The premiere of the cult film "Love and Pigeons" took place on January 7, 1985. Immediately after entering the country's screens, the picture fell in love with the audience and quickly began to gain popularity.
Many facts about how they shot "Love and Pigeons", how the choice of actors went and how difficult it was to get the tape to appear on screens, the audience was unfamiliar. People simply delightedly plunged into the love story of ordinary people, recognizing familiar characters and surroundings.
The idea of the picture
Shortly before the start of work on the film, the premiere of the second film directed by Vladimir Menshov, “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” took place. After her huge success, he simply could not afford to shoot a less popular story, but could not decide on the plot.
Everything was decided at the premiere of the play "Love and Pigeons", staged by the actors of Sovremennik according to the script of the then actor Vladimir Gurkin. Watching the performance unexpectedly inspired the director, and he decided to make the same film that would make the audience laugh, cry, and then think for a long time about life.
The scriptwriter later admitted that each key character of the picture had real prototypes from life, and this left an imprint on how they shot "Love and Pigeons". So, the parents of the scriptwriter became the prototypes of Vasily and Nadezhda, and in Uncle Mitya the character of Gurkin’s grandfather was guessed. Even the surname of the main characters was borrowed from the scriptwriter's neighbors.
Cast
When selecting actors for the picture, there were some small oddities. For example, the actor, the director’s favorite director, first claimed the main role, who was then approved for the role of Uncle Mitya. The make-up artists faced the difficult task of hiding the athletic build of Jurassic and aging him for several decades. The same problem arose with the image of the forty-year-old actress Natalya Tenyakova, who eventually managed to harmoniously play the role of an elderly puffy aunt Shura.
The role of Nadi was first offered the popular Lyubov Polishchuk, which was ideally suited for age and temperament. But the director decided to invite Nina Doroshina, the actress of the Sovremennik Theater, to the picture and did not lose. Performing the role of Nadia on the stage, she looked very harmoniously on the screen, literally merging with her heroine.
Among what remained behind the scenes in Love and Pigeons was the difficult work of a guest illusionist who “forced” a tree to bloom during the filming of a scene familiar to everyone. The flowers were supposed to unfold simultaneously, adding to the scene's eccentricity. Surprisingly, one of the first takes immediately revealed seven bouquets. The director decided that it was a good sign, and the scene was shot.
Choosing a place to shoot
Work on the film took place in several stages from August to December 1983. It was difficult for the director to choose a nature for his plan, reflecting all the beauty of Russian nature. Initially, there were thoughts to shoot in the Irkutsk region, on the shores of Lake Baikal or in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Of course, there were many beautiful places, but they were not quite suitable for the usual Siberian village, as the director saw it. The question of the location of the film "Love and Pigeons" has long remained open.
Suddenly Menshov recalled that in his youth, when he was still an intern, he worked in Karelia and was shocked by the uniqueness of her nature. The director wanted hills, hills, dense forests and certainly a river. It was decided to travel to the remote towns of Karelia and try to find a suitable place.
The suburbs of Medvezhyegorsk
The crew came to the outskirts of this small town by accident. Perhaps the name attracted a hint of mountains and forest.
The shooting location for Love and Pigeons in Medvezhyegorsk was found by chance: a street descending to the Kums river led to a small wooden house on a grassy hill.
It was decided to rent this house from the residents and start filming almost immediately. The yard was covered with wooden boards, the house was also trimmed with wood and a veranda was attached to it. And on the hill overgrown with greenery they installed the famous dovecote.
After the film was released, many fans came to see the location of the film. However, in 2011, house number 12 on Nizhnyaya Street on the outskirts of Medvezhyegorsk burned down. And now in its place is a completely modern cottage.
Shooting in kind
Work on the film in Karelia continued almost without interruptions throughout August 1983. The weather in Karelia is capricious and unpredictable, so all the actors gave their best, trying to manage to take all the shots. But some parts had to be finalized already in the Mosfilm pavilions.
And in Batumi and Sochi, where they shot "Love and Pigeons" at sea, the actors arrived in November. Of course, the weather was not very conducive to filming, it was already cold, and the water temperature dropped to +14 degrees. The hardest thing to portray supposedly a summer vacation was Lyudmila Gurchenko, who really did not like the cold, and she had to spend time in ice water most of all.
It was not easy for Alexander Mikhailov, who played the main character. In one scene, he needed to fall into the sea water in a suit, and emerge without clothes. Emerging, he needed to turn to Gurchenko, and then together they had to swim to the shore. The director sought to shoot the scene in one shot, they counted every second of filming, but they could not do without problems.
For those few seconds while the actor was under water, experienced divers needed to quickly undress him before swimming trunks. However, in one of the takes a tie failed, which was confused and could not be removed. The actor spent a lot of time under water and only miraculously did not drown.
After the release of the film, the director admitted that these shootings were not conducted on the high seas, but in the large pool of the hotel, but there was a risk. And ice water was not very conducive to the health of the actors.
Disputes about the release of the picture
Surprisingly, after the end of filming, the tape was not allowed to appear on the screen for a long time and was required from the author and director Vladimir Menshov to seriously change the script and characters.
In those years, creative initiative was not encouraged, all the films were supposed to tell in the most positive light about the life of Soviet citizens, a comfortable life and a strong family. Life situations such as treason or alcohol abuse were tacitly banned.
The 1984 film Love and Doves raised precisely such topics, which were rather inconvenient for the Politburo. Despite the protests of Vladimir Menshov, who flatly refused to change anything in the picture, some scenes were cut out of it, for example, a monologue by Lyudmila Gurchenko about psychics or dancing in a bar. After all the edits, the film was reduced by 83 minutes.
Folk love
Despite criticism and cut out fragments, the film became truly popular. No wonder so much effort was made when filming "Love and Pigeons". Vladimir Menshov turned out to be a touching, sincere and very funny story with absolutely life-like heroes.
The film was really shot with love for the people, for its simplicity, openness and ability to love. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 1985 the tape was awarded the Golden Rook Prize at the international comedy festival in Torremolinos in Spain. And in 2009, the film "Love and Pigeons" was recognized as "The Best Soviet Film" according to MTV Russia.
However, the main award of the film was and remains the love of the audience.