How much talent did you need to have, without practically playing the main roles, to pass for one of the best actresses of your century? A tragicomic actress who never played her most important role. She was doomed to loneliness because of her talent.
Aphorisms of Ranevskaya are surprisingly popular, any writer can envy the frequency of quoting her "company" expressions. She perceived the theater as a separate unique world. She was selflessly in love with him. Obviously, art rests on such people.
Her real name is Faina Hirshevna Feldman. Her father's name was Hirsch Haimovich Feldman, and her mother was Milka Rafailovna Zagovaylova. The pseudonym “Ranevskaya” will come up with a girl only after twenty years. The girl was born on August 27, 1896 in the family of the Taganrog industrialist, at the junction of the Silver and Iron Ages. Her soul completely belonged to the age of Pushkin. And she was destined to go a bright and tragic path with her loneliness. About this - eloquent aphorisms about life, said by herself.
Childhood, youth
The character of the girl manifested itself in the gymnasium. She completely refused to attend the Mariinsky Gymnasium because of the study of the exact sciences. But with pleasure she devoted a lot of time to literature and singing. Faina Ranevskaya in her youth was already an incorrigible idealist. Looking ahead, we say that she remained the same for life. Then, discreet parents transferred their daughter to home schooling.
At the age of 15, the girl firmly decided to become an actress, and studied in a creative studio, and at 19 she left for Moscow to become an actress.
Moscow ordeals. Help ballerina
Faina was desperate: she alone could not get a job in any metropolitan theater. Faina Ranevskaya in her youth resembled the Andersen ugly duckling. In a tall, shy and awkward girl, the directors did not consider the divine gift of the actress. There was no money for life (parents emigrated). In desperation, Faina asked her father for a former business partner, but he refused.
However, here, obviously, fate intervened. Just on the street, having no means of subsistence, lonely and hopelessly leaning on a column of the opera house in Moscow, the famous ballerina Yekaterina Geltser saw it. She felt sorry for the “world's most miserable girl."
Thanks to her participation, Ranevskaya Faina Georgievna got an actress in the summer theater near Moscow Malakhovka, in the troupe of Madame Lavrovskaya. It was at that time that with the light hand of the Malakhovka actors, a nickname was fixed for her, which later became the stage name “Ranevskaya”. The Chekhov heroine of the same name, “The Cherry Orchard,” as you know, was peculiar to make money. Faina Georgievna really looked like her in this respect. Sometimes immersion in her inner world prevailed over her common sense ...
Once in Kerch, where the summer cottage was on tour, Ranevskaya went to the bank to get her salary. Going out into the street, she thoughtfully held the notes in her hands. When a sudden stream of wind blew them away, the girl just got excited to say: “How sad it is when they fly away!” After this episode by the name of Feldman, nobody called her ... But the semi-amateur troupe could not nourish her talent for a long time.
In despair from the deception and the mediocrity of her rogue colleagues on tour in Feodosia (she was not paid the money she earned), the actress leaves them and goes to Rostov.
Indeed, the cottage theater could become for Faina Georgievna only an intermediate milestone in creativity. In fact, he did not even look like a temple of art. Creative people in the roles of actors and directors, domestic disorder. The discrepancy between acting ideals and reality is evidenced by many statements of Ranevskaya.
Help actress Pavel Wulf
The future national artist, then only daydreaming about the scenes of the capital's theaters, again became miserable ... The brilliant actress Pavel Wulf performing in Rostov turned out to be exactly the kind of creative teacher who needed a romantic girl in love with art. Many aphorisms of Ranevskaya differ in their understanding of the essence of the acting profession.
She taught Faina to really creatively work on a role like a demiurge: at first, understanding it, studying it to the smallest nuances, comprehending the heroine’s very soul, and then inspiredly breathing life into it with her play. Undoubtedly, thanks to her, the girl took place as a creative person, and her unique talent received the proper cut. Pavel Wulf taught her best student not to play, but to live on the stage, see what the author wrote between the lines and display it.
In the difficult times of Paul, Wulf sheltered her, saved her from the horrors of the civil war, taking her to the relatively calm Theodosia. And already there they both managed to resist hunger, eagerly clutching at absolutely any roles. Of great help was the help of Maximilian Voloshin, who lived not far from them (namely, in Koktebel). Without the fish that he brought them, it would be very hungry ...
NEP. Theatrical Thaw
In the years 1923-1924. the period of the NEP began. Finally, the country was full, moved away from hunger! This was the era of jazz, which at that time was associated with the freedom of morals. The press stopped displaying exclusively decrees, and people eagerly read about celebrities, learning that:
- the poets Balmont and Yesenin polygamy and drank;
- Akhmatova, having fallen in love with Blok, divorced Gumilyov and then recklessly entered into a number of marriages;
- A. Blok does not live with his wife, and V. Mayakovsky lives with a stranger.
A young, full of creative forces actress dreamed of audience fame, she wanted not only to play on stage, but to live art. Statements of Ranevskaya testify to this.
At that turbulent time, Pavel Wulf and Faina Ranevskaya received an invitation for one season from the Kazan Theater. Then both moved to Moscow. Ranevskaya Faina Georgievna met with the leading actor of the Moscow Art Theater V.I. Kachalov. Friendship with this man connected her until the end of his life. Her dream was to perform in this theater. However, to see, at that time to implement it was not destined. Vasily Ivanovich even arranged for her a meeting with Nemirovich-Danchenko, but Ranevskaya was so embarrassed and confused that he called her “crazy.”
Game in different theaters of the USSR
In 1925, Fane Georgievna Ranevskaya managed to play in three theaters: the Moscow MONO, the sanatorium theater of Artyomovsk, and the Baku working theater. In the latter, she met actor Mikhail Zharov. She brilliantly succeeds in the roles in the performances “Our Youth” and “Hurricane”.
In the years 1926-1927. Pavel Wulf and Faina Ranevskaya performed first in Gomel, then in Smolensk. In their performance, a performance based on the work of K. A. Tenev “Spring Love” came to life. Then Faina Georgievna replaced two more theaters: Arkhangelsk and Stalingrad. It was in the latter, thanks to the assistance of the director Boris Pyasetskiy, that Ranevskaya herself began to invent roles for herself. He found the key to her talent. “I need you to play!” he said to the actress. That is how she played in The Law of Honor, Storm.
Chamber Theater, Central Theater of the Soviet Army
Then, having traveled almost the entire Soviet Union, Faina Georgievna returns to Moscow. True, for another two seasons: in 1930 and 1931. Pavel Wulf and Ranevskaya go to Baku. The first was invited to pedagogical work, the second - to the Theater of Working Youth. Director Savchenko, thanks to his subtle vision of the true spirit of the classics, impressed the actress. She was no longer that naive girl who came to study theatrical art.
Faina Ranevskaya about women, perhaps, said more aphorisms than any classic playwright. There was fierce competition between the theater actresses. Not always honest, sometimes harmful to art. However, Ranevskaya, thanks to her developed imaginative thinking, could bring to clean water with just a phrase, to show who is who. Its characteristics are deep and imaginative:
- a mixture of field bell and rattlesnake;
- against whom we are friends, girls (said to actresses whispering backstage);
- she does not have a face, but a hoof.
It was imperiously attracted by the Moscow Art Theater. However, she began the conquest of Moscow with the Chamber Theater directed by Alexander Tairov. This time has not passed in vain. The maestro's philosophy that the truth of art often does not coincide with the truth of life forced Ranevskaya to play so that the audience felt the plot as part of their real life. The role of Zinka in Kulish's “Pathetic Sonata” made theater connoisseurs (for example, GITIS professor Golubovsky) talk about her as a star of the first magnitude.
In the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, actress Faina Ranevskaya first met with the director, whom she harbored antipathy and with which she subsequently had to work for many years. We are talking about Yuri Alexandrovich Zavadsky. “Well, what did Faina call me now?” - Zavadsky inquired mockingly and humbly. Indeed, Ranevskaya did not skimp on phrases, here are just a few:
- Gertrude (the director bore the title Hero of Socialist Labor);
- Fluff (he was bald);
- midget elongated (due to high growth).
And Zavadsky was amorous, fooling many of Ranevskaya’s friends: Marina Tsvetaeva, the daughter of Pavel Wulf. Indeed, there were good reasons for antipathy.
However, speaking objectively, Ranevskaya should have been grateful to Zavadsky for the fact that he actually saved all the actors of the troupe alive, having achieved the transfer of the theater to Rostov in 1936. Together with Ranevskaya there were Vera Maretskaya, Vyacheslav Plyatt, Pavel Wulf, Nikolai Mordvinov.
On mourning days after the death of Maxim Gorky, Ranevskaya fell for the first time and brilliantly play the role of his Vassa Zheleznova (the play lay under the cloth for 25 years). Her play then shocked the whole theatrical Moscow. It would seem that dreams come true: she waited for the invitation of director Sudakov from the Maly Theater. However, the Soviet government did not welcome the transfer of personnel on their initiative. Director Popov (Zavadsky handed him the position) staged a real harassment to the actress. The logic was classically soviet: “Today you are a flyer, and tomorrow you are an enemy of the people!” However, Ranevskaya still left! With a scandal, left without housing. Pavel Wolf again rescued her, sheltered at home.
Theater baiting. Flight to the cinema
The actress was left without a theater. Through the efforts of partocrats and schemers, she was never able to climb the stage of the Maly Theater, where Gruzinsky and Gogoleva, Vladislavsky and Golovin shone. Again she was begging, selling her belongings ... Jokes, aphorisms of Faina Ranevskaya of that period are distinguished by chiselled sharpness. They really convict. For example, this one, in the photo below.
Faina Ranevskaya came to the cinema. She was invited by director Mikhail Romm to play the role of Mrs. Luazo in the silent film “Pyshka” based on the work of Maupassant. The actress reverently belonged to high art, so she read the novel in the original and on the set articulated in French. Romain Rolland, who saw this, was in complete delight. The tape was waiting for success in the world, the French even bought the film. The secondary character Madame Luazo has eclipsed the main character Pyshka! However, Galina Sergeeva, who played Pyshka , became the Honored Artist of Russia.
Then Faina Georgievna had a cameo role in the movie “The Duma of the Cossack Golota” directed by Savchenko. Ranevskaya was given freedom in constructing the image of a popeye, which is absent in the original work. What happened? It turned out really funny. The film crew held on to their bellies. The episode became the decoration of the film.
People’s favorite
However, the role of Madame Skorohod in the film “Foundling” (1939) brought her real fame, which she hated for poisoning her life. The cliche “Mule, don’t make me nervous” was repeated even by L. I. Brezhnev, handing her the Order of Lenin. When the children once again tied up behind her on the street, shouting this phrase, she turned to them picturesquely and said: “PionEra, go to f ..” (this phrase also became popular).
Why did Ranevskaya manage to play brilliantly? Perhaps this was partially answered by Irakli Andronnikov, who claimed that she managed to show in the role not only the “being of man”, but also “personal attitude to him”. She was given above a flair for how to deepen and develop the author’s intention. In life - modest, unsettled, always doubting herself, Faina Georgievna brilliantly plays women of power, arrogant, impudently cunning.
Movie roles
In 1942, she starred in the film “Alexander Parkhomenko”, brilliantly playing a textured taper: in the style of the matured Vera Kholodnaya, gnawing monpasie and smoking in the puff. In 1943, Ranevskaya returned to Moscow. There she plays in the Drama Theater many roles: starting with the grandmother of Oleg Koshevoy, ending with the wife of Professor Losev.
At this time, the capital's actors, hungry for work, are massively returning from evacuation. Faina Georgievna starred in the films “The Man in the Case” and “The Wedding” (1943), “Heavenly Quiet” (1945), “The Elephant and the Girl” (1946), “The Error of the Engineer Cochin”, “Cinderella”, “Spring” (1947) ) On the set of “Spring”, she meets Lyubov Orlova, who praised her game.
The director of the film “Cinderella” Eugene Schwartz allowed Ranevskaya, to her delight, to edit the role of her stepmother as she pleases. And she brought her know-how into this role: “a fabulous disgusting”, which is based on a “network of the right people”, and such that “the king will envy.”
She came to the cinema relatively late, already a famous theater actress, at 38 years old. Her only main role in the film "Dream" was so remembered by the audience that they didn’t give her access to the street, enthusiastically reciting: "Mule, don’t make me nervous!" Ranevskaya’s aphorisms were replenished with this meaningless phrase, which has become synonymous with henpecked men.
Many connoisseurs of her talent wonder why she has so few film works? She herself answered this question with a short, polished phrase: "To star in a bad film means to spit forever!"
Confrontation: actress Ranevskaya and director Zavadsky
In 1949, the director Zavadsky invited Faina Ranevskaya to his theater. Spectators walked “to Ranevskaya”. Her roles were adorned with the performances Vanity Fair and Storm. But once Zavadsky threw her episode from the play “Storm” in favor of the theater’s prima, his ex-wife Vera Maretskaya. Of course, Faina Georgievna was offended. Her stay at the Moscow Art Theater was by no means cloudless. It's no secret that Faina Georgievna felt and understood art more subtle and multifaceted than the person who directed it - the director of the Moscow Art Theater Zavadsky. Their verbal duels, taking place over decades, were like bullfighting. The reason is clear: the director did not want to recognize the primacy of Faina Georgievna, and she, in turn, could not "lower her bar." Be that as it may, but the book of aphorisms by Faina Ranevskaya includes these of her pearls:
She replaced the theaters (Pushkinsky, Moscow Soviet, Red Army, Maly Theater, Drama Theater). She performed in many cities of the USSR. However, she returned to the Mossovet Theater, where she worked until her farewell (86 years) benefit in a performance where Rostislav Plyatt was her partner.
In the last decade of her stage career, Ranevskaya was confronted with such a phenomenon as overly free interpretation of classics by directors and half-educated actors. She quite reasonably declared the dangers of such an approach and called barbarism when, for example, the content of the work of the same Ostrovsky was deformed on the stage.
Philosopher actress
In addition to acting talent, she was given a god and a different, philosophical talent - the ability to think figuratively and formulate a thought. Quotes and aphorisms of Faina Ranevskaya are sometimes even rude, but surprisingly accurate. In her conviction, Good should be active, and Truth should be said directly to the eyes. Her expressions were born in different ways, many of which later became popular among the people. Most often, immediately, immediately and precisely in the context of the life situation that initiated them. Her wit was innate, it was like a reflex (modern experts consider the IQ of the actress to be extremely high).
Faina Georgievna, in principle, did not accept compromises, and always with an open visor answered with powerful charismatic phrases to rudeness or meanness addressed to her. As an actress, she had one strong trait that everyone had to reckon with: turn an episodic role into a masterpiece. Therefore, directors who secretly wanted to limit her to the stage, because of such a game, were still forced to give her roles again. After all, the audience went to the theater because of Faina! She alone was able to replace the entire troupe. There are cases when, with an unfinished performance in which the actress finished playing her local episode, the audience, having watched the game of the great actress, simply got up and left.
Loneliness
Ranevskaya’s aphorisms about life are mostly sad. Yes, and what else should they be? Fate left her alone, without relatives. She never married, did not give birth to children. Therefore, she herself built her fate, completely unlike anyone else's. Faina Ranevskaya was laconic when it was a question of her personally. However, it is known that she did not like men. The feelings arising twice in her childhood and youth against the opposite sex came across rudeness and unceremoniousness. For the first time, when a gymnasium boy simultaneously invited her and her real girlfriend to date, Faina, crying, only told them: “God will punish you!”
Working at the Mono Theater, she fell in love with a leading actor. He made an appointment at her house. However, he appeared there drunk and with a walking woman. After this episode, Faina drew a line under her relationship with men.
How did she develop relations with colleagues in the art workshop? In completely different ways. However, she always remained kindly ironic. Ranevskaya’s aphorisms about men are known in which she teases them for their frivolity and illegibility in choosing friends. Art historians call the names of women close to her: Pavel Wulf and Anna Akhmatova.
However, according to biographers, Ranevskaya had connections with men and even pregnancy, but she interrupted them, adapting to the everyday life of the Theater. And so old age came: the grandchildren, not warmed by laughter, not happy about the visits of children.
Death Shaking the Country
After the death of close friends - Pavel Wulf and Anna Akhmatova - Faina Ranevskaya lived the most terrible, final act of tragedy, where she was the main actress.
On the wall of her beloved room, combined with an office and living room, hung portraits of friends and respected people: Maya Plisetskaya, Maria Babanova, Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Mayakovsky.
When she could still walk, she picked up a half-frozen mongrel and sheltered her in her apartment. There was another joy: a volume of the most beloved poet - Pushkin. Terrible, terrible loneliness.
Once a woman looking after an 86-year-old actress, entering the apartment, found her dead, and a dog howled beside her.
Conclusion
Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya herself complained that only 1% of the 100% possible realized in her work. In art, she was an absolute maximalist, as evidenced by her aphorisms. Ranevskaya-actress was inherent in such a trait as constant creative dissatisfaction with the level of her personal performance of roles. Perhaps that is why her level of interpretation of the role was an order of magnitude greater in depth than the director's setting. Unfortunately, often the latter, having organizational power, were literally jealous of the unique actress for art, dooming her role in episodes. Quotes and aphorisms of Faina Ranevskaya testify to the energy of a unique actress unspent on the stage ...