“Bright, non-standard, and the temperament is overflowing”: the series “Ranevskaya” is released on the network

On Wednesday, February 8, the film "Ranevskaya" about one of the most extraordinary and striking actresses of the Soviet theater and cinema, Faina Ranevskaya, starts in the KION online cinema.

The director was the theater and film director Dmitry Petrun, and the script was written by Larisa Zholobova, Alina Semeryakova and Yuri Moroz.

The action takes place in imperial Taganrog, where the family of the wealthy owner of the steamer Girsh Feldman lives.

The youngest daughter of a merchant, Fanny Feldman, dreams of the life of a theatrical actress.

Being confident in her destiny, the girl, without hesitation, decides to leave for the capital to fulfill her dream.

However, the parents, who indulged their daughter's hobby, oppose her departure.

Yes, and Moscow soon meets the girl not with open arms.

A clumsy stutterer, she drops everything that gets in her way: be it interior items or stage decorations.

Love lyrics with her participation turns into a theater of the absurd, and comedy into tragedy - all because she herself is a “tragicomic personality,” as actor Yevgeny Steblov spoke about the real prototype of the heroine on the day of the premiere of the picture.

It was these features that allowed people with a trained eye to see in her a great actress and a person with a wide soul.

Fanny is knocking on the doors of not only metropolitan, but also provincial theaters, while the country, engulfed in revolution, is embarking on a new path of development.

Imperialism gives way to communism, the Bolsheviks come to power.

“The high purpose of art is to change people,” says one of the heroes of the tape.

But during the formation of the USSR and the new vector of progress, there is no one to change.

Great artists leave the theater, where it is impossible to carry the high and proud title of an actor, and art lovers no longer go to performances, because they either left the country or are fighting for a piece of bread.

• © Shot from the series "Ranevskaya" (2021)

Other times have come and the theater faces new tasks - to bestow art on villages and villages.

And the heroine, following her dream, goes to carry through the theater a new, proletarian word to the masses.

With the help of various cinematic techniques, the authors of the picture managed to reflect the transitional stages that the country was going through: first, life in the empire, then the beginning of the civil war, the Bolsheviks came to power, and finally the era of Stalinism and the period of the “thaw”.

Even in the first episode, the director skillfully conveys the premonitions of the coming struggle between the reds and whites, as well as the growing anxiety that is in the air.

This can be read in the symbolism of the shots masterfully filmed by cameramen Kirill Begishev and Robert Filatov.

Especially memorable is the spectacular scene with the killed soldier of the imperial army, symbolically dressed in a white uniform.

The blood oozing from the character's wound fills the space around him, and his white clothes turn red.

The film covers a significant part of Ranevskaya's life - from her youth, when the heroine only dreams of becoming an actress, to adulthood and professional recognition.

Thanks to her unsurpassed talent and open character, Fanny easily manages to win over not only the audience, but also her colleagues, whose friendship lasts until their death.

It is the friends who help the artist decide on a pseudonym under which she will become famous throughout the country: from the timid rebel Feldman, she will turn into a confident, sharp-tongued woman and the favorite actress of millions - Ranevskaya.

Some well-known facts of the actress's biography were reflected in Petrun's film, but the authors diluted them with fiction, which is not confirmed in the documentary chronicle.

When watching the series, on the one hand, I would like to immerse myself in a real story, so a significant amount of fiction is sometimes frustrating.

However, in general, the part invented by the scriptwriters is quite justified and allows the viewer to feel even more the tragedy of the fate and personality of the heroine.

• © Shot from the series "Ranevskaya" (2021)

However, the charm of the picture, first of all, is not in the biographical correspondence or artistic interpretation of the authors.

The way the characters of famous Soviet directors, actors and animators are conveyed causes exceptional gratitude for the opportunity to “see” the luminaries of the Soviet theater and cinema, on whose works more than one generation of Soviet and post-Soviet children grew up, in one film work.

In the film, as in life, fate will give the heroine meetings with eminent directors Mikhail Romm, Sergei Eisenstein, Yuri Zavadsky and Alexander Tairov, who will say about her in the series - "bright, non-standard, and the temperament is whipping over the edge."

The image of an outstanding artist on the screen was embodied by Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk, the roles of the faithful companions of the heroine's life were played by Alexander Domogarov, Polina Kutepova, Semyon Strugachev, Olga Naumenko, Irina Grineva, Konstantin Lavronenko, Emilia Spivak, Vitaly Egorov, Lika Nifontova, Ekaterina Simakhodskaya, Miriam Sekhon, Maxim Litovchenko and others.

In total, more than a hundred actors are involved in the film.

Each of them skillfully approached his role and brilliantly lived screen time in the body of the character.

It is especially worth noting the magnificent game of Semyon Strugachev in the role of the father of the heroine.

Each scene with his participation causes a whole range of positive emotions.

A true representative of previous generations, he is not used to expressing tender feelings for children and his wife, on the contrary, he is sharp and rude to them, but in his actions there is nothing but love.

With all the attention of the authors of the tape to the details, the picture is not without flaws - the makeup leaves much to be desired.

At some point, the make-up artists seemed to have directed all their efforts to aging the main character, moreover, losing sight of the rest.

In life, for example, Lyubov Orlova was only six years younger than Ranevskaya, Irina Wolf was ten, and Pavel Wolf was 18 years older. However, time seemed to slow down for them on the screen: they all look much younger than the main character.

Perhaps, on the one hand, in this way the filmmakers tried to emphasize the loneliness and conditions in which Faina Georgievna lived, and on the other hand, to once again remind the audience that this is just fiction that has little to do with reality.

Nevertheless, such an external discrepancy causes embarrassment and internal protest.

Work on the project began back in 2014, and the release of the film was planned for 2016, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Ranevskaya's birth.