot! He did not want to yell these words with the intonation the director needed. When Ivanov got tired of teaching the parrot, he spat and spoke for him himself. In his voice, a bird screams the immortal phrase: “Khimka is a fool!” Only in 1999, an insanely popular picture among the people won a worthy award - it received the Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine. life, read our article a comedian with a tragic soul.