Typical actors: "Almost a funny story" - the triumph of yesterday's actors in the second plan

The success of television movies, as a rule, are actors. "Almost a funny story" - telepost, where everything coincided: an extraordinary director (Pyotr Fomenko), interesting material ( Emil Braginsky's script ), amazing music (songs by S. Nikitin and V. Berkovsky) and a close-up artist, captivating spectators with silent monologue scenes , Conveying the whole palette of emotions. It's amazing, but almost all of them are characteristic actors who do not have experience of leading roles.

The plot of the picture

Viktor Meshkov, a safety engineer, had a mental silence, but there was one continuous hassle. Everything changed the desire to help one of the sisters bring a suitcase during a business trip to Ancient Russia, an indistinguishable city on the Volga. The usual male act caused so many subsequent events, that in desperation Meshkov would exclaim: "I think I will now carry your suitcase all my life!". But the main consequence is the love of the eccentric Illaria Pavlovna, a lonely woman with a bitter fate.

Over the course of two series, a novel of unsociable, sullen engineer Meshkov and an eccentric draftsman Illaria, living in the family of the sister-artist, turned into a servant and nurse for her. The couple constantly gets into comic situations, therefore the genre of the television picture is a comedy, but the actors of the film "Almost a funny story" together with magic songs performed by the Nikitins' spouses turn it into a melodrama that resonates in the heart of every spectator.

The magic of the duo of Mikhail Gluzsky and Olga Antonova

In 1977, when the picture came on the screen, Mikhail Gluzsky (Meshkov) turned 59 years old. The actor never knew what a creative simple is. But despite the impressive filmography, he had very few star roles in the cinema, and his fame came only forty after the role of the captain in the "Quiet Don". Playing secondary heroes, he was remembered with a piercing glance from under thick brows, representing everyone: from peasants to grandees. But there was not a real love story in his arsenal yet. Put "on Gluzsky" was a certain risk, because there are more proven age actors. "Almost a funny story" is the creative success of the paradoxical Fomenko, who introduced a famous artist in a new role.

In the awakening of feelings in this person who has reconciled with loneliness, he immediately believed and so sympathized with the hero that the trick of the exalted Illaria Pavlovna, who decided to disappear from his life, did not leave anyone indifferent. For Olga Antonova, actress of the St. Petersburg Comedy Theater, this role was a television debut. She remembers that at first Gluzsky herself did not like her candidacy. He grumbled at the director that she was very young for this role. Between them there was a difference of 20 years. But he was besieged by the operator: "Could your hero, until unconscious, fall in love with the correct old aunt?".

Olga Antonova played the wrong woman, a sublime, vulnerable, some kind of "fairy elf", defenseless and gullible. Her image strikingly coincided with the song on the poems of Novella Matveeva "I mold from plasticine" and persuaded the viewer that only such a woman was able to disrupt the main character of the comedy "Almost a funny story."

Actors who created unforgettable images

Meshkov's colleague Lazarenko, who played an important role in the combination of the main characters, was performed by Mikhail Danylov from St. Petersburg. And the sister of Ilaria Pavlovna Taisia - Lyudmila Arinina. Both of these actors have already filmed with Fomenko in the series "For the rest of his life" and were in absolute harmony with his bold director's plan. One of the best dialogues in the film is Lazarenko's communication with Illaria Pavlovna in the dining room and his conversation with Meshkov in Moscow. He was the first to believe in the feelings of a woman and his question after her statement that he had a kind heart: "From whom? At Meshkov? ", - this is not just a surprise. This is an unexpected discovery that love is capable of doing miracles: "You talk about it with inspiration!".

At Lyudmila Arinina, at the beginning of the shooting, the role of a single woman, heroically overcoming life's difficulties, already developed. Everything changed the film "Almost a funny story." Actors and roles here intertwined are absolutely amazing. There is a feeling that each of his heroes was infinitely close and understandable. In the artist, heroine Arinina, the creative principle and dedication to the chosen case paradoxically joined with responsibility for the sister, which she herself took over, being considered more successful and experienced. Her Taisia with the notions: "You are trusting, and he - burned!", Does not meet the audience's understanding. But the actress managed to show an internal rethinking of the developing events, and the viewer can see the sadness in her eyes and even some envy of her sister. Surprisingly, the actress herself will meet her real happiness only in 60 years.

"Almost a funny story": actors and supporting roles

Among the episodic roles, there are truly legendary actors. "Almost a funny story" will remember the image of Mary Mironova, mother of Andrei Mironov, who played the postal operator. The conductor of the train was represented by Svetlana Kharitonova, who showed real female solidarity towards Illyariy Pavlovna and witnessed the happiest moments of her life. Everything that she imagined on the train and represented as real, would occur in the eyes of a bewildered sister and conductor - a woman who lost her faith in simple human happiness and seemed to regain hope.

Lyudmila Polyakova created a memorable image of the seeker of male attention, in several episodes she demonstrated such a longing in her eyes that she could not help arouse sympathy from the viewers. The traveler "with the sign of quality" was brilliantly played by Valentin Gaft, ridiculing the representatives of the strong half, propagandizing double morals. All these people indirectly contributed to the awakening of feelings for each other on the part of not very young people.

Younger generation

The daughter of Meshkov was played in the film by an unknown actress Maria Velikanova. This role will remain her only role in the cinema, although the further life will be connected with television and the film industry, but already as an artist. She is married to a famous actor and TV presenter Sergei Kolesnikov. Her married boyfriend named Tolik, an obsessive personality, but this and memorable, played by Vladimir Puchkov. After a number of bright film works, he focused his attention on teaching, being currently a professor at GITIS.

The film is unique in that in its place harmonious were all the actors. "Almost a funny story" is a film work in the spirit of "The Irony of Fate", just its rolling fate is not so happy. Those who managed to see the picture can not forget it. The film, revealing the talent of yesterday's actors in the second plan, really heals the soul, charging with hope and optimism.