Mirror of the life of Vladimir Khotinenko: Four marriages and the main woman in the director's life

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

He could become a pilot, lawyer or architect, but a meeting with Nikita Mikhalkov, who advised him to pay attention to cinema, turned Vladimir Khotinenko's whole life upside down. “Mirror for the Hero”, “Roy”, “Heirs”, “Dostoevsky” - he always removes only that which touches him, clings to his soul, does not let him breathe calmly. Cinema has become his greatest passion. His marriages broke up one after another, the director always considered himself a bad father and grandfather, but fate once gave him the opportunity to change his life.

Choosing a path

He was born in Slavgorod in Altai, later the family of the future director moved to Pavlodar in Kazakhstan. Vladimir Khotinenko, like all boys, spent a lot of time on the street, at school he did not have good behavior, but he was a pathological excellent student. Each four made him very upset, and he was extremely proud of his academic success.

Vladimir Khotinenko during his school years did not even think about cinema. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, so he enthusiastically engaged in high jumps and prepared for admission. True, this dream was not destined to come true: he would not have passed the medical commission due to poor eyesight.

Then the young man entered the law institute in Sverdlovsk, but very soon he realized that the profession of an investigator did not appeal to him at all. He took the documents, got a job at a tractor plant in Pavlodar and decided to try to enter MGIMO in the future. But later, under the influence of one of his friends, he applied to the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute, which he graduated with honors.

Then there was military service and a fateful meeting with Nikita Mikhalkov. Vladimir Khotinenko was a convoy in the army and was given leave for good service. It was then that a friend arranged a creative meeting for young people with a director who gave lectures in Sverdlovsk. And during an informal conversation, Mikhalkov advised Khotinenko "to try to get involved in the cinema."

After the end of his service, the young man got a job at the Sverdlovsk film studio, and then Mikhalkov took him as an assistant for “A few days in the life of II. Oblomov . This is how the director's path to cinema began. Then there were the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors, VGIK and cinema, which became the director's greatest passion.

Cinema and family

Tatiana was a classmate of Vladimir Khotinenko at the architectural institute. A bright, attractive and self-confident girl immediately attracted the attention of Vladimir, who had to make a lot of efforts to win her. Then there was a crazy student romance and a modest wedding.

The young family had to live with Tatiana's parents, but they treated their daughter's choice with disdain and did not miss an opportunity to emphasize its worthlessness. The father-in-law and mother-in-law did not see any prospects for their daughter, but Tatyana did not give up for a long time either. The son Ilya was born, like two drops of water similar to his father not only in appearance, but also in manners, habits, character. When Ilya Khotinenko grew up, he also chose his father's profession.

But the marriage with Tatiana broke up after seven years. At that time, the director was already seriously carried away by cinema, stopped paying due attention to his family, and was very rarely at home.

Beauty and artist

The second time he fell in love was during the filming of On the Night of the Lunar Eclipse. Vladimir Khotinenko was then a simple assistant to the artist at the Sverdlovsk film studio, where the picture was filmed, and Dilorom Kambarova was already considered a star. By the time she met Khotinenko, the Uzbek actress had managed to star in Pirates of the Twentieth Century, The Seventh Bullet, The Legend of Siyavush, her photograph adorned the cover of Soviet Screen, and Vladimir Khotineneko was just beginning his career in art.

However, he beautifully looked after his lady of the heart, was so persistent and gallant that the beauty could not resist the pressure of his charm. Many acquaintances and colleagues dissuaded Dilorom from any relationship with Khotinenko. But the actress was stubborn, and besides, she managed to fall in love with him and, as happens in such cases, she was not going to pay attention to someone's assessments and speculations. Soon she was already a happy wife and mother of the charming Polina Khotinenko.

But in the second marriage, Vladimir Khotinenko made the same mistakes as in the first. He enthusiastically filmed films, disappeared all day at a film studio or set, almost never saw his wife and daughter.

At some point, Dilorom ran out of patience. She was tired of the constant absence of her husband, of his all-consuming passion for work. The family broke up, the wife and daughter left for their homeland Dilorom in Tashkent, and in the 1990s the actress and Polina emigrated to the United States. The director did not interfere, but he never lost contact with his daughter.

The tritium marriage of Vladimir Khotinenko with Violetta, a theater director, did not last long. It seemed that he had exhausted his chances of creating a normal happy family. But fate still gave him a meeting with the only one that seemed to be meant for him.

Intersection of worlds

At the Anapa Film Festival, Vladimir Khotinenko saw Tatyana Yakovleva on stage: she presented the film of her husband, Chilean director Sebastian Alarcon, and she herself was its co-author. From the very first glance, Vladimir Khotinenko felt the exclusivity of this woman. She was from a completely different world: she was born and raised in the family of a representative of "Sovexportfilm" and an employee of the British APN corps, lived for a long time in Great Britain, studied at a London college, and amazed the imagination with the manners and taste of a real English lady.

Both at that moment were not free, but the family life of each had already cracked, and Vladimir and Tatiana were incredibly drawn to each other. They began to secretly meet, and then went together for a few days to France, where Vladimir took part in a director and producer seminar. Then Vladimir Khotinenko realized that for the sake of this woman he was ready to change himself and his attitude to life.

After returning to Moscow, Vladimir Khotinenko offered Tatyana not a novel, but life with him. He already understood: there are things that are no less important than his cinema. And you can quite successfully combine family and work. Then his beloved woman agreed. Tatiana's son supported her mother, saying that the most important thing is her happiness. Soon, Vladimir Khotinenko and Tatyana Yakovleva got married in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign", where the director was once baptized.

22 years have passed since then, and they still cannot imagine life without each other. They are everywhere together: at work, at home, on vacation. All children are friends with each other. Ilya makes films, Denis worked for him as a cameraman on the film "Biker", and Polina designed costumes for the same picture together with her young man.

Vladimir Khotinenko is still passionate about cinema, and therefore he does not always have enough time to communicate with children and grandchildren. He considers himself a bad father and grandfather, but in some absolutely incredible way he managed to rally the whole family around him. All of them, except for Polina, who lives abroad, are engaged in one business, criticize, argue, rejoice for each other.

And the director is grateful to God for the opportunity to experience this incredible happiness: to be needed not only in the profession, but also in the family.

Vladimir Khotinenko had a chance to work with Elena Mayorova, who died tragically in August 1997. He spoke about the actress: “Working with her, I would compare with playing the violin, which in itself sounds divine. They said that she was a difficult person, but among the great talents there are no ordinary people."