The success of television films, as a rule, is the actors. “Almost a funny story” is a television story where everything coincided: an extraordinary director (Pyotr Fomenko), interesting material (script by Emil Braginsky), amazing music (songs by S. Nikitin and V. Berkovsky) and close-up masters, captivating viewers with silent monologue scenes transmitting the whole palette of emotions. Surprisingly, among them, almost everything is characteristic actors who do not have experience in leading roles.
The plot of the picture
Viktor Meshkov, a safety engineer, was quiet, and there was only one hassle. Everything changed the desire to help one of the sisters carry a suitcase during a business trip to Drevnegorsk, an unremarkable city on the Volga. An ordinary male act caused so many subsequent events that in desperation Meshkov exclaims: “It seems to me that now I will carry your suitcase all my life!” But the main consequence is the love of the eccentric Illaria Pavlovna, a lonely woman with a bitter fate.
Over the course of two episodes, the audience develops the novel of the unsociable, gloomy engineer Meshkov and the eccentric drawing artist Illaria, who lives in the family of the artist’s sister, turning her into a housekeeper and nanny. The couple constantly finds themselves in comic situations, so the genre of the television picture is a comedy, but the actors of the film “Almost Funny Story” along with magic songs performed by the Nikitin spouses turn it into a melodrama that resonates with every spectator’s heart.
The magic of the duet of Mikhail Gluzsky and Olga Antonova
In 1977, when the picture appeared on the screen, Mikhail Gluzsky (Meshkov) turned 59 years old. The actor never knew what a creative downtime is. But despite the impressive filmography, there were few really starring roles in the movie, and fame came only at forty after the role of the esaul in The Quiet Don. Playing secondary heroes, he was remembered by a piercing gaze from under his thick eyebrows, representing everyone: from peasants to nobles. But there was no real love story in his arsenal. To put “on Gluzsky” was a certain risk, because there are more proven age actors. “Almost funny story” is the creative success of the paradoxical Fomenko, who introduced the famous artist in a new role.
The viewer immediately believed in the awakening of feelings from this man who was resigned to loneliness and immediately sympathized with the hero so much that the trick of the exalted Illaria Pavlovna, who decided to disappear from his life, did not leave anyone indifferent. For Olga Antonova, an actress of the St. Petersburg Comedy Theater, this role was a television debut. She recalls that at first Gluzsky himself did not like her candidacy. He grumbled at the director that she was very young for this role. There was a difference of 20 years between them. But the operator besieged him: “And could your hero fall unconscious in love with the right old aunt?”
Olga Antonova played the wrong woman, exalted nature, vulnerable, some kind of "fairy elf", defenseless and trusting. Her image unusually coincided with the song on the verses of Novella Matveeva “I sculpt from plasticine” and convinced the viewer that only such a woman was able to stir up the main character of the comedy “Almost Funny Story”.
Unforgettable actors
A co-worker of Meshkov by the name of Lazarenko, who played an important role in uniting the main characters, was performed by Mikhail Danilov, an artist of the Bolshoi Drama Theater from St. Petersburg . And the sister of Illaria Pavlovna Taisia is Lyudmila Arinina. Both of these actors have already starred with Fomenko in the series "For the Remaining Life" and were in perfect harmony with his bold directorial plan. One of the best dialogues in the film is the conversation between Lazarenko and Illaria Pavlovna in the dining room and his conversation with Meshkov in Moscow. He was the first to believe in the feelings of a woman and his question after her assertion that he has a kind heart: “Who? Meshkov’s? ”Is not just a surprise. This is an unexpected discovery that love can work miracles: "You speak about it with inspiration!"
By the beginning of filming, Lyudmila Arinina already had the role of a lonely woman heroically overcoming life's difficulties. Everything changed the film "Almost Funny Story." The actors and roles here are intertwined quite amazingly. One gets the feeling that each of his hero was infinitely close and understandable. The artist, the heroine Arinina, paradoxically combined the creativity and dedication of the chosen business with the responsibility for the sister, which she took upon herself, being considered more successful and experienced. Her Taisiya with the concepts: "You are trusting, but he is scorched!", Does not meet the understanding of the audience. But the actress managed to show an internal rethinking of the developing events, and the viewer manages to discern the sadness in her eyes and even some envy of her sister. Surprisingly, the actress herself will meet her true happiness only at the age of 60.
“Almost a funny story”: actors and supporting roles
Among the episodic roles there are truly legendary actors. “Almost funny story” will leave in memory the image of Maria Mironova, mother of Andrei Mironov, who played the postal operator. The train conductor was talented by Svetlana Kharitonova, who showed real female solidarity with Illaria Pavlovna and witnessed the happiest moments of her life. Everything that she imagined on the train and presented as really accomplished, will happen in front of the amazed sister and guide - a woman who has disbelieved in simple human happiness and as if regains hope.
Lyudmila Polyakova created a memorable image of a seeker of male attention, in several episodes she showed such a longing in her eyes that she could not but cause sympathy from the audience. The trip "with a sign of quality" was excellently played by Valentin Gaft, ridiculing the representatives of the strong half, propagandizing double morality. All these people indirectly contributed to the awakening of feelings for each other from not very young people.
Younger generation
Meshkova's daughter was played in the film by an unknown actress Maria Velikanova. This role will remain its only role in the cinema, although later life will be associated with the television and film industry, but already as an artist. She is married to a famous actor and TV presenter Sergei Kolesnikov. Her married boyfriend named Tolik, an obsessive person, but this is also memorable, was played by Vladimir Puchkov. After a number of vivid film works, he focused on teaching, being currently a professor at GITIS.
The film is unique in that absolutely all the actors were harmonious in their place. “An almost ridiculous story” is a film work in the spirit of “The Irony of Fate”, just its rolling fate is not so happy. Those who managed to see the picture cannot forget it. The film, which revealed the talent of yesterday's supporting actors, really heals the soul, charging with hope and optimism.