Why in the actor Pyotr Glebov, few people recognized his hero Grishka Melekhov

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

An actor's greatest happiness is meeting a role that serves as his calling card for the rest of his life. This is incredibly lucky Peter Glebov, a talented actor who played Grishka Melekhov in "Quiet Don". This is not just an image - it is an echo of that distant era, which became a turning point not only in the life of Russia, but also in the destinies of millions. The main character of the novel is life itself, which has quarreled people, scattered the brothers on different sides of the barricades, brought death and grief to their families and clouded their heads.

And so it all began …

When Glebov was among the candidates for the role of Melikhov, he was already over 40. Before that, the actor had to play secondary roles in the theater, and he was not invited to the cinema. And it is possible that Glebov had to remain an unknown actor, if not for his Majesty - "case". Once, in a conversation with his colleague Alexander Shvorin, Pyotr Petrovich learned that he was going to audition at the "Quiet Don". So Glebov went.

A lot of people gathered to audition for the crowd, they all dressed up in military uniforms and began to play up the episode in which the Cossacks "gutar" among themselves. Suddenly Gerasimov stopped filming and asked which of those present had said the last phrase. It turned out to be Pyotr Glebov, whose voice somehow hooked the director.. And Gerasimov put Glebov in his car, and they rode around Moscow until morning, talked and sang songs. Of course, the actor told a lot about himself that so interested Sergei Apollinarievich. About barefoot childhood in the village, about love for horses and nature, and that the actor is familiar with peasant labor firsthand. And the whole complicated family history, with twists and turns, is worse than that of Melekhov! It was then that Sergei Gerasimov decided that this was the main character of his picture.

For the role of Melekhov

Sergei Apollinarievich was not at all embarrassed by the fact that the actor is much older than Grishka from Sholokhov's novel. Probably because Glebov always looked rather young: "slender, lean, cheerful, with thick hair, good strong teeth and a bright shine in his eyes." The operator of the picture, Volodya Rapoport, was the first to be indignant: And there was nothing to say about how upset Elina Bystritskaya was: she managed to get used to the idea that her partner, with whom she had to play many intimate scenes, would be 24-year-old handsome Sashka Shvorin, and suddenly - … By that time, she herself was a fairly well-known actress.

Thus, the choice of the director was in jeopardy. Glebov was not approved for the role for a very long time, and then Gerasimov, having summoned the entire management of the studio, said After this categorical statement, the director of the film, seeing the actor in the studio corridor, said to Glebov:

We started to make photo tests. The make-up artist somehow, too, was imbued with sympathy for the actor and created for him a face that aptly fell into the image of the main character - both a resinous curly forelock and a nose with a hump. And when Glebov was dressed in an overcoat and a cap, then the people in the corridors gasped: "This is Melekhov!"

However, as it turned out, this was not all: the author of the novel had the last word. Seeing Glebov on the screen in test shots, Mikhail Alexandrovich exclaimed to the whole audience, unable to contain his emotions:

The spitting image of the Don Cossack

Pyotr Glebov joined the Cossack environment almost immediately. He and the locals went hunting, and fishing, and haymaking, and at night, and in the evenings sang heartfelt songs. And soon he was so dissolved in the Cossack life that he could no longer be distinguished from the real Don Cossacks. The villagers said about him: our Cossack, whatever it is, is real.

How the actor's one-year-old daughter ate Grishkin's nose

Well, and, of course, there were some funny curiosities on the set of the film. In Sholokhov's novel about Grishkina's appearance, it is written that he had a "drooping, kite-like nose." So Glebov had to make an invoice. True, not from gummose, a soft and very pliable material that melts in heat, but from a special composition that the make-up artist invented. With this important detail of the make-up, everyone "was worn like a hand-written sack." Each time it was applied to the actor in the most careful way, and in the evenings he took it off with a string, rolled it into a ball and hid it in a matchbox, which he put on the windowsill. And once the one-year-old daughter of the actor, who began to walk confidently, got to the coveted box and ate Grishka Melikhov's precious nose. One consolation, the composition was harmless and the child was not injured. But the shooting had to be postponed for a couple of days, until the make-up artist again measured out and made a new Grishkin nose.

By the way, that year the summer turned out to be very hot, so the entire film crew and cast, whenever possible, sought to the river to freshen up. Glebov alone was unlucky, he looked with envy at his colleagues splashing in the water, he himself had to take care of his nose until the evening.

Because of this unfortunate nose, Glebov could not even fully feel the popularity that unexpectedly fell on him after the release of the picture. Not everyone recognized him without a "kite" nose! Once in a taxi, the driver asked him: And Glebov, delighted, thought: "Well, finally!" And the taxi driver continues: Indeed, there was such a film almanac "Birthmarks", where in one of the short stories the character of Glebov, drunk, knocks down a pedestrian. - explained the taxi driver. Well, what can I say - also, no matter what, but popularity.

Horseless rider

Another curious fact from the history of the creation of the film. Once in an episode, when filming a galloping cavalry with Grigory Melikhov in the foreground, the film crew had to do without a real horse. A structure on wheels was attached to the car, which served as the back of the horse under the rider. The operator Vladimir Rapoport was in the car, and his assistant with a lightweight camera was tied with a rope to the fender of the front wheel. Moving at a speed of 60 km per hour, the operators filmed footage in which the viewer saw Melekhov's face in battle against the backdrop of the cavalry.

Premiere of a film masterpiece

This terrific motion picture has had several premieres. The first viewer, of course, was the author of the novel Mikhail Sholokhov himself, who arrived at the Gorky film studio, sat on the second row of the viewing cinema and immediately lit a cigarette. The film group is located behind him. When the show was over, the whole group froze and stared at his back and at the mountain of cigarette butts in the ashtray…. And when Mikhail Alexandrovich finally turned to face the filmmakers, everyone saw the writer's eyes full of tears …

But the most important assessment of the film was given by the Don Cossacks themselves. It was a very crucial moment in the history of the making of this film. And then the day came when all three series were ready and delivered to the village. The rumor about this instantly spread around the Cossack villages. The Cossacks rode on horseback, sailed in boats to watch a film. It was played nonstop for three days in a row in a small club. The film shocked even experienced Cossacks and gained immense popularity for decades throughout the entire Soviet Union.

Some time after the premiere, Elina Bystritskaya was handed a letter signed by thirty of the oldest Don Cossacks with a request to change Bystritskaya's surname to Donskaya. The actress was awarded the rank of colonel of the Cossack troops, and her partner, Pyotr Glebov, was awarded the rank of honorary major general with the right to wear uniforms and weapons by the command of the Donskoy Army.

This role, created by Pyotr Glebov, is still considered the most unsurpassed in the film adaptation of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel Quiet Flows the Don. Often they talk about actors, including about Glebov: "an actor of one role." In this, of course, there is some truth, but only a small one, because the actor has more than five dozen films on his account, where he played quite significant roles.

After "Quiet Don" director A. Ivanov invited Glebov to shoot the picture "Virgin Land Upturned" for the role of Esaul Polovtsev. Then there were "Baltic Sky", "Mozart and Salieri", "Iolanta", "Heart of Bonivour", "Not Justified", but in the theater he still remained without leading roles.

In all the films, the student of K. Stanislavsky Pyotr Glebov was inimitable and magnificent in acting and in psycho-emotional unity with the images of his heroes. However, the image of Grigory Melekhov, played by Glebov, is certainly so powerful and memorable that it overshadows all his other roles. And there's nothing you can do about it …

Continuing the theme of the great actor of the Soviet era, Pyotr Glebov, read in the previous review: 52 years of quiet happiness of actor Pyotr Glebov, whom the whole Soviet Union adored in the role of Grishka Melekhov.