- Loved hard and cut it hard! Today’s viewer, from the height of fifty years since the creation of this remarkable picture, can see many tragic coincidences. Nikolai Ivanovich Moskalenko - participant of the Great Patriotic War graduated from the acting faculty of GITIS in 1947. Since 1957 he worked at the Mosfilm film studio. He started as an assistant, then as a second director. During the filming of the film “Director” in 1965, actor Yevgeny Urbansky tragically died in Karakum. The first director Alexei Saltykov was absent, the filming process was led by Nikolai Moskalenko. After this incident, the director was denied access to professional activities for several years. He hardly managed to get the right to work as a director, after which he independently staged the films “Crane” (1968), “Young” (1971), “Russian Field” (1971). The film "Russian Field" became the apogee of the director's work and at the same time - his swan song, because Nikolai Ivanovich died in 1974, having lived only 47 years.
The author of the script of this amazingly shrill picture is a writer and journalist, war correspondent Mikhail Nikolaevich Alekseev, who wrote sincere works about the life of the post-war village: Bread is a noun (1963) and Ivushka non-weeping (1971). It so happened that the successful directorial debut of “Crane” (1968) Nikolai Moskalenko brought together Mikhail Alekseev, Nonna Mordyukova and her son Vladimir Tikhonov on the set. Fedosya Leontievna Ugryumova and Philip - mother and son. Like on screen. So in life. As on the screen from Fedosya goes husband to another woman. So in the life of Nonna Mordyukova broke up with Vyacheslav Tikhonov after 13 years of marriage. As on the screen, Philip in the stage of growing up loses his father. So in life Vladimir Tikhonov was left alone with his mother. Vladimir Tikhonov graduated from the Shchukin Theatre School in 1971, but by this time he had already managed to star in both previously released Moskalenko paintings, so without hesitation agreed to the main role.
In 1969, there was a border conflict on the island of Damansky - armed clashes between the USSR and China. Former front-line soldier Moskalenko considered it necessary to reflect this incident in the film. This is the hardest scene of this beautiful painting. At the stage of familiarization with the script, friends and colleagues discouraged Mordyukova from the role precisely because of the heartbreaking scene that the actress was to play. The doubts of Nonna Viktorovna dispelled the son, who had long persuaded his mother to give her consent to the role, and she gave up. I just gave the director a condition that I will write about later. So on the set, which took place in the Kstov district of the Gorky region in the village of Bezvodny and in the village of Pogorelovskaya, Arkhangelsk region, all the main characters gathered. We gathered to make a film, the emotional power of which forced in 1972 to watch the tape of almost 60 million people in the country.
It is only now, half a century later, that one begins to understand the true value of such films. Amazing beauty the place was chosen by the director for filming. Spacious fields not covered by a glance, occasionally bordered by emerald necklaces of overgrowths. Majestic and at the same time homely quiet and cozy river, slowly rolling its waters. Drowning in greenery pleasant to the eye houses, to which intricate patterns of trampled paths lead. And live in these houses the same wonderful people, with the milk of their mother absorbed the rare beauty of their native land. For the Russian people, with all the machinery and urbanization, there is nothing more important than the grain field. "Bread is the head of everything" - this aphorism is given a lot of space, because the Russian field is bread. Bread for yourself, for children, for the whole country. And it is necessary to grow this bread with pure good thoughts, originating in family happiness. But happiness is not a constant quantity.
Yesterday it was, and even had its name - Avdey Petrovich Ugrumov. And today Avdey is looking for his happiness in another house. Nonna Mordyukova is a great actress. So to play a Russian woman one talent is not enough - you need to literally reincarnate in every image. The magnetism of her talent allows the viewer to literally enjoy a multi-layered screen image, because in each new scene, Fedosya seems to be the same, but with new emotional overtones of her multifaceted personality. A special unique lyricism to the picture is given by music, chaps, songs. Composer Alexander Flyarkovsky and poet Leond Derbenev wrote two wonderful songs, one of which became incredibly popular. This is the famous "Ah, Mommy" dinner table: "Ah, Mommy!" I was sledging with the wrong guy! Oh, why did I meet Sticky in the field, ah, mommy, why?
The second song is "Witchcraft" performed by Valery Obodzinsky: "Your eyes are like two fogs, like two jumps out of darkness." By what means, by what deception, have you made your way into the twentieth century? Another song "White Swan" is performed by Galina Nenasheva: "I will drop a white blizzard in the palm of my hand feather from the wing" And how beautiful and peaceful sounds in the evening silence of the Russian folk song "Nothing in the field does not waver": "How cruel sadness attacked me - changed me, right, black-eyed." Listening to such heartfelt songs, admiring such unique views, I want to recall the words of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev from the film of the same name: You know, Petka, how soon life will come - do not die! Similar words the famous red commander could say in 1919. But a hundred years later, we can only state that peace for Russia comes only between wars, because there will always be those for whom our Motherland is like a bone in the throat.
It was time to talk about the condition that Nonna Mordyukova put, giving consent to the role. As a result of fighting in the Daman conflict, 58 Soviet soldiers died. One of them was the character Philip. Mordyukova insisted that her Volodenko did not lie in the coffin, let them come up with a special dummy. She didn't want to bring trouble on her son. Moskalenko agreed. The film crew decided to deceive the audience a little - in the coffin was not Volodya Tikhonov, but a mannequin. For reliability, a special mask was made, sculpted from the face of Vladimir Tikhonov. The actor himself later recalled: Russian Field is a very expensive film for me. I was very happy to play with my mother. Her control is double – both as an experienced actress and as a mother ready to take out her soul and talent and give it to her son to help play a tragic situation.
Despite all the efforts of Nonna Viktorovna Mordyukova to protect her son from all possible misfortunes, Vladimir Tikhonov died at the age of 40 from acute heart failure. He died exactly 20 years after the filming. Knowing all these facts today, you perceive the final scene of the picture in a completely different way. The director was well aware that the audience leaves the cinema, keeping in mind the last minutes of the film. And these minutes are amazing in their emotional power. Somehow mystically, the outstanding actress Mordyukova seemed to look into her future. And what she saw there made her do that last scene. . .