The first joint Soviet-Italian adventure film-drama "The Red Tent" was filmed in 1969 by the remarkable Russian director-director Mikhail Kalatozov.
Pioneers
In the cinema were involved both Soviet andfamous foreign actors. "Red Tent" occupies a special place in the history of the film industry of the USSR, as the film was funded by European producer Franco Cristaldi, known for "Divorce in Italian." In addition, musical accompaniment to the film was written by a creative union of outstanding composers Ennio Morricone and Alexander Zatsepin. For many young novice actors it became a successful springboard in the creative career of the film “The Red Tent”. Actors N. Mikhalkov, G. Guy, D. Banionis, Y. Solomin, O. Koberidze, B. Khmelnitsky, L. Kanevsky, E. Martsevich and Y. Vizbor were shot together with foreign stars - Hardy Krueger, Claudia Cardinale, Peter Finch and Sean Connery.
Win-win story
The film "The Red Tent", whose actors and rolesduring the casting, Franco Cristaldi personally selected, has a generally win-win story. The picture was based on a dramatic story that occurred with the polar expedition of General Umberto Nobile (actor Peter Finch), who in 1928 on the airship "Italy" went to conquer the North Pole. Nobile has reached the goal, but on the way back the airship crashed near Spitsbergen archipelago.
In an international group rescue operationResearchers attended a multitude of ships, aircraft and people. But only the Soviet icebreaker Krasin managed to get through to the accident site, and then 48 days after the disaster. Tragedy put an end to the career of Umberto Nobile, the public and management blamed him for the fact that the commander succumbed to the arguments of Einar Lundborg (actor Hardy Krueger), a Swedish pilot, and left the crew entrusted to him. No one took into account the fact that he left the team to coordinate the rescue work. Such a dramatic idea of the creators embodied on the screen actors. The Red Tent has a structure that is not standard for the cinema of that time epoch.
Extraordinary narrative structure
First worked on the script director MichaelKalatozov and screenwriter, screenwriter Yuri Nagibin. According to their vision, the whole action should have developed around the “court of conscience”, which the aged Nobile arranges for himself in order to find the answer to the question whether he is guilty or not. The actors called this idea of the drama “The Red Tent” an explanatory prologue to the main action. As accusers, witnesses, and judges, the general mentally summoned all those involved or participants in the disaster who appeared in Umberto’s living room as he remembered them as they were 40 years ago.
As the most experienced and respected, Roal leads the process.Amundsen (actor Sean Connery). In addition to the present heroes of men, among them: Zappi (actor Luigi Vanucci), expedition leader on the Krasin icebreaker, professor Samoilovich (actor G. Guy), Soviet pilot Chukhnovsky (actor Nikita Mikhalkov), Lundborg and Biagi, radio operator of the expedition (actor Mario Adorf), near Amundsen there is a nurse Valeriya performed by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale, whose presence undoubtedly graced the film “The Red Tent”.
Actors and roles
1969 in the history of Soviet cinemawill be remembered as the period of appearance of non-standard in the on-screen manifestation of the love line. Formerly, in Soviet films the expression of feelings seemed much more restrained. The character of the nurse Valerie was introduced into the plot of the picture at the urgent request, or rather order, of the film's producer Franco Cristaldi. With his light hand, one of the central storylines was the beautiful but sad love story of a polar explorer from Sweden Finn Malmgren (actor Edward Martsevich) and Valeria (actress Claudia Cardinale).
The fact is that the producer, according to the contract,there was the right to invite any foreign actors to work on the project, since he paid their fees. It was no secret to any of the film crew that in the only female role in the entire film he saw only his bride, the already famous Italian actress Claudia Cardinale. After a radical change in the script, in connection with the producer's adjustment, screenwriter Yuri Nagibin refused to continue to participate in the filming of the movie "Red Tent". Actors from the USSR regretted his departure from the project. In place of Nagibin came eminent Ennio de Conchini, winner of the Oscar, co-author of "Divorce in Italian."
Foreign movie stars
The undoubted success of the painting is to participate in it.beautiful British actor Peter Finch. The general in his performance appears to the viewer as an elderly, tired of life a man, at the same time an experienced and still naive, soft, exhausted by his guilt complex over the past decades, but still a sincere and honest person. Soviet actors also listened to Finch's advice during filming.
The Red Tent had a budget of $ 10,000,000,which provided participation in the film and Peter Finch, and Sean Connery. First, in the image of Rual Amundsen, significant for the plot, the producer saw completely different masters of the scene: John Wayne, Paul Scofield, Laurenzo Olivier. However, they all refused outright. The producer is almost desperate, but then agreed Sean Connery - the idol of millions, megapopular James Bond. His acting skills became a real find of the film.
The image of Roald Amundsen passing through the whole plotpictures, as if coordinating the development of action. The role of Connery can, without exaggeration, be called pivotal for the narration. The image created by the actor is remembered by the viewer, does not leave anyone indifferent. In the domestic version of this contributes to the workshop voice Yuri Yakovlev.
Field shooting
On the work of the crew during full-scalefilming "Red Tent", sometimes in extreme conditions, it was possible to shoot a separate movie. The actor Edward Martsevich didn’t have a very sweet time when episodes were filmed on the coast of Franz Josef Land: he had to fall along shoulders into a wormwood, double by double, and then defile among real ice hummocks barefoot in underwear. He was sympathetic to all the actors involved in the project.
"Red Tent" was fabulous in ordertime budget, so Kristaldi spared no expense in organizing film expeditions to the Far North. It is to him that the viewer is obliged by the fact that he has the opportunity to contemplate exceptionally beautiful landscapes of the Arctic, including the birth of an iceberg. Individual shots of the film act on the beholder in a stunning way.
