“Sunny May of Alexander Arzhilovsky”: a film about the countryman actor was shot in Tyumen
Another documentary film about a wonderful Tyumen resident was made by the creative union of director Vera Fedorova, cameraman Sergei Lykasov and People's Artist of Russia Vladimir Orel. This is their ninth joint project. This time the famous Russian artist Alexander Arzhilovsky became the hero of film history. He is well known to most viewers, primarily from the film “It Was the Month of May,” but few people know that he was born and raised and is buried in Tyumen. On Sunday, February 1, the film will be presented to the public. The presentation of the film will take place at the Tyumen Drama Theater at 18.00. Free admission.
“Vladimir Vasilyevich Orel proposed to make a film about our fellow countryman with the financial support of the regional Department of Culture,” says Vera Fedorova. — The co-author of the script was journalist Elena Poddubnaya.
“The Last May of Alexander Arzhilovsky”: a film about the fellow countryman actor was shot in Tyumen. Photo from the personal archive of Olga Arzhilovskaya-Sidorova
Alexander Arzhilovsky starred in more than forty films, in nine of them he played leading roles. His partners were Vladimir Vysotsky, Tatyana Doronina, Pyotr Todorovsky, Sergey Shakurov, Alexandra Yakovleva, Mikhail Pugovkin, Georgy Zhzhenov, Vladimir Gostyukhin...
— It’s surprising that you don’t ask any of the Tyumen residents, no one knows him. And he is our fellow countryman! Only when they see Sasha in a film do they exclaim: “So I know him!” Is he from Tyumen? Therefore, our film is a tribute to the actor and fellow countryman,” says Vera Fedorova.
“The Last May of Alexander Arzhilovsky”: a film about the fellow countryman actor was shot in Tyumen. Photo from the personal archive of Olga Arzhilovskaya-Sidorova
Filming took place in Tyumen, Moscow, and Minsk. He worked for 15 years at the Film Actor Theater in Minsk, where his wife, daughter, friends, and colleagues still live.
— In Belarus, filming coincided with Alexander’s Memorial Day, November 11. In 2014, it was 15 years since he passed away. We were pleasantly surprised that everyone we invited to the shooting came, no one refused, even those who were very busy,” the director recalls. — The actors shared their memories and told some interesting moments from their lives. And director Boris Lutsenko repented. Arzhilovsky wanted to play Van Gogh all his life and always offered to make a film about the artist. He even wrote the script himself, went and lived where Van Gogh lived. But the dream remained a dream.
Vera Ivanovna says that a certain presence of Alexander Arzhilovsky was felt all the time. He seemed to control what and how it would be about him in this film.
“He has a very difficult energy.” But still he “let me in.” We had to slowly crawl through the crack to him. It all started in Minsk, after one of his colleagues’ interviews, his buttonhole suddenly stopped working. She had to be replaced with a microphone and filming continued. Then we realized: Yeah, Sasha didn’t like something about what was said. There was another moment, already during editing, when the script was ready, I began to take the sheets and cut my finger with the paper, the blood started pouring out. At that time I was thinking about the film. Immediately I thought: this is a sign, they heard me. During editing, his presence was also felt. Some moments were difficult, I didn’t like the order of some plans, and for a long time I couldn’t find the music. I was nervous. And at some point in the morning I woke up and realized which fragments needed to be swapped, and some had to be abandoned altogether.
Cameraman Sergei Lykasov also had a difficult task. He had to create the image of the main character.
— During filming, Vladimir Orel and I tried not to disturb him, at some moments we even moved further to the side. Sergei had to not only feel the material, but also create an atmosphere through the images. He succeeded; I wanted to “embroider” a picture from his plans,” the director shares.
“The Last May of Alexander Arzhilovsky”: a film about the fellow countryman actor was shot in Tyumen. Photo from the personal archive of Olga Arzhilovskaya-Sidorova
Alexander Arzhilovsky lived an amazing life. He had two breakthroughs. The first was when, after graduating from school, he went from Tyumen to Moscow for competitions and, incidentally, entered GITIS on the first try. Classmates recall that no one could even imagine that Sanka would become an actor, and what kind of one! Everyone thought he would be an athlete or a military man.
The second breakthrough is Paris. In the 90s, not knowing the language and having no connections, he left for France. I slept on a bench and ate whatever God provided. But, I learned the language and even started acting in feature films!
Unfortunately, having returned to Minsk, he was no longer needed, and when he arrived in Tyumen, he did not have time to please the Tyumen audience with his creativity, after 3 months he was gone...
— It seems to me that the film turned out to be sincere and bright, although there is certainly drama in it. After watching it, you are left with pride for our country, for our heroes, and we have many of them. Let’s not forget them,” noted Vera Fedorova.
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The boy loved to draw and devoted a lot of time to this hobby, but his artistic abilities did not result in anything more.
Vocational school
In 1972, the young man left the Tyumen region. The personal life of Alexander Bashirov made the first serious turn towards future success.
In the photo: Alexander Bashirov in his youth
He ended up in Leningrad, where he became a student at a vocational school, where he mastered the profession of a tiler. After graduating from school, he began working at the Vyborg cement plant.
Army
In 1981, the future actor ended up in the army. The military biography of Alexander Bashirov is connected with Transbaikalia, where he ended up in a tank division.
Since the guy was a good drawer, he was appointed an artist at the army club. He later said that he once received an order to create a portrait of Brezhnev, with a tank helmet on his head. Bashirov completed the task, but after placing the portrait on the club, Leonid Ilyich gave a long life.
VGIK
Journalists sometimes ask the actor about the origins of his acting. Bashirov replies that he wants to subjugate people and sometimes he succeeds. Alexander also calls himself a descendant of the Golden Horde khans.
After leaving the army, Bashirov became a student of the directing department at VGIK. His teacher was Igor Talankin, with whom Alexander studied for two years, after which Anatoly Vasiliev took him in.
The personal life of Alexander Bashirov at this time was stormy. In addition, he already knew how to shock the public. In many ways, his departure from Talankin is connected precisely with this.
When students presented their sketches to the VGIK commission, Bashirov “became famous” in the image of the Devil, who appeared to Faust not quite in his usual form. Alexander went on stage dressed in a robe over his naked body. As soon as Bashirov found himself under the watchful gaze of the commission consisting of Inna Makarova, Irina Skobtseva and Sergei Bondarchuk himself, he threw off his robe and, in what his mother gave birth, revealed himself to the masters of Soviet cinema. After a huge scandal about this, the brawler found himself on the course of Anatoly Vasilyev, who was more loyal to such antics.
America
After graduating from VGIK, Alexander Bashirov’s personal life again took a sharp turn. He ended up in New York with his first wife, a US citizen.
In the photo: Bashirov with his first wife
There, the certified Soviet director entered the Berghof Studio, headed by Lawrence Arancio. At one time, she gave impetus to the careers of Robert De Niro, Liza Minnelli, Al Pacino and other stars of world cinema.
But the time came, and Alexander Bashirov’s wife demanded a divorce from him, which ended his career in America without even beginning.
