"I found a boy for the role of Pinocchio in the Minsk underpass": how the fairy tale "The Adventures of Pinocchio" was filmed

The fairy tale film "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio", without a doubt, belongs to the golden fund of Russian cinema. The premiere on television took place on January 1-2, 1976, that is, 42 years ago.

The director of the film Leonid Nechaev found a boy for the role of Pinocchio in the Minsk underpass. "I see a grandmother running with her grandson. There's a pipe under his arm, skates in his hands," Nechaev recalls. — I introduce myself, I invite her to act in a movie, and she responds to me: "Darling! What movie? See, we're running from music to figure skating!""

Dima Iosifov himself, who played the wooden boy, says that he did not really want to act. A brilliant cast gathered on the set — Vladimir Etush, Roland Bykov, Rina Zelenaya, Nikolai Grinko, Yuri Katin-Yartsev, Vladimir Basov. The young actors treated each of them differently.

At the studio, Dima was first tried for the role of Harlequin. But as soon as he undressed, everyone saw that the boy's body resembles a doll's, only there are not enough hinges. So he became a wooden boy. For greater persuasiveness, his hair and eyebrows were shaved off, and fake ones were pasted on instead.

A separate story was with a long nose. They made it out of styrofoam. At the same time, he had to be very mobile. During the entire shooting, Pinocchio's nose was changed 45 times. 45 noses — and all of them were made by a single master. The first nose did not quite fit, and gradually it was shortened to fit the actor's facial expressions. The makeup artist spent an hour and a half to glue his nose. Just imagine what perseverance an actor should be, besides a child of 9-10 years old. "If any of you were attentive, you might have noticed that at the beginning of the film my nose is 15 mm longer than at the end," Dmitry shares secrets.

Dmitry Iosifov recalls that Roland Bykov, who played Basilio the cat, sometimes scared him. Working for the result, he did not spare anyone. "He drove his wife Elena Sanaeva, who played Alice the Fox, to hysterics. She was already falling down without strength, and he was screaming: "You are a mediocre actress!""However, Bykov also did not give himself mercy: "Do you remember when Basilio the cat slides down the stairs on his ass and says: "Give a blind cat for food"?

Dima continues. — He invented this scene himself. I took a seat from the bus of the film crew, and drove on it. Tore him to pieces! The driver, seeing this, got into a fight. They were barely separated."

Pinocchio doted on Papa Carlo, played by Nikolai Grinko, and Giuseppe, played by Yuri Katine-Yartsev, and did not like Etusha —Barabas. I was afraid. "I took it out on Vladimir Abramovich during the scene when Pinocchio sits on a pine tree and throws cones at Karabas."

After that, Etush complained to the director: "What an evil boy this Dimka is. He's not just throwing this bump, he's aiming at my head. It definitely hits. The meeting of Pinocchio with the Tortoise Tortilla was filmed near Minsk on a specially dug pond.

It was in November, the film crew was desperately freezing.

"The air temperature is plus eight, the water is plus four, and I'm sitting in a thin jacket on a sheet of "water lilies" that lies on an ordinary inflated camera. In general, I turned over a couple of times," says the former Pinocchio. "Every time the shooting stopped, they rubbed me with alcohol."

"The girls who portrayed frogs had it even worse. They regularly had to splash into the water and in the end Tortila — Rina Zelenaya — told the director: "If you shoot a double again and make the children climb into cold water, I get in the car and leave!""Zelenaya flew to Belarus only for one day, her only sister died the day before," recalls Dmitry.

— She was so sad, she told sad stories. According to the doctors' recommendations, she had to move constantly. She leaned on me, and we walked slowly around the pond with her."

At first, Nechaev offered the role of Tortoise Tortilla to Faina Ranevskaya, but when she learned that the film would be shot in Belarus, she said that because of her already middle-aged age, she agreed to shoot only if the shooting took place in the entrance of her house.

The girl for the role of Malvina was also found completely by accident. Once an assistant director was traveling by train to Minsk. The neighbors in the compartment turned out to be a mother with a very pretty little girl. Tanyusha was only 6 years old. On the road, like all girls of her age, she told poems, sang songs, showed scenes. At the same time , she announced: "People's Artist of Folk dance Tanya Protsenko performs." The assistant gasped. That's how the young creature was invited to the audition.

"The hardest part was crying during filming. For example, when I feel sorry for Pinocchio, planted in a dark closet. They put glycerin in my eyes and brought onions to my eyes — but there was no sense. Everyone was very angry. Especially the director. He began to talk to me very strictly. I burst into tears from resentment. Leonid Alekseevich took the camera himself and shouted: "We're shooting!" After that, he treated me to sweets and calmed me down."

By the way, it was when Tatiana was approved for the role of Malvina that her baby teeth began to fall out. There was no time to wait for the new ones to grow. Therefore, I had to go to the polyclinic, insert porcelain prostheses.

According to Tatiana, she became famous only a few years later. When the film became popular. And they pointed a finger on the street, and the lovers walked under the windows. Thousands of letters came from all over the Soviet Union, in which they confessed their love and offered friendship.

The young actors did not have understudies — they performed all the tricks themselves, including dangerous ones.

"Do you remember the scene in the tavern when they break the jug in which Pinocchio is sitting? — Dmitry smiles. — It was huge and heavy — I got into it entirely. Everyone was afraid to throw a mug at him — you never know what, the child is inside! And it was necessary to remove it from the first take, the jug was the only one. When it split, the neck hung on my neck. Everyone on the set gasped!"

A separate story happened when shooting a scene when a fox and a cat hang Pinocchio to a tree by his legs. Dima's mom categorically did not want her son to hang upside down: "We need a backup!" In the end, she was fooled. Nechaev later recalled: "I called Dimka and said: "We need to do something!" He: "I understand!" - and begins to whine: "I want to eat, I can't! My stomach hurts!"While mom went to the store, we hung Pinocchio."

Answering the question whether there were any romances between the "youth" on the set, Iosifov laughs: "What's there, we played Indians in between filming! Tanya Protsenko, who played Malvina, was a real beauty. Romka Colledartz — Pierrot — courted her not only according to the script."

The children received one hundred rubles a month for filming. Pinocchio gave them to his parents. "There was no need to take care of the girls, and they bought me ice cream anyway."

By the way, according to director Leonid Nechaev, the golden key was the most valuable thing — everyone really wanted to steal it. Nechaev himself stole it: "On the last shooting day after the command "Stop! I put it in my bosom and later just bought it back. I still have a receipt that says: "Received from Nechaev for a key prop: 30 rubles"".

Bulat Okudzhava did not have songs for the film for a long time. Deadlines were pressing and, desperate, director Leonid Nechaev went to the Writers' Rest House, where the bard was resting. I rented a neighboring room and began constantly knocking Okudzhava against the wall. "He probably hated me to death then!" recalls Nechaev. A couple of days later, the famous "Don't hide your money in banks and corners!" was born.

Leonid Nechaev asked Alla Pugacheva to sing one of the songs for The Adventures of Pinocchio, but she refused, stating: "I'm afraid I can't do it." As a result, the song was performed by Irina Ponarovskaya.

The fate of the child actors developed in different ways - after the role of Malvina Protsenko, she fell while riding a bicycle and hit her head. As a result, a concussion was discovered, and doctors forbade her to act in films. Tanya Protsenko graduated from the Faculty of Film Studies at VGIK, became a poet, works at the Roland Bykov Center.

Roma Stokartz, who played Piero, became a pediatrician, lives in Israel.

Artemon (Thomas Augustinas) is a prosperous businessman who lives in Canada.

Grisha Svetlorusov, who played the role of Harlequin, graduated from the KGB high school.

And Dmitry Iosifov, aka Pinocchio, graduated from the acting faculty of VGIK and the directing department of the film faculty of the Belarusian Academy of Arts, starred in 15 films, worked on the projects "The Last Hero" and "Ten Little Negroes", directed two series of "Killer Force". Dmitry has two wonderful sons growing up, who also watch a movie with dad's participation with great pleasure.