Good girl Lida ... and Shurik's other girlfriends
Alexander Demyanenko - Shurik - had a difficult task: he played an intellectual in the most "non-intelligent" genre - folk comedy. But on the screen, Shurik got only beauties - real sex symbols of the Soviet era.
(Total 5 photos)
Lusya Koroleva (Liliana Aleshnikova), Adult Children, 1961
1. Liliana Aleshnikova and Alexander Demyanenko in the film "Adult Children"
The family is a cell of a socialist society, and a family comedy is a favorite Soviet genre. 16 years before the imperishable "For family reasons" Alexander Demyanenko played another unfortunate son-in-law who is desperately trying to charm a harsh mother-in-law (and father-in-law at the same time). As a partner to a very young actor (he was only 23 at the time of filming), the beautiful Liliana Aleshnikova was appointed.
Galya Berezka (Tatiana Konyukhova), Dima Gorin's Career, 1961
2. Alexander Demyanenko and Tatyana Konyukhova in the film "Dima Gorin's Career"
Another favorite plot of Soviet screenwriters: a neat intellectual falls into the company of ordinary guys and discovers a “working bone” in himself. Shurik Demyanenko plays the role of a financial officer who only knows how to count money and wipe the fogged glasses. By mistake, he ends up on a Siberian construction site, falls in love with the foreman of the installers Galya Berezka and decides to stay ...
Tatyana Konyukhova was not only six years older than her partner, at the time of filming she was already an experienced actress (“Career ...” is her eighteenth film!). She did not like the script, and in general she believed that in her “almost thirty” she had already played enough of such shock workers of labor. But her candidacy was supported by Sergei Gerasimov himself - and the gods, as you know, are not denied.
By the way, in the scene where the hero Demyanenko defends the honor of Galya, the actor really gave an excellent hook to Vladimir Vysotsky. It turns out that Alexander Sergeevich was almost professionally engaged in boxing. Here's an intellectual!
Lida (Natalia Selezneva), Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures, 1963
3. Natalya Selezneva and Alexander Demyanenko in the film "Operation" Y "and other adventures of Shurik"
The "star" character of Alexander Demyanenko is present in all three short stories, but only in the second of them, in "Obsession", Leonid Gaidai gave Shurik a romantic interest. "Good girl Lida", smart and beautiful, was spied on by the director in the Polish magazine "Shpilki". Three hundred girls auditioned for this role, but Leonid Iovich took 18-year-old Natasha Selezneva. In many ways - for special courage. “You will have to undress. By the way, how is your figure? It seems not very ... "-" Is my figure not very good?!" - and Komsomol member Natalya Selezneva immediately threw off her sundress. Even the censors did not expect such a stunning pressure - maybe that's why the "scene with a red bikini", quite erotic, was allowed to be left in the film.
Nina (Natalya Varley), "Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures", 1967
4. Natalya Varley and Alexander Demyanenko in the film "Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures." Photo: Russian Look
Not everyone knows that this is a continuation of "Operation" Y ", although there Shurik took exams at the Polytechnic, and here he is a philologist-folklorist. And red tape is not characteristic of the Soviet intelligentsia (at least on the screen): if you love, get married! And here, not only is there not a word about the “good girl Lida”, the authors also slip another one! This time - the brunette Natasha Varley, "a student, a Komsomol member, an athlete and just a beauty."
The search for Nina was even more difficult than the search for Lida: about five hundred girls auditioned for the main female role.
Natasha was helped by the fact that in the past she was a tightrope walker in the circus, was not afraid of heights and was ready to perform many tricks herself. In addition, Natasha approached Alexander Demyanenko in height: Natasha Selezneva was a head taller than her partner, and the operators had to work hard to hide this.
Zinaida Mikhailovna (Natalya Selezneva), "Ivan Vasilyevich is changing his profession", 1973
5. Natalya Selezneva in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession." Photo: ITAR-TASS
Leonid Gaidai likes to work with a proven team - it is not surprising that Natasha Selezneva was again taken to the role of the wife of the engineer-inventor Timofeev (also, by the way, Alexander-Shurik). Bulgakov wrote the play of the same name in 1935 - maybe that's why there are a lot of NEP young ladies in the "actress Zinochka" (especially from Ellochka the cannibal in "12 Chairs" - she was also very frivolous and was also married to an engineer).
Gaidai chose Selezneva despite the fact that Bulgakov had a completely different type: “And the noblewoman is sculpted with beauty, white with velms, scarlet with lips, with eyebrows allied, with abundant body” (according to Ivan the Terrible, of course). Well, Natalya Selezneva was proud of her excellent figure and was not ready to change it even for the sake of an acting feat.