Larisa Udovichenko opened a retrospective programme of Stanislav Govorukhin at the 15th Kazan Muslim Film Festival
25 April 2019
News
On April 25, the creative meeting with Larisa Udovichenko, an actress and a People’s Artist of the Russian Federation was held at the 15th Kazan Muslim Film Festival. The actress opened a retrospective programme devoted to the films directed by Stanislav Govorukhin. She shared the story of her work with the famous Soviet director, actor and screenwriter.
In 1979, he directed the Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed TV series with Larisa Udovichenko, who played a small and vivid part of Mankya. However, the first acquaintance of the actress and the director happened earlier, in 1970-s, at the Odessa Film Studio, where Stanislav Govorukhin worked on the film ‘The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe’. Larisa Udovichenko was studying in an Odessa school and worked in the actor’s studio. According to the actress, she played an episodic role in the in film and brought to the premiere of the film her school class. However, there was no scene with her participation in the final version of the film, it was cut out during the editing process.
‘Nevertheless, I met Govorukhin again and the role of Mankya became my favourite one. Stanislav Govorukhin shot many good films, but The Meeting Place Cannot be Changed, is a film for all times’, said Larisa Udovichenko. The path to the role in the film was not simple: the actress was originally invited to play Sinichkina, but after reading the script, she refused, explaining that she was not interested in such a positive heroine. Udovichenko said Govorukhin that she would like to play Mankya: ‘He told me, are you a fool? Look at yourself, what a Mankya you are, you are absolutely lyrical heroine!’, remembered the actress.
She returned to Moscow and continued to play in other films, when a telegram arrived with an approval for the role of Mankya. ‘My God, how I got scared! What is my Mankya, where can I find a woman like her to play? After all, she was such a lady of easy virtue. In general, I learned the role, but I didn’t know how to play. At least, I learned the words: when you know the text, you can improvise and behave easily on the stage or in front of a camera’, commented Larisa Udovichenko.
At the end of the creative meeting, the organizers of the 15th Kazan International Muslim Film Festival presented the actress an exclusive jewelry, handmade earrings. The meeting concluded with a special screening of a drama by Leonid Filatov, the main parts in this film were performed by Larisa Udovichenko and Stanislav Govorukhin.