When the Trees Were Big is a Soviet full-length feature film that premiered in 1962. A dramatic cinematic project directed by Lev Kulidzhanov brought together an excellent cast of actors on the set. The main female character was reincarnated by the actress Inna Gulaya, in whose creative career this role became the most significant. Here, the film debut for Lyudmila Chursina took place, and Yuri Nikulin was first noted for a dramatic role, plunging into the image of the main male character. The film took part in 1962 at the Cannes IFF.
The painting "When the trees were big" rightfully belongs to the golden fund of the national cinema, having absorbed all the classic forms of the dramatic genre of the Soviet era. A rather provocative plot for the period of total censorship and a very strong cast, which included Vasily Shukshin, Yuri Nikulin, Leonid Kuravlev, Lyudmila Chursina and Inna Gulai, were able to turn the director's plan into a real masterpiece.
It is interesting that, having shone brightly in Kulidzhanov's film, Inna Gulaya never used her success in her further professional career. Indeed, with a unique artistic talent, she was never able to fully reveal herself and realize her acting ambitions in the future. Thus, this talented woman can truly be called an actress of one role.
The history of the film
An interesting fact is that the director's team could have attracted completely different actors to the filming of When the Trees Were Big. After all, the final composition was formed only after its creator Kulidzhanov visited the circus, in the arena of which he saw with his own eyes the brilliant performance of Yuri Nikulin. He was so fascinated by the artistic data of this extraordinary actor that he even agreed to significantly correct the script and refuse other candidates for the main male role in his film.
An experienced director's gaze immediately accurately discerned the colossal creative abilities of the person who was to be reincarnated as a front-line locksmith Kuzma Kuzmich Iordanov, since the unique talent of the tragicomic artist was difficult to overestimate. Today it is already impossible to imagine this cinematic masterpiece without such a participant in the film project as Yuri Nikulin in the main male role. After all, the play of any other actor would change the film beyond recognition.
It is also noteworthy that the initial version of Nikolai Figurovsky's work, based on which the film "When the Trees Were Big," was filmed, did not suit Kulidzhanov, who was serious about success. The director was very critical of the book, which was planned to become the basis of the plot of the picture. He insisted on significant adjustments, the indication of which, although offended the professional writer, nevertheless made the future script consistent with the general concept of the director.
Plot
The feature film "When the Trees Were Big" tells how the former front-line soldier Kuzma Kuzmich Iordanov, who has military awards and in the past worked as a locksmith, remains at his very middle age without a family and completely alone. He does not want to find a job on a permanent basis and leads a riotous lifestyle, interrupting odd jobs and abusing alcoholic beverages.
Having dropped down and got used to idleness and parasitism, instead of working at a machine tool at a factory, he was already arrested twice for 15 days for illegal actions. The last detention in the police was accompanied by deprivation of the capital's registration and eviction from the city. By chance Kuzma Kuzmich learns from an elderly woman whom, at the behest of his heart, decided to help on the street with the delivery of a washing machine, about a certain girl who lives in the village of Selivanovo, whose name is Natasha.
The military history, accompanied by the loss of a one-year-old daughter by the parents after the bombing of the train in which they were located, near this village, boiled down to the fact that an orphan was sheltered by a collective farm. The adventurous character of Iordanov regarded this as a sign of fate, and the "evict" decided to move from Moscow to Selivanovo in order to appear before Natasha by her father.
Despite the fact that the main character leads an antisocial lifestyle and is prone to adventures, the director and actors were able to create a very soulful and instructive film. The character of Yuri Nikulin, for all the ugliness of his actions, does not at all cause antipathy in the audience. If we talk about experiences when watching, then this, most likely, can be called pity and sympathy for the main character. Moreover, the moral of this picture boils down to the fact that only love and mutual respect can correct a lost person.
Actors
The film "When the Trees Were Big" became the debut project for the aspiring actress Lyudmila Chursina. In it, she played the secondary role of Zoe, Leni's ex-girlfriend. The rest of the actors went to the set in the status of already having experience of behavior in the frame. And the main female role (the character of Natasha, the adopted daughter of Iordanov, who works as a ferryman on the ferry) was played by Inna Gulaya. By this time she already had two films in her professional filmography.
The character of Natasha's husband, the factory worker Leni, went to Leonid Kuravlev, who felt very harmonious as a "good guy". And Vasily Shukshin was very convincingly reincarnated as the chairman of the collective farm.
Other actors who were part of the creative team of the film project "When the trees were big" were the following masters of reincarnation:
- Ekaterina Mazurova (Anastasia Borisovna);
- Arkady Trusov (Grigory Martynovich, chairman of the village council);
- Elena Koroleva (Nyura, Natasha's friend);
- Victor Pavlov (postman, voiced the guy at the ferry);
- Evgenia Melnikova (conductor);
- Georgy Shapovalov (duty officer at the railway station);
- Vladimir Lebedev (speculator);
- Pavel Shalnov (precinct);
- Marina Gavrilko (Iordanova's neighbor in a communal apartment);
- Danuta Stolyarskaya (Iordanova's neighbor in a communal apartment);
- Iya Marks (Iordanov's neighbor in a communal apartment);
- Vera Orlova (watchman);
- Galina Binevskaya (Olya's mother);
- Olya Petrova (girl in the hospital);
- Boris Yurchenko (fellow villager);
- Nadezhda Samsonova (barmaid);
- Vladimir Smirnov (driver).
Special words are demanded by the play of the actress Inna Gulaya, who, in the role of the main character, has earned a lot of positive reviews from film critics and viewers. Her rare artistic talent was imbued with love for her profession. She, unlike many colleagues in the creative workshop, did not pay attention to how attractive her appearance would be in the frame, but completely immersed herself in her role.
However, those around her noted only a deterioration in character, which, ultimately, led to her oblivion. After all, after this film, she never once received offers from directors for roles that would be interesting to her and would correspond to her level of talent. In the last years of her life, the actress completely stopped participating in the development of her creative career. And in 1990 she died. Moreover, there is even a version associated with suicide.
Criticism
For complete realism, the filming process of the film "When the Trees Were Big" was carried out almost entirely in one village, located near the Moscow region of Noginsk. It is noteworthy that even before the moment when the material for viewing was completely filmed, officials of the USSR Ministry of Culture did not approve of the film's ideological message. In their opinion, the screen image of the builder of communism in no way echoed the parasite and adventurer Iordanov.
Only the Deputy Minister of Culture was able to defend the picture “When the trees were big”, who after reading the script uttered the historical phrase: “Such a film cannot be harmful!”. This predetermined the fate of this cinematic masterpiece.
