Behind the Scenes of the Film "Garage": Happy Accidents and Non-Accidental Coincidences

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

Wonderful Eldar Ryazanov's film "Garage" released on screens 37 years ago, but still does not lose its popularity with viewers. He is called one of the best Soviet films and one of Ryazanov's most successful works. However, few know what gave the director the idea of the film, and what consequences the shooting had for some of the actors.

The plot of the film "Garage" was suggested to Eldar Ryazanov by life itself. It turns out that the director once really attended a meeting of the garage cooperative of Mosfilm employees and was so amazed by everything that was happening that he decided to make a film in the genre of a witty-satirical comedy. Later he recalled this event: "". But most of all he was ashamed of himself - after all, he did not stand up for the shareholders, who were unfairly deprived of their garages.

Eldar Ryazanov himself starred in the episodic role of the head of the insect department, the entire meeting of a hippopotamus who slept on a stuffed animal and, as a result, got an "unlucky ticket". Thus, the director seemed to punish himself for the weakness shown during this meeting of the garage cooperative. At the premiere in 1980, he admitted that with this film he was trying to make amends for his own cowardice and social passivity.

The shooting took place in the pavilion in which the scenery of the zoological museum was built - the action took place in the late 1970s. at the fictional Research Institute of Animal and Environmental Protection. This choice was not accidental. Stuffed animals surround people who behave like animals themselves. In addition, painted backdrops and stuffed animals helped to overcome the spatial isolation of the film.

The director chose the actors for the main roles on the principle of "full correspondence of the psychophysical data of the performer to the written role", that is, he strove to ensure that in real life the actors were similar to their on-screen characters. So, for example, in the role of a junior researcher, specialist in poisonous snakes, single mother Elena Malaeva, Ryazanov did not represent anyone except Liya Akhedzhakova - she could not endure injustice in her life and always stood up for the offended. Almost all the actors were approved without samples - the director knew in advance who was best suited for a particular role.

Ryazanov managed to assemble an amazing star cast in the "Garage". Certain difficulties arose with this - there were 30 characters, all of them are almost all the time in the frame, which means that it was necessary to choose a time for filming when all 30 actors would be free from work in the theater or other films. Therefore, the shooting took place in an extremely short time - all the scenes of "Garage" were filmed in a record 24 days! This became possible due to the fact that the actors were filmed simultaneously with three cameras, and all the stars of Soviet cinema demonstrated such professionalism that there were no extra takes.

There were many happy accidents during filming. One of them was participation in the film by Valentin Gaft - in this role Ryazanov saw Alexander Shirvindt, but he was not released from the theater to shoot, and Liya Akhedzhakova advised Ryazanov to pay attention to Gaft, who was filming in the neighboring Mosfilm pavilion. Today it is already impossible to imagine this film without his participation.

Olga Ostroumova also accidentally came to the shooting - she came to Ryazanov with a request to help arrange a child in a kindergarten, and as a result she got the role of Professor Marina's daughter. This was not the end of her luck - on the set she met Valentin Gaft, with whom they joined destinies 17 years later, although the actor himself admitted that he had fallen in love with Olga Ostroumova even then.

Today the plot of the film seems quite harmless, but in the late 1970s. it was considered anti-Soviet and even wanted to be banned from showing - after all, in this film, Soviet society does not look in the best light. In some union republics, it was banned from showing, the film was not allowed to rent in those cinemas that were on the route of government corteges. But then a plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU took place, where Brezhnev made a proposal to ruthlessly criticize social shortcomings, and the film "Garage" came in very handy here. He met the new requirement of the party, so the audience still got the opportunity to see him. In 1980 alone, more than 28 million people watched it.

Ryazanov did not even imagine that "Garage" would be relevant even after several decades: "".

Having met on the set of the movie "Garage", they became close when they no longer thought that personal happiness was possible: Valentin Gaft and Olga Ostroumova.