Iron lady of the screen. In October we celebrate the anniversary of the famous actress Zhanna Bolotova

Actress Zhanna Bolotova has always been a master of volitional roles

It can be said with a slight exaggeration that the outstanding Soviet and Russian actress, People's Artist of the RSFSR Zhanna Bolotova played her best roles in the films of her husband - director Nikolai Gubenko. In this close creative and family tandem were really created bright and piercing paintings "If you want to be happy", "Trumps", "From the life of vacationers", "Life, and tears, and love", "Forbidden zone". But still, the original talent of the actress is not limited only to her work in her husband’s paintings. She starred in many famous directors, those who today we call the classics of Soviet cinema: Lev Kulijanov, Larisa Shepitko, Sergey Gerasimov, Mikhail Schweitzer and others. On October 19, fans of the actress will celebrate her 85th anniversary.

the future actress was born on October 19, 1941 in the Novosibirsk region. The family later moved to Moscow. Mother Zinaida Konstantinovna was a nurse, after the war was engaged in household work. Father Andrei Ivanovich comes from Altai from a peasant family. Until 1938 he worked as a secretary of the village council. He was then drafted into the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, as part of one of the Siberian divisions, he defended Moscow, and in 1943 the senior lieutenant participated in crossing the Dnieper, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he graduated from the Higher Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At military parades on Red Square always took little Jeanne with him. They sat in the front row of the podium opposite the Mausoleum, and when Stalin came out, Jeanne’s heart was filled with delight. According to the memoirs of the actress, on the morning of the day when Stalin died, she woke up from the fact that her father cried by her bed. The fateful announcement in the newspaper In the cinema Zhanna Bolotova made her debut as a 16-year-old schoolgirl in 1957 in the film The House in which I Live by Lev Kulidzhanov and Yakov Segel. The film novel, telling about the lives of two families, whose fates are closely intertwined and tested in the future for strength by the tests of the Great Patriotic War, was really loved by the audience. Although Bolotov got into this picture by accident. In the winter of 1956, she read an announcement in Evening Moscow about the recruitment of extras in the future film by Sergey Gerasimov “Silent Don” and decided to try her hand. In the corridors of Mosfilm, the operator Vyacheslav Shumsky noticed it. After filming in this film, it was Kulijanov and Segel who persuaded Zhanna to seriously think about the acting profession.

"The house I live in." Star course Bolotov entered VGIK in the workshop of Sergey Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova. The course was really stellar: many classmates had already starred in movies. Zhanna Prokhorenko managed to play in the Ballad of a Soldier by Grigory Chukhray, who collected more than 100 international prizes and conquered the whole world. Several paintings have already been on the account of Larisa Luzhina. Galya Polskikh in the second year made her film debut as a schoolgirl Tanya Sabaneeva in the film novel by Julia Karasik “Wild Dog Dingo”. A few years after the restoration, the beauty Lida Fedoseyeva appeared at the institute, by this time she had already starred in the films “Two Captains”, “Maxim Perepilitsa”, “To the Black Sea”, “Peerstnitsa” and others. Later, she will marry writer, actor and director Vasily Shukshin and become Fedoseyeva-Shukshina. Gerasimov actively filmed his students in his own paintings. Zhanna Bolotova shot three times: in the films “People and Beasts”, “Love a Man” and “Journalist”. In the dramatic film novel by Sergey Gerasimov “People and Beasts”, the actress played together with the future People’s Artist of the BSSR and the USSR Nikolai Eremenko, the elder. In the same picture was also occupied by another actively filmed classmate – Sergey Nikonenko.

"Men and beasts." Conquered Okudzhava VGIK Bolotova graduated in 1964. During his studies, his parents left for Czechoslovakia: Father Andrei Ivanovich received the post of second secretary of the embassy. Zhanna spent a lot of time in the family of Gerasimov and Makarova, where all together cheerfully sculpted dumplings and talked about art. She also had her first fans. The actress was seriously cared for by Bulat Okudzhava, despite the fact that at that time he was married to his first wife Galina. He dedicated several poems and songs to her: “Old jacket”, “On the Smolensk road”, “Burning flames, not chadits”, “Little woman”. But the beautiful Jeanne married a cousin of Marina Vladi, a recent graduate of VGIK, production designer Nikolai Dvigubsky, who was born in Paris in a family of first-wave immigrants. Later Dvigubsky worked in the cinema as an artist in the famous paintings “Noble Nest”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Siberiad”, “Mirror”, “Vassa”, was the husband of actresses Irina Kupchenko, Natalia Arinbasarova and French Genevieve. In 2008, Dvigubsky shot himself, which came as a shock to his loved ones. In his marriage Bolotova lived less than a year. Girl and hooligan Showed signs of attention and classmate at VGIK Kolya Gubenko. When in his second year he was approved for one of the main roles in the film “Ilyich Outpost” by Marlen Khutsiev, the whole hostel collected money for a coat so that he could appear at Mosfilm decently dressed. They were very different: exquisite Zhanna with a residence permit on the Frunzenskaya embankment and Odessa orphanage Gubenko - a typical pupil of that time. Gradually they became closer and married. The spiritual kinship of two human souls was the strongest bond. In the film Gubenko “If you want to be happy” in 1974 they played a couple. Later, he shot her in his paintings “Trumps”, “From the life of vacationers”, “And life, and tears, and love”.

Zhanna Andreevna was always the first to read the scripts sent to her husband. She was his harshest critic, supporting her husband as Minister of Culture of the USSR. In 1995, Gubenko was elected from the CPRF to the State Duma, four years later he headed the Committee on Culture, since 2005 he sat in the Moscow City Duma, taking the post of deputy chairman. His beloved Jeanne was always with him. Together they lived almost 60 years and shoulder to shoulder met all the troubles, the main of which was the split of the Theatre on Taganka, in which Gubenko worked for many years, and the tragic collapse of the Soviet Union. The last joint work of Gubenko and Bolotova was a wonderful, but now forgotten and tragic film “Forbidden Zone” about the responsibility of the intelligentsia to its people.

WORKING WITH BALABANOV

The actress has always been demanding of script material and refused many film offers. She starred in really worthwhile projects: “Wings”, “The Fate of a Resident”, “Days of Surgeon Mishkin”, “Dangerous Age”, “Silence of Dr. Ivens”, “The Escape of Mr. McKinley” (for her role in this film, together with her colleagues, she was awarded the USSR State Prize). The only modern director with whom Bolotova worked in the 2000s was Alexei Balabanov: a small episode in the prologue of the picture decorated the crime comedy “Zhmurki”. The actress does not hide that she considers herself one of the many fans of the painting Balabanov “Brother”.

pepel@sb.by