“It all starts with love…” – this poetic maxim, like no other, fits cinema. And not only because the history of cinema does not know a single plot in which there would be no love, in any of its manifestations. It’s just that in other things you can get by with professionalism, diligence, hard work, decency… In cinema, all this is also necessary, but by no means sufficient. Only those who truly love cinema work here. Others, random ones, are somehow forced out of cinema by life, sooner or later.
Everything in cinema begins with love, and without love it cannot exist. It’s not for nothing that they say: “my favorite film”, or “favorite actor”, “favorite director”… In any other area of human activity, the wording “favorite” is hardly applicable so widely, but in cinema – quite often!
But directors and actors, screenwriters and cameramen also love someone, and all this is reflected in their films in some incredible way. And, although there are many miracles in cinema, this does not cause any surprise, does it?.. How else, if not love, can explain the success of the films on which lovers worked? There are many such examples…
We are far from wanting to retell the ups and downs of the personal lives of people whose names have already become the history of Belarusian cinema, its pride and glory. We just want to remember those who walked through life hand in hand, creating cinema that still retains the reflection of their great feelings…
Love IN THE CITY OF MASTERS
Film director People’s Artist of the USSR Vladimir Korsh-Sablin and his wife, Nadezhda Brilliantshchikova, who before this marriage was the wife and muse of Mikhail Zoshchenko, lived a long life in cinema. Nadezhda worked on her husband’s films as a second director, and sometimes as an editor. Together they worked on the films “Seekers of Happiness” (1936), “My Love” (1940), “New Home” (1947), “Who Smyaetstsa Aposhnim” (1954), “The Girls Sowed Flax” (1956), “Red Leaves” “(1958), “Moscow – Genoa” (1964) … Those who knew Brilliantshchikova personally claimed that she was unusually bright, witty, charming and – powerful. They say about such people: “there is a lot of life in her.” It was as if fate had appointed this woman, to help the talent of her husband-director, to bring into his life and films this powerful vitality that everyone was talking about.
Yes, sometimes love does not “jump out from around the corner,” as the classic wrote. Sometimes it just arises… during the filming process. Film director Vladimir Bychkov met the love of his life Veta (Vera) Kolyadenko in the editing room of the film “Attention! There’s a wizard in town!” (1963). This picture is not considered a great success for the director: meeting his future wife was an extraordinary success. They had many films ahead, in which Vera Ivanovna was next to her husband. And Bychkov’s main masterpiece, which still amazes today with its courage, lightness, special beauty, which, as it turned out, is not subject to time – the legendary “City of Masters” (1965)… There was a difficult life ahead, given to cinema and warmed by love and fidelity.
The marriage of film director Viktor Turov, People’s Artist of the USSR, and actress Svetlana Turova was not the only one in their lives. But the films “I Come From Childhood” (1966) and “War Under the Roofs” (1967), which combined their names in the credits, forever remained one of the best in the creative biography of the classic of Belarusian cinema and his beautiful muse… Today the daughter of Viktor Timofeevich and Svetlana Petrovna , film director Elena Turova is making a full-length animated film “Sirin’s Song”. Its premiere is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Belarusian cinema.
The long life together of People’s Artists Nikolai Eremenko and Galina Orlova seems absolutely exceptional in the beauty and dignity of the relationship. He was a People’s Artist of the USSR, an idol of millions. She is a People’s Artist of Belarus, a good actress, a wonderful wife and mother of another People’s Artist – Nikolai Eremenko Jr. Junior received his title in Russia, where he lived and worked throughout his creative life. But Nikolai Nikolaevich never lost touch with his homeland and, of course, with his family, whose heart was his mother. Galina Aleksandrovna, a talented and profound actress, never sought to come to the fore. But her contribution to Russian art is undeniable: Galina Alexandrovna’s truly angelic presence in their lives was a solid basis for such fruitful creativity of her husband and son. The son, Nikolai, managed to realize his old dream: he starred with his father in the film, which he himself directed (together with M. Kasymova) – “Son for Father” (1993). A kind of symbolic film monument to the wonderful Eremenko family was the film “Dunechka” by People’s Artist of Belarus, film director Alexander Efremov, in which the acting family is literally based on them…
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It all starts with love. And it continues.
…Otherwise there would be no cinema!
The full version is in “NE” No. 3,2024.