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Video: 3 Soviet actresses who played women of easy virtue in films: justified risk or damaged reputation?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Many actresses refused these roles - then such a role could cost a career. After that, the directors were afraid to offer them serious dramatic roles in order to avoid unnecessary associations, and the actresses themselves were persecuted by very dubious and even dangerous fans. And yet, among the Soviet actresses there were those who risked appearing on the screens in the form of a representative of the "first ancient". Which of them did this prevent in the future, and who was able to overcome stereotypes and go beyond one role?
Victoria Ostrovskaya
Her name was hardly familiar to most viewers, but when she appeared, everyone immediately remembered the phrase "Tsigel-tsigel, ah-lu-li!" from the film "The Diamond Arm", which became both her calling card and a stumbling block in her further film career. Only one episodic role brought Victoria Ostrovskaya recognition, but after a resounding success she was in for a collapse in the acting profession. She got this role by chance: at that time, the actress was forced to leave the theater due to financial problems, got a job as a dispatcher at a motor depot and left her dreams of acting in films, but then an assistant director accidentally saw her on the street and offered to come to audition for the film "The Diamond Arm".
Ostrovskaya still does not understand why the audience remembered this scene so much: "".
But the return to the acting profession did not become triumphant - she was identified with her heroine, and no one represented her in another role. The directors did not offer new roles. Or offered, but only in exchange for certain services … And then Victoria Ostrovskaya got a job at the Lenin Library, where she worked for the next 30 years. Due to a failed film career and problems in her personal life, for many years she could not cope with depression and even underwent treatment in the clinic of neuroses and psychotherapy. She managed to cope with difficulties and found her new vocation in teaching gymnastics for people suffering from back pain at the Kinesitherapy Center.
Larisa Udovichenko
But for Larisa Udovichenko, the role of Manka-Bonds in the film "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed" was a successful start to her film career. Moreover, initially she was offered a different role - the policeman Vary Sinichkina, but this image seemed to her too insipid, and she herself volunteered to play the beaten Manka. To which director Stanislav Govorukhin objected: "". Other actresses auditioned for this role, but as a result, Udovichenko was approved. Later, the actress asked the director why he changed his mind, and he replied: "".
In this role, she was so organic and convincing that it played a cruel joke on her - the actress had a whole army of fans among the prisoners who sent her bags of letters with the words: "" One of them even tried to fulfill this promise - he came home to Udovichenko, and she had to turn to the police for help.
However, this role did not affect the further film career of the actress - perhaps because there were no frivolous scenes in the film, but, most likely, thanks to the multifaceted talent of Larisa Udovichenko,which, after the first triumph in the cinema, was able to consolidate her success with dozens of new diverse roles. When asked about the secrets of her popularity and relevance, she replied: "".
Elena Yakovleva
The social drama "Intergirl" became one of the most scandalous films of the perestroika era - before that women of easy virtue could appear only in episodes, but here the story of a currency prostitute first appeared in the center of the plot. Of course, agreeing to such a role, the actress took a big risk - despite the free morals of the mid-1980s, society's attitude to such problems was ambiguous, and Yakovleva knew that she could incur the wrath of critics and viewers.
Popularity and recognition came to her precisely after this role, but this fame was ambiguous. On the one hand, the film was watched by 41 million viewers, Elena Yakovleva was recognized as the best actress of the year according to the magazine "Soviet Screen", she received 2 prestigious film awards - the Tokyo Film Festival and the Sozvezdiye Festival. On the other hand, a flurry of indignant reviews fell upon Yakovleva. The actress was accused of setting a bad example for young people.
The actress said: "".
After they wrote about the beginning of filming in the magazine "Soviet Screen", director Pyotr Todorovsky began to receive letters from real representatives of the "first oldest", some of them came to "Mosfilm" and asked to give them one of the roles. In real life, they looked much more modest than the heroines of the film on the screen. The dresser decided to add theatrical brightness to their images to heighten the effect - in fact, in such outfits in those days they would not have been allowed close to the hotel. In addition, the director thought that a woman of easy virtue should be more puffy and "curvy", and Elena Yakovleva was put foam rubber "in the right places" before filming. For a long time, the actress was associated only with this heroine, but she was able to break out of the image of an "intergirl", having played dozens of other roles after that.
For a long time, another Soviet actress also struggled with the stereotypical perception of her as a frivolous girl: Passion and strangeness in the fate of Svetlana Svetlichnaya.
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