The film "Slave of Love" is the first work of Nikita Mikhalkov, shown abroad and received international recognition. In the homeland of the director, the film was named the best work of young filmmakers of "Mosfilm" in 1976. The film received an award for the best direction in Tehran, a special prize of the jury of the international festival "Young cinema" in France.
The film "Slave of Love" is called a hymn to silent cinema. A lot of laudatory reviews have been written about him. The artistic composition deserves special attention.
Concept and implementation
All performers were selected perfectly. Everyone who worked with Mikhalkov admitted that they were interested in filming. Viewers even through the screen felt the unique atmosphere of the picture. The plot is based on the fate of the silent film star Vera Kholodnaya, the prototype of the main character.
The famous actress Olga Voznesenskaya leaves for the shooting in the Crimea to leave Moscow occupied by the Bolsheviks. The collapse of the habitual life for her was a real blow. The star is faced with a choice, whether to accept the new or run away from it. It is not known for Olga herself whether her love can save her.
Although modern viewers did not know the creativity of the actress who died early in her time, the brilliant performance of her role by Elena Solovey created a convincing image. According to fans, the film star should be just that: slightly cutesy, completely sincere, believable, not far-fetched. The audience immediately liked her.
It is difficult to single out any of the actors. All the participants deserved rave reviews. Mikhalkov came to work already begun, someone else's project. The idea was different before. The picture was conceived as a comedy with a detective intrigue. However, the result is a gorgeous retro drama. All the artists already famous have turned into real stars.
The original title of the film is Unexpected Joy. Rustam Khamdarov began to shoot it. The script was written by Friedrich Gorenschnein with Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky. The author of the music was Eduard Artemiev, the words to the songs and poems sounded in the film were written by Natalia Konchalovskaya.
The work is ideally sustained stylistically. It wasn't just the sets and costumes that helped to achieve this. In those days, the viewers are sent by the very appearance of the actors.
Nightingale, Grigoriev, Adabashyan, Steblov
The main character was performed by Elena Solovey. She perfectly got used to the images of modern women. However, in her interpretation, Olga Voznesenskaya seemed to be transported from a silent movie.
The performer was born into a military family in 1947 in Germany. Father was transferred to Moscow in 1959. The girl entered the Institute of Cinematography. Her career began at Lenfilm. The actress in 1967 performed a small role in the film "In the mountains, my heart." Nobody remembered the debut of the aspiring artist in the short film.
In the early seventies, the Nightingale became famous. She played in "Vanyushkin's Children", "Unexpected Joys". In 1991, the performer went abroad. She worked on Russian radio in the United States, taught acting, and did not quit her job in cinema. One of the last films with her participation was "The Lost City of Z".
Captain Fedorov was superbly played by Konstantin Grigoriev. The multi-talented man was one of the most sought-after performers of his time. He got a negative character in the picture. The head of counterintelligence is a real scoundrel. In his free time, he looks after the actress Voznesenskaya, bothering her with his attention.
Evgenia Steblova, the performer of the role of the actor Kanin, in the early sixties glorified her role in the legendary film "I walk around Moscow." The biography of the future performer began in 1945. He graduated from the Shchukin School, worked at Lenkom. The most striking roles were "Taimyr is calling you", "The princess and the pea", "For family reasons."
The silent film director was performed by Alexander Adabashyan. He was born in the capital in 1945. He worked with Mikhalkov as not only an actor, but also a screenwriter. All the images he played are distinguished by amazing brightness, they are remembered by the audience for a long time. Examples of his work were Timofeev from Five Evenings, Barrymore the butler in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Berlioz from The Master and Margarita.
Mikhalkov played a small role of Ivan in his work.
Yuri Bogatyrev and Radion Nahapetov
From the first works of Mikhalkov, Yuri Bogatyrev became his actor. In the film, his hero is the spoiled film actor "number one" Vladimir Maksakov.
According to the recollections of colleagues, the talent of Yuri Bogatyrev was distinguished by its versatility. The performer could play diverse images. The artist was born in Riga in 1947. After graduating from the Shchukin School, he joined the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater. He first appeared in cinema in 1970. The actor was recognized by the public with his work in Mikhalkov's film "One among strangers, a stranger among friends." Bogatyrev's whole life is connected with painting. The first exhibition of his canvases took place only after the artist passed away in 1989.
The popular Radion Nakhapetov perfectly reincarnated as the cameraman Viktor Pototsky, a revolutionary on a mission. He was not left indifferent by the charm of Olga Voznesenskaya. The artist was born in 1944. The boy was raised by his mother. The childhood of the future artist was not easy, but he early decided on his future activities. Nakhapetov approached its implementation with all perseverance. He entered VGIK. The aspiring actor made his debut in cinema in 1964. He played as a performer in Ilyich's Outpost, Valentina, and Loyalty to Mother. In the late eighties he left for the USA.
The film was produced by Oleg Basilashvili. The audience liked him because he played a real person, with his own problems, understandable to everyone.
For Alexander Kalyagin, playing badly is an impossible task. This artist is especially good in Mikhalkov's films. He reincarnated as a director making a "film".
History of the painting
As a basis for his film work, Mikhalkov took the real facts of the biography of the legendary actress Vera Kholodnaya, supplementing them with fiction. A silent film star was born in 1893. She graduated from a ballet school, dreamed of a stage. But her fate turned out to be inextricably linked with the cinema.
The career of the actress was brilliant, but short-lived. For seven years she has become a film star. Kholodnaya left her life in 1919. Never in her career was there a tape with the title "Slave of Love".
However, according to the plot, it was in this "film" that she was filmed in 1918. According to the director's intention, the work of 1918 remained unfinished. The action takes place in the south, which belongs to the White Guard troops. The capital is already occupied by the Bolsheviks. Filming is in progress.
Politicians are completely uninteresting for artists. The future in Paris is important for them, away from the cataclysms that are shaking the country. The only exception is the Potocki operator. This is a revolutionary underground worker. Voznesenskaya, the main actress of the group, is apolitical, like all her colleagues.
Olga is carried in her arms by the entire film crew. Pototsky interested in the star. The underground activity led by him seems to the actress sublime and romantic. In the finale of the picture, Victor dies. The actress becomes an unwitting witness to the death of Potocki, whom she managed to fall in love with.
Olga Nikolaevna gets on the tram, wanting to get to the hotel in the city center. The driver takes her for a revolutionary. She jumps out of the car on the move and shouts about it to the Cossacks. Those arrange a pursuit of a carriage going on the rails, shooting at it.
The picture was raised to a real tragedy. The scene of the death of the main character in the last shots is stunning. The tape passed triumphantly across the country's cinema screens. Many remarks diverged into quotes. Filming was completed in a record three weeks. All the artists who worked on the picture contributed to the transformation of the film into a masterpiece. Even the episodes were played with the highest level of professionalism.
