Behind the scenes of the film "Relatives": How the shooting nearly cost the life of Nonna Mordyukova

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

10 years ago, on July 6, 2008, the famous actress, People's Artist of the USSR passed away Nonna Mordyukova … She played more than 60 movie roles, one of the brightest of them was Maria Konovalova in the film by Nikita Mikhalkov "Relatives" … The audience sobbed with laughter in an episode of her dance with Bogatyrev ("Dance, mother-in-law!"), Not suspecting that this dance almost became the last for the actress …

The script for the film "Relatives" was written by Viktor Merezhko. He wrote it especially for Nonna Mordyukova. The actress read it overnight and immediately agreed to shoot. At the same time, in her opinion, such a film could only be made by one director - Nikita Mikhalkov, and she called him herself. He liked the script, and the director agreed to start work. At that time, the actress did not even suspect how this decision would turn out for her.

Filming began in the summer of 1980. From the very first days, conflicts began between the director and the actress. The first of them arose due to the fact that they differently imagined the appearance of the main character. Mikhalkov wanted to see a simple country woman, and Mordyukova refused to appear on the set without makeup and hair. The actress complained to her sister that the director was making fun of her, turning her into "". In her hearts, she even left the shooting and returned only after she learned rumors that they wanted to give her role to Rimma Markova.

Viktor Merezhko said that the reaction of the temperamental actress was very violent: "". As it turned out, Mikhalkov deliberately went to this trick in order to return Mordyukov - and he made the right decision. As a result, she made concessions and even agreed to false teeth, perm and a ridiculous T-shirt with the logo of the 1980 Olympics. And Rimma Markova still starred in the film, however, as a hotel administrator.

Upon learning that Nonna Mordyukova was being filmed in the film, the locals gathered around the set and waited for lunch breaks to treat their favorite artist: they brought potatoes, pickles, bacon and even moonshine. Mordyukova sat on a bench and sorted all this food so that all members of the film crew could get it.

The most difficult thing for Nonna Mordyukova was the episode with the dance in the restaurant. The actress did not want to yield to her partner Yuri Bogatyrev in anything, and did not spare herself during rehearsals, although her state of health at that time did not allow her to dance so dashingly. All this almost ended in tragedy: after one of the rehearsals, the actress felt bad, she was taken away in an ambulance. At the hospital, it turned out that she had a heart attack. The actress did not admit that shortly before filming she was in the hospital for almost a month and a half with heart failure. Fortunately, at that time everything worked out. Three days later, Mordyukova began filming again.

Svetlana Kryuchkova, who played the role of the main character's daughter in the film, also had a hard time: "". True, she was then an aspiring actress and did not even think to argue with the director.

Few of the viewers recognized the girl Irishka, the granddaughter of the main character, the young actor Fyodor Stukov, who in the same year starred in the film The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and a year later in Treasure Island. Mikhalkov did not manage to find a suitable girl for this role - all the applicants did not look impudent enough, and Irishka had to play Fyodor, with whom the director had already worked in the film "A few days in the life of I. I. Oblomov."In the future, Stukov became a director of television programs and reality shows, and as an actor appeared on the screens only three times after a long break.

The filming took place not in a pavilion, but in a real apartment, at a real train station and in a real restaurant. The director found the city of Dnepropetrovsk a suitable place for filming. The brother of screenwriter Viktor Merezhko lived there, and he submitted this idea to Mikhalkov. The windows of the chosen apartment overlooked the stadium, where the heroine Mordyukova watched the match in one of the scenes. However, difficulties arose here as well. The fact is that during the Soviet era, the Southern Machine-Building Plant in Dnepropetrovsk carried out orders for the defense industry. Because of this, the city was considered a regime object. The administration gave permission to shoot with the condition: “Yuzhmash” should not be included in the frame. But he was right next to the stadium. Therefore, these shots had to be partially filmed in Kiev.

During the delivery of the film, problems arose again, due to which "Kinsfolk" lay on the shelf for a year and a half. The censors found the film dangerous and inconsistent with Soviet reality. In the leadership of the State Film Agency Mikhalkov was told that "". The picture was given the 4th category and closed. I had to cut out scenes with soldiers - at that time the Afghan war was going on, and these shots caused "unnecessary" associations with military actions. In addition, a huge number of edits had to be made. And only after the film was once watched and appreciated by Yuri Andropov, the category was immediately changed to the first one, and "Relatives" was released.

One of the most dramatic moments was the shooting of the final scene on the platform. Mordyukova did not manage to play her in such a way that the director was satisfied. He again went to the trick, but this time he paid for it himself: Why Nonna Mordyukova got into a fight with Nikita Mikhalkov.