Recently, the musical “Singing in the Rain” was staged in Russia. What does he have to do with actor Nikolai Batalov? The most direct, because it tells about silent film artists who are given a hard time working in a "talking movie." Moreover, if one of the main characters of the American musical suffers a fiasco, and she is called an understudy, then the artist Nikolai Batalov with honor overcame this test and starred in the first Soviet sound picture. Unfortunately, today only a few remember this talented artist who passed away early, and the vast majority of viewers do not know anything about his life or his work.
Childhood and study
Who is Nikolai Batalov? His biography is the story of a talented person who lived and worked while fighting an insidious disease. He was born in Moscow in 1899. His parents were peasants from the Yaroslavl province who came to the capital in search of a better life. They sent their son to the School of Commerce to them. Alexander the First. At the end of his studies, at the age of 16, Nikolai made an important decision to become an actor. To achieve this goal, he passed the exams and entered the School of Dramatic Art, which was soon transformed into a Second Studio.
Theater work
In 1916, Nikolai Batalov entered the Moscow Art Theater. He immediately attracted the attention of the audience, creating a touching image of Petit the Binder in the production of 3inaida Gippius's The Green Ring. Critics called his work on images of Nechaev in Mladost, Taras-Bruhan in The Tale of Ivan the Fool a success, and others.
Together with Batalov’s studio, he made tours around the country, during which the provincial residents could see his play in the performances “The Flood” by G. Berger and in the play-farce “Lawyer Patlen” by David-Augustin Brues.
At the Moscow Art Theater, Nikolai Batalov met with Mikhail Chekhov, who invited him as a stage partner to his famous vaudeville "Pisho and Misho." Of the serious roles of the artist in this theater, the image of the passionate Franz Moor in Schiller's Robbers, staged by B. I. Vershilov, should be noted.
Nikolai Batalov took an active part in the "Sovietization" of the Moscow Art Theater. In particular, since 1925 he was a member of the theater’s internal governing bodies. For some time he was practically in charge of the troupe. In addition, the actor participated in the first premieres of the Moscow Art Theater and demanded to replace the works of "old" idealists and build a new Art Theater with a repertoire that was consonant with the slogans of the Bolshevik Party. Despite this, he happily took on the role of Figaro, in which the artist appeared on the stage for the last time before the illness confined him to bed.
Silent movie work
In 1923, Batalov was invited to shoot a fantastic film "Aelita" based on the novel by A. Tolstov, which was filmed by director Yakov Protazanov. He got the role of the Red Army soldier Gusev, with whom he did a great job, although this was his first film work. After the premiere of the film, enthusiastic articles appeared in the press in which he was called the antipode of the "written beauties" of Western cinema and precisely the actor who is able to embody the image of a Soviet man on the screen.
2 years after the high-profile premiere of "Aelita", viewers saw Nikolaev Batalov in the film "Mother" by Leonid Pudovkin, where he played Pavel Vlasov. This role has confirmed the actor in the role of a hero fighting for the rights of the working people.
Sound movie work
As already mentioned, Batalov was one of the first Soviet actors who spoke to the viewer from the screen. In 1931, he starred in the legendary film "A ticket to life." The director of this first Soviet sound film was Nikolai Ekk, who decided that Nikolai Batalov would most likely look like the leader of a labor commune who successfully re-educates street children into “real Soviet people”. The actor perfectly coped with the task set for him, which was complicated by the fact that before that he had experience filming only in silent films. However, his vast experience working on theatrical stages allowed Batalov to quickly reorganize and stop expressing emotions through gestures, as was usual in the movie before the invention of a way to combine picture and sound.
Illness and personal life
Filming "Aelita", held in extreme conditions, ended for Nikolai Batalov with a serious cold, which caused tuberculosis. Due to the deteriorating state of health, the actor even took a break in the theatrical career, and after returning to the stage he often refused roles, following the advice of doctors who forbade him to overwork. His poor health very upset Olga Androvskaya, whom Nikolay Batalov had been married to since 1921 (a daughter was born in marriage). This talented actress, starting in 1930, when the actor’s state of health sharply worsened, practically abandoned the stage and looked after him until his death in 1937.
Now you know what life Batalov Nikolay Petrovich lived - one of the pioneers of domestic sound cinema, who played several dozens of interesting roles.