10 behind-the-scenes facts about the filming of the most iconic Soviet film "D'Artanyan and the Three Musketeers"

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

On December 25, 1979, the premiere of the film "D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers" took place on TV. The success was overwhelming. The whole country followed the adventures of the heroes of the film directed by Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich. But it turns out that there were even more adventures behind the scenes than on the screen!

1. Masters in the film

When Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich decided to shoot the film, he already knew for sure that Oleg Tabakov would play in his film of Louis the Thirteenth, Alice Freundlich would play Anna of Austria, and Valentin Smirnitsky would play Porthos.

According to the director, apart from these performers, he did not imagine anyone and did not try anyone else for these roles.

2. How Boyarsky became D'Artanyan

Initially, Mikhail Boyarsky was supposed to play the role of Count Rochefort. But one day he was late for a rehearsal. When he, out of breath in the hustle and bustle, burst into the set, the director was presented with such a spectacular picture that he immediately unconditionally determined the candidacy for the main role in the film.

In view of the fact that Alexander Abdulov had already been approved for the role of D'Artagnan, at first Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich offered Boyarsky a choice - to play Athos or Aramis, and only then, thanks to the petition of the composer Maxim Dunaevsky, entrusted the role of the brave Gascon, since Abdulov could not cope An interesting detail - in Menga, a woman throwing dough at the guards is played by the mother of Mikhail Boyarsky, Elena Melentieva.

3. Failed Athos became Holmes

Vasily Livanov, among others, claimed the role of Athos. He twice appeared in Odessa at the auditions - according to the director, excellent, but unsuccessful. At some point, Livanov finally reincarnated as Holmes and disappeared. After much persuasion, Veniamin Smekhov agreed to the role of Athos.

4. Lady Winter found herself in a position

Elena Solovey was approved for the role of Lady Winter, but she suddenly found herself in an interesting position. The director turned to the new applicant - Margarita Terekhova. “We put a chiffon blouse on her. No bra. For the first time in the history of Soviet cinema, a woman's breasts were visible in the frame not for one bashful moment, but almost all the time."

5. The cognac story of the film's saddest song

Even "porn" needs not only to be filmed, but also dubbed and edited. On the recording of "Songs of Athos" ("There is a black pond in the count's park") Veniamin Smekhov could not draw out a few simple notes. Maxim Dunaevsky offered Athos a glass of cognac before each take, which made each next take more and more fake. The recording was postponed, and as a result, a rough version of the work of an unnamed singer remained in the film. Smekhov was terribly offended: "When the film came out, I regularly dialed Dunaevsky's phone number and sang to him in a terrible voice:" There is a black pru-ud in the count's park! " The soundtrack includes only one solo part of Smekhov - "Your destiny is on a hair …"

6. Unreliable actors

The first Lviv hotel "Kolkhoznaya", where the Musketeers were accommodated, could compete in comfort only with taverns from the time of Louis XIII: there was no water in the rooms. In protest, the musketeers moved into Khilkevich's room in another hotel and staged a drunken brawl there. The director fussed. The actors were moved to the regional committee hotel. Here the story took on a political coloring: in the evenings, the actors had fun, portraying the leaders of Marxism-Leninism, and Boyarsky mimicked Brezhnev. The rooms, of course, were equipped with "bugs", and soon Khilkevich was convinced of the parody talents of his actors at the local branch of the KGB, where he was shown the recording.

Khilkevich said that the artists are "monkeys", this will not happen again. Oddly enough, the Chekists were satisfied with this explanation. “We were reckless at that moment, to be honest. And even that didn't scare us too much,”Smirnitsky recalls. Everything worked out, only Lev Durov for the shown sketch "Lenin with Krupskaya" missed the title of People's Artist: the award was postponed for three years.

7. How Boyarsky mustache lost

Shooting began on April 3rd. Boyarsky got used to the image even before the end of the make-up - he pinched the make-up artist's ass, who was twisting his mustache, and lost his right mustache: the fearful make-up artist simply burned him with tongs. The actor adheres to a different version: “I grabbed her by the butt even before the make-up! Yes, and not grabbed, but politely stroked. I had to glue an artificial mustache, with which the actor sported half the film.

8. How Boyarsky was in the balance of death

During filming, another terrible story happened. The "Marlezon ballet" was filmed at the Odessa Opera House. The moment when Boyarsky breaks through with pendants. Rochefort - Borya Klyuev was conceived as a person who never reaches a sword, so he did not work with stuntmen and was not aware of the tricks of fencing with a sharp-pointed epee. During the filming, Boyarsky fenced with passion and temperament. And then Klyuev could not stand it, drew his sword and stabbed Boyarsky. Boyarsky said nothing to anyone and continued to work. The director demands: - Another take! Boyarsky is not. Khilkevich asks: - Misha, are you ready? He comes out, answers: - Yes.

They shoot another take, but Boyarsky is gone again. In those days, due to the constant marriage of Soviet film, it was necessary to shoot three or four takes. Khilkevich follows him, suspecting that he is again "kvass" somewhere. He enters the toilet and sees: Boyarsky's mouth is gushing blood, and he spits it out. Then, when the X-ray was done in the hospital, it turned out that the sword had hit his palate. The wound was very deep - only a centimeter to the brain was not enough.

9. All the iconic places of the film were filmed in one castle

Filming took place in Ukraine in Lvov, Odessa, Svirzh Castle and Khotyn Fortress. Then, within three months, the installation of three series went on. The photo shows the Svirzh castle, which in the film was at the same time the "family castle of the d'Artanyans", "The Carmelite Monastery in Bethune", "the executioner's house", "Saint-Gervais baston".

10. Stolen fish

There is an interesting episode in Khilkevich's book Behind the Scenes: “I must tell you that once the Musketeers drank everything they could, including the daily subsistence allowance, sat hungry, and then went to the store and stole a box of smoked fish there. They ate just that for a week. Boyarsky, Smirnitsky, Starygin and Volodya Balon. Sometimes Venya Smekhov joined them. There were fewer laughs …"

All the participants confess to the theft, but they blame it on the then member of the crowd, and now the famous actor Georgy Martirosyan. “He distracted the saleswoman, and we stole this box. And we changed this fish later. But they did not steal it, but borrowed it. Then they apologized and gave the money,”Boyarsky comments.

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