The unsightly truth of human relations: curious facts about the movie "Garage"

Eldar Ryazanov's film "Garage" was and still remains one of the most beloved of our domestic films. And it is not surprising, because this bright film very sharply, but at the same time so charmingly reveals to us the unsightly truth of human relations.

1. The idea of the film was thrown to the director by life itself. Having attended a meeting of a real garage cooperative of Mosfilm employees, Ryazanov was so shocked that he could not help but reflect what he saw and experienced in the script.

Many years later, in his book "The Sad Face of Comedy, or Finally Summed Up," Ryazanov wrote: "I came home after the meeting as stunned, because there were many of my acquaintances among those present, whom I considered decent. But there I saw a gathering of people devoid of conscience, who forgot about justice, indifferent and cowardly people. It was as if the masks of decency had suddenly fallen off, exposing the ugliness of the faces."

2. However, the director was even more upset by his own reaction to real events similar to those unfolding in the film. Succumbing to the collective mood, he did not stand up for those who had to "voluntarily-forcibly" lose their cherished garages. So the character of Professor Smirnovsky appeared in the film, personifying Ryazanov himself, whose conscience, though closer to the end of the film, still spoke.

3. In addition, Eldar Ryazanov himself, like some of his fellow directors, who loves to appear in his films in episodic roles, plays the head of the insect department in the Garage, who slept through the entire meeting on a stuffed hippo and eventually got an "unlucky ticket". So the director kind of punished himself for the weakness shown at this meeting.

4. As an idea for the scenery for the "Garage", a zoological museum was chosen, which turned into a research institute for the "Protection of Animals from the Environment". However, the filming itself took place not in a real museum, but in the Mosfilm pavilion.

Also, many people believe that stuffed animals hint at the not-quite-human behavior of the characters in the picture, although the main reason for this choice is that Ryazanov understood that the "picture" of the film, all the action of which takes place in one closed room, must somehow be diversified.

5. Work on the film was in a rather unusual mode — all the Garage scenes were shot in chronological order, and the shooting period lasted only 24 days. In order to meet such deadlines, they shot simultaneously with three cameras, and the actors, who never knew which of them would end up in the foreground, had to constantly play at full strength, not leaving the role for a minute.

And all this happened because Ryazanov traditionally wanted to shoot only the best actors, who had to be literally "asked away" from theaters — for a maximum of a month.

6. Ryazanov tried to select actors so that they would be similar to their heroes in life. For example, he wrote the role of a junior researcher and single mother Elena Malaeva specifically for Liya Akhedzhakova, knowing about her heightened sense of justice. True, it even scared the actress, who was just beginning to gain popularity, a little at that time.

7. But Valentin Gaft, on the contrary, got into the "Garage" completely by accident. Although the chairman of the board of the cooperative was called the same as the actor — Valentin, in this role Ryazanov initially saw Alexander Shirvindt, who established himself for the role, but, unfortunately, could not find time for the film in a tight theatrical schedule.

And only when filming had already begun, Lia Akhedzhakova suggested that Ryazanov pay attention to Gaft, who by a lucky chance was filming at that time in the neighboring pavilion of Mosfilm.

8. By the way, this is not the only "happy accident" associated with the actors of "Garage". Olga Ostroumova, who played the daughter of Professor Smirnovsky, accidentally went to Ryazanov in search of someone who could help her arrange a child in kindergarten. The director could not help with kindergarten, but he gave a role in the film, after which the actress' career went up.

But the luck does not end there either — it was on the set of the Garage that Gaft and Ostroumova found... each other! However, Olga was married to Mikhail Levitin at that time, and Gaft himself was married to the ballerina Inna Eliseeva. And only 20 years later, after inviting Olga on a date, he admitted that he fell in love with her back then, on the set of "Garage". In 1996, the actors got married.

9. An interesting story is also connected with Andrei Myagkov, who in the Garage got the role of a laboratory assistant Khvostov, completely devoid of voice. Ryazanov himself admitted that in this way he decided to take revenge on the actor.

The fact is that a few years before the filming of The Garage, Myagkov had the temerity to unflatteringly respond to Ryazanov's poems "Nature has no bad weather ...", which became the words to the song from the "Office Novel". The director chose to hide his authorship by passing off the composition as a work by the English poet William Blake. Everyone liked the poems, but Myagkov decided that they were not elegant enough, for which he paid with his voice in Ryazanov's next film.

10. Despite Ryazanov's incredible charisma and gift of persuasion, there were also actors who flatly refused roles in The Garage. So, Alla Demidova did not want to play the boorish director of the market Kushakova (this role eventually went to Myagkov's wife, Anastasia Voznesenskaya), and Vyacheslav Tikhonov did not want to play Professor Smirnovsky, because he did not believe that such an "anti—Soviet" film could be released at all.

11. However, such concerns arose not only from Tikhonov. Ryazanov himself understood that Garage shows Soviet society far from in the most attractive light. And no one was sure that the painting would be able to pass the procedure of delivery to the State Cinema. But then the "Garage" was unexpectedly lucky. Literally on the eve of the painting's delivery, a Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was held, at which Brezhnev demanded mercilessly criticize public shortcomings. And it turned out that Garage was responding to the party's new appeal in the best possible way.

12. The audience accepted the picture "with a bang" — of course, such a stellar cast and a plot that was not trivial for that time! But there were other opinions. For example, the performer of the role of the deputy director of the Research Institute Ie Savvina "Garage" did not like it very much, which she did not hesitate to express, told Ryazanov right at the premiere, deeply offending the director.

"I would really like Garage, which focused our shortcomings, to become obsolete as soon as possible," Eldar Ryazanov admits. — Here my civic feelings prevail over the emotions of the artist, for whom it is natural that his creation should live as long as possible. But—alas! — "Garage" is still a mirror of our unsightly life..."