Non-film "walking in agony": Because of what Rufina Nifontova, the favorite actress of the genius Ranevskaya, left the theater

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

Everything in her was woven from contradictions, and she herself was an ambiguous figure. Memories of Rufina Nifontova, most remembered by the viewer for her role as Katya Bulavina in the film "Walking Through the Torment", are completely different. Someone would call her life a painful experience, referring to the numerous dramas that the actress had to endure. But her fate was illuminated by creativity, bright roles, care of loved ones. Why were there rumors so persistently about the actress's addiction to alcohol, or about some kind of impartial relationship in the family?

Golden girl

She was born in a Moscow maternity hospital on September 15, 1931, a few minutes later than her twin brother Slava, with whom she had a special connection all her life. Parents, Dmitry Ivanovich and Daria Semyonovna Pitada, gave the baby the name Rufina, which translated from Greek means "reddish", and from Latin - "golden". She really was red-haired, blue-eyed and incredibly beautiful.

She wrote about herself that she came from a workers 'and peasants' family. But her father was not a simple railroad worker, but the head of the station, her mother worked all her life at a weaving factory. The father and two older brothers of the actress died during the war.

Rufina dreamed of becoming an actress. She vividly imagined herself on the stage, and in the seventh grade, finally, she decided to enroll in the school drama club. It was on the school stage that she played her first role in her life: the maid Annushka in Ostrovsky's play. The teachers celebrated the talented girl and she, believing in her own uniqueness, boldly went to conquer theatrical universities. And how bitter was her disappointment when she was not admitted to the Schepkinsky school, and then she did not find herself on the list of freshmen at VGIK.

Talented and happy

She sobbed right in the foyer of the Institute of Cinematography, mourning, as it seemed to her, her failed life. Boris Bibikov simply could not pass by this fragile girl, so unhappy and lost, and so touching in her grief. He took her on his course, which would later be called legendary. The 1955 edition will become truly stellar: Rufina Nifontova, Tatyana Konyukhova, Nadezhda Rumyantseva, Izolda Izvitskaya and many other talented actors sat on the same student bench. Immediately after graduation, almost all the graduates of their course will star in the film by Grigory Roshal "Volnitsa", where Rufina Nifontova will play her first major role as Nastya.

Already in her second year, Rufina Pitade changed her surname, becoming Nifontova. Gleb Nifontov also studied at VGIK, but at the director's. He was 10 years older than Rufina and was very persistent in his courtship. The girl instantly took possession of his heart. When Gleb first confessed his love to her, she only laughed, answering that she did not love him. However, very little time passed, and the beautiful student still became his wife.

Rufina Nifontova was all woven from contradictions. She could be arrogantly majestic and at the same time provocatively funny. The emotional vulnerability of the actress did not prevent her from rushing into battle with injustice and lies. They talked about the complex nature of the actress, which allegedly prevented her from getting roles in the theater, but she was just sincere and straightforward.

Rufina Nifontova never talked about insane love for her husband, but she lived with him for almost 40 years. She was madly in love with her daughter, but in matters of education she was strict and uncompromising. She could not find a common language with her son-in-law. When the husband opposed the move of her daughter with her husband and son to their dacha in Istra for the summer, she threatened him with divorce. This was the whole of Rufina Dmitrievna.

Her roles were as different as herself. She brilliantly played Katya in Walking Through the Torments and Katerina in The Thunderstorm, Phaedra in the tragedy of the same name and Ilona in The Stone Nest. Vera Pashennaya, who was once an opponent of her admission to the Schepkin School, on the day of the premiere of Rufina Nifontova at the Maly Theater in the play "Stone Nest", will say that she is happy to hear Rufina's voice and play with her on stage. She will wish the young actress "never to lose the most beautiful thing in art - truth, passion and hard work."

Drama or life?

The life of Rufina Nifontova was filled with vivid roles and unforgettable meetings. She managed to make friends with the inimitable Faina Ranevskaya after working together in the film "The First Visitor". The brilliant actress openly confessed her sympathy for Rufina Dmitrievna and loved to walk with her around Leningrad, showing him as she knew herself, and in Moscow she gladly received Nifontova at her home.

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When Innokenty Smoktunovsky doubted his talent, fearing to play the role of Tsar Fyodor Ioanovich, Rufina Nifontova supported and helped him. She demanded roles in the theater for Yuri Solomin, and then rehearsed with him tirelessly at home, as Vera Pashennaya once worked with her on the role of Ilona from The Stone Nest.

Many such examples can be collected, and then in the image of Rufina Dmitrievna Nifontova the very subtleties will open up that will make it possible to see in her a vulnerable and sensitive person, caring and demanding at the same time. At any moment she was ready to respond to an unfriendly attack, defending herself with barbs, like a hedgehog with needles. And at the same time she was always in a hurry to help. Rufina Dmitrievna fussed about allocating apartments for young colleagues or dressers, arranged for hospitals and demanded the installation of telephones. I never asked for anything just for myself.

When in the theater they stopped offering her roles, and in the cinema they almost did not call, she left the theater, took up the dacha. She tried to endure the blows of fate steadfastly. Rufina Nifontova lost loved ones. The death of her niece, the death of her twin brother knocked her down. Rufina Dmitrievna's relationship with her husband was not always harmonious, but her death in a car accident in 1991 was very painful for her.

Increasingly, rumors were circulated about the actress's hobby for alcohol, and she had an alcohol intolerance. She almost got drunk at the smell of it. In recent years, she was often dizzy, Rufina Dmitrievna sometimes fainted. Once, returning home with a friend, she fell into a snowdrift, from where Svyatoslav Richter literally took her out. Someone then simply passed by, and after that there were rumors about her drunkenness.

On another occasion, she fell in her own apartment, breaking her head. In November 1994, she fell again, but never got up. She returned from the dacha and was about to take a bath. She opened hot water and fell to the floor unconscious. Hot water continued to run until the neighbors below poured from the ceiling. The cause of death of Rufina Dmitrievna Nifontova was coronary artery disease. They buried her, covering her hands and face with thick muslin …

Rufina Nifontova entered VGIK in 1950, on the course that would later be called fatal. After graduation, many became movie stars of the first magnitude. However, after a while, talented actors began to disappear from the screens and theatrical stage. The lives of the five most talented and brilliant graduates ended in tragedy.