Category Archive: Movies and theatre

Nino Chavchavadze was called “the black rose of Tiflis”. This woman was mourning for 28 years after the death of her husband – Russian poet, diplomat and composer Alexander Griboyedov, the author of the immortal Woe from Wit.
The diplomat, writer and composer Alexander Griboyedov was 17 years older than Nino Chavchavadze. And he knew the girl from her childhood. Little Nino called the Russian diplomat Uncle Sandro. He often visited her father’s house. Alexander Chavchavadze was a Georgian poet and governor of several regions in Georgia. The friendship of two Alexanders was not accidental. Chavchavadze was one of the most educated people of his country and his time. Griboyedov showed himself as a unique personality.
In his youth, the future author of the play Woe from Wit studied at three faculties of the Moscow University. In addition, Griboyedov was an excellent musician: several works written by him, including two great waltzes, reached us.
Extraordinary abilities helped Alexander to become successful in his diplomatic career. In 1819, at the age of 24, Griboyedov liberated the Russian soldiers who were in Persian captivity. Since then he became a diplomat in Persia and quickly learned Persian.
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Alexander Belyavsky was a Soviet and Russian theater and cinema actor, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (2003), Honored Cultural Worker of Poland. He acted in more than a hundred movies and television series, the most famous of which were Four Tank-men And A Dog, The 13 Chairs Cafe (Kabachok 13 stulev), The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!, The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed, and the television series Brigada.
Alexander Borisovich Belyavsky was born on May 6, 1932 in Moscow. The first steps in the acting profession the boy did in the youth theater studio, under the guidance of the actor Leonid Sergeevich Weizler.
The young man graduated from the Geological Prospecting Department of the Moscow Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold in 1955. Then Alexander went to the East Siberian Geological Administration in Irkutsk. There Belyavsky first appeared on the stage of an amateur theater. Later, in 1957, he entered the Boris Schukin theater school and graduated from it in 1961.
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Durov is a famous surname in the history of Russia. The representatives of this dynasty are popular actors and circus performers. You know, Nadezhda Durova, the heroine of the war of 1812, the legendary cavalry-girl, is among the ancestors of the glorious dynasty. By the way, she was Kutuzov’s adjutant during the Patriotic War. After the war she even turned her house into a small menagerie. Nadezhda took the abandoned and sick animals that she met on her way. Her descendants were fond of animals too.
For many years Vladimir Durov’s name was on the hoardings of Russia and many other countries. He was a popular circus performer whose bold wit always drew applause and laughter. Actually, he used to call himself a clown, or jester, but in fact he was a deep thinker, an accomplished musician and sculptor, and the author of many interesting books for children. What is more, Vladimir had an immense knowledge of animal psychology and wrote a number of serious works on the subject which won wide acclaim from scientists abroad.
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Barbara Brylska is a Soviet and Polish film and theater actress, a singer. She became a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR in 1977. In the republics of the former USSR, she is best known for the role of Nadia Shevelyova, the main character in the film The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath by film director Eldar Ryazanov. In 2008, she was a member of the jury of the entertainment TV program Two Stars-2 on Channel 1.
Pretty girl was born on June 5, 1941 in Skotniki, Poland.
Her acting career began right after school. For the first time she appeared on the screen in Bogdzevich’s film Galoshes of Fortune.
Since childhood, Barbara was very beautiful. A graceful long-legged girl with beautiful thick hair could not leave the opposite sex indifferent. Young handsome Jan Borovets from Warsaw fell in love at first sight with a beautiful stranger and did his best to find her. Their acquaintance ended in a wedding. But did Barbara dream of this? Personal life demanded a significant sacrifice. At that time the girl studied at the theater institute and dreamed of becoming an actress. Teachers predicted her great success. However, the conservative family of her husband did not share the choice of their daughter-in-law. And Jan wanted her to be a housewife. So, the girl left the university. For two months, Barbara was an exemplary wife. But very soon she got bored and returned to the theater institute. As an exception, the girl was allowed to attend lectures. Soon the young actress was offered the first roles.
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It is said that on the day when the future great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky was born, whether the Emperor himself, or someone from the Grand Dukes arranged a small feast for the ballet troupe at the Mariinsky Theater. An elegant silver cup was one of the prizes for the soloists. Vaslav’s father jumped up and caught the prize thrown by monarch. “It will become my son’s talisman!”, he cried. But he was wrong. Soon his father left the family. And a woman became his talisman…
Many things in the life of the remarkable ballet dancer were strange and mysterious. For example, his famous, truly fantastic jump on the stage. It seemed that Nijinsky freely floated in the air. Nobody else could do the same. People even looked for carefully hidden springs in his shoes. However, they did not find anything!
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Konstantin Stanislavsky was a Russian theater director, actor and teacher, theater reformer. Actually, he was the creator of the famous system of actor training, which has a great popularity in Russia and in the world. In 1936 Stanislavsky became the first People’s Artist of the USSR. To tell the truth, he was one of the most influential theater personalities of the twentieth century.
In 1888 he became a founding member of the Moscow Society of Art and Literature. In 1898, together with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko he founded the Moscow Art Theatre.
Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (his real surname was Alexeyev) was born on January 17, 1863 in Moscow. He was born into a large family (he had nine brothers and sisters) of a famous industrialist. Nikolai Alekseev, Mayor of Moscow, was his cousin. Konstantin’s younger sister Zinaida Sokolova was Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1878-1881 he studied in the gymnasium at the Lazarev Institute. His excellent classical education included singing, ballet, and acting lessons as well as regular visits to the opera and theater.
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Talgat Nigmatulin was a Soviet film actor, best known for the films Pirates of XX century, The Adventures Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He is the legend of Soviet cinema. Fans call him the second Bruce Lee.
The boy was born on March 5, 1949, Kirghiz SSR into the Uzbek-Tatar family. His childhood was hard. The father was a miner and tragically died when the boy was only two years old. Talgat started to earn money as a teenager, working in different places: in a sugar factory, in a shoe shop. His mother was a school director, but, despite this, the family was very poor. It was difficult for his mother to bring up two sons, so Talgat was sent to an orphanage.
He was a very shy and weak boy and did not speak Russian. Active games with peers usually ended in tears, bruises and sometimes more serious injuries. One day in summer camp a girl refused to dance with bowlegged boy. Talgat ran away into the steppe, so that no one could see him crying. Then he decided to make his body beautiful. Since then he danced, did athletics, and later karate. He was also fond of reading and soon began speaking good Russian. In order to study the language better he rewrote two volumes of War and Peace by hand.
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