Boris Babochkin: biography and filmography

According to Oleg Efremov, Stanislavsky created his immortal system with people like Boris Babochkin. The biography of this actor, born in 1904, seems to be divided by the role of Chapaev, played by him in 1934, into two parts: “before” and “after”.

Youth

Boris Andreyevich Babochkin was born in the city of 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 secondary education. Like all peers, at the age of 13 Borya became a Komsomol member. And at the age of 15 he already went into adulthood - he was called up to the Eastern Front of the Civil War, where he served in the political department of the 4th Army.

However, the young man more than a service, beckoned by the theater. 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 a senior course. And the head of the studio, Alexander Kanin, having examined 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, but did not take advantage of the protection. Instead, he entered the drama studio “Young Masters” from Illarion Pevtsov and the studio of Mikhail Chekhov. It was the first, according to the actor himself, laid a good foundation for his theatrical formation. And Boris Andreevich considered Illarion Pevtsov as his teacher. Later, for 6 years (since 1921), Boris Babochkin played his roles (and there were more than 200) in the theaters of Voronezh, Kostroma, Mogilev, Samarkand. This period he called becoming.

Maturity came from 1927, when the actor played in the Leningrad Satire Theater. Inwardly, he was already that many-sided person of creativity, to whom super-tasks turned out to be on the shoulder. Butterfly played, was a director, starred in films, taught, wrote articles for theater publications.

In a favorable 1927 year, Boris Babochkin marries. The personal life of a monogamous actor did not at all resemble an equation with many unknowns. Everything was settled when he fell in love with the ballerina Katya, who soon became Butterfly. Then they had a daughter, Tatyana. The Butterfly family was small but friendly. The couple loved each other, the daughter appreciated and respected them.

Adapting to the cinema

Since 1931, playing in the Pushkin Drama Theater (then called the Drama Theater of the People’s House), Boris Babochkin in the theater and cinema has become an even more prominent figure. According to critics, his role as Sysoev 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 large-scale epic roles.

Before the main work in art in his life, as if by the will of fate, the actor had several roles, as if preparing him for a future serious role.

The theater actor with the specifics of the movie was heavily squeezed. The first for him was the image of the battalion commander Karavaev in the film "Rebellion". The directors of the picture tried to limit as much as possible the imposed self-expression of Babochkin's imposed strict algorithm. He rebelled, not accepting such a 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, revealing the image of his character deeply and systematically.

The proposal of the directors Vasilyev to play in the film “Chapaev”

Famous throughout the country of this actor made the image of Chapaev. However, there was a whole chain of accidents that led to the actor Babochkin Boris Andreevich getting the role of the not-so-legendary divisional then.

This tape deserves a separate short comment. It is little known that the creators of the script for the film "Chapaev", directors Vasilyeva, contrary to a common misconception, are not brothers, they are just namesakes. One of them, George Vasiliev, the viewer of the film, which has become a classic, can see in the scene of the White Guard mental attack, he walks with a stack, smoking a cigarette. We can also see the wife of the second director. The wife of Sergei Vasilyev, actress Varvara Myasnikova, played the role of Anka the machine gunner.

The willingness of Babochkin to realize Chapaev

Initially, Boris Babochkin was taken on the role of the orderly Vasily Ivanovich - Petka. A completely different actor, Nikolai Batalov, was accepted for the role of Chapaev , but tuberculosis worsened during the filming.

Boris Andreevich at that time had impressive creative potential. His entire previous acting career was, in essence, a forward movement in the development of talent. Babochkin perfected his reincarnation skill. His admirers more and more admired the idol. He seemed to be trying to blur the boundaries of creativity.

The script of the film about the commander touched the actor to the depths of his soul, since his personal life was such that Boris Babochkin himself fought in the same army with his hero: the political officer served next door to the 25th cavalry division. Moreover, the political officer Babochkin, by the nature of his service, communicated with the leading link: army commander Avksentiev, chief of staff Makarov, personally knew all army commanders ... except Chapaev. Ironically, I was not familiar with Vasily Ivanovich, and I have never seen him.

Boris Babochkin knew firsthand the life and intricacies of the rank and file service. Being an experienced cavalryman himself, he knew how to prank on a horse, wear army uniform and wear a cavalry uniform so that it could be held in some incomprehensible manner, representing personal impressions of the vocabulary and manner of behavior of the army soldiers.

This gave him the opportunity to realize the script of the film not as a heroic myth, but animate, to find those magical threads, those paths, paths that lead to the heart of the viewer.

From orderly to divisional

Perhaps that is why, trying to play Petka in his own way, the actor (whom colleagues called corrosive for his ability to decompose the role into the smallest components and thoroughly examine each) made endless adjustments to the image of the orderly. The Vasilievs argued with him hoarsely.

The forces were unequal: as many as two directors against one actor. Boris Babochkin did not agree. He stood his ground: play should be different. In one of these creative debates, he suddenly turned around and silently went to his dressing room.

The Vasilievs looked at each other and sighed, considering the dispute won, but it wasn’t there. A couple of minutes later a completely awkward actor came to them, but already in the makeup of Chapaev. The directors only gasped from the portrait and characteristic similarities. The plastic movement of Babochkin-Chapaev, his spirituality was mesmerizing. The actor uttered several impromptu phrases - it was more than convincing.

Briefly about the significance of the film work by Babochkin in “Chapaev”

The role of Petka was immediately transferred to the actor Yakov Gudkin, who was subsequently replaced by Leonid Kmit. After that, according to the directors, "the cards went perfectly."

It seems that with this first step towards Chapaev - impulsive application of makeup and instant transformation into a divisional commander - Boris Babochkin stepped into eternity. The actor first remained in the image of Vasily Ivanovich for the whole film. Then this role left its mark on his whole life. And in the end - on the history of the entire Soviet cinema.

On the merger of the personalities of Chapaev and Butterfly

The image of the divisor was determined by the scale of the reincarnation and creative dedication of the actor.

In the role of Chapaev, he gained the opportunity to discard cinema cliches of silent cinema, where the actor was the puppet of the director, where external credibility was preferred to acting.

A real miracle of creativity happened: the image of Chapaev came to life, touched millions of hearts, was filled with the content that Butterchkin breathed into him. Would this divisor be so famous today if not for the actor’s game? Would the name Babochkina have sounded on the lips of the audience, if not for Vasily Ivanovich?

The fate of these two people inextricably merged together. A brilliant reincarnation created a miracle. The epic legend was created by the great Russian actor Boris Babochkin. Even former soldiers of the 25th cavalry division, personally acquainted with Vasily Ivanovich, called the photo of the actor in makeup of Chapaev identical to the original.

The power of art was fully manifested: the actor conveyed to his viewer a story not about anonymized valor and glory, but about a living person who has a real, God-given talent - to be a commander. Chapaev Babochkina, a divisive officer who grew up from an ordinary rank, is sometimes cool, fearless, wise. Sometimes he is humanly mistaken

But these are all human weaknesses that the commander understands. And they forgive him, as they would forgive his father. After all, they know that Chapaev will never betray them, will not leave them on the battlefield. They believe him, as an ingenious tactic, who understands inwardly the specifics of cavalry combat. If necessary, without hesitation, they will close him with their body from a stray bullet, since Chapaev is also ready to die for them.

All this was able to translate in his role Butterfly.

The influence of the role of Chapaev on the creative life of actor Babochkin

The film “Chapaev” entered the first hundred of the best world film works. Boris Andreevich’s game made such an impression on Marshal Voroshilov that he gave the actor an apartment in Moscow. The daughter of Boris Babochkin recalls a huge national love that spilled on her father. The actor really created a real masterpiece. Forty years later, the ingenious director Tarkovsky called Babochkina-Chapaev “a bewitching diamond in which each facet contrasts with the neighboring ones, forming a monolithic character.”

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 person who was direct and open, who did not know how to adapt and said often unpleasant things, did not touch the NKVD organs. At that time, much depended on the review of the Chief, and it was given. Envious people, the lack of which Boris Andreevich never had, bit his 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. The actor in his cinema inspired people to repulse the Nazis, he understood this, working fanatically, 16 hours a day. Many main movie roles were played by Boris Babochkin, his filmography during the war was intense: “Invincible”, “Front”, “Defense of Tsaritsyn”, “Native Fields”. The last of these films was his first work as a filmmaker.

However, if the filmmaking of Babochkin had positive reviews, then his theatrical works fell under attack. He was hated for luck, for talent. But if for envious people the film “Chapaev” was an untouchable sacred cow, then they met with hostility the work of Babushkin as a theater director. Decisions were made privately, by artistic advice, weighed down by ideological dogmas and patterns. The situation was paradoxical: the Leningrad audience enthusiastically perceived the performances “Tsar Potap”, “Kuban”, “Wolf”, “Summer Residents” (Boris Babochkin - director), and the press carried them to smithereens.

By the way, the play “Tsar Potap” Boris Andreevich considered his best work. He could not stand this organized persecution 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 to him in spirit.

Harassing a director in the theater. Pushkin

According to his mentality, a Leningrader, Butterfly replaced many Moscow theaters. First he played in the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theater, then in the Vakhtangov Theater. From 1949 to 1951, Boris Andreevich was an actor and director of the Moscow Art Theater, Moscow Drama Theater. Pushkin. Work in the latter turned out to be fruitful.

Babochkin staged a performance that sold out - “Shadows” (based on Saltykov-Shchedrin). The Leningrad situation repeated itself. On him, the director, pungent, undeserved, humiliating criticism fell. For the success achieved, for talent. After that, butterfly had a first heart attack, he went to hospital. Then for three whole years he had to be unemployed. The actor knew where the threads came from for critic puppets, but 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 “Ivanov” Butterfly performance gathered full rooms, and the bloodthirsty criticism (figuratively speaking) tore it with its teeth. The “mistake” of Babochkin was ideological: he always placed Man over Ideology, Feelings over Loyalty, Conscience over Party Necessity. And he openly called the director of the theater, Tsarev Judah, for the libel to the brilliant director Meyerhold, who caused the arrest of the genius. Harassed Boris Andreevich precisely for this.

After envious people declared the play “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, actress Natalia Bogunova, spoke with admiration about the unspent creative potential of Babochkin. According to her, he could “replay” the whole troupe.

Instead of a conclusion

Teaching at VGIK, Babochkin suddenly realized what the problem of the Soviet theater was: in moving away from the classics, in replacing feelings with formalism. He was hurt by the emasculation of the human, acting, artistic beginning in roles.

Boris Andreevich was suddenly seized by the desire to stage The Seagull of the immortal Chekhov. He wrote his unique directorial script. 07/17/1975 Babochkin in his car came to the Maly Theater, going into the building, agreed with Igor Ilyinsky to play the role of Sorin. On the way back he suddenly felt ill. Heart. He stopped the car. I started looking for pills. They were not at hand ...