Eldar Ryazanov always sought to ensure that the best actors participated in his projects. āThe Promised Heavenā is not his most cheerful picture, but the acting performance of this social drama is, as always, at the highest level. What was the great director filming about in the 90s? And what characters did the best actors of the USSR play in his films?
Short story and filmmakers
It's the 1990th. Hard times for the Soviet Union. Homeless people huddle behind a large train station in the capital. All of them were once respected members of society, and now they are considered homeless.
However, they want to take their last refuge from these homeless people: the landfill territory is being prepared for cleaning and development. The poor are trying 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 āhomeā, take refuge in a train and go to heaven on it (this move, of course, is an allegory).
The film "Promised Heaven" is filled with metaphors and allegorical images. In fact, we only see a colony of poor homeless people, but in reality they identify all Soviet people who have not accepted the new rules of life and the new system. As a result, society rejected them, many died or went crazy.
It would be impossible to realize Ryazanovās complex plan if it werenāt for a talented film crew and actors. āPromised Heavenā was shot by cameraman Leonid Kalashnikov (Vassa). The script for the picture was written by Ryazanov in collaboration with Henrietta Alman.
Promised Heaven (film): actors and roles. Leah Akhedzhakova as Fima
One of the residents of the landfill is Anfimya Stepanovna. She tried much harder to defend her "home" than other homeless people. The role of this activist was played by the inimitable Liya Akhedzhakova.
Lia Medzhidovna is one of Ryazanovās favorite artists, however, like some other actors. āPromised Heavenā is not the first case of Akhedzhakovaās collaboration with the director: she played in his films āThe Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!ā, āGarageā, āOffice Romanceā, āSay the Word About the Poor Hussarā and others. And each time the actress managed to appear before the viewer in a new image, not like the previous one.
For example, in āOffice Romanceā she played a frivolous secretary, and in āGarageā she appeared in the guise of an unhappy unpopular woman, who is also a single mother. But the actressās most amusing role was in āOld Nagsā: there, her heroine (an elderly teacher), āblackā realtors, were evicted to the cemetery, for which the pensioner declared war on dishonest businessmen.
Promised Heaven (film): main actor. Valentin Gaft as the āPresident"
Valentin Gaft is also among the favorites of Eldar Ryazanov. He rarely got the main roles in the cinema, but he is a significant person in Soviet and Russian cinema.
In the film "Promised Heaven" he just got the central character: the artist played the role of the leader of the poor, nicknamed the President. Gaft coped with his task brilliantly, however, like the other actors.
āPromised Heavenā, āGarageā, āOn the Poor Hussar ...ā, āOld Nagsā - in all these projects, Eldar Ryazanov Gaft played very prominent roles. However, Eldar Alexandrovich is not the only one who loved to film the actor.
In 1975, Gaft appeared in the famous comedy āHello, I Am Your Auntā in the guise of an unflappable butler. A little earlier, he played Gevernitsa in Seventeen Moments of Spring. Also, the artist can be seen in the paintings "Sorcerers", "Racing vertically" and "Visit to the Minotaur".
Svetlana Nemolyaeva in the role of Aglaya Svidersky
In the film "Promised Heaven", the actors Gaft and Nemolyaeva played a divorced couple. And although Aglaya has not lived with her husband for a long time, she is trying with all her might to prevent him from being evicted from the dump. Sviderskaya is trying to boycott the police and tanks, which in the final appeared to clear the territory. But the efforts of one activist are not enough to prevent this event.
Svetlana Nemolyaeva also starred in Ryazanov's film "Office Romance." There, the actress got the role of a completely different character: she played a woman who was hopelessly in love with her colleague. Her romance ended with the whole team learning about love letters that the heroine of Svetlana sent to her lover, and the unfortunate married woman had to go through more than one minute of shame.
Olga Volkova as Katya
In her youth, actress Olga Volkova practically did not act in films. Of the significant works, one can recall perhaps the musical of Jan Fried āThe Batā.
The actress preferred the theater. At first she served in the Leningrad Youth Theater, then moved to the Leningrad Comedy Theater.
For the first time, Eldar Ryazanov directed Volkova in his melodrama Station for Two. The actress got a supporting role - a waitress from the forecourt named Violet.
In the same year, Volkova played Mrs. Hawkins in āTreasure Islandā by Vladimir Vorobyov, where Nikolai Karachentsov and Viktor Kostetsky also starred .
In the "Cruel Romance" of the same Ryazanov, Volkova got the role of a modist, and in "Forgotten Melody for a Flute" - the role of an official of Surova. So the tragicomedy āPromised Heavenā, whose actors collaborated with Ryazanov for many years, was just a continuation of the joint work of the director and Volkova. To participate in this project, the artist had to turn into a gray-haired and toothless beggar Katya Ivanova.
Leonid Bronevoy as Semen Bakurin
The film "Promised Heaven", the actors and the roles of which remain in memory for a long time after watching, leaves a bitter aftertaste and, of course, does not fit into the series of funny and light comedies that Ryazanov used to shoot. However, a new time dictates new rules, so the directorās work in the 90s and 2000s bore a slight imprint of sadness and drama.
As for the story of the poor, trying to protect their landfill from demolition, their company also included a certain Semyon Bakurin, who called himself a veteran of the Soviet-Japanese war. His role was brilliantly performed by Leonid Broneva.
Armor began his film career in 1964. For a long time he was in the shadows, until in the 70s he had a chance to play several iconic roles: Leonid embodied on the screens the image of the malicious economic criminal Kudryashov in the detective "Experts Are Conducting Investigations", as well as the image of Heinrich Mueller in Seventeen Moments of Spring.
Then the artist strengthened his all-Union fame by starring in the films Pokrovsky Gates, The Same Munchausen and Return of the Resident. In the 90s and 2000s, Armor almost did not act in films.
Oleg Basilashvili as Elistratov
āPromised Heavenā - a film included in the filmography of Oleg Basilashvili. The eminent actor was entrusted with the role of Elistratov - another resident of the landfill.
Oleg Basilashvili is a graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School. He began acting in films since 1956, with small episodic roles. Of all the works of the early period, it can be noted except that filming in Mikhalkov's Slave of Love and Vladimir Basov's Days of the Turbins.
I must say that it was the films of Eldar Ryazanov that brought Basilashvili great popularity. It all started with the main role in "Office Romance", where Basilashvili masterfully played the role of a scoundrel. Then there was the role of Count Merzlyaev in the adventure film "On the Poor Hussar ...", as well as the role of pianist Ryabinin in the melodrama "Station for Two."
Oleg Basilashvili is actively filming these days: he is invited to both feature films and TV shows.
Other role performers
The actors of the film āPromised Heavenā are Natalya Gundareva (Truffaldino from Bergamo), Mikhail Filippov (Red and Black), and Vyacheslav Nevinniy (It Cannot 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 90s, this picture looked very topical and touched the hearts of many viewers.