Maria Kapnist - Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR. Biography, creativity

Known to millions of viewers with her expressive, uniquely strict appearance and unique interpretation of characters, the characteristic Ukrainian actress Maria Kapnist played more than one hundred and twenty roles in the cinema.

Her type - mysterious old women: countesses, witches, society ladies at the age of ... Why mysterious? Yes, because, reincarnated in them, Maria Kapnist filled her heroines with her own energy, an inner incomprehensible power. And children who saw it at the cinema (which it is impossible to deceive) believed: this is exactly what a sorceress should be.

Memorable roles

Colleagues noticed the phenomenon: having met the familiar actors, the kids for some reason always dragged themselves to the "Baba Yaga", as she called herself with humor. Generous soul, Maria Kapnist always in this case paid attention to her small fans: they delighted with a joke or even (if time allowed) started a game with them.

The image of Sofya Pavlovna became unforgettable for many generations of young spectators in her interpretation. According to the contents of the story "Bronze Bird", this is a former housekeeper. But you will agree, judging by the actor's game, to call the performer of this role a servant is to lie.

How much genuine aristocratism she put into her actress! Wholely organically merged with this role her appearance: burning eyes, thinness, deep wrinkles, aquiline nose. What here the housekeeper? Rather, "Your Highness"!

And it was to this actress, in the opinion of critics, that the nuances of the image of the old woman Izergil (the film "Tabor Goes to Heaven"), attached to M. Gorky, were best given.

The best film work

However, experts say that her best film work was Naina's role in the film adaptation of Ruslan and Lyudmila. Mysterious, mystical enchantress. Knowing yourself the price ... About this type of actress Soviet filmmakers dreamed for a long time. It was this role that brought her all-Union glory.

During the filming of this film, a dramatic episode occurred. He initiated the director Ptushko, and he did it incorrectly, to put it mildly.

On one of the filming days, Maria Kapnist, unprepared, not forewarned, went into the pavilion of Dovzhenko's studio, suddenly heard behind her back a uterine growl (tigers always attack from behind.) She glanced around sharply, and noticed him already being prepared for a jump. By the way, these frames were included in the film.

Direct look at point-blank range into the inhuman colors of gold made the impossible: it made the beast go.

The very same actress after the incident found the strength to return to the hotel, and only entering the room, weakened self-control. Completely devastated, she fainted and lay from the stress experienced in bed for four days.

Congenital aristocracy

However, after this Pushkin screen adaptation, Maria Rostislavovna felt what it means to be in demand. Directors were lining up for her in line. After all, her acting skills really adorned the films: the secondary, seemingly episodes, the presence of the actress gave genuine expression and significance.

Proposals to be removed there was no end. Critics called her the actress of the episode from God. It was not by chance that she played the "Countess" so convincingly in the film "Bronze Bird", beloved by many generations of children!

However, the reincarnation contributed to the real Count's blood flowing in it. She once lived in prosperity and joy. Young Maria, despite her childhood, was not a lackey, she owned a 70-room mansion in Sudak. Once upon a time, in another, pre-revolutionary world ...

There was a large parental mansion - a full bowl, a large friendly family. She was spoiled, loved. She knew from the stories of her parents that somewhere on the Mediterranean island of Zant there are ancient ruins of the castle of her ancestors, the Venetian counts.

History of the genus Kapnistov

Secondarily the title of Count Kapnistam was granted to Queen Elizabeth for the courage shown under Ochakov. On the family coat of arms of fearless Kapnists there was an inscription "In the fire unshaken". Rod was big and notable. Dad girl - Rostislav Rostislavovich Kapnist - was a prominent secular figure. Mom actress belonged to a very revered in Ukraine, the family of Hetman Sirko. The full name of the little countess is Marietta Rostislavovna Kapnist-Serko. The girl got black piercing eyes, like the legendary great-grandfather-hetman. There is a well-known story that the French left Moscow unmotivated, after the secret order of Kutuzov around Belokamennaya encircled an artifact, bequeathed by Sirk after his brothers' death in arms. The ancestor of Mary was recognized by both the military and historians as invincible: 55 battles - and no defeat!

Salon Kapnistov on the English Embankment was extremely popular in St. Petersburg. In the mother of our heroine, the beautiful Anastasia Dmitrievna, who knew 18 languages, the maestro Chaliapin himself was hopelessly in love.

Dreaming of the theater, Maria Kapnist in her youth even got a few vocal lessons from the world celebrity. The girl was alive and artistic: she sang beautifully, danced, always was the soul of a youth company ...

Revolution. The tragedy of the family

15 years of hard labor on indiscriminate accusation have done their job: the blossoming woman - the noblewoman Maria Kapnist - turned into a countess of mines. Biography of the future actress, as you can see, is tragic.

Running ahead, say: fate was fair to her. It did not end (as Vysotsky's song sings) "a fall, a decline," ahead of the martyr was expected "take-off and sunrise," consonant with the ancient Roman winged expression "Through thorns - to the stars."

Horror began after news from Petersburg. Repression of the Kapnist family came at once. Rostislav Rostislavovich's father was shot by the Bolsheviks during the first days of the revolution. Beloved by our heroine, her older sister Lisa did not survive it and died right away from a heart rupture. Aunt's aunt, who lives with the family, was shot right before Maria's eyes. The barbarians who committed this murder, somehow felt the girl's burning gaze on her back: "Look how she looks at us, let's shoot her!" The words themselves were found and invested in Maria's mouth with a shrill cry: "You do not have such an order, you can not!"

Then in the Crimea, without trial and investigation, more than 3,000 people were shot. Sympathetic to the family of the late good Count of Tartars (the revolution caught Kapnistov in the Crimea), disguising the mother and the children in rags, helped them to hide.

The best years are in the camps

But the hands of the Bolsheviks were long. What helped her later in the Gulag not to harden, to remain human? Later, the actress will tell: rescued the dream she saw. Let's talk about this vision. She is in a crowd of hungry people. And no one but her sees a bag of grain standing on the dais. Then she climbs up and begins to distribute the grain to people.

"Why this dream?" - Maria asked herself, waking up. And then I guessed: you do not have to harden, you have to remain kind, no matter what.

Ibid, in the camps, falling in love with the subsequently shot engineer, she gave birth to a daughter Radu. Not succumbing to bullying, not having made at the insistence of his tormentors abortion. And when she saw how her daughter was beaten and humiliated in the kindergarten camp, she could not restrain herself and beat the sadist-teacher herself, receiving an additional term.

In the fire unshakable

Was it beauty to the future actress, when instead of creams in the face skin for years had to rub soot (then the zeks had a chance not to be raped)?

Maria Kapnist heralded in her own way that the place was a feat in the zone, in the following way: an act. Somehow, working in the mines, she saw that a one-and-a-half-ton trolley from the mountain rolled on the colleagues' backs facing her with misfortune. Without thinking of herself, the little woman rushed to her across. Where did this power come from?

And then there was a week of unconsciousness between life and death, crying girlfriends giving her their blood.

And how do you get another thriller that happened to her: zeks (including our heroine), acting "according to the concepts," carried out severe justice on the principle of "death for death" (buried alive in the coal of a rapist-guard escaping a woman who refused With him to sleep)? Time passed. Arriving at a stage in another camp, Maria Kapnist met him (as this scoundrel survived, it is unknown). And for her, recognized, life turns into a nightmare. That maniac begins with the knowledge of his craft to beat her, so that the "old friend" would die long and painfully.

At large

I can not believe that after all this, an actress's path is possible for a person. Actress Maria Rostislavovna Kapnist Theater Universities did not finish. Obviously, fate interfered.

But at first it was unbearably difficult. After in 1958 "for lack of corpus delicti" the former "fascist" (they called the revolt in the camps of prisoners who served their sentence under Article 58 "Anti-Soviet propaganda") were released, Maria went to Kiev. There was no house. I slept at the train stations. She worked as a janitor, a masseuse. I dreamed of finding and returning my daughter Radu (being imprisoned, she was deprived of the right to bring her up). Perhaps, then only the dream of her daughter kept her in the world.

By chance - in the cinema

Once a typical woman in a quilted jacket and a make-up (Maria soot washed off his face day after day for seven years) noticed director Yuri Lysenko in line at the kiosk near Dovzhenko's studio.

Could he think that from his light hand came to the cinema the future Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR? He then approached Maria Rostislavovna and asked what kind of film she was from? And then literally dragged her to appear in the film "Tavria", created according to the novel by O. Gonchar.

With the role of the hegumene, the dilettante did brilliantly. This is how Maria Rostislavovna began her thirty-five-year acting career. In 1994, when the last film with the participation of the actress "The Parable of the Sunshine" appeared on the screens, she was no longer alive.

Filmography

Let's list the main tapes, decorated with its roles.

The end of the 50's and 60's	"Tavria", "Far from the Motherland", "Flying ship", "Dushka", "We are two men", "I want to believe", "War and Peace", "There are no unknown soldiers", "Big troubles because of a small Boy "," Error Honore de Balzac "," Sons go into battle "
70th years	"Where are you, knights?", "Olesya", "Missing letters", "Ruslan and Lyudmila," "The old fortress," "Faith, hope, love," "Love at first sight," "To be afraid of fear - no happiness "," Bronze Bird "," Soldiers "," If You Leave "," Soft Boots "," Tabor Goes to Heaven "," Wild Hunt of King Stach "
80th years	"Piggy Bank", "Comic Lover", "Andrew and the Enchanter", "Chance", "Temptation of Don Juan", "Premiere in Sosnovka", "Ivanko and Tsar Pohanin", "Two on the Isle of Tears," "Return of the Butterfly" "New adventures of the Yankees at the court of King Arthur," "Studies about Vrubel," "A Man for a Young Woman"
The 90s	"Witch", "Ogre", "Labeled", "Hearts of Three", "Loch - the winner of water", "Dark Waters", "Anna Karamazoff", "White Clothes", "Parable of the Sunshine"

Until the end of her life Maria Kapnist preserved a beautiful creative form. Filmography of her - that testimony. She lived a favorite thing - acting, in life she was open, honest, kind and merciful. Those who loved her loved. Suddenly, the broken life of the actress was like an interrupted flight.

Relations between Maria Rostislavovna and her daughter began to be established only in the late 70's (it took time that she realized that her mother was a fine person). Dotole Rada recognized only the adoptive mother (a woman who was also poor, who had lost her own daughter because of the arbitrariness of Lavrenty Beria), who was maternally loving and growing her.

Fatal accident

Life of the actress ended suddenly. As if she was not real, but invented by some writer ...

October night in 1993, actress Maria Kapnist was shot down by a car, trying to cross the Prospect of Victory near the Dovzhenko film studio. After thinking, she did not notice the approaching car.

Doctors remembered: even in the hospital, this small, slender woman was notable for her natural tact and lack of ambition.

She stoically suffered pain and died of complications, staying on inpatient treatment. 25.10.1993. Maria Rostislavovna Kapnist-Serko was gone.

Instead of concluding

What makes Maria Rostislavovna among the colleagues in the acting department? An amazing, incomprehensible natural aristocracy. To her did not pester dirt! According to the memoirs of contemporaries, it is to her, it is not known why, there were pure and talented people. Her apartment, like her father's salon in St. Petersburg (of course, in miniature), was invariably visited.

Gossip, meanness, undercover intrigue - all this, unfortunately, is not uncommon in the acting environment. However, colleagues did not even try to involve her in an unfair game. She was above this, and she did not molest mud. Surrounding almost physically felt the crystal honesty of the actress. Her talent is also undeniable. After all, today the film is loved by the audience, where Maria Kapnist was shot.

Films are the best monument to her, the Countess of the Soviet screen.