According to Oleg Efremov, Stanislavsky created his immortal system from people like Boris Babochkin. The biography of this actor, who was born in 1904, seems to be divided by the role of Chapaev, played by him in 1934, into two parts: "before" and "after".
Young years
Boris Andreevich Babochkin was born in Saratov on January 18, 1904 in the family of a railway worker. The boy's mother was a teacher in a rural school, where he received his secondary education. Like all peers, at the age of 13, Borya became a member of the Komsomol. And at the age of 15 he already went into adulthood - he was drafted to the Eastern Front of the Civil War, where he served in the political department of the 4th Army.
However, the theater beckoned the young guy more than the service. He successfully passed the exams at the Saratov Theater Studio, having read an excerpt from the poem "Fairy" by Maxim Gorky. The young man was immediately taken to the senior course. And the head of the studio, Alexander Kanin, having considered his talent for a month, sent Boris to Moscow with a letter of recommendation to Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Becoming an actor
The guy went to Moscow, howeverprotection was not used. Instead, he entered the theater studio "Young Masters" from Illarion Pevtsov and the studio of Mikhail Chekhov. It was the first, according to the actor himself, that laid a good foundation for his theatrical development. And Boris Andreevich considered Illarion Pevtsov his teacher. Later, for 6 years (since 1921), Boris Babochkin played his roles (and there were more than 200 of them) in the theaters of Voronezh, Kostroma, Mogilev, Samarkand. This period he called becoming.
Maturity came in 1927, when the actor played in the Leningrad Theater of Satire. Internally, he was already that many-sided man of creativity, who was up to the task of super-tasks. Babochkin acted, directed, acted in films, taught, wrote articles for theatrical publications.
In 1927, favorable for himself, Boris Babochkin marries. The personal life of a monogamous actor did not at all resemble an equation with many unknowns. Everything was resolved when he fell in love with the ballerina Katya, who soon became Babochkina. Then their daughter Tatyana was born. The Babochkin family was small, but friendly. The couple loved each other, the daughter appreciated and respected them.
Cinema adaptation
Since 1931, playing at the Pushkin Drama Theater (then called the People's House Drama Theater), Boris Babochkin became an even more prominent figure in theater and cinema. According to critics, the role of Sysoev played by him from the play "The First Horse" by V. Vishnevsky aroused admiration. He showed the audience a noble fighter, rebel and patriot, defender of the Fatherland and revolutionary. Theater critics were unanimous:the best actor in St. Petersburg was ready to play really big epic roles.
Before the main work in his life in art, the actor, as if by the will of fate, had several roles, as if preparing him for a future serious role.
It was hard for a theater actor to get used to the specifics of cinema. The first for him was the image of the battalion commander Karavaev in the film "Mutiny". The directors of the picture tried to limit Babochkin's creative self-expression as much as possible, imposed by a rigid algorithm. He rebelled, not accepting such cinema. But his next work - the role of Makar Bobrik (the film "The First Platoon" directed by Sablin-Korsh) showed that the theater actor was able to cope with film specifics, deeply and systematically revealing the image of his character.
Offer of directors Vasiliev to play in the film "Chapaev"
The image of Chapaev made this actor famous all over the country. However, a whole chain of accidents took place, which led to the fact that the actor Babochkin Boris Andreevich got the role of the then not yet legendary division commander.
This tape deserves a separate short comment. It is little known that the creators of the script for the film "Chapaev", the directors Vasiliev, contrary to a common misconception, are not brothers, they are just namesakes. One of them, Georgy Vasiliev, the viewer of the film, which has become a classic, can see in the scene of the White Guard psychic attack, he walks with a stack, smoking a cigarette. We can also see the wife of the second director. Sergei Vasiliev's wife, actress Varvara Myasnikova played the roleAnki-gunners.
Babochkin's willingness to embody Chapaev
Initially, Boris Babochkin was taken on the role of orderly Vasily Ivanovich - Petka. A completely different actor, Nikolai Batalov, was cast for the role of Chapaev, but his tuberculosis worsened during filming.
Boris Andreevich at that time had an impressive creative potential. His entire previous acting career was, at its core, a movement forward in the development of talent. Babochkin perfected his ability to transform. His admirers increasingly admired the idol. He seemed to be testing himself in blurring the boundaries of creativity.
The script of the film about the division commander touched the actor to the core, since his personal life developed in such a way that Boris Babochkin himself fought in the same army with his hero during the Civil War: the political officer served next door to the 25th cavalry division. Moreover, the political instructor Babochkin, by the nature of his service, communicated with the leadership: the army commander Avksentiev, the chief of staff Makarov, he personally knew all the army commanders … except Chapaev. Ironically, I did not know Vasily Ivanovich and never saw him.
Boris Babochkin knew firsthand the life and intricacies of the service of privates. He, being an experienced cavalryman himself, knew how to prance on a horse, wear a uniform with army chic, put on a hat in a cavalry style so that it held in some incomprehensible way, from personal impressions he represented the lexicon and demeanor of the cavalrymen.
This gave him the opportunity to understand the script of the film not asheroic myth, but animatedly, to find those magic threads, those paths that lead to the heart of the viewer.
From orderly to division commander
Perhaps that is why, trying to play Petka in his own way at first, the actor (whom colleagues called corrosive for his ability to decompose the role into the smallest components and thoroughly study each one) made endless adjustments to the image of the orderly. The Vasilievs argued with him until they were hoarse.
The forces were unequal: as many as two directors against one actor. Boris Babochkin did not agree. He stood his ground: you should play differently. In one of these creative debates, he abruptly turned around and silently walked into his dressing room.
The Vasilievs looked at each other and sighed, considering the argument won, but that was not the case. A couple of minutes later, quite unexpectedly, a restive actor came out to them, but already in Chapaev's make-up. The directors only gasped at the portrait and characteristic resemblance. I was fascinated by the plasticity of Babochkin-Chapaev's movements, his spirituality. The actor spoke several impromptu phrases - it was more than convincing.
Briefly about the meaning of Babochkin's film work in "Chapaev"
The role of Petka was immediately transferred to actor Yakov Gudkin, who was later replaced by Leonid Kmit. After that, according to the directors, "the cards fell perfectly."
It seems that with this first step towards Chapaev - impulsive application of makeup and instant transformation into a division commander - Babochkin Boris stepped into eternity. The actor first remained in the image of Vasily Ivanovich for the entire film. Then thisThe role left its mark on his whole life. And in the end - to the history of all Soviet cinema.
About the merging of the personalities of Chapaev and Babochkin
The image of the division commander was determined by the scale of the actor's transformation and creative dedication.
In the role of Chapaev, he gained the opportunity to discard the cinematic clichés of silent cinema, where the actor was the director's puppet, where external credibility was preferred to acting creativity.
A real miracle of creativity happened: the image of Chapaev came to life, touched millions of hearts, filled with the content that Babochkin breathed into him. Would this division commander be so famous today if it were not for the acting? Would the name of Babochkin sound on the lips of the audience, if not for Vasily Ivanovich?
The fates of these two people are inextricably merged together. Brilliant reincarnation created a miracle. The epic legend was created by the great Russian actor Boris Babochkin. Even the former soldiers of the 25th Cavalry Division, who personally knew Vasily Ivanovich, called the photo of the actor in Chapaev's makeup identical to the original.
The power of art was fully manifested: the actor told his viewer the story not about impersonal valor and glory, but about a living person with a real, God-given talent - to be a commander. Chapaev Babochkina, a divisional commander who grew up from an ordinary rank, is sometimes cool, fearless, wise. Sometimes he is humanly mistaken
But that's all - human weaknesses understandable to subordinates of the commander. And they forgive them to him, as they would forgive their own father. After all, they know that Chapaev will never betray them, will not leave them on the battlefield. They believe him like a geniustactics, who understand the specifics of cavalry combat with their gut. If necessary, they will not hesitate to cover him with their body from a stray bullet, since Chapaev is ready to die for them.
Babochkin managed to embody all this in his role.
The influence of the role of Chapaev on the creative life of the actor Babochkin
The film "Chapaev" entered the first hundred of the world's best films. On Marshal Voroshilov, the game of Boris Andreevich made such an impression that he gave the actor an apartment in Moscow. The daughter of Boris Babochkin recalls the great love of the people that spilled over to her father. The actor really created a real masterpiece. Forty years later, the brilliant director Tarkovsky called Babochkin-Chapaev “a bewitching diamond in which each facet contrasts with its neighbors, forming a monolithic characteristic.”
Thanks to this film work, Babochkin became in 1935 the youngest People's Artist of Russia.
"Chapaev" gave the actor a kind of indulgence: he, a man of direct and open, unable to adapt and often saying unpleasant things, was not touched by the NKVD. At that time, much depended on the review of the Chief, and it was given. Envious people, whom Boris Andreevich never had a shortage of, bit their tongue…
Boris Babochkin in the theater and cinema after Chapaev
During the Great Patriotic War, the actor starred a lot. On June 22, 1941, he was in Riga on the set of the film “The Dead Loop”, which tells about the pilot S. Utochkin. His people loved him. Actor with his film imageinspired people to repulse the Nazis, he understood this, working fanatically, 16 hours a day. Many major film roles were played by Boris Babochkin, his filmography during the war was rich: “Invincible”, “Front”, “Defense of Tsaritsyn”, “Native Fields”. The last of these films was his first work as a film director.
However, if Babochkin's film work had positive reviews, then his theatrical work was under attack. He was hated for his luck, for his talent. But if for envious people the film "Chapaev" was an untouchable sacred cow, then they met Babushkin's work as a theater director with hostility. Decisions were made privately, artistic councils, burdened with ideological dogmas and patterns. The situation was paradoxical: the Leningrad audience enthusiastically perceived the sold-out performances Tsar Potap, Kuban, Wolf, Summer Residents (Boris Babochkin - director), and a day later the press smashed them to smithereens.
By the way, the play "Tsar Potap" Boris Andreevich considered his best work. He could not stand this persecution organized by someone and, having written a letter of resignation, left Leningrad for Moscow. Then he will call this step the biggest mistake in his life. The city on the Neva was closer in spirit to him.
The persecution of the director in the theater. Pushkin
Leningrader in his mentality, Babochkin changed many Moscow theaters. At first he played at the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theater, then at the Vakhtangov Theater. From 1949 to 1951, Boris Andreevich was an actor and director of the Moscow Art Theater, the Moscow Drama Theater. Pushkin. Work in the lastturned out to be fruitful.
Babochkin staged a performance that brought a full house - “Shadows” (based on S altykov-Shchedrin). The Leningrad situation repeated itself. Caustic, undeserved, humiliating criticism rained down on him, the director. For success, for talent. After that, Babochkin had his first heart attack, he went to the hospital. Then he had to be unemployed for three whole years. The actor knew where the threads were drawn from to the puppet critics, but he was forced to ask for an appointment with the Minister of Culture Furtseva … Soon he got a job at the Maly Theater.
Work at the Moscow Art Theater
And here the situation repeated itself: the Babkinsky performance "Ivanov" gathered full houses, and bloodthirsty criticism (figuratively speaking) tore it with its teeth. Babochkin's "mistake" was ideological: he always placed Man over Ideology, Feelings over Loy alty, Conscience over Party Necessity. And he openly called the theater director Tsarev Judas for a libel on the brilliant director Meyerhold, which caused the genius to be arrested. They persecuted Boris Andreevich precisely for this.
After the envious people declared the performance “Forest” directed by him unscheduled, Boris Babochkin could not stand the humiliation and left the Maly Theater.
He left to teach at VGIK. His students, in particular the actress Natalya Bogunova, spoke with admiration of Babochkin's unspent creative potential. According to her, he could "replay" the whole troupe.
Instead of a conclusion
Babochkin, teaching at VGIK, suddenly realized what the problem wasSoviet theater: in a departure from the classics, in the substitution of feelings for formalism. He was hurt by the emasculation of the human, acting, artistic beginning in the roles.
Boris Andreevich was suddenly seized by the desire to stage The Seagull by the immortal Chekhov. He wrote his own unique directorial script. On July 17, 1975, Babochkin arrived in his car at the Maly Theater, entered the building, and agreed with Igor Ilyinsky to play the role of Sorin. On the way back, he suddenly became ill. A heart. He stopped the car. I started looking for pills. They were not at hand…
