Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina: biography, career and personal life. Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina: biography, career and personal life Theatrical works of Lyudmila Kasatkina
She was born on May 15, 1925 in Moscow. Father - Kasatkin Ivan Alekseevich (1902-1981). Mother - Kasatkina Varvara Nikolaevna (1903-1983). Spouse - Kolosov Sergey Nikolaevich (born in 1921), film director, National artist THE USSR. Son - Kolosov Alexey Sergeevich (born in 1958), musician. Granddaughters: Lyudmila (born in 1984), Anna (born in 2001).
The personality of Lyudmila Kasatkina is so unique and multifaceted that revealing it is a very difficult task. An amazing ability to transform, and in completely opposite characters, is the most valuable quality of an actress. You are convinced of this once again, recalling the roles of Kasatkina, so different in genre, causing either tears or sincere laughter: dashing Zhenya Shulzhenko (“Factory Girl” by V. Volodin), mischievous Nila Snizhko (“Drummer” by A. Salynsky), charming Marfinka (“Cliff” by A.A. Goncharov), modest officer’s wife Anechka (“Ocean” by A. Stein), heroic, legendary Commissar (“Optimistic Tragedy” by Vs. Vishnevsky), bewitching Margot Channing (“Broadway Charades”), “Mother Courage” by B. Brecht, Lady Torrens (“Orpheus descends into hell”), “Darling” by A.P. Chekhov, Anya Morozova from the television movie by S. Kolosov "We call fire on ourselves." And the tragic "Mother Mary" and "Remember your name"? You look at the first works of Kasatkina "Tiger Tamer" and "Taming of the Shrew" and you will be sure: she was born for comedy. And now before her eyes her recent work in the Theater of the Russian Army - Queen Elizabeth Tudor in the play "Your Sister and Captive" directed by A. Burdonsky based on the play by L. Razumovskaya. Historical drama, tragic role, deepest revelation of character...
Femininity and tenderness, will and courage. Kasatkina for many personifies the Russian character, incomprehensible and beautiful, causes delight and deep respect. This is exactly how her heroines appear on the screen and on the stage - simple and modest, the most seemingly ordinary and at the same time great in their patriotism and philanthropy. The heroines of Kasatkina are always overwhelmed with passion. Whoever they are - workers, secretaries, pilots, schoolgirls, partisans, noblewomen, queens. They are always possessed. This Kasatka trait is in all her images.
And Lyudmila Kasatkina also has an intuitive sense of national color. Isn't Florella the most true Spaniard in one of the best performances of the Theater of the Soviet Army "The Dance Teacher"? Ardent, proud, wayward. Doesn't one feel the purely English stiffness of the same Queen Elizabeth? And how many Russians are in Kruchinina from A.N. Ostrovsky? All this testifies to the rare combination of acting roles, the strength of the national theater school, and the amazing acting uniqueness.
Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina has an extraordinary fate. Her first years of life were spent in a village near Vyazma, while with their great working family no accident happened...
We had a middle-class household: a cow with a calf, a horse with a foal, three sheep, three pigs, twenty chickens. One day they took it all away from us.
The threat of being exiled to Siberia was quite real, and then in one night everyone fled from the village (except for grandmother Maria Filatievna and great-grandfather Spiridon Kalinich, who did not go anywhere and lived out their working life in poverty and orphanhood)... Into the darkness... Into the unknown... To Moscow...
The era of ordeals, wanderings, grief and small joys has begun...
After many tests, we got for three (and soon the fourth “tenant” was born - my brother Leonid) in Borisoglebsky Lane a twelve-meter room in a deep basement with one window under the ceiling. We were flooded with rain, then melting snow. In these basements, the former owners of the house - the princes Obolensky - kept rubbish, people did not live here ...
Although no one in the family was related to acting profession, the Kasatkins always had some kind of artistic streak. Grandfather Alexei Spiridonovich Kasatkin lived in Moscow in the pre-revolutionary years, served as a coachman for a well-known lawyer and, with the permission of his employer, attended classes at an amateur drama circle at the Rumyantsev Museum (future Russian State Library). The uncle of Lyudmila Kasatkina, Vasily Alekseevich Kasatkin, also reached out to art with his soul. He graduated from a fire technical school, rose to the rank of fire chief of the center of Moscow, including the Kremlin, was awarded two orders during the war. In moments of rest, he read Yesenin wonderfully and even outwardly looked like a great poet. Lyudmila Kasatkina's father, Ivan Alekseevich, played the balalaika and sang beautifully.
The thread of passion for art reached out to Lyudmila. Of course, both the impressions of childhood and the excessive emotionality of the perception of many phenomena of life probably played their role.
When she was in the fifth grade, the artist of the Bolshoi Theater, choreographer Igor Dmitrievich Lentovsky, came to school. He was also a choreographer at the Shatsky Opera Studio at the Moscow Conservatory. Lentovsky selected girls for classes in the choreographic class and participation in opera performances at the Shatsky Studio. Lyudmila was also selected. When little Lucy appeared in the corps de ballet on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, no one could have imagined that this charming white-headed smiling girl would become a famous dramatic actress, whose talent would be applauded not only by her compatriots, but also by the audience in Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, other countries.
These few years of ballet classes played a big role in her life. Firstly, she saw and heard opera performances, singers, and began to listen and understand classical music. Secondly, I learned to move, dance, communicate with creative people, and finally, observe the regime. The regime was harsh, and Lucy's health began to deteriorate. Doctors forbade her to do ballet. The choreographic class had to be left.
A new hobby came, a completely different kind - she began to play ... in the yard hockey team. One of the girls turned out to be a hockey player. These hockey lessons had a positive effect on her health, she got stronger. And Lucy again began to look for an opportunity to get closer to art. But the war started...
June 22, 1941... I'm visiting my grandmother, not far from Mozhaisk. I swim with my girlfriends in our pond ... Silence, peace ... And suddenly we hear the approaching horse stomp, the silence of Sunday morning is cut through by someone's hysterical cry. We see a guy jumping on a bare horse and screaming with all his might. Shouts, repeating the same word:
- War! .. War! .. War! ..
I waited several weeks for my mother to come for me. But she didn't drive.
Every night I listened with horror to the tense bombers humming in the sky, loaded with bombs to destroy Moscow. But my parents, brother, all relatives are there, all of Moscow is there!
Rumors of a German landing in our area plunged the women and children of the surrounding villages into a state of horror. And then my grandmother and I made a decision: to go to Mozhaisk on foot ... She hung a bag of food over my shoulders, made the sign of the cross.
And I hit the road. It went on for a week, without shelter, without rest, under the howl of aircraft, under machine-gun fire from the air, surrounded by oppressed and hungry people. The first meeting with the war: women sob, holding bloodied children in their hands; screaming children, losing their mothers. Around the sea of blood ...
And yet I got to Mozhaisk. The last trains left for Moscow, thousands of refugees left in them. And in this crowd, in the noise, in the screams, I heard the voice of my mother! Her cry, full of both joy and anxiety. She came for me! Hope to get to the village. Previously, she had not been released from work. But a miracle happened - we met ... It was the happiest moment of my life!
So the war broke into the life of Lyudmila Kasatkina. The heroic, patriotic theme will later become one of the main ones in her work. Lyudmila spent all the war years in the capital, and perhaps what she saw with her childish eyes were the very grains that sprouted into serious roles, unraveling someone else's pain. Those grains that planted in the soul the thirst to fight. A quality so characteristic of all her heroines.
Once, on the radio between reports from the front, Lyudmila heard an announcement that the Moscow City House of Pioneers was recruiting those who wanted to study in various circles. Without hesitation for a long time, she went to Stopani Street near the Red Gates and immediately got to the evening of the Artistic Word Studio - Pushkin Evening. And I forgot about everything. I felt the power and magic of the Word!
Lyudmila asked for this studio, and they took her. Here she met two amazing teachers: Anna Gavrilovna Bovshek and Anna Vladimirovna Schneider.
It was they who taught us to forget about the hunger that all of us - the children of military Moscow - felt all the time, and to give the whole evening to Pushkin. Yes, the most important thing for Anna Vladimirovna was not to learn and correctly read the poems of Alexander Sergeevich, but to make sure that we fell in love with them for life! We forgot about the war, that we had to repeat the program of tomorrow's speech in the hospital, that the lessons had not been done - we forgot everything, we lived by Pushkin!
Summer 1943. At the entrance exam to GITIS, having just returned from evacuation, I read one of Gorky's Italian Tales. I read, but thought about the fate of my mother. The commission listened to me very attentively and kindly, let me read to the end, and when I finished, I saw that some members of the commission were wiping away tears. The commission was headed by the great Moscow Art Theater actor Mikhail Mikhailovich Tarkhanov. He asked:
- Girl! Don't you have anything more fun?
“Come, girl, rest.
I went. I felt like I didn't pass the exam. Hunkered down in a corner. And I cry. Suddenly someone touched my shoulder, I turn around - Tarkhanov: “Girl, don't cry. You've been accepted..."
GITIS of those years was an institution with a powerful pedagogical potential. It was led by the outstanding theater historian, director of the institute, Stefan Stefanovich Mokulsky, and artistic director, People's Artist of the USSR Mikhail Mikhailovich Tarkhanov. The departments were headed by first-class teachers and methodologists: B.E. Zakhava, I.M. Raevsky, E.S. Sarycheva, A.M. Shalomitova, B.V. Alpers, N.M. Tarabukin. The courses were headed by: V.A. Orlov, V.V. Belokurov, Yu.A. Zavadsky, A.D. Popov, A.M. Lobanov, A.D. Wild, A.S. Paul, P.A. Markov, N.V. Petrov, L.V. Baratov, N.M. Gorchakov, I.Ya. Sudakov; students were taught by: A.K. Dzhivelegov, M.M. Morozov, I.M. Tumanov, G.G. Konsky, G.N. Boyadzhiev, Yu.A. Dmitriev, D.V. Tunkel, P.V. Leslie and other wonderful specialists.
It was to such teachers that Lyudmila Kasatkina got. She was among those lucky ones who were taken to their course by the famous teacher Iosif Moiseevich Raevsky. Actor and director of the Moscow Art Theater, a student of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, he headed the acting department.
Stage movement teacher Minas Gerasimovich Gevorkyan quickly saw that Lyudmila had touched choreography as a child. He greatly advanced her dance development, which gave her the opportunity to perform in the future large and sometimes complex dance numbers like in the theater (“Dance Teacher”, “Lyubka-Love”, “Orpheus Descends to Hell”, “Dragonfly”, “Drummer”, “The sea has spread wide”, “Your sister and the prisoner”, etc.), and in the cinema (“We call fire on ourselves”, “Darling”, “Honeymoon”, “Bread and roses”, “Under the roofs of Montmartre”, "Princess of the Circus", etc.).
In her third year, Lyudmila Kasatkina met the future director Sergei Kolosov.
It was a sunny May afternoon. And sunny May, and a successful rehearsal, approved by the great Tarkhanov, and the feeling of an upcoming family holiday - my mother never forgot my birthday, no matter how difficult my childhood and youth were - all this gave rise in my soul to the expectation of joy ... some unusual...
At the institute gates, I was stopped by two first-year students from the directing department. For several minutes we exchanged impressions about the recent institute "sensation" - the "skit" "Ivanov Pavel", in which I portrayed a certain "Crib" ...
After talking with future directors, I was already preparing to leave to help my mother with the pre-holiday chores. At that moment a young officer entered the yard. Passing by, he saluted our company and went to the doors of the institute.
The boys called out to him:
- Kolosov, come to a good company!
He approached, saluted again and told me that his name was Sergey, and briefly reported to the students he knew that he military service released thanks to the efforts of Tarkhanov and Mokulsky, and that he will go to study at our institute in the fall. On their course!
As he spoke, I slowly looked at him. Cute, good eyes. The directors, of course, immediately informed him that it was my birthday. Kolosov immediately, half-jokingly, began to crowd in on a visit, they say, on such an occasion it is necessary to come with flowers and congratulate.
I pretended that it was possible, and even gave the address ... only not real, but fictitious ...
This was our introduction...
At the end of the second year, student directors were allowed to involve students of the final acting course in preparing training passages, and Kolosov invited Kasatkina to play a role in a short passage from the very then widely disseminated play by K. Simonov "The Russian Question". From this began their more than half a century of creative community, a unique family union.
It was 1947. The studies were coming to an end, graduation performances and job searches were coming. It was assumed that the course on which Kasatkina studied would leave to create a new theater group in the periphery. Sergei Kolosov strongly advised her to appear at the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, where he worked for one season in his youth, participated in mass scenes and was captivated by the work and personality of Alexei Dmitrievich Popov. She also loved this theater, she really liked the performances "A long time ago", "Stalingraders", "Dance Teacher", "The Taming of the Shrew". She knew that Alexei Popov had great authority among theatrical figures, the authority of a person far from any squabbles, intrigues and career aspirations, that he attached great importance to the intra-theatrical atmosphere. However, she was a very petite girl, and it was a great courage on her part to decide to enter the theater with its gigantic stage and the same huge auditorium.
Regarding the idea of a show at the TsTSA, I spoke with my main teacher on the course, G.G. Konsky. He explained to me that I would not be visible on this, as he put it, "damn stage" and that the Moscow Art Theater troupe knew that Popov, having recently worked for two years at the Moscow Art Theater on the production of Alexei Tolstoy's play "Difficult Years", was terribly happy, which puts the performance on the "normal stage". The authority of Konsky in my eyes was great, and I listened to his words. He advised me to appear, as he himself put it, in a “normal” theater for lyric-comedy roles, emphasizing once again that the theater directed by Alexei Popov is large-scale, heroic, historical, and I need to develop in a lyric-comedy direction.
Having bypassed several Moscow theaters, Kasatkina finally cast aside all her doubts and returned to the idea of showing it to the Artistic Council of the Army Theater. Theater director David Vladimirovich Tunkel, director of the troupe Gennady Ivanovich Shagaev and head of the literary part writer-front-line soldier Alexander Mikhailovich Borshchagovsky came to her graduation performances "Labor Bread", where she played the role of Evgenia, and "The Power of Darkness". They liked Lyudmila's game, and she was offered to appear to the theater's artistic council.
At the art council, opinions were divided. Some of those present, paying tribute to her acting abilities, expressed doubt that her individuality would fit into the thematic focus of the repertoire. Their opponents believed that the theater could not exist without lyrical, young and still inexperienced actresses.
The dispute was resolved simply: the head of the theater, General Savva Ignatievich Pasha, emphasized that in “A long time ago” there were absolutely no young ladies in the ball scene, that Kasatkina was exactly what was needed there. As for the future, he personally does not really believe in her great successes and therefore, for the time being, he sets the lowest salary for Kasatkina ...
So, after all the unrest, her theatrical fate was determined. And, as it turned out, forever. Now, few people can boast of such a generous devotion to one stage, one theater, with which Kasatkina has been associated for more than half a century. Of these, more than 10 years have passed under the sign of creative cooperation with the outstanding director A.D. Popov, who gave Kasatkina a "start in life". The master supported the young artist. He invited her to try herself in a variety of roles. And very soon theatrical Moscow started talking about Kasatkina.
She started as an actress of the modern repertoire. She, as it should be done with young actors, immediately began to be introduced into crowd scenes. The first was the famous "Stalingraders", where she played an Uzbek in the episode "Crossing the Volga". The next was the play "Southern Knot", which was prepared for the 30th anniversary of October and was dedicated to important point Great Patriotic War- the liberation of the Crimea.
In the finale, there was a bright scene of the victorious end of the heroic battle: troops were marching, cars were passing by, cavalry was skipping, the sun was shining brightly and it was joyful like spring. Naturally, at the crossroads they put a traffic controller girl, that is, me. The performance was rehearsed both day and night - it was necessary to be in time for the exactly appointed time! Aleksey Dmitrievich, with the participation of zavlit Borshchagovsky, only managed to correct and supplement the scenes prepared by the director. It was my turn too. As I was later told, during the rehearsal, Popov became interested in the traffic controller, who diligently directed the movement of the liberators of Crimea.
- Who is this? he asked his co-director I.P. Voroshilov.
– Kasatkina, new girl... From the course of Raevsky ...
But I was happy. The feeling of being involved in the creation of a performance staged by Popov himself in a creatively intense atmosphere that unites the team overwhelmed me. And Popov, well, over time, I’ll probably meet him again, maybe in another, larger work ...
But life intervened in these long-term forecasts. The meeting took place just a few days later: Popov approved her for the role of Oksana in a new theater performance - a drama in verse by Margarita Aliger "The First Thunder". At the institute, L. Kasatkina was convinced that there were no serious dramatic, tragic notes in her acting temperament, and they sounded in this role, which was confirmed by the mentors - Maria Osipovna Knebel and Nina Antonovna Olshevskaya, who helped Kasatkina prepare the role. This work opened the way for the actress to new roles, not only lyrical, but also with elements of drama and even tragedy. By the end of the first season, she was already busy in seven performances! She played two big roles, three episodic, was involved in two extras. In the second season, three more big roles and two episodes were added to them. Then there were maybe fewer roles, but they became more and more voluminous.
In the play “The Last Frontiers”, where Kasatkina played the military postman Zoya (play by Yuli Chepurin, staged by A.D. Popov and D.V. Tunkel), her heroine is killed near Prague, after the announcement of the surrender of Nazi Germany. It was a small role, but for the first time in the first cast, and Kasatkina played the premiere. HELL. Popov, director and objective colleagues responded well to this work.
Despite the heavy workload in the repertoire, Kasatkina took part in two so-called educational performances that were not intended for the main repertoire. Their enthusiasts were actors Andrei Petrov, who was very fond of directing, and Andrei Popov, who played the main role in the drama of the poet Dmitry Kedrin "Rembrandt".
During the first season, I got to know all the theater directing, except for V.S. Kancel and his co-director A.A. Kharlamova. Only in the second season did my participation, at first small, in the performances of the brilliant master Vladimir Semenovich Kanzel, an original, “lifeless” person and romantically in love with the art of Melpomene, begin. I played a role in the play "On the Other Side" (one of the first post-war detective stories dedicated to intelligence officers who operated during the war). But in my soul there lived a dream of the main role in ... "The Dance Teacher".
In one of the following works, a staging of Dreiser's famous "American Tragedy", I played Roberta Alden in the second cast. Together with me, Vladimir Soshalsky (instead of Zeldin) and Alexei Batalov (instead of Andrey Popov) entered the play “The Law of Lycurgus” (a play by N. Bazilevsky). Under the leadership of I.P. Voroshilov, I seem to have moved forward a little. If in his productions of “Enough Stupidity for Every Wise Man” and “The Night of Errors” I had roles of a lyric-comedy plan, then in this performance I managed again (after “First Thunder”) to plunge into dramatic fate heroines, find new colors for her.
The fourth season in the Army Theater is very important for the actress both creatively and personally. HELL. Popov resumed rehearsals of The Inspector General, interrupted by work either on Unforgettable 1919 or on Admiral's Flag. Kasatkina was assigned the role of Maria Antonovna, which she received three months before the release of the play. The rehearsals of The Inspector General (1951) gave impetus to the search for independent solutions to the image as a whole or its individual fragments. The young actress faced difficult tasks: by all means to achieve such an embodiment of this image that would break theatrical traditions. The stamp consisted primarily in the fact that Maria Antonovna was always portrayed as a provincial fool. “Let's leave the stamp of a silly coquette, look for a charming little animal, from which the future Anna Andreevna will definitely grow, if not worse! .. ”- reasoned A.D. Popov. And she searched as best she could. First of all, I was looking for the eyes - the eyes of a cunning, intelligent little man who achieves his goal in any way ...
Popov's assistant at this performance was Sergei Kolosov (Alexey Dmitrievich appreciated his work at the performances of "The Wide Steppe" and "Unforgettable 1919"), who became for Lyudmila Kasatkina not only a colleague in creativity, but also a spouse.
We just got married, and Andrei Popov came to our modest wedding with two large cakes: in one hand - from Alexei Dmitrievich, in the other - from Maria Osipovna Knebel. Nina Antonovna Olshevskaya came with her husband, the famous satirist Viktor Efimovich Ardov, the founder of Russian film studies Nikolai Alekseevich Lebedev, the young composer Kirill Molchanov with his wife Marina Pastukhova-Dmitrieva, an actress of our theater. And Andrey Petrov brought a wall newspaper in which capital letters it was inscribed: “Congratulations to the Kolosatkins!” This comic pseudonym has survived to this day among friends of our family.
Soon the dream of the role of Florela in "The Dance Teacher" came true.
I finally plucked up the courage to ask Kanzel to see my application for the role of Florela. Vladimir Semyonovich froze.
- The old woman! he exclaimed. You are still young for such roles! Which Florela are you?! You don't have that data! This is a typical heroine! And then, can you imagine what it's like to dance the "Big Bolero" together with Zeldin on this agro-mad stage? Prepare the maid - that's your business. Try Lisena. And that's it!
Oh, so, I thought, I will give it my all, but I will play this role! And I asked Vladimir Zeldin to help me prepare the dance and the role in general.
At nine in the morning we came to the rehearsal. And they danced. How obsessed! In an empty rehearsal room. But the day came when the hall was filled, the Great Hall of the theater. The whole troupe came to watch my show. After all, this challenge to fate was too bold. Kanzel entered the hall silent and concentrated. There was silence.
“Let’s start,” Kanzel said with restraint.
First, I played a piece of dialogue, and then I set off along the perimeter of the entire giant stage in the “Big Bolero”, staged by the brilliant choreographer Vladimir Pavlovich Burmeister. Everything. Pause. And ... a roar of applause! And the joyful cry of Kanzel, blocking them:
- The old woman! Play Florela!
Her next role is a young girl, a worker Galya in Yuli Chepurin's play "Spring Stream", which takes place on the construction of the Volga-Don Canal. At first, the role was lyrical and comedic, but there was an unexpected tragic turn in it - in the course of the performance, after a light, lyrical and comedic scene, Galya learns about the death of a loved one. Playing a shock, the first tragedy experienced by a young being, Kasatkina moves away from sentimentality, from "presence", from traditional theatrical suffering. She brings down on people who seemed to Galya the perpetrators of the death of a loved one, anger and denunciation, which made the scene courageous, effective. This work of hers, made under the guidance of A.D. Popova and A.Z. Okunchikov, highly appreciated by Alexei Batalov in his article "Lyudmila Kasatkina - Galya", published in the third issue of the Theater magazine for 1954.
Poetically and captivatingly, Kasatkina, the daughter of a military pilot from a distant garrison, played the orphan Galya Drunina in the play “Pilots” by L. Agranovich and S. Listov (director I.P. Voroshilov) and the teenage refugee Valya in “Metelitsa” by V. Panova.
Soon, Lyudmila Kasatkina had a serious professional test. She was appointed in the second part of the leading role in the comedy "Dragonfly". A comedy with music and dance from modern Georgian life. Of course, she knew the role, dance and musical numbers took place, but, like any other performer, she had fewer rehearsals than necessary.
And here I am on the stage, at a rehearsal of a completely different performance, produced by Alexei Dmitrievich, when he suddenly stops the rehearsal and asks me to come to the director's table:
- Lyuda, Gisya Ostrovskaya has caught a bad cold ... you have to play Dragonfly today. Today the Stalin Committee is watching.
I'm numb. After all, I haven’t rehearsed it for several days, a completely different performance is being released, I’m all in it ...
This performance cost me incredible nervous tension. In the hall - solid laureates (now they say - the elite or the beau monde, and then - laureates): Fadeev, Chirkov, Alexandrov ... There were moments when it seemed to me that I would now fall somewhere and cry. But it just seemed to me...
The next day, Kasatkina learned that the performance was submitted for the Stalin Prize. But I.V. Stalin died, and the Stalin Prizes remained unawarded ...
Soon, under the direction of D. Tunkel, Kasatkina began to rehearse Gladkov's play "Until we meet again", where she played with the wonderful actress L. Fetisova.
In March 1954, an event occurred that greatly changed the life of the actress: she received a telegram from Leningrad with an offer to come to audition for the film Five Leopards.
I didn't want to go. Starting from student years, filmmakers negotiated with her, made photo and screen tests. And all this did not give any results.
My round face, as it were, did not fit in with the role of the movie heroine, but according to my lyrical data, I seemed to be drawn to the lyrical heroine. At Lenfilm, my auditions were seen by two directors who were about to make a film about a circus. They were looking for a heroine who would have a "circus" face. Like mine. Round and funny.
The names of these directors turned out to be sacred to me for life - these are Alexander Viktorovich Ivanovsky and Nadezhda Nikolaevna Kosheverova. It was they who introduced me to the WORLD OF CINEMA, magical art, which I had the good fortune to touch.
“You have a chance that should not be missed,” S.N. convinced his wife. Kolosov, after reading the script. - You have to win it! Gotta be in this movie! You will be approved!"
And she was approved. Only the name of the film was changed: not "Five Leopards", but "Tiger Tamer".
And the film work began. Many different problems, large and small, immediately arose, and all of them had to be solved. Permission was required from the theater management to participate in the filming. It was received, but only on days free from performances and rehearsals. I had to practice riding a motorcycle. We must overcome the fear of close-ups, but the main thing, of course, is to survive the fear of tigers.
"Tiger Tamer" - a bright, cheerful, buffoon comedy with tricks, reprises, clownery - was released in 1955. The film debut of Kasatkina was stunning. She became the favorite of many millions of viewers, and, as it turned out, for many decades. The picture went around the screens of 54 countries of the world, and its heroine Lena Vorontsova conquered millions of viewers. Lyudmila Kasatkina was included in the official Soviet delegation at the Cannes Film Festival, where the out-of-competition screening of The Tiger Tamer took place. (Similar out-of-competition screenings of the film took place at many international festivals). All unanimously predicted the actress a brilliant career in cinema.
The train from The Tamer had different, sometimes unexpected, expressions. For example, the famous predator trainer B.A. Eder, who played in the film the old trainer, teacher Elena Vorontsova, invited her to become a professional tamer, which he wrote about in his book "My Pets".
Invitations to act in films came from masters of different generations. For example, from the young S.I. Rostotsky in the painting "Earth and People", from M.K. Kalatozov, who invited him to the "First Echelon", a film dedicated to the pioneers of the virgin lands. But I did not have a chance to work with the outstanding director Kasatkina. The theater categorically refused her a long vacation in Kazakhstan.
The debut of Kasatkina in the cinema was highly appreciated by many major masters of art.
Here are the words of the great Evgeny Schwartz:
“She is talented and masters the finest techniques of L. Kasatkin's realistic art. The young actress never loses her sense of proportion, the sense of truth, the sense of modern cinema ... "
During the premiere of The Tamer, Evening Moscow published a review of the patriarch musical comedy G.M. Yaron. He wrote:
“The talent of the young artist L. Kasatkina, who plays the role of the tamer Lena Vorontsova, is extremely multifaceted. Her heroine is poetic and sly, extremely feminine and at the same time firm and resolute in her desire to achieve her goal. Kasatkina very truthfully showed a complex range of human feelings. I think it's first-class acting."
Another “piece” of the train from The Tamer is the comedy film Honeymoon (1956), where Lyudmila Kasatkina, who played a young doctor, met again with for the most part group "Tiger Tamers". These are director N. Kosheverova, screenwriters K. Mints and E. Pomeschikov, actors P. Kadochnikov, S. Filippov, P. Sukhanov, T. Peltzer, artist S. Mandel, composer M. Weinberg.
On the eve of the International Shakespeare Congress, scheduled for April 1956, a decision was made at the Central Theater Theater to resume The Taming of the Shrew and introduce a group of young performers into the performance. The role of Katarina A.D. Popov instructed Kasatkina. He was pleased with her work in the film "Tiger Tamer" and through the film was able to see something that brought her closer to the image of Shakespeare's obstinate heroine.
Katarina in The Taming of the Shrew became an event in the theatrical life of the country and one of the first peaks in the work of Lyudmila Kasatkina. In 1956, in addition to entering The Taming of the Shrew, Kasatkina rehearsed five more (!) Roles in performances. In the spring of the same year, she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In those years, the assignment of such a title at such a cinematically young age was an extraordinary event.
At the beginning of 1958, Kasatkina was included in the representative delegation of filmmakers (I.E. Kheifits, S.I. Yutkevich, R.L. Karmen, N.A. Kryuchkov, S.D. Stolyarov, K.S. Luchko, Kyrgyz actress Baken Kydykeeva), who participated in the week Soviet films in India - the first in the history of relations between the two countries.
Katarina is the last work of Kasatkina with the great Master - A.D. Popov, on the eve of his dramatic departure from the theater of the Soviet Army. The performance was followed by the television film The Taming of the Shrew (1961), written and directed by Sergei Kolosov. The creative part of the work on the film was supervised by A.D. Popov. The recognition and success of the picture was absolute. Katarina Kasatkina, first played on stage and then transferred to the television screen, evoked the delight of the public and a lively response from critics.
Here are some reviews of art historians about Kasatkina - Katarina.
“Kasatkina was able to discover in her heroine a complex and subtle inner world, to guess the soul, which is easily vulnerable and therefore so rapidly rising to the defense of the truths she professed. She draws a proud, but fair, blossoming nature, if next to her is a person who is equal in strength of character, intelligence and talent.
Kasatkina conveyed the idea of the play, so boldly guessed at the time by A.D. Popov: Petruchio not only tames Katharina, but is also tamed by her. Katarina not only submits to her husband's willpower, but she herself is tamed by it.
(Chebotarevskaya T. Lyudmila Kasatkina. M .: Art, 1972.)
“Kasatkina's voice, captivating with the richness of timbre sounds and intonations, was demonstrated in full force by her Katarina. The sonority, majority, preciseness of gesture and movement found in this role, possession of the power of the voice, the characteristic plasticity of the dance will pass through the subsequent theatrical and cinematographic works of Lyudmila Kasatkina.
(Sergeeva T. Lyudmila Kasatkina. Stars of the Theater of the Soviet Army. M .: AST-press book, 2002.)
“The director acquired (and, looking ahead, I will say that he acquired forever) a talented like-minded person in art, the performer of most of his creative ideas - an excellent actress Lyudmila Kasatkina. This union, begun so successfully, then knew many more striking manifestations. For the director, this actress has become a kind of lucky talisman ... "
(Vartanov A. Film director Sergei Kolosov. M .: Bureau of propaganda of Soviet cinema art, 1985. P. 29.)
The strict jury of the second International TV Film Festival in Monte Carlo in 1962 could not resist the charm and temperament of the Russian actress and awarded her the Golden Nymph prize for the best performance of the main female role. It was the first international prize awarded to a feature television broadcast. Soviet Union. For forty years after that, only one more Soviet actress received it.
An excellent assessment of the film "The Taming of the Shrew" by the team and the leaders of television, a kind word said by A.D. Popov at Mosfilm, and the approval of the artistic council of the studio - all this moved Lyudmila Kasatkina and Sergey Kolosov to new repertoire searches, to the realization of the dream of further joint work. In 1963, S. Kolosov's radio play "We Call Fire on Ourselves" was aired based on the book by journalist Ovid Gorchakov, where she played the underground fighter Lida Tonchilina.
In the cinema, Lyudmila Kasatkina has played more than 25 roles, 12 of which were created by the brilliant family duet Kasatkina - Kolosov. Kolosov largely shaped the acting image of Lyudmila Kasatkina. The love that they managed to keep has brought amazing creative results. When watching excerpts from the films of Sergei Kolosov with the participation of Lyudmila Ivanovna, the viewer faces a whole layer of domestic television cinema.
Each time, Kasatkina “blew up” the character of her heroines from the inside, revealing behind the external simplicity an unprecedented inner strength and integrity of nature, spiritual beauty and heroism. Ilya Ehrenburg's statement that there are people who are not created to become heroes is remarkably suitable for her heroines. However, they perform feats that are born from the simplest virtues - from loyalty, honor, love for the Motherland, people, truth. It is no coincidence that other roles played by the actress have long outgrown the scope of an artistic phenomenon, acquiring socio-political significance.
Such, for example, is the charming and touching underground worker Anya Morozova from S. Kolosov's first domestic multi-part television film “We Call Fire on Ourselves” (1965). She was played by Kasatkina in such a way that, behind the seeming simplicity, the actress was able to discern and convincingly show a beautiful person, capable of a feat in the name of the Motherland, in the name of the triumph of justice.
“Perhaps the series by Sergei Kolosov would not have been accompanied by such a resounding success, if one of the amazing features of Kasatkina’s acting and human talent had not been revealed in it - her belief in the highest spiritual abilities of a person, in asceticism, as the need to protect justice and goodness.”
The picture, like many other works of director Sergei Kolosov, was basically a documentary. Anya Morozova, an underground worker in the Bryansk region, really existed. A unique case in history, not only cinematography, but the Great Patriotic War - after the film, a real partisan was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. (Something similar will happen 20 years later with the painting by S. Kolosov “Mother Mary”).
In parallel, theatrical life went on - rehearsals and premieres. In 1959, the premiere of a production by B.A. Lvov-Anokhin of the play by the novice playwright Zorya Danovskoy "Lyubka-Love". In the role of Klava in this performance, Kasatkina managed to find (primarily with the help of the talented choreographer Anna Fyodorovna Kobzeva, who staged a psychological monologue dance) a kind of key to understanding the image and drama of a simple village girl. This role was a breakthrough in her stage development and opened the way to new works. Beginning in 1959, rehearsals and premieres went in a "stream".
In the 1960/1961 season, Kasatkina had two premieres staged by the new chief director of the TsTSA Alexander Leonidovich Dunaev: "Ocean" by A. Stein (the role of Anya) and "Game without Rules" by L. Sheinin (the role of Erna Brinkel). The audience, critics, the press especially warmly welcomed her Anechka from "Ocean". One of the most expensive works of those years for the actress was Nila Snizhko in The Drummer Girl (1962) by A.D. Salynsky. “In this role, the actress explored the nature of the ordinary heroism of a Russian person, the moral height, the fortress of patriotic feeling. The actress clearly pursues the idea that it was not fanaticism that led this young being to self-sacrifice, but the potential of the human spirit, the whole personality of a maximalist and romantic, a girl in love with life and standing up, when necessary, to protect her native land, justice, goodness ”(Sergeeva T Lyudmila Kasatkina // Stars of the Theatre, Moscow: AST-press book, 2002).
After The Drummer Girl, Kasatkina played the former prisoner of the fascist concentration camp Lyuba Vasilkova in the play Declaration of Hatred (1964) by I.V. Stock, the ship's cook Man in the play "Wild Captain" by J. Smuul, staged by the Estonian director Voldemar Panso.
Back in 1959-60, Sergei Kolosov began searching for a Chekhov work that would most closely correspond to the creative personality of Lyudmila Kasatkina. Thus was born the idea of "Darling" (1966). After trips with the premiere of "Calling Fire on Ourselves", they lived only for Chekhov - his plays, stories, letters, stage stories his productions. A feature of the work on this picture was Kasatkina's surprisingly quick and deep comprehension of the essence of the image of "Darling". There is no lie, no cynicism, no double-mindedness in her Olenka, in this sweet, sympathetic creature. But there is a rejection of loneliness, there is longing, a deaf, terrible longing that, as it were, cut her off from the world. Restrained acting, built on halftones and details.
There is one among the film works of Lyudmila Kasatkina, which today, when the history of the fatherland is no longer shrouded in an ideological veil, should be especially remembered. This is Maria Zakharchenko from the film “Operation Trust”, based on the novel by L. Nikulin “Dead Swell”. The four-episode film by Sergei Kolosov, released in 1968, is dedicated to the struggle of the Cheka against white emigration. The film was not a direct adaptation of the novel. It includes a significant amount of documentary material, which made the picture historically and psychologically accurate. The director and the lead actress faced a difficult task - in the conditions of censorship and ideological framework to recreate tragic fate a woman who gave her life for her Motherland, who hated the Bolshevik regime, but who did not want to be content with emigration, who was not conquered by the Chekists and who shot a bullet in her temple with the words: “Look how they die for their faith, the tsar and the fatherland ...”. (These words from the film were nevertheless forced to be removed.)
Kasatkina could well expose Zakharchenko to a direct exposure, depicting an emigre goddess treated kindly by royal orders and awards of the white army. But she did nothing of the sort. The actress's commitment to the subjective truth of her heroine breathed a long breath into the image of Zakharchenko. Her image is so psychologically developed and diverse that it captivates from the first to the last shots. A young woman, this Russian Parisian, saves her fatherland from a new world order. He saves fanatically, passionately, just like he loves. Performed by Kasatkina, she appears as a smart, courageous woman who knows how to shoot, ride a horse and at the same time attractively feminine, charming, sometimes seductive. Obviously, Zakharchenko loves Russia to the point of heartache, but this is the love of a man possessed, recognizing only his own rightness. The "Bolshevik" system seemed to her a catastrophe for the motherland, and therefore the struggle is not for life, but for death with Soviet power became for her a matter of ideas, faith, and not personal gain. She is faithful to her, even when she is in a dead end. The audience remembered Kasatkin's eyes, full of anxiety that gnawed at her from the inside, but which she always suppressed severely and courageously ... Today, when the opposition to the civil war is realized in a new way, the role of the first wave of Russian emigration is assessed in a different way, this the acting work of Kasatkina, who created a multi-dimensional image that is true to artistic and historical truth, the image of an enemy that commands respect.
Lyudmila Kasatkina, as a researcher, approaches roles based on the fate of real people, studies materials, documents, getting used to the color of the era.
Auschwitz. Maybe the scariest place on earth. The city even lost its name. Auschwitz was no longer called the city, but concentration camp, the very first and most terrible among the Nazi concentration camps. It was here that S. Kolosov shot one of his best paintings - "Remember Your Name" (1975), which received many prizes and awards at the most prestigious international competitions and festivals. And invariably at all these competitions, Lyudmila Kasatkina received the prize for the best female role.
S.N. Kolosov understood that no amount of rehearsals would help me play this role - the role of a woman who had endured the horror of Auschwitz, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people died, where her child was taken from her - like the surrounding atmosphere. And then he asked us to be accommodated not in the hotel at the Auschwitz Museum, but in the center of the old camp - in the office of his former commandant, SS Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Hess, who was hanged in 1947. There was carved wooden furniture: a large meeting table, two sofas, a wardrobe, benches. And the most terrible thing was the window behind which watchtowers and brick buildings were visible, in which prisoners were previously kept.
Every morning we woke up, and through the slowly dissipating fog (there was always fog in the mornings) the contours of the towers, the brick walls of the prison blocks and the gloomy sky began to emerge. It seemed that a sentry was about to appear on the tower and open fire ...
Even before leaving for Poland to shoot, Lyudmila Kasatkina met in Minsk with Zinaida Grigoryevna Muravyova - real prototype her heroine Zinaida Vorobyeva, and from her she herself listened to a sad story about her life.
Lyudmila Kasatkina has achieved an amazing power of influence on the viewer, who is constantly watching how a Russian woman, wandering in a line of prisoners dressed in striped camp clothes, driven by the shouts of the guards, frantically looking for at least some sign of her little Gena's presence in this cursed place fenced with barbed wire . Here is that rare moment of art when artistic and human truth fuse into an inseparable moment of truth. As if the actress wants to convey the hard-won moral imperative to every viewer’s heart: “Remember your name!”.
Critics unanimously noted the amazing game of Lyudmila Kasatkina. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 8, 1975, she was awarded honorary title People's Artist of the USSR. At the end of 1975, the film received the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR. Together with L. Kasatkina, S. Kolosov and M. Kartashov, their Polish colleagues, cameraman Bohuslaw Lyambach and actor Tadeusz Borovski, who played the adult Genek, also received the prize. This was the first time that this prize was awarded to foreigners.
Difficult for both S. Kolosov and L. Kasatkina was the work on the painting "Mother Mary" (1982), where Lyudmila Ivanovna deeply and reliably played the main female role - the Russian emigrant poetess Elizaveta Yuryevna Kuzmina-Karavaeva, who took the name Maria in monasticism and during the fascist invasion, she became an active fighter of the French Resistance. Mother Maria was arrested by the Gestapo, in April 1943 she was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died in a gas chamber. A younger contemporary of Kuzmina-Karavaeva wrote about her, the bearer of the highest culture, who motherly helped the fleeing Soviet prisoners of war and French patriots, about her associates: “There is no doubt that all of them have long been walking towards their martyr's end, not evading, not moving away. And they died an active, creative death.”
“The success of the film was largely determined by the remarkable performance of the main role by Lyudmila Kasatkina.
A modest woman in a monastic robe, seemingly attracting little attention, makes her follow her every step, the ups and downs of her life with ever-increasing excitement. In this woman you discover extraordinary fortitude, deep humanity, selfless service to the chosen cause - the fight against fascism, the salvation of those whom the fascists persecute and destroy.
The image created by Kasatkina is a living image of a man of amazing moral strength, before whom I want to bow my head with gratitude ... "
(Asenin S. Legendary film document // Mother Maria. Screenplay. M .: Art, 1983.)
After the official premiere of the picture in Paris, returning to Moscow, Sergei Kolosov wrote a letter to the USSR government with a proposal to award posthumously mother Maria and several other Russians - active participants in the anti-fascist struggle in France. The award took place in 1985. Mother Maria was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, and her works were published in her homeland.
Among other film works by Lyudmila Kasatkina, beloved by the audience: "On the Other Side" (1958), "Revenge" (1960), "Bread and Roses" (1960), "Grandmaster" (1972), "Big Break" (1972-73 ), "Dialogue" (1978), "Princess of the Circus" (1982), "Earthly Joys", "Anna Firling's Roads" (1985), "Malker" (1992), "Split" (1993) and others.
And yet, despite the generally recognized brilliant film career, Lyudmila Ivanovna gives the palm to the theater.
I love theater more than cinema. Of course, in each tape there are pieces, paid for by your nerves, your blood. But ... when you sit in the cinema hall, you are seized by a panic horror: here it is played inaccurately. Now it is clear how to play, but nothing can be done! The theater gives the actor the happiness to seek always, every day. The theater is a daily test, and you are doomed to fail every time your heart, your nerves are silent, when you allow yourself for a minute to think that you can mechanically repeat what was found yesterday. The theater gives happiness to always seek the path to the truth. For this difficult intimacy with the truth of human life, I love the theater forever.
For half a century, Lyudmila Kasatkina has played roles in 60 performances of her native theater. Many of the roles she performed received the highest praise, were played hundreds of times, and were in the repertoire for 10-15 years. And to each heroine, Lyudmila Ivanovna gave a piece of her heart, she sculpted each character from what her feelings and talent suggested to her. And her work always found a response in the grateful hearts of the audience.
The roles of the classical repertoire, played in the theater by Lyudmila Kasatkina, are not like the play of many prima donnas. So, her Elena Andreevna in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" is simple with the simplicity that is characteristic of intelligent people. On the stage, she goes through her difficult path of shattering illusions, or rather, their remnants, which her naive soul tried to support.
The performance "Elegy" (author P. Pavlovsky, 1968) with the brilliant duet of Lyudmila Kasatkina and Andrey Popov has rightfully entered the treasury of theatrical art. The warmth of the relationship of the great Russian writer I.S. Turgenev and the famous Russian dramatic actress of the 19th century Maria Gavrilovna Savina is conveyed with an amazing power of talent, which only masters of such a level as Kasatkina and Popov are capable of.
One of Lyudmila Kasatkina's favorite roles is Leidy Torrens in T. Williams' play Orpheus Descends, staged on the stage of the Central Theater Theater in 1978 by Alexander Vasilievich Burdonsky. Step by step, the actress got used to a completely alien and not completely understandable american world, mastered all the stages of life and drama Leidy - young and beautiful woman who married an old and sick merchant. The performance was held more than three hundred times with a constant full house, and in 1986 it was filmed and is still being shown on various television channels.
In the following seasons after Orpheus ..., Lyudmila Kasatkina played in the performances: Transit by L. Zorin, Road to Borodukhino by V. Kondratiev, (all productions by A. Burdonsky), Comic fantasy about life, love and death the famous Baron Karl Friedrich Jerome von Munchausen” (staged by R. Goryaev). In "Munchausen ...", her creative contact with G. Gorin continued, which began back in 1972, when A. Shatrin staged his first play "Forget Herostratus" on the stage of the Central Theater Theater.
The actress began the new millennium with the premiere. She played the strange Mrs. Savage in the performance of the same name based on the play by John Patrick - a play in which outstanding actresses once shone: Faina Ranevskaya, Lyubov Orlova, Vera Maretskaya, Lyudmila Shaposhnikova. The performance was staged by Sergei Kolosov. Lyudmila Kasatkina in the role of Mrs. Savage combined the two sides of her talent - lyrical-comedy and gravitating toward a tragic beginning. As a result, the performance acquired the features of a tragicomedy.
For more than 15 years, Lyudmila Kasatkina has been playing in the play "Charades of Broadway", staged by A.V. Burdonsky based on the script of the famous film "All About Eve". The performance with a constant full house was held more than 350 times. And all she played without an understudy. The role of the famous actress of one of the Broadway theaters - a gifted and decent woman - Kasatkina is close and understandable, the story of the heroes of this play reminds her of her own theatrical life and fate.
The main method of Lyudmila Kasatkina's work on the stage - always to achieve the subjective truth of her character - was also reflected in another production by A.V. Bourdonsky "Your sister and captive" (play by L. Razumovskaya). The main thing for the actress was to show her character Queen of England Elizabeth I Tudor as a wise, courageous and unhappy woman in love. L. Kasatkina plunged into the history of Elizabeth in order to understand the roots of her drama, her hatred for Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. The severe trials that befell the future queen in childhood and adolescence (the execution of her mother, imprisonment in the Tower, a serious illness) made themselves felt - she became a strong and cruel, intelligent and cunning ruler.
Another facet of the actress's diverse talent is her teaching. In 1979, together with Sergei Kolosov, acting department GITIS, they created a creative workshop that lasted 12 years (three editions) and gave the professional stage dozens of young interesting actors. Among them: now Honored Artists of Russia V. Klementyev, S. Gabrielyan, E. Dobrovolskaya, I. Byakova; winner of the Stanislavsky Prize and the TEFI Prize A. Bogart; artists R. Radov, M. Bogdasarov, Zh. Balashova, A. Ivanov and others. With their students, Lyudmila Kasatkina and Sergey Kolosov staged the performances “Dream in midsummer night" (first issue) and "Blaise" (third issue).
L.I. Kasatkina - People's Artist of the USSR, laureate State Prize RSFSR named after the Vasilyev brothers and the Lenin Komsomol Prize, Honored Worker of Culture of Poland. She was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the "Badge of Honor", "For Services to the Fatherland" III and IV degrees, Friendship, the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duchess Olga II degree.
Everyone who knows Lyudmila Kasatkina is fascinated by her amazing festive charm. She is always the energy center of the stage, family, any company (even Yuri Nikulin envied her collection of jokes and her ability to “play” them), you can communicate with her endlessly. She is an interesting and intelligent interlocutor, is in a wonderful creative and sportswear. Every day it is scheduled by the minute. But is it not happiness for an actress to be people need, bring them good and receive in return a boost of energy, joy, a young sense of life.
The great actress Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina was born in the spring of 1925. When the girl was three years old, her parents moved from the village of Novoe Selo, Smolensk province, to the capital, where the future artist studied at the opera studio.
Lyudmila danced superbly from childhood, and she began her career with ballet. But at the age of fourteen, Kasatkina broke her leg and was forced to leave the ballet forever.
Lyudmila Kasatkina (her biography is full of a large number of bright events, because she lived a happy life) is an outstanding actress, in 1975 she was awarded the high title of People's Artist of the USSR. She earned her popularity and the great love of the audience thanks to her magnificent roles in theater and cinema.
Childhood and youth
For the first time, Kasatkina entered the stage at the age of 11 in a ballet production. After graduating from high school, the girl became a student of GITIS. Having shown herself from the best side, she was accepted into the troupe of the Central Theater of the Russian Army. There she worked all her happy life. The actress played her best theatrical roles in performances:
- "The Taming of the Shrew".
- "Broadway Charades".
- Orpheus descends into hell.
Creation
Initially, the director decided to protect the actress from contact with animals. The trainer Margarita Nazarova was invited as an understudy. However, in the process of work, everyone realized that shooting was not going on in this format, and the actress had to enter the cage with the tiger herself.
Lyudmila became incredibly popular after the release of the movie The Taming of the Shrew. This picture was her first collaboration with director Sergei Kolosov. Later, he filmed the serial film "Calling Fire on Ourselves", based on real events. The heroine Anna Morozova, played by Kasatkina, really existed.
In the popular cartoon "Mowgli", the actress voiced the panther Bagheera. In the 80s, Kasatkina replenished her filmography with only a few paintings. Among them are such film masterpieces as:
- "Roads of Anna Fierling".
- "Princess of the Circus"
Actress Lyudmila Kasatkina devoted her whole life to creativity. IN last years life, being already at a venerable age, in her heart the actress remained young and mischievous and played roles in films of the comedy genre. Among them:
- "Lost in Paradise".
- "I'm looking for a bride without a dowry."
- "poisons, or The World History poisoning."
The talented artist taught, was a professor at GITIS. Here she taught acting skills to students, sharing with them personal experience and skills acquired over the years of work on stage and on film sets.
Personal life
There are a lot of actor-director marriages in the world of cinema. There is an opinion that it is difficult for two creative personalities to get along together and that over time, irreconcilable differences of opinion lead to a break in such unions. But the love story of Lyudmila and director Sergei Kolosov made everyone believe otherwise.
Sergey s huge bouquet came to the meeting place, but his beloved was not there. This joke did not in the least anger the young front-line soldier. And he began to conquer the proud Lyudochka.
Kasatkina before Kolosov did not want to associate her life with anyone. She was called "a girl from the last century." She also immediately liked Sergey, but the lover had to prove his love to her for four whole years.
In 1947, Luda and Serezha went to the war-ravaged Sevastopol. They had practically no money. At the market, Kasatkina saw grapes, it was a Muscat variety. Having learned its price, she moved away from the counter. But Sergei managed to buy his favorite bunch of this delicious grapes with the last money. Until her death, Lyudmila remembered the unforgettable taste of that grape and never forgot about this act.
In 1950, the lovers got married. At the wedding, friends and relatives came up with a nickname for their couple - "Kolosatkins". For 62 happy years, Kolosov and Kasatkina lived in perfect harmony, loving and caring for each other. We worked together, created common projects. They wrote a book, which the couple called "Fate for Two."
There was never a serious quarrel in their house. Spouses always did everything for the well-being of each other. Always and everywhere they appeared, holding hands. The couple lived a long, happy life in marriage.
In 2010, Sergei Nikolaevich had a heart attack. He was dying, but his wife, after sitting by his bed for many days and nights, prayed for him and asked God not to take him away. After that, Sergei Nikolaevich lived for another three years.
Kolosov passed away on February 11, 2013. He was 90 years old. Eleven days after the death of her husband, Lyudmila Ivanovna passed away. Relatives say that it was their guardian angels who made sure that they went to heaven together and never parted. Author: Irina Angelova
People's Artist of the USSR Lyudmila Kasatkina died today at the age of 87, Ekho Moskvy radio station reports.
Earlier, last week, Kasatkina's husband, the famous director Sergei Kolosov, was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. He was 90 years old. Kolosov was a veteran of two wars - the Finnish and the Great Patriotic Wars, and he also shot a number of famous films: “The Taming of the Shrew”, “We call fire on ourselves”, “Darling”, “Remember your name”. In many of his films, the main roles were played by the wife and muse of all life - actress Lyudmila Kasatkina. Then the 86-year-old widow could not even attend the civil memorial service, as her health did not allow her to do so. The actress said goodbye to her beloved husband without prying eyes and immediately fell ill with a serious illness.
Kasatkina and Kolosov were exemplary family. Together they lived for over 60 years. It was reported that her son Alexei was very worried about the emotional state of his mother and tried to be with her constantly.
Theater and film actress, People's Artist of the USSR Lyudmila Ivanovna Kasatkina was born on May 15, 1925 in the village of Volodarsky near Vyazma, Smolensk region in working family. In 1928, the parents moved to Moscow with their daughter.
Since childhood, Lyudmila dreamed of becoming a ballerina. She studied at the Shatsky Moscow Opera Studio in the choreographic department and served great expectations. Already at the age of 11, she made her debut in children's dance parts. At the age of 15, doctors forbade the girl to practice ballet, and Lyudmila decided to go to the art studio at the Moscow Palace of Pioneers.
In 1943, after graduating high school, Kasatkina entered State Institute theater arts. Lunacharsky (GITIS, now RATI) for the course of Joseph Raevsky and Grigory Konsky.
After graduating from the institute (the role of "lyrical ingenue") in 1947, Lyudmila Kasatkina was accepted into the troupe of the Theater of the Soviet (Russian) Army, where at first she mainly played the roles of young heroines or teenagers: a traffic controller in the play "South Knot", a postwoman Zoya in " Last Frontiers”, a teenage refugee Valya in Vera Panova’s Snowstorm, Galya Drunina in Leonid Agranovich’s Pilots and Semyon Listov.
The role in the play "First Thunder" based on the play by Margarita Aliger directed by Maria Knebel and Alexei Popov brought the debutante to the leading actresses of the theater. Also in the theatrical work of the actress, a special place is occupied by the performances “The Taming of the Shrew” (the role of Katarina; one of the best productions of A. D. Popov), “Darling”, where the combination of lyrical and grotesque talent inherent in Kasatkina was fully manifested in the role of Olga Semyonovna, and also "The Drummer". In the theater, the actress played about 60 roles.
In the 1950s, she gained all-Union popularity thanks to her film roles - Lena Vorontsova in The Tiger Tamer (1955) and Luda Odintsova in The Honeymoon (1956). Special place in creative life actresses took roles in the films of her husband, film director S. N. Kolosov: “We call fire on ourselves” (1964), “Operation Trust” (1967), “Remember your name” (1974), “Sveaborg”, “Mother Mary » (1982).
In the 1990s, Kasatkina starred in the films Broker (1992), Split (1993), Judge in the Trap (1998), Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning (2001).
In addition, Lyudmila Kasatkina took part in dubbing cartoons (Mowgli 1967-1971).
Everyone who knows Lyudmila Kasatkina was fascinated by her amazing, festive charm. She is always the energy center of the stage, family, any company (even Yuri Nikulin envied her collection of jokes and her ability to “play” them), it was possible to communicate with her endlessly.
Lyudmila Kasatkina was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the Orders of Merit for the Fatherland, II, III and IV degrees. Honored Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of the USSR.
It's hard to remember the last days of my parents. But too much dirt poured out then on our family. Almost a fund for saving Kasatkina was established. From whom? From your own son?
On one of the March days of last year, an unfamiliar elderly woman appeared at the entrance of the house where her parents lived. I rang for a long time in their empty apartment. Sergei Kolosov and Lyudmila Kasatkina had already found peace at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
But the citizen did not let up, went to the neighbors. She burst into burning tears for Lyudmila Ivanovna. I begged for my phone number. At the same time, she presented herself as ... an illegitimate mother's sister. Allegedly, the grandmother was forced to give her to Orphanage, but after the death of Kasatkina, she decided to find a family, which is why she came to Moscow from Kaliningrad.
On the fortieth of the mother's day, this lady appeared at the cemetery. Made a tantrum. She wanted me to take a picture with her in front of the grave. Then some people with drunken voices called on her behalf, tried to demand something from me ...
I have seen many such scammers in recent years. They sought to gain confidence in their parents, to profit at their expense. Some, unfortunately, succeeded... When my mother got to the hospital, these crooks tried to get into the ward.
I did my best to protect my mother.
Only the closest were admitted to the hospital. When dad passed away, he did everything possible so that his parents said goodbye without witnesses.
They said goodbye in the funeral hall of the hospital, two hours before the civil memorial service. There were rumors that my mother was brought there for wheelchair. It is not true! On that day, she seemed to mobilize all the remaining forces. She straightened her back. She approached the coffin, bowed down, last time kissed her father... Not a word was said aloud. And what did she whisper to him about herself, what did she promise - who knows?
We did not immediately dare to tell my mother about my father's departure. Doctors did not advise.
Photo: From the personal archive of A. Kolosov
They feared that she would have a tantrum, a nervous breakdown. But then they thought it would be a betrayal: Mom deserves the truth. She just cried softly: "Well, here I am left alone."
Did mom understand what happened? She was no longer fully aware of reality, was in some other dimension. But that's when she stopped clinging to life. As if the only thread that still held her in this world had broken.
In the following days, she repeated several times: "Seryozha is gone." She turned to the nurse: “Seryozha, why are you silent?” And on the eve of her death, she sat up in bed, her eyes seemed to clear up, her face rejuvenated. She said separately: “Seryozha, reunite our bed together!” And lost consciousness.
The next day she was gone.
Parents lived in love and harmony for sixty-one years. So long that both thoughts and feelings were intertwined, as if they had sprouted into each other and could no longer exist alone.
Once my mother told me her dialogue with Vladimir Soshalsky. He asked:
Have you never cheated on Kolosova?
Never! - Mom was outraged.
It turns out that before you die, there will be no one to remember?
Why? I will remember Seryozha...
She was given only ten days to reminisce. On the eleventh day my mother died.
Lyudmila Kasatkina became famous as soon as the audience saw the painting "Tiger Tamer". After that, there were many more roles in cinema and theater, which allowed the actress to remain at the peak of popularity all her life.
This actress had an amazing art of reincarnation, and in radically opposite images. Lyudmila Kasatkina easily coped with tigers, caused fire on herself, captivated the hearts of many men. She was fragile and charming, but at the same time unbendingly firm, because only such a woman could overcome all life's difficulties, while maintaining a smile on her lips.
Childhood and youth
Lyudmila Kasatkina was born on May 15, 1925 in the small village of Novoye Selo, located near Smolensk. The girl's father Ivan Alekseevich (1902-1981) and mother Varvara Nikolaevna (1903-1983) were simple peasants.
Luda was still very young when her parents decided to move to Moscow. The capital opened up completely new opportunities and perspectives, especially for gifted children. That was exactly what young Lyudmila was, who was still in early childhood impressed everyone with her dancing skills. Parents did not interfere with their daughter's passion and gave her to choreography at the Shatsky Opera Studio. The girl studied easily, without much difficulty comprehending all the wisdom of choreographic art. The teachers were pleased with the capable student and predicted a great future for her in ballet.
Lyudmila's creative biography began as a ballerina. The girl was only 11, and she was already performing on the big stage. But at the age of 14, Luda accidentally broke her leg and all her dreams of becoming a ballerina crumbled like dust.
The girl again faced the choice of a life path. She always liked theater and cinema, and all her friends advised her to try her luck at a theater university. Lyudmila took a chance and at the end of school she applied to the country's most sought-after university - GITIS. She was very worried before the exams because of her small stature, she was afraid that she would not pass. But all the excitement was in vain, and in 1943 Lyudmila became a student of GITIS, which she graduated in 1947.
While still a student, Kasatkina was able to declare herself as a talented dramatic actress, so after graduating from high school she was immediately invited to the Central Theater of the Soviet Army, to which she was faithful all her life. by the most outstanding works on the stage of this theater there were classical productions - "Orpheus descends into hell", "Charades of Broadway", "The Taming of the Shrew".
Years later, Kasatkina returned to her native GITIS, but already as an acting teacher and with a professorship.
Films
Lyudmila Kasatkina first appeared in films in 1954, when she was already a popular theater actress. The first work and the first main role of Lena Vorontsova in the film "Tiger Tamer". Her partner in the film was already very fond of the audience. The heroine Kasatkina was called none other than a pigalis - such an opinion was formed about her by viewers and film critics. The journalists also liked the nickname, but they added the word "famous" to it. The actress was given this nickname because of her appearance, because her height was a little more than 150 cm, she was thin and petite.
During the filming of the film, it was impossible to allow direct contact between the actress and animals, because the main stunts were filmed with the participation of an understudy. She became a real tamer from the circus - M. Nazarova, who later could be seen in the comedy "Striped Flight". But during the editing of the tape, the overall picture somehow did not add up, and the director realized that he needed to shoot at least a couple of scenes where the actress would be in contact with the tigers. Kasatkina stepped into the cage to the predators and very naturally portrayed their tamer. After the release of the film, the actress received a very unusual offer from the trainer B. Eder - he suggested that she quit the movie and go to the circus with them.
After that, there was the melodrama "Honeymoon", the military drama "The Other Side" and many other projects. A new significant work was the shooting of the painting "The Taming of the Shrew", created on the basis of Shakespeare's play. Kasatkina played Katarina. This was the first joint work of Kasatkina and her husband, Sergei Kolosov.
Three years later, Kasatkina again starred in Kolosov’s film “We Call Fire on Ourselves”, which became the first serial tape in the USSR. She played the partisan Anna Morozova, real girl who fought in a partisan detachment against the Nazis. Surely Anna's feat would have gone unnoticed if not for this film. After the release of the picture, Morozova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
The 60-70s became the peak years in the biography of the actress. She acts a lot, her heroines are very diverse and completely different from one another. But there was something in common - they are the undoubted leaders of the team, with their own idea of inner honor. In the 80s there was a slight decline in work. At this time, only four paintings were released with the participation of Kasatkina. Particularly striking were "Princess of the Circus" and "Roads of Anna Firling", which became classics of Soviet cinema, replenishing its golden fund.
Almost all her life, the actress did not change once the chosen path. She starred in films to the last, decorating with her presence the comedy "Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning", "Lost in Paradise", "Looking for a bride without a dowry." In all these films, the actress played the main characters.
Voice acting
Lyudmila Kasatkina did not refuse to voice cartoons either. It is in her charmingly languid voice that the famous Panther Bagheera from the Soviet cartoon "Mowgli" speaks. The directors have long listened to the purring notes in the voice of the great actress, and only then decided to offer her to voice this role.
Yes, Kipling made Bagheera a male - a brave warrior and reliable friend of little Mowgli. The author named his character accordingly, because only men are called Bagheera in India.
Teaching work
All my experience, knowledge and acting skills Lyudmila Kasatkina tried to convey to young actors. Together with Sergei Kolosov, they became the creators of a creative workshop, which for 12 years helped young talents learn the basics of the profession of an actor. From the walls of this workshop came a whole galaxy talented actors, which Lyudmila Kasatkina helped to develop.
Personal life
It's no secret that the marriages of actors and directors are a common phenomenon. But, unfortunately, very often such families quickly break up. And it's nice to see that exceptions do happen. The Kasatkin-Kolosov Union lasted almost half a century, they parted only because of the death of their spouse.
Photo: Lyudmila Kasatkina with her husband Sergei Kolosov There was only one man in Kasatkina's personal life. They met in the post-war 46th and immediately fell in love. Front-line soldier Sergei Kolosov was smitten by young Lyudmila forever. Kolosov courted his girlfriend for 4 years, and only in 1950 did they get married. In 1958, their son Alexei was born. He did not become the successor of the family dynasty, because he was not very interested in cinema. The young man was more attracted to music, so he created the Aura group and acted as its jazzman and permanent leader.
Alexey became the author of music for the films of the illustrious father, was the host of Russian Radio. Alexei has two daughters. The eldest was born in 1984 and received the name of her star grandmother- Lyudmila. The youngest was born in 2001, she was named Anna.
Death
Kasatkina struggled for a long time with an illness - Alzheimer's disease, she spent a long time in the clinic for treatment, because she needed special care. She was greatly influenced by the news of the death of her husband, which finally crippled the health of the actress. She died on February 22, 2012, having outlived her beloved by eleven days. Kasatkina was 86 years old.
Photo: Grave of Lyudmila Kasatkina The resting place of the actress was the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to her beloved.
Selected filmography
- 1954 - Tiger Tamer
- 1956 - Honeymoon
- 1961 - The Taming of the Shrew
- 1966 - Darling
- 1972 - Sveaborg
- 1973 - Big change
- 1975 - Under the roofs of Montmartre
- 1982 - Circus Princess
- 1993 - Split
- 2001 - Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning
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