As the first handsome man of Soviet cinema, Lanovoy was approved for the role in “Officers”

There was plenty of paradox in his life: for all his aristocracy, Vasily Lanovoy was a peasant’s son. His parents came to Moscow permanently from a Ukrainian village in 1931. In the capital they worked at a chemical plant, and in 1934 their son Vasily was born. When he was seven years old, the war began. He and his sisters had just arrived in the Odessa region to visit their grandparents. I saw my parents only four years later, after the war. After the horror he experienced in the occupied land, he began to stutter, but was able to overcome an illness incompatible with the acting profession by performing Ukrainian songs.

He just managed to graduate from Shchuka, from which, by the way, they wanted to expel him for acting in films during his studies, and he immediately became popular. For the bulk of the country’s female population, he was, above all, handsome. Tall, stately, with expressive facial features and a unique voice. He began to speak—whether from the stage, from the screen, or simply in life—as if he were enveloping the listeners with his soft, slightly husky voice. Well, when I started reading my Pushkin:

“What’s in a name?

It will die like a sad noise

Waves splashing onto the distant shore,

Like the sound of the night in a deep forest…” the words made your head spin, you could float, losing the ground under your feet.

The public went to Vakhtangovsky to see the young Lanovoy, who until 1963 appeared in plays in small roles. And at such performances in the second act one could see how the hall was a third empty, because their idol played only in the first. Crowds of fans were waiting for him at the service entrance, but he did not revel in the excitement around his person, did not rise up – he simply left the theater through another exit, pulling his cap further down over his eyes. I couldn’t stand the noise around me. His generation was not a star.

For viewers, he was Arthur Gray in “Scarlet Sails”, Pavka Korchagin in “How the Steel Was Tempered”, the Commander in the film “Anna and the Commander”, Shervinsky in “Days of the Turbins” and, of course, Ivan Varabba in “Officers”. This is where he is a combat officer, the ideal of a real man, almost a standard. And in the theater he is, of course, Prince Calaf from Princess Turandot, ready to lose his head in the name of love.

Just a perfect hero, there are no such things in life! But thanks to Vasily Semenovich, his play, women, especially his generation, from whom the war took away their loved ones and the very opportunity to be loved, believed in his noble princes, courageous handsome military men. On screen and on stage, he embodied the great illusion of love – beautifully and authentically. Ambiguous characters, scoundrels – Vronsky in Anna Karenina, Anatol Kuragin in War and Peace – could not hide the power of his charm.

It seems that Lanovoi was born in uniform. The film “Officers,” a landmark for his biography, was released in 1971. His hero Ivan Varabbas served with his friend Alexei Trofimov at the border post in the 1920s, fighting the Basmachi. Together they went through the Great Patriotic War and met again, becoming generals. Journalist Alla Gerber, who later became a famous writer and film critic, worked as an editor on this film at that time.

“Lanovoy was chosen by director Volodya Rogovoy, who only saw him in the role of Barabbas,” Alla Efremovna told MK. “He always said: “I need an actor with such appearance and posture, with such stature and such a face.” Lanovoy and Yumatov were supposed to be in the film from the very beginning, as soon as the script appeared. This pairing was obvious to the director.

I had just arrived at the studio, and editor-in-chief Vera Biryukova told me: “This is your first work, and you must find the author and script yourself.” I was friends with the writer Boris Vasiliev and went to see him. We talked for a long time. And then he came up with “Officers” together with screenwriter Kirill Rapoport. I told them that we needed some kind of phrase that could reach the people. And Boris said in front of me: “My father said: “There is such a profession – to defend the Motherland”… His father was a military man, an officer, and his favorite phrase was included in the script.

— How true is it that the idea of ​​this film belonged to Defense Minister Grechko?

– No. Everything was invented by Boris Vasiliev, as they say, at the table. Then the film was supported by the USSR Ministry of Defense; but then this was not expressed in financial support – the studio gave money. The film, one might say, was carried in one’s hands. Volodya Rogovoy devoted himself entirely to this picture, lived by it, did not sleep at night, maybe that’s why it turned out like that.

— Rogovoy was an experienced cinematographer, but at the same time a novice director. And by that time Lanovoy was more popular than anyone else. How was their relationship?

— Before “Officers,” Rogovoy worked as the director of films by Isidor Annensky (“Princess Mary,” “Anna on the Neck.” — S.H.), Ivan Lukinsky (“Ivan Brovkin on Virgin Lands”). Georgy Yumatov loved him very much, but with Lanov it was more difficult: he had some kind of mistrust towards the director, he looked at him with narrowed eyes, condescendingly. But let’s be objective: Lanovoy worked very carefully and responsibly. He is a patriot, and a sincere one at that, and he treated his role with personal dedication, which affected the result.

— Did such experienced artists as Lanovoy and Yumatov bring something of their own to the script?

— The script was very good, and everything coincided here: both what Vasiliev saw and what Lanovoy achieved.

— The role of a military man required a certain bearing and preparation…

— The director invited his friend, an officer, and he taught the actors how to wear the uniform correctly. Lanovoy was very receptive. He put on his uniform and felt like… in pajamas. It was as if he was born in a uniform, it was so his. Amazing! I attribute this to the fact that he was a sincerely patriotic person. The role of Barabbas and the film were absolutely his. He didn’t even have to do anything special, he didn’t have to break anything in himself, he didn’t have to invent anything. It’s as if he crossed a small border between himself and his hero and became him. For him it is like his own breathing.

In the early 2000s, Vasily Lanovoy once again played in “Officers,” but this was already a series by Murad Aliyev (script by Elena Karavaeshnikova), filmed as a continuation of the film by Vladimir Rogovoy. Previously, Lanovoy had responded to all such proposals with an invariable refusal, but then he unexpectedly agreed – he was convinced by Konstantin Ernst. The main character’s surname was changed; Osorgin, a retired general, appeared instead of Varabbas. But the dispute over the name continued: Lanovoi objected to the second “Officers”. As a result, we came to this option – “Officers. The last soldier of the empire.”

Murad Aliyev told MK how Vasily Lanovoy first came to the set. They didn’t know each other before. There were no tests. Lanovoy was extremely polite and even seemed cold, but he knew his scene in advance and treated the text responsibly. We rehearsed and went through the text. Behind the camera is the classic of Soviet cinema Vadim Alisov. They filmed a take, and it became clear to the director that everything was wrong. Murad Aliyev did not know how to tell Lanovoy about this. Alisov helped out – he advised not to tremble with fear in front of the great artist, but to come up and tell everything frankly. And so it was done.

We filmed a second take, but again it wasn’t the same. And then Aliyev finally became bolder and asked Vasily Semenovich to play more softly, without “Vakhtangovism”. That’s what he said. To which Lanovoi replied: “Wha-o-o? So that I don’t hear this word again… Now I’ll do everything.” And he played as the director needed. But after this incident he began to call Aliyev Konstantin Sergeevich. Like Stanislavsky.

And in 2016, the artist starred with him again – in the film “Alien Grandfather”. The script was written specifically for Vasily Semenovich, who at that time was already 83 years old. This role was his last in a movie, and it was physically challenging. But nevertheless, in the fight scenes, Lanovoy refused to use doubles.

The Vakhtangov ethics, which for Lanovoy was a code of professional honor, did not allow refusals. Playing to the last meant playing. He played. On December 24, 2020, Vasily Semenovich appeared on the stage of his theater in the play “Last Moons” by Rimas Tuminas, although he felt very bad. They told him “let’s cancel it,” but he didn’t care: he got ready and left. And he played, but only the first act, which became the last in his life.

The concepts of “Fatherland”, “patriotism”, “honor of an officer” for Vasily Lanovoy were never words from just another script. This handsome man in the role of a hero, from whom it was difficult to expect active participation in the political life of the country, at a turning point for it, showed integrity and unwavering commitment to the ideals of his youth. What was called “conservatism” and “old-fashioned views” in the hot times of perestroika turned out to be a position for him, and he always defended this position. He never “changed his shoes” like some of his colleagues, who were sincerely caught up in the perestroika wave or for career reasons. Years will pass, fateful events for the country will occur, and it will become clear that the truth will remain with Vasily Lanov.

When Vasily Semenovich was seen off on his last journey at the Vakhtangov Theater at the end of January 2021, not only fans of his acting talent, but also hundreds of officers, past, present and future, came to say goodbye to him. For them, Vasily Lanovoy was not just an artist who convincingly created images of the military – he was one himself. Because there is such a profession – to defend the Motherland. And art too.