The French wife of Igor Kostolevsky spoke about life with the artist: “I love Soviet comfort”

1.

— Consuelo, I want to hear the version of your acquaintance.

— This happened when I saw the play “Art” in Moscow, although I understood little in Russian at that time. I saw this play before in Paris, but your actors played better in it. After the performance they invited me to a buffet, but I said that I wouldn’t go because I was running to the hotel. At that moment I had one big problem – the sponsor abandoned our play “Tatyana Repina” based on Chekhov, I flew from Paris to play it in the Youth Theater. In fact, the first and last rehearsal took place that day, and I was not in the mood at all.

But still, my friend Lenochka Naumova, translator of that very play “Art,” invited me to a farewell dinner at the Confederation of Theater Unions. I sat at the table and thought: “This is my farewell moment in Russia, this is me saying goodbye to everyone.” And he was sitting on the opposite side of the table, and I saw that, every time he raised his glass, he looked at me and seemed to be waiting for something. Then he came up and asked for my phone number. I said that tomorrow, that’s it, I’m flying out of Moscow, and he hugged me and kissed me. In front of everyone. I thought: “Wow!” – and then I remembered that this is your culture: Brezhnev, Honecker – they always kiss on the lips, this is normal.

— Isn’t there such a culture in France?

– On the lips? No! You don’t know the person. Between us then it was like a blow, everyone was stunned: “Wow.” I was not young, but I felt like Natasha Rostova. And this is not because he is a handsome man, an artist, but something that I cannot explain happened – such a voltage.

— Did you feel a certain message from Igor Matveevich?

“I don’t know, none of us thought about it then.” When I returned to the hotel, I began to think: “How will I now live without Russia, without a dream and… without him.” And the next day Igor invited me to a restaurant.

— What language did you communicate in?

— He speaks Russian and a little English with me. And when we came to the Lebed restaurant on Chistye Prudy, for some reason everyone began to look at Igor. At that moment the orchestra began to play, and everyone began to applaud Igor. Then I found out that it was music from the film “Tehran-43”.

Then he tried to explain to me that he was a famous artist, that he played with Alain Delon in one film, just in “Tehran-43”. And what? I also played in two films with Alain Delon. And some time later, in another restaurant – “Tiflis” – Igor explained to me the essence of one phrase: “There is no turning back.” And I really liked this phrase – the very short sounds in it. And on this day he explained to me: “You are my woman.” And these two phrases became a law for us: you are my woman, and there is no turning back.

– How long have you been together?

— Twenty-five years this year. Before Igor, I never allowed anyone to interfere with my professional path. My path was one – I want to play, and an extra person only interferes with this. But here I realized that there really is no life without him, and everything is here for me too. For three years we lived in two countries. And after the wedding, the next day, I played in Paris for another year and a half. But then I realized that for me it was either play or continue the marriage.

— What gift did the Russian groom give his French bride for her wedding?

– Of course, I did – a diamond ring, diamond earrings. Natasha Gundareva was a witness at our wedding.

2.

“I don’t know how it is with French men, but leaving a handsome Russian husband alone, unattended, is a very big risk.”

“It was like this from the very beginning: I trust him, and he trusts me.” Otherwise it will be hell. Igor is a very big romantic. When he received your theater award for his last role in the play based on Marquez, he was so happy. And when he is upset, it is also so deep for him. He’s not calculating at all. He helps people a lot and supports them. And absolutely devoted. He knows how to love.

– What does it mean to know how to love? Is it sacrificing something for a person? Or be thoughtful and bring coffee to bed every morning?

– That’s not it. He looks at me with very fresh eyes. There is surprise in his eyes, and it’s not like the same woman has been in front of his eyes for twenty-five years. He calls me Dusya. I am his Dusya. He has a charming sense of humor. And we are very happy to meet each other in the morning. It is well known that people sooner or later get tired of each other and get used to it. But there is great respect between us.

— When did you discover the actor Igor Kostolevsky?

— I watched various performances at the Mayakovsky Theater. A year before our wedding, he forbade me to watch his movies. And a year later I received a gift, not from him, but from friends – CDs with all his films. They said, “You should know who you live with.”

– Now you know, do you understand? Which of Igor’s films did you like best?

— When I started watching these films, I understood a lot about him as an actor. He is a profound artist, but his modest film “Legitimate Marriage” killed me.

– Wow, modest! Best according to the Soviet Screen magazine in 1985.

— And I also adored his film based on Dostoevsky “The Eternal Husband”, where Igor also plays superbly.

— Did you really like Igor less in “Tehran-43” than in some “modest” film?

– Well, I really liked you, although I can’t say that I understood everything right away. And, of course, he is the ideal Decembrist Annenkov in “The Star of Captivating Happiness,” who, by the way, married a French woman. So everything came together for us. There was no turning back, but there was a desire to be with him. As Igor once told me: “If we are together, it will only be here, in Russia.”

3.

— Can you say specifically why you love the artist Kostolevsky? Why do you like it so much?

— I watched “Marriage” many, many times. Igor is different there, he’s not like everyone else. I think that the fact that he first studied for three years at a construction institute, and the fact that he quite accidentally became an actor, determined that he is different and different from other artists. Let no one be offended by me, but I think he works harder than anyone, because I see how he works.

— Can you imagine Igor as a real builder, engineer, head of a construction company? What would he be like now if he had not then decided to leave MISS and entered GITIS?

– Oh I do not know. By the way, he will now play a builder in a movie who is building an Olympic facility.

– How does he work?

“He has classic, or, what I adore, iron discipline from the Soviet Union. How he learns the role! You will never see him at a rehearsal with the text; he knows the whole role even before the rehearsal. And I love it. He is constantly searching, and even when all the media and critics were against his Ivan Karamazov in Dostoevsky, he still won. Because I was constantly looking. They scolded him and wrote that Kostolevsky was too handsome for Ivan Karamazov. And he began to play just like fire. And I think that this is a feat.

– Does he consult with you? You are an actress, you understand what rehearsal, homework, performance, and readiness for it are.

“I can say that I am useful to him simply because I know what he will go through.” I’m not climbing. I understand his anxiety when during rehearsals it seems like nothing will work out. But when he learns the text, I can check and help. But he does everything. I’m useful at home. I do everything to keep him in the best possible condition.

I analyzed my condition for quite a long time – why I don’t suffer more from the desire to play, although sometimes it seems that I’ll burst if I don’t go on stage. But the fact is that we have a common life at home and everywhere. Even if I’m on the invisible front – in the wings, in the director’s box, where I have an official place. I live in this atmosphere. If my husband had a different profession, I think I would have suffered more.

– Aren’t you overwhelmed by fans? In Russia they say: “A handsome husband is not your husband.”

– I don’t understand what this means. Igor is not like that. He is loyal. This is not his role. I see that people love Igor. Those who lived in the Soviet Union and other generations also love him. Now the girls from the university, I know, are watching the popular TV series “Trigger” with Igor. They don’t hesitate to tell him and me how much they love him.

4.

– What is he like at home – capricious, flexible? Or maybe he likes to cook?

– Oh no, he doesn’t like to cook. He loves home and comfort. We spend a lot of time together at home.

“It’s boring—at home all the time.” What you are doing?

– Is not boring. We dance at home. We dance even in pajamas. No one sees it, only us. He has a great sense of humor and we laugh a lot among ourselves. And we spend all his birthdays and my birthday together, except for his anniversary, of course. We have a place in Moscow that we both adore – this is Zhiguli on Novy Arbat, such a pub.

– What a strange choice. Why Zhiguli?

– Because when Igor studied at GITIS, he and his friends stood in line for hours to get there – it was not so easy. “Zhiguli” as a memory of his youth. We sit together at a table – a mountain of crayfish, shrimp, lard, sprats (I love sprats), dumplings. We can sit for hours and say toasts to each other. There are Soviet films and live music. And there we dance too. And it’s so good!

— How often do you go there?

— Several times a year. We are celebrating our wedding anniversary there. We also love the bathhouse, and after the bath we go there. Igor taught me Russian life.

— What did he instill in you about Russian?

— I love Soviet comfort. I even found this special fringe for the lampshade. Like a hunter, I look everywhere for the crystal of that time – glasses, rosettes, I look for dishes, like in the dining room. But don’t think that we have a museum of the Soviet Union at home.

— I’m afraid that young people, having read about your craving for the Soviet, will call you old-fashioned.

— Igor and I are not old and not old-fashioned. We are vintage, but at the same time very modern, and this must be understood.

— What recent act of Igor struck you?

“He often amazes me.” For example, the latest performance based on Marquez. One fact is that he dared to agree to such a role – the role of an old brothel lover, and this is absolutely not his topic. This is brave, this is brave! And he did everything to defeat this story. And it was very, very difficult and very, very touching. I have an image for Igor – golden autumn. So, I adore his golden autumn. And I wish winter never comes.

– Last question. You met as middle-aged people, each had his own life experience, and Igor Kostolevsky had his own family experience. Late love – what is it like?

– There is no first love, second love, third. This is Love!!! Huge! Phenomenal! Love is hot, I can say… Because this love of ours, twenty-five years later, is like the first day. And absolutely nothing has changed.