The path of the Soviet Sophia Loren: Why did the star of the film "It Was in Penkovo" emigrate to Australia

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

In the 1950s. The unknown young actress Maya Menglet, unexpectedly for herself, became a star of the all-Union scale. Nobody believed in the success of the film "It Was in Penkovo", in which she made her debut in the title role, but it became a cult film and brought the actors incredible popularity. When Maya Menglet appeared at foreign film festivals, she was called the Soviet Sophia Loren - their external resemblance was really noticeable. But in the early 2000s. she had to leave the country, although this decision was very difficult for her.

Maya Menglet was born in 1935 in Moscow. Her further path was predetermined from birth - after all, the girl's parents, Georgy Menglet and Valentina Koroleva, were actors. But Maya could become a fashion model - once on the street employees of the Model House on Kuznetsky Most approached her and offered to try herself as a fashion model. At the age of 17, it seemed to her a fairy tale - the girl was immediately offered a trip to England. But at that time she was already studying at the Moscow Art Theater School, and her father, hearing about her plans, slapped her in the face - for so easily abandoned the theater. This was the end of her modeling career.

She began acting in films as a child, and after graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School, she became an actress at the Stanislavsky Theater, to which she gave the next 43 years of her life. And all-Union glory came to her at the age of 22, when the film "It Was in Penkovo" was released, where she played her first serious role, and one of the main ones. None of the critics believed that Svetlana Druzhinina and Vyacheslav Tikhonov would be able to play villagers, and even more so that an inexperienced actress, still a student at that time, could look convincing in this love triangle, and they deliberately put on this film cross.

Maya Menglet was always surprised when she was called a beauty - she herself considered her appearance very ordinary. And she knew that her starring role in the film "It Was in Penkovo" came to her not at all due to external data. Many famous actresses, recognized beauties, including the director's wife Nina Menshikova, applied for the role of Tony, but she could not act because of pregnancy. And when the director Stanislav Rostotsky first saw Maya, he realized that he had found what he was looking for. She entered the pavilion when there was an audition for another actress, and sat in the corner on a suitcase, waiting for her turn. In this meek, timid, naive and spontaneous girl, the director saw his heroine.

The actress herself later said more than once that she did not see anything in common with Tonya: "".

This film became one of the leaders of the box office in 1958 - then it was watched by 30.5 million viewers. After the premiere, thousands of viewers fell in love with Maya Menglet, and at international film festivals she was often confused with Sophia Loren. It was really difficult to resist her charm. The actress's partner on the set, Svetlana Druzhinina, who played Larisa, said: "".

On the set of the film "Alenka" she charmed her partner Vasily Shukshin. They had a chance to play a rather frank intimate scene at that time, when the heroine lay undressed under a blanket, and the hero rubbed her back with snow to warm her. After these shootings, Shukshin came several times in the morning under the windows of the actress and shouted: ""

In the 1960-1970s. Maya Menglet continued to act in films, but no film with her participation earned such popularity as "It Was in Penkovo." In addition, the theater always remained in the first place for her, and if the choice was between participation in a play or in filming, she preferred the first.

The decision to leave the USSR was not easy for her. First, back in the 1970s. her eldest son Alexei went abroad, who fell in love with a student at Moscow State University from Germany, got married and moved to Hamburg. The actress said: "".

In the 1990s. Maya Menglet and her husband, actor Leonid Satanovsky, started having difficulties in the theater with the arrival of the new leadership, and in 2002 they were left without work. Once Leonid fell ill and was absent from the theater for 2 days. And during this time they found a replacement for him in the play. Upon learning of this, Maya was indignant and went to sort it out to the director, and he offered to quit both of them. Until the mid-1990s. the actress periodically continued to act in films, but there were fewer and fewer offers. The last film in which the audience saw her was the detective "At the Corner of the Patriarchs" in 1995.

At that time, the youngest son of the actress Dmitry also went abroad, who managed to make a scientific career - he became a doctor of sciences. Both sons settled in Australia, where Alexey was able to realize himself as an actor. And they invited their parents to move to them in Melbourne. Maya Menglet said: "". Maya Menglet remained a citizen of Russia and periodically came to her homeland, as long as her health allowed. In 2015, her husband, with whom they lived for 60 years, passed away, and this loss was a big blow for her. Today, the granddaughters are the main joy in the life of the 83-year-old actress.

Together with Vyacheslav Tikhonov, they looked so harmonious on the screens that popular rumor immediately attributed the novel to them. But in fact, the actor was married at that time: Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Nonna Mordyukova.