Roles and actors: "Promised Heaven"

Eldar Ryazanov always sought to ensure that his projects involved the best actors. "Promised Heaven" is not his most gay picture, but the acting performance of this social drama, as always, is at the highest level. What did the great director shoot the film in the 90s? And what characters played the best actors of the USSR in his films?

A short story and the creators of the film

It's 1990's. Difficult times for the Soviet Union. Behind one of the major train stations in the capital, homeless people are huddled in a dump. All of them were once respected members of society, and now they are considered homeless.

However, these homeless people want to take their last refuge: the landfill site is being prepared for sweeping and building up. The poor try to defend the right to live at the station, but against them - the mayor's office, enterprising businessmen and even tanks. As a result, the main characters are evicted from their "home", take cover in a train and go on it to heaven (this course, of course, is an allegory).

The film "Promised Heaven" is filled with metaphors and allegorical images. In fact, we see only a colony of homeless beggars, but in fact they identify with themselves all the Soviet people who have not adopted the new rules of life and the new system. As a result, the society rejected them, many died or went insane.

To implement Ryazanov's complex idea would be impossible, if not for the talented crew and actors. "Promised Heaven" was filmed by cameraman Leonid Kalashnikov ("Vassa"). The script for the painting was written by Ryazanov in collaboration with Henrietta Alman.

"Promised Heaven" (film): actors and roles. Liya Akhedzhakova as Fima

One of the residents of the landfill is Anfimia Stepanovna. She tried harder to defend her "home" much more persistently than other homeless people. The role of this activist was performed by the inimitable Leah Akhedzhakova.

Liya Medzhidovna is one of Ryazanov's favorite artists, however, like some other actors. "Promised Heaven" is not the first time Akhedzhakova cooperated with the director: she played in his films "The Irony of Fate, or With Easy Steam!", "Garage", "Office Romance", "Say a Word to a Poor Hussar" and others. And each time the actress managed to appear before the viewer in a new image, not similar to the previous one.

For example, in the "Service Novel" she played a frivolous secretary, and in "Garage" she appeared in the image of an unhappy unpopular woman, who is also a single mother. But the most amusing was the role of the actress in the "Old Nags": there her heroine (an elderly teacher), "black" realtors were evicted in the cemetery, for which the pensioner declared war unclean in the hands of businessmen.

"Promised Heaven" (film): the main actor. Valentin Gaft as the "President"

Valentine Gaft is also among the favorites of Eldar Ryazanov. He rarely got major parts in the movies, but he is a significant person in Soviet and Russian cinema.

In the picture "Heaven Promised," he just got the central character: the actor played the role of the leader of the beggars named President. With his task Gaft managed brilliantly, however, like the rest of the actors.

"Promised Heaven", "Garage", "About the Poor Hussar ...", "Old Nags" - in all these projects Eldar Ryazanov Gaft played very prominent roles. However, Eldar Alexandrovich is not the only one who liked to shoot an actor.

In 1975, Gaft appeared in the famous comedy "Hello, I am your aunt" in the image of an unruffled butler. A little earlier he played Gebernitz in "Seventeen Moments of Spring". Also, the artist can be seen in the pictures "Wizards", "Races in the vertical" and "Visit to the Minotaur".

Svetlana Nemoliaeva as Aglaya Sviderskaya

In the film "Promised Heavies" the actors Gaft and Nemoliaeva played a married couple who are divorced. And although Aglaya does not live with her husband for a long time, she tries to prevent his eviction from the landfill with all his might. Sviderskaya is trying to boycott the police and the tanks, which in the final were to clear the territory. But the efforts of one activist are not enough to prevent this event.

Svetlana Nemoliaeva also starred in Ryazanov's "Office Romance." There the actress got the role of a completely different character: she played a woman hopelessly in love with her colleague. Her novel ended with the fact that the whole team learned about the love letters that Svetlana's heroine sent to her lover, and the unhappy married woman had to endure more than one minute of shame.

Olga Volkova as Katya

In her youth, Olga Volkova practically did not act in films. Of the significant work, you can remember except that the musical of Jan Fried "The Bat".

The actress preferred the theater. First she served in the Leningrad Youth Theater, then moved to the Leningrad Comedy Theater.

For the first time Eldar Ryazanov took Volkov in his melodrama "Station for Two." The actress got the role of the second plan - the waitress from the station dining room named Violetta.

In the same year, Volkova played Mrs. Hawkins in the "Treasure Island" of Vladimir Vorobyov, where also starred Nikolai Karachentsov and Viktor Kostetsky.

In the "Cruel romance" all the same Ryazanova Volkova got the role of the modist, and in the "Forgotten melody for the flute" - the role of the official Surova. So the tragicomedy "Promised Heaven", the actors of which collaborated with Ryazanov for many years, was just a continuation of the collaborative work of the director and Volkova. For the sake of participation in this project, the actress had to turn into a gray-haired and toothless beggar Katya Ivanov.

Leonid Bronevoy as Semyon Bakurin

The ribbon "Promised Heavens", whose actors and roles remain in the memory for a long time after viewing, leaves a bitter taste and, of course, does not fit into the series of funny and light comedies Ryazanov used to shoot. However, new time dictates new rules, so the work of the director in the 90's and 2000's had an easy imprint of sadness and drama.

As for the story of beggars trying to save their landfill from demolition, their company also had a certain Semen Bakurin, who called himself a veteran of the Soviet-Japanese war. His role was brilliantly performed by Leonid Broneva.

Armored began his film career in 1964. For a long time, he was in the shadows until in the 70's he had the chance to play several iconic roles: Leonid embodied on the screens the image of the malicious economic criminal Kudryashov in the detective "The Investigation is Conducted by the Experts", as well as the image of Henry Muller In "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

Then the artist strengthened his all-Union glory, starring in the films "Pokrovsky Gates", "The Munchausen" and "Resident's Return". In the 90's and 2000's Armored did not actually act in films.

Oleg Basilashvili as Elistratov

"Promised Heaven" is a film that was included in the filmography of Oleg Basilashvili. The role of Elistratov, another landlord, was entrusted to the famous actor.

Oleg Basilashvili is a graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio. In the movie, he began filming in 1956, with small episodic roles. Of all the works of the early period can be noted except that shooting in the "Slave of Love" Mikhalkov and "Days of Turbins" Vladimir Basov.

I must say that it was the films of Eldar Ryazanov that brought Basilashvili great popularity. It all began with the main role in the "Service Novel", where Basilashvili masterfully played the role of a scoundrel. Then there was the role of Count Merzlyaev in the adventure film "About the Poor Hussar ...", as well as the role of pianist Ryabinin in the melodrama "Station for Two".

Oleg Basilashvili actively withdrew in our days: he is invited to both feature films and serials.

Other performers of roles

The actors of the film "Promised Heavens" are Natalya Gundareva (Truffaldino from Bergamo), and Mikhail Filippov ("Red and Black"), and Vyacheslav Nevinny ("Can not be").

Despite such a talented cast, "Promised Heaven" is a film that can hardly be called the best creation of Eldar Ryazanov. However, in the context of the 1990s, this picture looked very topical and touched the hearts of many spectators.