A story about the film 17 Moments of Spring. "Seventeen Moments of Spring": how the legendary film was shot. No less beloved by the people, Mueller was not supposed to be played by Leonid Bronevoy

This story begins in 1969, when the script for the 13-episode film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" was approved on television and the director was selected. Julian Semyonov's novel had not even been published as a separate book at that time.

However, in the midst of the preparatory work, the situation suddenly changed. The fact is that another director, 46-year-old Tatiana Lioznova, began to fight for the right to stage such a film.

She contacted Semyonov and said that it was she who would shoot the film according to his script. But Semyonov upset her: "I have already sold the script to Lenfilm, so - alas!" Lioznova was not going to give up, she insisted so stubbornly that in the end Semyonov could not stand it - he recalled the script from Lenfilm and handed it over to Lioznova. Her name was already known to the mass audience for the films "Evdokia" and "Three Poplars on Plyushchikha" and she was rightfully one of the highest-grossing directors of Soviet cinema. All these successes played into Lioznova's hands, but there was one "but": everything she shot was related to melodrama, and "Moments" belonged to the genre of military history cinema. Therefore, many who were involved in the creation of the film had justified fears: would such a director (and even a woman!) Cope with this task? But Lioznova still managed to convince skeptics that this task is within her reach.
Since Tatiana Lioznova has always been famous for her meticulousness, she selected the actors for her picture with incredible accuracy - the image had to match 100%. For example, Yulian Semyonov was sure that only Archil Gomiashvili could play Stirlitz. The director's assistants insisted on Oleg Strizhenov. Innokenty Smoktunovsky also auditioned for the role. However, he then lived in Leningrad, and the shooting had to be carried out for two years. This did not suit the actor, and his candidacy dropped. Lioznova, disagreeing with anyone, continued to search. When the make-up Vyacheslav Tikhonov appeared at the auditions in a German jacket, with a mustache glued on, like Budyonny's, Lioznova got angry and demanded to fix Colonel Isaev. The next time, the make-up artists did a great job - and Tikhonov, according to the director, finally became the spitting image of Stirlitz.

The main rival of Ekaterina Gradova, who played the Russian radio operator Kat, was Irina Alferova.

The Leningrad singer Maria Pakhomenko and Svetlana Svetlichnaya, who were later approved for the role of Gabi, in love with the main character, auditioned for the role of Stirlitz's wife. Well, the wife of a Soviet intelligence officer was destined to become the actress of the Vakhtangov Theater, Eleonora Shashkova, who was brought to the site the day before filming.

The great Faina Ranevskaya could also appear in the film. In order to somehow humanize the image of the scout, to "warm", to soften the too serious hero, the director decided to introduce another character that was not in the book or in the script - Frau Zaurich. Lioznova asked Yulian Semyonov to write a couple of scenes with the participation of an old German woman, hoping that Faina Georgievna would play her. Semenov reluctantly composed something - it turned out to be a terrible nonsense. Tatyana Mikhailovna immediately decided that during the filming she would do everything in her own way. When Lioznova and Semenov came to Ranevskaya's home and showed her the script, Faina Georgievna, having read it, was horrified. "What kind of idiocy is this?" She exclaimed. "How can this be played?" And she flatly refused.
There were several candidates for the role of Hitler, for which two Leonids auditioned: Bronevoy and Kuravlev. However, their photo tests of the director were not satisfied, and they were approved for other roles: Bronevoy played Mueller (paradox, but the actor's father served in the KGB all his life), Kuravlev - Aisman. And Hitler was the German actor Fritz Diez, who, ever since the epic "Liberation", was forever registered in this role.

There were also several candidates for the role of Muller, for example, Vsevolod Sanaev. But he categorically refused the role, saying: "I am the secretary of the party organization" Mosfilm ", so I will not play a fascist!"
Tried to give up the role of Bormann and Yuri Vizbor, but then changed his mind. To create the gloomy face of the fascist bonza, tampons were inserted into the actor's nose, and the uniform was covered with foam rubber to give an impressive volume. Since Vizbor's voice was soft and gentle, in the film he had to be voiced by another actor - Solovyov from the Film Actor's Theater.

Lioznova recalls: “The actors were not surprised at my choice, because they had been rehearsing for a very long time before. With different partners ... All choice is the secret of my inner life. And endless immersion in the scenes of the future film. Replaying the whole picture in the mind with a different combination of actors. " Initially, the film was supposed to play a role for the BDT actor Yefim Kopelyan. However, it so happened that he did not find a place in the acting team, and Lioznova invited him to become a "voice-over". The director recalls: “I called him in Leningrad and asked him to tell him that I was kneeling to ask him to agree. It was a pleasure to work with him. He came and, although he was just from the train, he always managed to shave and change into a snow-white shirt, never changed himself. We have become associates. His voice sounds like he knows more than he speaks. "

The music for the film, as you know, was written by Mikael Tariverdiev. However, few people know that he initially refused to work on the film. Before that, he had already written the music for the spy film by Benjamin Dorman "The Resident's Error", and this work did not satisfy him. Therefore, in 1967, he turned down another offer to work in a movie about scouts - to write music for the film by Savva Kulish "Dead Season" (which he later greatly regretted). The same fate could befall Seventeen Moments of Spring. When Tariverdiev found out that the film was from the same series as the two previous ones, he expressed his firm "no" to the director. But he took the script, read it and immediately changed his mind. He suddenly realized that the film, although it would tell about the scouts, but in a completely different way than it was earlier in other films.

In the process of working on the music, Tariverdiev wrote ten songs, but only two of them were included in the film: "Somewhere far away ..." and "Moments". Eight others had to be thrown out, since there was nowhere to insert them. And, I think, right: due to this, it was possible to insert a lot of beautiful instrumental music into the picture.
Singers auditioned different songs. First, Vadim Mulerman was invited. However, his candidacy was hacked to death by high television bosses. Then Lioznova invited the equally popular singer Muslim Magomayev, who recorded all the songs for the film. Lioznova listened to them ... and rejected them. She asked Magomayev to re-sing the songs in a different way, but the singer refused. He said that he never adapts to anyone. Then Joseph Kobzon was invited to record songs, whose performance satisfied everyone.

When Lioznova read the script that Julian Semenovich returned from Leningrad, she was shocked. The book contained a lot of things that appealed to her, but in the script, everything was completely different - there are five corpses on each page. In general, Semenov unsubscribed and calmly left for Bulgaria to hunt wild boars, so Lioznova had no choice but to get down to work - to write both literary and director's scripts at the same time. “Catastrophe!” Tatiana Mikhailovna recalls. “I worked 12 hours a day, I don’t remember if I slept. But I’m not going to say that I didn’t get pleasure, because my hands were untied, besides, I didn’t go against the book material, on the contrary, she defended it. "

True, the scene of Stirlitz's celebration on February 23 was not in Yulian Semyonov's book. However, as well as the meeting of the scout with his wife in the Elephant tavern. The author of the idea was Tikhonov and Lioznova inserted this into the script. By the way, at first the director was going to show not only Stirlitz's wife, who came to the meeting, but also her little son, whom the scout had not yet seen. But after the screen test, Lioznova realized that the child would distract attention, and abandoned this idea. This scene was suggested by one of the consultants, who were both military historians and people from the Lubyanka, and quite high-ranking ones. With their help, the details of the military life of Nazi Germany, the work of intelligence officers were recreated.
Filming began in March 1971 with an expedition to the GDR. There they had to shoot all the scenes of Stirlitz in Berlin, as well as his murder of the Gestapo provocateur Klaus. However, the last episode will not be able to be filmed on German soil, since our authorities categorically refused to release actor Lev Durov even to a friendly state for the USSR. Reason: bad behavior of the actor on the visiting committee. What it is? In accordance with the situation that existed at that time, every citizen of the USSR traveling abroad had to first go through the filter of the visiting commission. It usually consisted of the most zealous servants of the party, who in every drive off saw, at worst, a potential traitor to the motherland, at best, a fool. So they met Durov accordingly. For example, they immediately asked: "Describe to us what the flag of the Soviet Union looks like." Hearing such a question, the actor answered it according to the setting: “It looks very simple: a black background, on it a white skull and two crossed tibia. The flag is called "Jolly Roger". What started here! The women screamed, the men waved their hands: how dare you! but shame on you! However, the poll continued, but this could no longer lead to anything good. A certain lady asked: "Name the capitals of the union republics." Durov, without batting an eye, listed: "Kalinin, Tambov, Magnitogorsk, Tula, Malakhovka." They did not ask him about anything else, and they deleted him from the lists of those leaving. Of course, Durov let the whole film crew down great, but he simply could not act otherwise - he did not want to look like an even bigger idiot in the eyes of idiots. Fortunately, Lioznova will find a way out of this situation: the murder of Klaus by Stirlitz will be filmed a little later in a forest near Moscow. And after this incident, Durov was firmly entrenched with a nickname, which he was very proud of - "the main bandit of the republic."

In the GDR, filmmakers took almost all of their props, which included Stirlitz's Mercedes car (from the garage of the Gorky studio). However, the German craftsmen who examined this "Merc" during the war, said that he could hardly work: the state, they say, is disgusting. Ours only laughed at this statement. But on the very first day of shooting, the Mercedes actually stalled. The group was rescued by the sound engineer Leonard Bukhov, who found his still front-line friend Gunter Klibenstein, who collected old cars. From his collection, a car was rented for Stirlitz in a very excellent condition.

There were other curious cases on German soil. For example, once Vyacheslav Tikhonov was almost arrested. He decided to march from the hotel to the set (fortunately it was not far away) in the uniform of an SS Standartenfuehrer, for which he was immediately detained by Berliners. They considered him for an adherent of fascism and were already going to be escorted to the police station. Fortunately, members of the film crew heard this noise, rushed to the scene of the scandal and recaptured the artist from the Berliners.
By the way, the rest of the nature was filmed at home: in Riga they filmed Flower Street, in Tbilisi and Borjomi - the passage of Schlag across the Alps, Stirlitz's walks in the woods - in the Moscow region.

In April, the film crew returned to their homeland and almost immediately began pavilion filming at the Gorky studio. There, for their arrival, several decorations had already been prepared for work: Stirlitz's apartment, the corridors of the Reich Chancellery, Mueller's office. The shooting went on in a busy schedule, sometimes one and a half shifts - 12 hours. I would like to point out this nuance: if the director of a feature film was supposed to produce 45-50 useful meters per shift, then a television director, given the same opportunities and conditions, was 90 meters. Therefore, the operator of the "Moments" Pyotr Kataev had to stay on the cart for long hours. Moreover, he worked with just one antediluvian camera, which forced him to resort to various tricks: for example, so that the camera did not rattle, it was covered with a quilted jacket, since there was no sounding afterwards.

Lioznova has always been particularly meticulous in showing details, and Seventeen Moments was no exception. It's another matter what hellish work it took to show these details. Take, for example, the episode of the meeting between Stirlitz and Shlag, where our scout feeds him with soup. As we remember, Stirlitz opened the tureen, and a stream of steam rose upward, at which the pastor, who had spent a long time in prison, looked with lust. So this pair of filmmakers did not work: either it was not enough, then, on the contrary, there was a lot, which "blurred" the picture. And only after a large number of takes did they finally manage to remove the steam the way Lioznova intended.

The shooting of another episode was no less curious - Stirlitz at the wheel of a racing car. The latter was rocked by about ten people, including Lioznova herself. At the same time, it could not do without jokes, jokes, although Tikhonov begged not to do this: he could not manage to concentrate and make an intelligent face. Therefore, the reader, now reviewing these frames, imagine what kind of work it took for the actor to portray deep thoughtfulness in the frame.

The director of the film was Yefim Lebedinsky, who, for the role of extras - the same SS men who guarded the headquarters of the RSHA - invited his acquaintances, moreover, spitting only Jews. A consultant from the KGB, who once came to the shooting and saw these extras, was suddenly indignant: they say, how is it - Jews are being removed in the role of SS men ?!
- What are you, an anti-Semite? - Lioznova was surprised.
- No, but you yourself know what our relationship is with Israel. So it turns out that in our film we will show that Jews were exterminated by the same Jews, only in the Gestapo uniform. Lioznova got the hint. She called Lebedinsky and ordered to change the extras.
- How to change?! I already paid them! - the director was indignant.
- Nothing, compensate from your pocket! - snapped Lioznova.
The director had to obey. On the same day, with the help of the same consultant from the KGB, he called the Higher Border School and asked to send a dozen tall cadets, preferably from the Baltic states, to the shooting. It is them that we now see on the screen.

There were other substitutions in the film. So, in the frame where they showed the hands of Stirlitz (when he draws the bonze of the Reich and lays out figurines of animals from matches), the hands of ... the film's artist Felix Rostotsky were removed. Ask why? The fact is that Tikhonov had a tattoo on his right hand, made in his youth - "Glory". And no matter how hard the make-up artists tried to cover it up, it still stood out in the close-ups. In order not to risk it, we decided to remove the hands of another person. He, Rostotsky, wrote encrypted messages for Pleischner-Evstigneev. But there was another reason: the actor's handwriting was too bad to show it in close-up.
In one of the most dramatic episodes of the picture - where the SS men tortured the child of radio operator Kat, not one actor acted in the role of the child, but several at once - about two dozen. Newborn children from the nearest orphanage were used in the filming. They were constantly changing, since they simply could not stand a full day of shooting. They could be removed for no more than two hours a day at intervals of at least fifteen minutes for swaddling and feeding.

The viewer probably remembers that the SS men tortured the child by putting him near the open window, and according to the plot the action took place in early April. However, in fact, the shooting took place in the studio and there was not even the slightest draft in it. Moreover, it was so hot there from spotlights that the children flatly refused to cry, but sweetly stretched and smiled at the camera. In the end, the sound engineer had to go to the hospital and record the crying on tape there. This recording was then included in the film.
When the film was edited in early 1973 and shown to high television executives, the first reproaches fell on the director's head. The most indignant were the military, who declared that, according to the film, only intelligence officers would win the war. Lioznova did not dare to argue with them, so she went to correct the annoying mistake. She included several hundred meters of documentary chronicle into the film, and the military's claims were dropped.

The premiere of the film took place in the late summer of 1973: from 11 to 24 August. All the days while it was shown, literally the whole country clung to their TV screens. And as the then police reports say, crime has dropped sharply throughout the country. And this was not only with us. One of our TV leaders once visited Hungary and in one of the private conversations with the local border guard asked: "Do your citizens, by chance, run to neighboring prosperous Austria?" To which the border guard replied: “Not at the moment. Because now our TV shows your "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

Meanwhile, if the first two episodes, viewers only looked closely at the series, then from the third, many of them began to overwhelm such an excess of feelings that they armed themselves with a pen and paper. Letters rained down on the State Television and Radio Broadcasting and the Gorky Film Studio, their telephone wires literally heated from the calls. On one of those premiere days, for example, a certain Muscovite called, who conveyed her huge greetings to the creators of the picture and heartfelt gratitude for the fact that for several days, while the picture lasts, her husband has been sitting at home and not drinking, since all his drinking companions are busy the same-watching the series. By the way, Tatyana Lioznova herself did not watch the film in those days - she had no strength. But every evening I peered into the windows of neighboring houses and saw that many of them were extinguished immediately when the next series ended.

According to legend, when Leonid Brezhnev watched the film, he got so emotional that he ordered his assistants to immediately find the real Stirlitz and adequately reward him. To which Andropov replied that Stirlitz is a fictional person. “It's a pity,” Brezhnev shook his head. However, on the same day, he called Ekaterina Gradova's home to express his gratitude to her. But the actress considered this call to be someone's stupid joke and hung up. When she did it for the second time, Brezhnev's assistant called her and asked not to hang up: "Leonid Ilyich will really talk to you."
Meanwhile, Andropov did not forget his conversation with Brezhnev regarding Stirlitz. And when in 1983 the chief of the KGB himself became Secretary General, he ordered to award all the participants in the film orders. As a result, V. Tikhonov received the "Star", R. Plyatt and T. Lioznov, the Order of the October Revolution, L. Bronevoy, O. Tabakov and E. Evstigneev - the Red Banner of Labor, N. Volkov and E. Gradov - the Friendship of Peoples.

In preparing the post, materials from F. Razzakov's book "Our Favorite Cinema. Intrigues Behind the Scenes." Algorithm. 2004, articles by F. Razzakov "And you, Stirlitz ...", Vladimir Gromov "12 suits and 100 shirts were made for the filming of" seventeen moments of spring ", Valentina Oberemko" How did Stirlitz's wife appear "

For the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, the TV Center TV channel has prepared a great gift for its viewers! From May 5 on our channel you will be able to watch the television series "Seventeen Moments of Spring". This story about a Soviet intelligence officer, without exaggeration, immortalized the names of its creators and actors, becoming a classic of world cinema and a favorite film about the war of millions of people.

In 1973, Tatiana Lioznova's serial film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" became a sensation. The whole country clung to television screens and with bated breath followed the life and working days of the Soviet illegal intelligence agent Colonel Maxim Isaev and SS Standartenfuehrer Max Otto von Stirlitz. Police reports even recorded a sharp decrease in crime at the time of the broadcast of twelve episodes of "Instants", and over time, jokes began to be made about the main characters of the spy story - a clear sign of people's love. There is hardly a person who has never heard of this film and does not know the names of the characters of the Soviet "super-fighter". "Seventeen Moments of Spring" went down in the history of cinematography and does not need introduction and recommendations for a long time. As before, the audience is watching him carefully, empathizing with the main character, whose life story brings us back to that distant time that should not be forgotten ...

At the time of work on the picture in the early 70s, no one could have imagined that it would be watched in the 2000s, recognizing it as the best film about Soviet intelligence. "Seventeen Moments of Spring" was filmed as an ordinary TV series. Many actors worked in parallel on other venues, so it was extremely difficult to bring everyone together - they had to shoot at night. Some episodes were added in the course of work, and artists were sometimes assigned to secondary roles a day before the "motor" (this happened with Eleanor Shashkova, who played Stirlitz's wife). But this is only one side of the coin. There is no doubt about the professionalism of the film crew. Even before the start of work on the film, the director Tatyana Lioznova said that she wanted to see only well-known and proven actors on the set.

Choosing an artist for the lead role was not an easy task for the director. Initially, there were several applicants for it. Innocent Smoktunovsky, Oleg Strizhenov, Yuri Solomin and even Archil Gomiashvili, the future Ostap Bender, were considered Stirlitz.

However, unlike the others, Vyacheslav Tikhonov had one advantage, and it was that at the time filming began he was free. In addition, his restrained manner of playing perfectly suited the role of a Soviet intelligence officer, and now it is already impossible to imagine someone else in this image.

One of the most memorable and touching moments in the film was the meeting of the Standartenführer with his wife in the Elefant cafe. This scene was not originally in the script. The author of the idea was Vyacheslav Tikhonov. It was even assumed that the scout's son, who had never seen his father, would be in the frame along with his wife. But in the end, Lioznova abandoned these thoughts, seeing one drawback: if there is a child in the frame, the viewer will not "notice" the woman. And the director wanted to emphasize the feelings that overcome war and distance. In turn, the actress, who played Stirlitz's wife, recalled that she could not cope with the role until Tikhonov appeared in the pavilion. She looked into his eyes - the take was successful. Under the gaze of Stirlitz, Soviet women blushed, and men were buttoning a button on the collar. Tikhonov admitted: looking so piercingly, he simply remembered the multiplication table. But in acting, as in war, all methods are good.

The first shooting of the film took place in the GDR (East Germany). There it was necessary to shoot all the scenes from Stirlitz in Berlin, as well as his murder of the Gestapo provocateur Klaus performed by Lev Durov. However, the actor failed to travel abroad. His sense of humor let him down. During the selection committee, which was deciding whether or not Durov was worthy of the honor to go abroad, the artist joked unsuccessfully, answering the question - what does the flag of the USSR look like. Durov improvised: "It looks very simple: a black background, on it a white skull and two crossed tibia. The flag is called" Jolly Roger "... As a result, the murder of Klaus was filmed in a forest near Moscow. republics ".

In general, the filming of "Seventeen Moments of Spring" took place both abroad and in different parts of the USSR. For various reasons, the filmmakers had to pass off one city and country as another. Without geographic falsification, creating spectacular cinema could be an impossible task. For example, the scene where Pastor Schlag crosses the Swiss border was actually filmed in Georgia. The Gestapo dungeons were found in the Butyrka prison. The Zoological Museum, where Stirlitz was waiting for Bormann, was filmed in Leningrad. And a few hours before the failure, Professor Pleischner begins to walk in Meissen in Germany, then looks at the cubs in the Tbilisi Zoo, reaches Blumenstrasse and is thrown out of the window in Riga. In addition to nature filming, the film also used a large amount of military documentary chronicles.

The story of the Soviet intelligence officer, who, in fact, is a colleague of the English James Bond, differs from similar ones in that "Seventeen Moments of Spring" is not a chronology of heroic deeds. Adventure is just a background. In the center of the director's attention is a person, experiencing his soul, so consonant with the immortal melodies of Tariverdiev. The musical compositions "Song of the Distant Homeland" and "Moments" to the poems of Robert Rozhdestvensky became an indisputable decoration of the picture. However, finding the right artist for them proved to be difficult. To record songs were invited: Muslim Magomayev, Valery Obodzinsky, Vadim Mulerman, Valentina Tolkunova. Some candidates were "hacked" by the television bosses, some did not suit Lioznova. As a result, they agreed on Joseph Kobzon. However, the director demanded that he sang as if "Kobzon is not even close to the film." The singer was upset, but still did what was asked of him. But his name did not get into the credits, since they were made before the artist was approved.

The film has an open ending, and many wondered - what awaits intelligence officer Isaev ahead? In an interview, Tatyana Lioznova admitted that she knows everything about Stirlitz. And after the final credits of the hero, not the best days await: "He walked so long in the lucky, on the edge just that it should not have the happiest end." After a pause, she added: "I don't want to be present. And I don't want to make the viewer see it."

In real life, Stirlitz did not exist as a Soviet agent - this is a collective image built on the stories of several spies who worked at different times in the top German leadership. They say that the protagonist of "Moments" was more fortunate than real scouts, whose merits were not so generously noted by the Motherland. Be that as it may, Stirlitz is all those who served for the good of their country, who were awarded and who were forgotten, who won and who lost in political battles, who survived and who could not ... For more than 40 years, the image of the intelligence officer Isaev, he SS Standartenfuehrer Stirlitz lives among the people, becoming a classic, cult, legend and history.

the site decided to reveal the details of the filming of the famous film.

In 1969, Yulian Semyonov's novel had not even been released as a separate book, but the script "Seventeen Moments of Spring" has already been approved and the director has been selected.

Director Tatyana Lioznova fought so hard for the right to shoot the film that Semyonov had to withdraw the script from Lenfilm.

She selected the actors for her picture with incredible precision - the image had to match 100%. Lioznova, disagreeing with anyone.

The main rival of Ekaterina Gradova, who played the Russian radio operator Kat, was Irina Alferova.

Faina Ranevskaya could have appeared in the film, but Semenov did not respond to Lioznova's request and refused the scene with the participation of the old German woman. The director immediately decided that during the filming she would do everything in her own way. When Lioznova and Semenov came to Ranevskaya's home and showed her the script, Faina Georgievna, having read it, was horrified. “What is this idiocy? - she exclaimed. - How can you play it? And she flatly refused.

The great Faina Ranevskaya could have appeared in the film

There were several candidates for the role of Hitler, for which two Leonids auditioned: Bronevoy and Kuravlev. However, their photo tests did not satisfy the director, and they were approved for other roles: Bronevoy played Müller, Kuravlev played Aisman. And Hitler was the German actor Fritz Diez, who, ever since the epic "Liberation", was forever registered in this role.

Filming of "Seventeen Moments of Spring" took place both abroad and in different parts of the USSR. The scene where Pastor Schlag crosses the Swiss border was actually filmed in Georgia. The Gestapo dungeons were found in the Butyrka prison. The Zoological Museum, where Stirlitz was waiting for Bormann, was filmed in Leningrad. And a few hours before the failure, Professor Pleischner begins to walk in Meissen in Germany, then looks at the cubs in the Tbilisi Zoo, reaches Blumenstrasse and is thrown out of the window in Riga. In addition to nature filming, the film also used a large amount of military documentary chronicles.

Filming took place both abroad and in different parts of the USSR

Musical compositions "Song of the distant homeland" and "Moments" on the verses of Robert Rozhdestvensky became an indisputable decoration of the picture. However, finding the right artist for them proved to be difficult.

Invited to record the songs were: Muslim Magomayev, Valery Obodzinsky, Vadim Mulerman, Valentina Tolkunova. As a result, they agreed on Joseph Kobzon. However, the director demanded that he sang as if "there is no Kobzon in the film." The singer was upset, but still did what was asked of him. But his name did not get into the credits, since they were made before the artist was approved.

Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Strizhenov and Archil Gomiashvili auditioned for the role of Stirlitz. The candidacy of the latter, who became famous as Ostap Bender in "12 chairs", was defended by the author of the novel Yulian Semenov. Strizhenov was busy, but Smoktunovsky was not satisfied that the shooting could take two years. Vsevolod Sanaev was considered for the role of Muller. But he refused: "I will not play a fascist!" They searched for Hitler for a long time. Auditioned by Leonid Kuravlev. Unconvincing. They took a German, and he was given the role of the one-eyed SS man Eisman. As Kuravlev told us, he was not averse to playing the Fuhrer: “But failure! Well, even great artists fail. Lioznova always had her own opinion. " The main rival of Ekaterina Gradova, who played the radio operator Kat, was Irina Alferova, but she was abroad at that time.

Smoktunovsky, Strizhenov and Gomiashvili auditioned for the role of Stirlitz

"17 Moments" is considered the most expensive Soviet TV series

“17 Moments” is considered the most expensive Soviet TV series, although the film's real budget is a mystery covered in darkness. Moreover: so much money was spent on the shooting that Lioznova did not have enough money to complete the film. Still, the shooting lasted two years in different cities and countries.

One of the most romantic episodes of the film is the meeting of Colonel Isaev with his wife in the Elefant cafe in Germany. Although there was no scene of a date in a cafe in Semyonov's novel. Tikhonov suggested inserting it after talking with one of the scouts. It turns out that many of our residents arranged such contactless meetings with their relatives.

On February 8, 1928, Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov, a film actor, People's Artist of the USSR, was born. In the 12-episode feature film by Tatyana Lioznova "Seventeen Moments of Spring" Tikhonov played his most famous role - the intelligence officer Isaev-Shtirlitsa, working in the spring of 1945 in the den of Nazi Germany. The film became a real hit, however, when at the beginning of 1973 it was edited and shown to high television bosses, the first reproaches fell on the director's head ... What scandals the film caused, who could be instead of Tikhonov in Mueller's office, what role was "not mastered" by Kuravlev why Faina Ranevskaya called the script nonsense - these are other unknown facts about the famous painting in our photo report.

The history of the motion picture begins in 1969, when the script for the 13-episode film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" was approved on television and a director was chosen for it. The novel by Yulian Semyonov, which served as the basis, was not even published as a separate book at that time.

In the midst of the preparatory work, another director, 46-year-old Tatyana Lioznova, began to fight for the right to stage such a film, because she was not chosen at first.

Lioznova called Semyonov himself, who told her that he had sold the script to Lenfilm, but she insisted so stubbornly that in the end the author recalled the script from Lenfilm and handed it over to Tatyana.

Lioznova was a very meticulous director, and therefore she selected the actors for her picture with incredible accuracy. For example, Yulian Semyonov was sure that only Archil Gomiashvili could play Stirlitz (pictured).

The director's assistants insisted on Oleg Strizhenov. Innokenty Smoktunovsky also auditioned for the role (pictured), but he then lived in Leningrad and did not agree to leave it for two years of filming.

Vyacheslav Tikhonov, the make-up artists at first glued a mustache like Budyonny's, but Liznova considered the right candidate even under them.

Irina Alferova could have played radio operator Kat instead of Ekaterina Gradova, but it did not work out.

The Leningrad singer Maria Pakhomenko and Svetlana Svetlichnaya, who were later approved for the role of Gabi, auditioned for the role of Stirlitz's wife. The wife of the Soviet intelligence officer was the actress of the Vakhtangov Theater, Eleanor Shashkova, who was brought to the site the day before filming.

Even Faina Ranevskaya herself could appear in the film, the character for which - Frau Zaurich - Lioznova asked Semenov to compose on purpose, in order to soften the too serious hero.

Semyonov reluctantly composed something, but when it was shown to Faina Georgievna, she was simply horrified. “What is this idiocy? Is it possible to play it? " And she flatly refused.

Kuravlev recalled: “I did not master this antichrist. My nature leaped and was against. "

And Hitler was the German actor Fritz Diez, who, ever since the epic "Liberation", was forever registered in this role.

Efim Kopelyan was also originally supposed to play in the film, but eventually became a “voice-over”. The director recalls: “I called him in Leningrad and asked him to tell him that I was kneeling to ask him to agree. It was a pleasure to work with him. He came and, although he was just from the train, he always managed to shave and change into a snow-white shirt, he never changed himself. We have become associates. His voice sounds like he knows more than he speaks. "

When Lioznova read the final version of Yulian Semenovich's script, she was simply shocked: she liked the storyline and details in the book, but in the script everything was completely different.

"Catastrophe! I worked 12 hours a day, I don't remember if I slept. But I will not say that I did not get pleasure, because my hands were untied, and besides, I did not go against the book material, but, on the contrary, defended it, ”says the director

Most of the actors worked in parallel on other films, so it was extremely difficult to bring everyone together for filming - they had to shoot at night.

“Sometimes it seemed to us, the artists who starred as Germans, that we were participating in some creepy, low-quality action movie. These uniforms, pistols ... But they thought that in Uryupinsk, somewhere in the fourth program, he would slip through, ”Yuri Vizbor recalled about the shooting.

For shooting in the GDR, the group had to take almost all of their props, which included Stirlitz's Mercedes car (from the garage of the Gorky studio). German craftsmen, having examined the "Merc" during the war, said that he could hardly work.

The filmmakers laughed, but on the very first day of shooting, the Mercedes really stalled. I had to rent a car.

The shooting of Stirlitz at the wheel of a racing car was very funny: about ten people rocked the car, including Lioznova herself. Of course, jokes, jokes were not without, and Tikhonov begged not to do this, after all, he should have made an intelligent face.

By the way, once the actor was almost arrested: he decided to walk from the hotel to the set in the uniform of the SS Standartenfuehrer. The Berliners considered him an adherent of fascism and were going to hand him over to the police station.

The rest of the nature was filmed at home: in Riga - Flower Street, in Tbilisi and Borjomi - the passage of Schlag across the Alps, and Stirlitz's walks in the woods - in the suburbs.

The shooting went on in a busy schedule, sometimes one and a half shifts - 12 hours. Lionzova wanted to make even the little things perfect.

The episode of the meeting between Stirlitz and Schlag, where our scout feeds him with soup, from which a stream of steam rose upward, was not filmed immediately: there was no steam, then it was not enough, then, on the contrary, a lot.

In the frame where they showed Stirlitz's hands, the hands of the film's artist Felix Rostotsky had to be removed: Tikhonov had a tattoo on his right hand, made in his youth - "Glory", which the make-up artists could not possibly cover up for close-ups.

In the episode where the SS men tortured the child of the radio operator Kat, about two dozen children from the nearest orphanage played the role of the baby. Each could be filmed for no more than two hours a day, with intervals of at least fifteen minutes for swaddling and feeding.

Once Tikhonov told how he achieved a tense, thinking face while playing the role of Stirlitz. The secret turned out to be the multiplication table, which he ran in his head for several minutes while the operator was filming the next scene.

Director Tatyana Lioznova once admitted in an interview that she believes that after the credits of Stirlitz, not the best days await: “He walked in the lucky ones for so long, on the edge just that it should not have the happiest end ... I don’t want to be present. And I don't want to make the viewer see it "

The music for the film was written by Mikael Tariverdiev, although at first he refused to write it for a spy film: before that he had twice failed with a similar theme.

In the process of work, the composer wrote ten songs, but only two of them were included in the film: "Somewhere far away ..." and "Moments". Eight others had to simply be thrown out, since they did not find a place in the picture.

When the film was shown to high television executives in early 1973 after editing, the director received the first reproaches.

The military were outraged louder than others, who did not like the fact that, according to the film, only intelligence officers won the war. Lioznova had to correct the situation, and she included several hundred meters of documentary chronicle in the film.

The premiere of the film took place in the late summer of 1973: from 11 to 24 August, the whole country literally clung to the TV screens. According to police reports of the time, crime plummeted across the country.

One of the premiere days, a Muscovite called the film studio, who conveyed her huge regards to the creators of the picture and thanked her husband for the fact that for several days, while the film was on, her husband was sitting at home and not drinking, since all his drinking companions were busy watching the series.

The actors became superstars in no time. For example, Ekaterina Gradova, having gone out for a walk with her dog and dropped into the Novoarbatsky grocery store, was unexpectedly captured.

The buyers recognized her, began to kiss her, hug her, ask for autographs. For almost two hours, Gradova stood, pressed by the crowd to the counter, after which the disgruntled sellers called the police.

The series was so popular that many newly minted mothers called their children, if not Stirlitz, then Julians - in honor of Yulian Semenov. By the way, the future famous singer Julian became a victim of fashion.

But Tariverdiev had a hard time. Once he stopped at the All-Union Radio, where he was told: “We received a call from the French Embassy, \u200b\u200bthe French are protesting against this film, because the music in it was ripped off from the composer Francis Leigh, from his film“ Love Story ”.

"What nonsense?" - Tariverdiev was indignant. “Nonsense, not nonsense, but this is a fact,” they replied. A citizen who introduced himself as an employee of the French embassy also called to the Gorky studio, where the film was filmed, and expressed his indignation that the music of "Moments" is a plagiarism of Lei's music

As soon as the composer crossed the threshold of the office of the chairman of the Union of Composers, the secretary handed him a telegram ... from Francis Leigh. It read: “Congratulations on the success of my music in your film. Francis Leigh. "

As a result, Tariverdiev was dissuaded from visiting the French embassy ... the KGB officers who got in touch with Lei through their channels. He categorically denied his involvement in the scandal around his music for the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and said that he had not sent any telegram accusing his Soviet colleague of plagiarism.

By the way, Yulian Semyonov supplied his colleagues in the film - Tariverdiev, Tatyana Lioznova and Vyacheslav Tikhonov - with special certificates of the State Security Committee, where it was written: "Without the right to stop", and was signed: "Andropov".

Once Tariverdiev specially drove into the territory of Red Square in his car: “The traffic cop's eyes began to crawl out on his forehead as he deciphered what was written, then he hastily saluted, and now I drove past him slowly and imposingly”.

Stirlitz became the most famous image of an intelligence officer in Soviet and post-Soviet culture, as well as a character in Soviet and Russian anecdotes.

In 2011, sculptor Alexander Boyko announced the start of fundraising for the installation of a monument to Stirlitz in Vladivostok near the Versailles hotel, where he lived and, possibly, invented the image of the scout Yulian Semenov.

In August 1973, for 12 consecutive evenings, strange things were happening in the Soviet Union: electricity consumption increased sharply, while water consumption decreased, and even street crime was practically at zero - this fact was recorded in police statistics. For the first time, the vast country watched Tatiana Lioznova's film "Seventeen Moments of Spring".

How it all began

It is believed that the unofficial "godfather" of the picture was the chairman of the USSR KGB Yuri Andropov. Allegedly, in a conversation with Yulian Semyonov, he praised the political detectives that the writer had been creating for several years, and offered to film novels about Isaev. As a concrete help, he even allowed the author to work for some time in the KGB archives - this opportunity really took Semyonov's breath away, because until then no other writer had had such luck. By the way, the film was advised by the first deputy chairman of the KGB, Colonel-General Semyon Kuzmich Tsvigun, however, in the credits he is indicated under an assumed name.

Yulian Semenov, author of the novel "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and author of the film script Yulian Semyonov began working on the script for the film simultaneously with the creation of the book. As a result, it was even completed a year earlier than the printed edition of the novel appeared - in 1968, and already in 1970 at the Gorky film studio, the shooting of the picture began, which was destined to become the favorite film masterpiece of millions of viewers for many decades. Tatyana Lioznova was not immediately able to prove that a woman was capable of becoming a director of such a large-scale project, for this she had to "move" several male applicants, but she succeeded.

Actors and roles

"Seventeen Moments of Spring" became the leader of Soviet cinema in terms of the number of folk actors. However, the cast, as often happens, did not take shape right away. Today it seems to us that no one except Vyacheslav Tikhonov could have played the role of Stirlitz, in fact, not long before filming Tatyana Lioznova seriously considered the candidacies of Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Strizhenov, Yuri Solomin and even Gaidaevsky Ostap Bender Archil Gomiashvili (according to rumors, her during this period just had an affair with him). Fortunately, unlike all the listed actors, Tikhonov simply turned out to be more free, and the choice was on him.

Another famous actress could also play the radio operator Kat. If not for a trip abroad, in this role we could see Irina Alferova. The image of Frau Zaurich was written for Faina Ranevskaya, who simply refused this episodic role, "in which there is nothing to play." But Leonid Kuravlev was almost approved for the role of ... Hitler. By the way, he looked very convincing in makeup and even began to rehearse, but, according to him, he refused: “I really had samples for Hitler. I rehearsed, they made me up like Hitler ... But I did not master this antichrist, my nature was against it. ”As a result, the“ antichrist ”was played by the German actor Fritz Diez, who by that time had almost become the“ regular Hitler ”of international cinema.

Lenid Kuravlev in the make-up of Hitler and Eisman for the film "17 Moments of Spring" When there was such an opportunity, they tried to adhere to historical accuracy in the choice of actors. So, for example, with the appearance of Schellenberg performed by Oleg Tabakov, it was incredibly possible to hit the bull's eye. According to the memoirs of Yulia Vizbora, after the film was released, Tabakov received a very unexpected message. Schellenberg's own niece wrote to him from Germany, who thanked the Russian actor very much for the way he played this role. The woman admitted that she revised the picture several times to look at "Uncle Walter."

The real Walter Friedrich Schellenberg and Oleg Tabakov in this role But with the image of Heinrich Müller came a bobble. The director's group did not have photographs of a real historical person, and Leonid Bronevoy was not taken for this role for external resemblance. Then it turned out that the real Mueller was a tall, thin, hump-nosed brunette. However, the image of the "good-natured" Gestapo chief became, as a result, one of the most striking in the film. Bronevoy himself argued that if he knew then what the historical Muller looks like, he would most likely refuse the role.

As close to life as possible

The film, despite the enormous internal tension and military-espionage theme, in the course of the development of the plot does not at all refer to the militants. It has very little movement and action scenes. In contrast to this, Tatyana Lioznova did her best to "revive" the characters. In order to more deeply show the inner world of the protagonist, she, for example, finished the script herself and came up with the images of Frau Saurich and Gaby. Their dialogues were created literally on the set, almost impromptu, although such liberties were deeply contrary to her directorial approach.

In general, from the point of view of acting, the role of Stirlitz is considered very difficult. According to Lev Durov, there is nothing in it except for analysis and comparison - there is no opportunity to somehow reveal the character of the hero. Therefore, I had to create around him some little things in life. For example, a dog that put Stirlitz's head in his hands. This episode came out quite by accident - it is not known whose dog just wandered onto the set and approached the actor herself.

For the rest of the characters, the director invented special human "zest", as Lioznova called them, "quirks". So, for example, Mueller's characteristic movement, when he jerks his neck from a tight collar, was born by accident during filming - Bronevoy really got in the way of the suit, and he involuntarily did this several times: “- Why did you stop jerking your neck? - once asked the actor on the set of Lioznova. - And what, it is necessary to pull? - Broneva was surprised. - Yes, yes, that’s very good. ”

Obersturmbannführer Eisman, played by Leonid Kuravlev, in addition to the Aryan nose with a hump, received a black eye patch. The actor was in no way given the role of a Gestapo employee, and so, according to Lioznova, “a biography immediately appeared”. There were other difficulties on the set of the film. For example, a baby who had to be filmed. Children always create difficulties on the set, so at first they thought about using a doll, but then abandoned this idea - a tense scene when a newborn is undressed by an open window, of course, would not have been possible without a real child. By the way, I want to reassure everyone at once - in fact, it was so warm in the pavilion that the sound engineer even had a problem with recording the cry, and then I had to go to the children's hospital to finish writing it. The youngest actor was snoring peacefully at the time of filming the heartbreaking episode. Another unexpected question had to be solved when it turned out that the children were growing too quickly (as you know, only strangers, of course). Since the shooting lasted three years, six different babies had to be filmed in the role of the "real hero".