The film "The Red Tent": roles and actors. "Red Tent": a film crew, a plot

The first joint Soviet-Italian adventure film-drama "Red Tent" was filmed in 1969 by a remarkable domestic director-director Mikhail Kalatozov.

Pioneers

The cinema involved both Soviet and well-known foreign actors. "Red Tent" occupies a special place in the history of the film industry of the USSR, as the film was funded by European producer Franco Kristaldi, known for "Italian Divorce." In addition, the musical accompaniment to the film was written by the creative union of the outstanding composers Ennio Morricone and Alexander Zatsepin. For many young novice actors, the film "The Red Tent" became a successful springboard in his creative career. Actors N. Mikhalkov, G. Gai, D. Banionis, J. Solomin, O. Koberidze, B. Khmelnitsky, L. Kanevsky, E. Martsevich and J. Vizbor were shot together with the foreign stars - Hardy Krueger, Claudia Cardinale, Peter Finch and Sean Connery.

A win-win story

The film "The Red Tent", the actors and roles of which during the casting were selected personally by Franko Kristaldi, has a generally unbeatable plot. The picture was based on a dramatic story that occurred with the polar expedition of General Umberto Nobile (actor Peter Finch), who in 1928 on the dirigible "Italy" went to conquer the North Pole. Nobile had achieved the goal, but on the way back the dirigible crashed near the Spitsbergen archipelago.

In the operation to save the international group of researchers, many ships, aircraft and people took part. But only the Soviet icebreaker Krasin managed to make its way to the accident site, and then 48 days after the disaster. The tragedy put an end to the career of Umberto Nobile, the public and the leadership accused him of the fact that the commander succumbed to the arguments of Einar Lundborg (actor Hardy Kruger), a Swedish pilot, and left the crew entrusted to him. No one took into account the fact that he left the team to coordinate rescue efforts. Such a dramatic idea of the creators embodied on the screen actors. "Red Tent" has a non-standard for the cinema of that time era structure.

An unusual structure of narration

First, the script was directed by director Mikhail Kalatozov and screenwriter, screenwriter Yuri Nagibin. According to their vision, the whole action had to develop around the "court of conscience", which for itself suits the aged Nobile, in order to find the answer to the question whether he is guilty or not. This idea of the drama "Red Tent" actors called an explanatory prologue to the main action. As prosecutors, witnesses and judges, the general mentally summoned all those involved or participants in the catastrophe that appeared in the living room of Umberto as he remembered them 40 years ago.

As the most experienced and respected, the process is led by Rual Amundsen (actor Sean Connery). In addition to the male heroes present, among them: Zappi (actor Luigi Vanucci), head of the expedition on the Krasin icebreaker, Professor Samoilovich (actor G. Gai), Soviet pilot Chukhnovsky (actor Nikita Mikhalkov), Lundborg and Biaggi, expeditionist (actor Mario Adolf), near Amundsen there is a nurse Valerie performed by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale, whose presence undoubtedly decorated the film "The Red Tent".

Actors and roles

1969 in the history of Soviet cinema will be remembered as a period of appearance of a non-standard in the screen display of a love line. Before in Soviet films, the display of feelings was much more reserved. The character of the nurse Valeriya was introduced into the plot of the picture at the urging, rather an order, the producer of the film Franco Kristaldi. With his light hand, one of the central storylines was the beautiful, but sad story of the love of polar Finn from Finland Finn Malmgren (actor Edward Martsevich) and Valerie (actress Claudia Cardinale).

The fact is that the producer, according to the contract, had the right to invite any foreign actors to work on the project, as he paid their fees. For none of the crew was a secret that in the only female role in the whole film he saw only his bride - the already famous Italian actress Claudia Cardinale. After the fundamental changes in the script, due to the producer's correction, the screenwriter Yuri Nagibin refused to continue his participation in the filming of the movie "The Red Tent." Actors from the USSR regretted his departure from the project. In place of Nagibinu came the famous Ennio de Konchini, winner of the Oscar, co-author of "Divorce in Italian."

Foreign kinosvila

Undisputed success of the picture is the participation in it of the beautiful British actor Peter Finch. The general in his performance appears before the viewer of an elderly man, tired of life, at the same time experienced and still naive, mild, over the past decades exhausted by his complex of guilt, but still a sincere and honest man. To Soviet Finch's advice during the filming of doubles, Soviet actors listened.

The Red Tent had a budget of $ 10,000,000, which ensured the participation of Peter Finch and Sean Connery in the film . First, in a significant image for the plot of Rual Amundsen, the producer saw quite a few other stage masters: John Wayne, Paul Scofield, Laurence Olivier. However, they all refused flatly. The producer is almost desperate, but Sean Connery agreed - the idol of millions, megapopular James Bond. His acting skills became a real find of the film.

The image of Rual Amundsen, passing through the whole plot of the picture, as if coordinating the development of the action. The role of Connery can be, without exaggeration, called the core for the narrative. The image created by the actor is remembered by the viewer, leaves no one indifferent. In the domestic version, this is facilitated by Yury Yakovlev's voice acting studio.

Live shooting

On the work of the crew during the filming of the "Red Tent", sometimes in extreme conditions, it was possible to shoot a separate film. Actor Eduard Martsevich was not at all sweet when shooting episodes on the coast of Franz Josef Land: he had to fall on his shoulders in wormwood double for a double, and then defile among the real ice hummocks barefoot in his underwear. He was sympathetic to all actors involved in the project.

The "Red Tent" had a fabulous budget for that time, so Kristaldi did not spare money to organize the filming expeditions to the Far North. It is to him that the spectator is obliged to see the exceptionally beautiful landscapes of the Arctic, including the birth of the iceberg. Individual shots of the film act on the beholder in a terrific way.