Unknown Shirvindt: I had to abandon Garage, Panfilov and German were not approved

Alexander Shirvindt’s filmography includes 76 films. Not so much, considering that he lived a long and happy life in the acting profession. The directors were often outstanding, and the roles they offered were mostly small. We can say that Shirvindt remained the king of the episode, but still a king.

He became something of a master of the cameo. His appearance in the frame in one role or another was perceived as an appearance by Shirvindt himself. The actor and the character became one. He understood all this perfectly.

There was an incident at the Shchukin Theater School, which he himself graduated in 1956, and later taught there for many years. We were celebrating the premiere of the graduation performance staged by Shirvindt, and one tipsy student began to say something absurd about the creative path of his master, insultingly gave him an average score for his creative destiny and roles. And then with tears he began to ask for forgiveness. Shirvindt endured it all with dignity, did not flinch, and then still calmed the sobbing student.

Poet and playwright Vadim Zhuk these days recalled his old conversation with Alexei German. The conversation turned to Shirvindt, and the fact that he may not be the most outstanding artist. To which the mighty Herman, who knew a lot about actors, reacted sharply and told how he tried Shirvindt for the role of a general in the film “Khrustalev, the car!” In the end, it was not he who played her, and only because, as German explained, in the second part of the film the hero had to turn from a handsome man into a homeless man, and this in Shirvindt’s case turned out to be impossible. That is, nature has rebelled.

Photo samples have been preserved: Shirvindt is standing in an open coat, scarf and hat. In the archive of Alexander Anatolyevich there is a letter of refusal, where Alexey German writes to him how he mounted the samples and was convinced that Shirvindt was the best artist with whom he had ever worked. Herman reports that a script is being created where he will have a “significant role as a counterintelligence officer in the Russian army” in 1914. It’s like a sweet pill, and then the most unpleasant thing follows: “with Glinsky, Shura, nothing worked out, because the test finally convinced me that you cannot be any kind of guide, with your irony and intelligence, become part of this people, dissolve in it “It won’t work, either cut your hair or don’t cut your hair.”

Alexander Anatolyevich “had the good fortune to audition for Panfilov.” He spoke about this without irony. It was about “Please have the floor.” Photo tests have been preserved where he stands with Inna Churikova, who, unlike him, played the main role.

They were friends with Eldar Ryazanov for many years and fished together, although their fishing temperaments were different. This is the only director for whom Shirvindt starred in five films – “Old Robbers”, “Forgotten Melody for Flute”, “Station for Two”, “Hello, Fools!”, “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”. Pavel, Pavlik, a friend of Zhenya Lukashin, with whom they go to the bathhouse every year on December 31, became, probably, the most important role of Shirvindt not only in Ryazanov, but in his film biography. Shirvindt himself admitted this. It was “The Irony of Fate” that brought him crazy popularity. Strangers came up, hugged me like a friend, and asked what kind of bathhouse the filming took place in. And there was no bathhouse. There was a cold corridor at Mosfilm, where at night Ryazanov finally managed to gather the extremely busy actors together. They drank real beer. So first they filmed the true scene, and then they had to re-shoot it sober at the request of the director. In the end, the first, natural one made it into the film. Shirvindt spoke about this more than once.

His archive contains a handwritten letter from Eldar Ryazanov, where he explains why he resorts to the epistolary genre: “it’s a shame to look in the eyes, offering THIS” THIS is an episode. It was about a character named Dima. “If you gave us 3-4 shooting days, it would be happiness for me, and a decoration for the picture,” Ryazanov wrote. Pianist Shurik in the restaurant in “Station for Two” became a small acting masterpiece.

In addition to playing five episodes with Ryazanov, Shirvindt auditioned for two large roles with him. But something didn’t work out. It’s a common thing in movies. And Shirvindt had to refuse one main role, written specifically for him, due to the release of the play “Her Excellency at the Theater of Satire. The chairman of the board of the garage cooperative, Sidorin, was eventually played in “Garage” by Valentin Gaft. This is how the filmography worked out or didn’t work out. In the life of Alexander Shirvindt there were many other creative and production activities. I had to choose. Not always to your advantage.

One may get the feeling that young Shirvindt was too handsome, and later became too busy, and the roles, perhaps the most important and important ones, went somewhere. Although his filmography is excellent. It contains many well-known and beloved films by wonderful directors. One of his early works is “Come Tomorrow…” by Evgenia Tashkova. Remember Vadim, posing as Stanislavsky? Later, Shirvindt starred with Tashkov in the popular series “Major “Whirlwind”. There were “The Sixth of July” by Yuli Karasik, “You and Me” by Larisa Shepitko, “The Plot for a Short Story” by Sergei Yutkevich, “Sky Swallows” by Leonid Kvinikhidze, “Incognito from St. Petersburg” and “Behind the Matches” (the role of the narrator) by Leonid Gaidai, “ 12 chairs” by Mark Zakharov, “The Art of Living in Odessa” and “Return of the Musketeers” by Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich, “Vacation at your own expense” by Viktor Titov, “Winter Evening in Gagra” by Karen Shakhnazarov, “The most charming and attractive” by Gerald Bezhanov, ” Russian ragtime” by Sergei Ursulyak…

The main roles really match. The first thing that comes to mind is the TV movie “Just a Few Words in Honor of Monsieur de Moliere” by Anatoly Efros, where he played Don Juan, and Yuri Lyubimov – Moliere accompanied him, “Three in a Boat, Not Counting the Dog” by Nahum Birman based on the story by Jerome K .Jerome, where Shirvindt and his friends Andrei Mironov and Mikhail Derzhavin masterfully played a trio of London bachelors sailing in a boat along the Thames. There was also the cunning petty swindler Leonido Papagatto in the film “A Million in the Marriage Basket” by Vsevolod Shilovsky, based on the play “My profession is a senior from society”…

It seemed that the benefit performances of Lyudmila Gurchenko or Larisa Golubkina, the circus arena and stage, “The Circus Princess” by Svetlana Druzhinina, where he played the director of the Firelli circus, were his element, and he was really irresistible there. But let us remember German and Panfilov, all of which failed for various reasons, and a completely different artist, unknown to us, opens up.