How Captain Grant was searched for in Crimea and Bulgaria: What remained behind the scenes of the film, and how the fate of the actors developed

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

February 8 marks the 190th anniversary of the birth of the famous French writer Jules Verne … His works have always enjoyed great success both at home and abroad, and almost all of them were filmed. The most popular in the USSR was the film directed by Stanislav Govorukhin based on the novel "The Children of Captain Grant" in 1985. The history of its creation and the fate of the actors today could be shot no less fascinating adventure movie.

The first film adaptation of Jules Verne's novel was a film made in 1936. Stanislav Govorukhin decided that in the 1980s. it's time to tell everyone the well-known story in modern cinema language. He explained his goals as follows: "". The picture of Govorukhin can hardly be called an adaptation of the novel by Jules Verne - rather, it was filmed based on his motives. Stanislav Govorukhin changed many episodes, added new ones. In addition, the film has a second storyline - about the life of the writer Jules Verne, whose biography the director also interpreted quite freely. In the old film there was a famous melody - Isaac Dunaevsky's overture, which was remembered by all spectators. And Govorukhin used in his picture variations on the theme of Dunaevsky and the overture from the first film.

The film “In Search of Captain Grant” was a joint Soviet-Bulgarian project, the budget was common, and Russian, Belarusian, Estonian and Bulgarian artists were involved in filming in both countries. The Duncan round-the-world trip actually took place in Crimea and Bulgaria. The coast of South America was filmed on the southern coast of Crimea, Ayrton was dropped off on the “deserted coast” in Chekhov's Bay in Gurzuf. Many marine scenes were filmed in the strait between the Adalar Rocks and the Chaliapin Rock. Ayu-Dag replaced the Canary Islands.

Most of the winter scenes were filmed in Crimea: the snow-covered pass in the Andes was played by the Crimean peak Ai-Petri. At an altitude of 1100 meters, the actors were belayed by professional climbers - when they were filming without understudies, they were held off-screen on safety ropes. Ai-Petri also filmed a dangerous episode with an avalanche, for which a large wooden shield was installed, which served as a fence. He held on to the ropes, and when they were cut, tens of cubic meters of snow fell down. Although there were lifeguards on set, the actors were exposed to a serious risk in this scene, which they may not have been aware of at the time.

In the mountains near the Bulgarian city of Belogradchik and in the Prohodna cave, scenes were filmed with the Indians who captured Paganel, as well as scenes with the cannibalistic savages of New Zealand. The village where the prisoners were kept in the film was built within two months. In the mountains and forests of Bulgaria, they filmed the Cordilleras, the swamps of Australia and the forests of the Amazon.

The role of Mary Grant became the only leading role in the filmography of the actress Galina Strutinskaya. Prior to that, she was filmed only in episodes, and she got to Govorukhin by accident - she was noticed in the corridors of the film studio. Gorky was an assistant director and invited to audition. During the filming, the 18-year-old actress got married, a year after the release of the film on the screens, she gave birth to a child and soon the family left for Germany, where they live to this day. Galina became a beautician, mistress of a beauty salon and never acted in films again.

The young captain of "Duncan", in love with Mary Grant, was played by the actor Oleg Shtefanko, who also became an emigrant: in 1992 he left for the USA and settled in New York. There he had to work as a taxi driver, and a waiter, and a seller of furniture and cars, and a model, and after moving to Los Angeles in 1994, he returned to acting. He managed to star in 14 Hollywood films in cameo roles. Since 2002, Oleg Shtefanko has often visited Russia, where he starred in films and TV series, and since then has lived in two countries.

14-year-old Ruslan Kurashov, who played Robert Grant, Mary's younger brother, in the future did not begin to link his fate with the acting profession. After school, he entered the Academy of Slavic Culture at the choreography department and became a ballet dancer of folk dance.

Actor Vladimir Gostyukhin, who played the role of Major McNabbs, played more than 100 film roles and became one of the most popular and sought-after artists in Soviet cinema. Tamara Akulova, who played Helen Glenarvan, in the 1980s. starred a lot and at the time of filming in the film "Children of Captain Grant" was already a real star of Soviet cinema. True, she was not given permission to shoot abroad - her sister married a German from Germany, and Akulova became restricted to travel abroad. Instead of her, a stunt double was filmed in Bulgaria. In the 1990s. during the crisis in the cinema, the actress practically disappeared from the screens. In the early 2000s. she returned to cinema, starred in films and TV shows, but leads a rather secluded lifestyle and rarely communicates with journalists.

Unfortunately, the actors Nikolai Eremenko (Lord Glenarvan), Vladimir Smirnov (Jules Verne), Lembit Ulfsak (Paganel) and Boris Khmelnitsky (Captain Grant) are no longer alive. The fate of the Bulgarian actor Vladimir Smirnov was dramatic: in the 1990s. he remained unclaimed, became addicted to alcohol and died of a stroke in 2000.

Despite the fact that the role of Lord Glenarvan became one of the most successful in the filmography of Nikolai Eremenko, the actor himself did not like this character: "".

Almost a year ago, the audience's favorite Paganel passed away: What roles did Lembit Ulfsak consider to be his "actor's happiness"?.