Tamara Makarova - the first lady of Soviet cinema

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Her roles evoked a desire to imitate millions of Soviet women. The images embodied by her on the screen made the hearts of many men beat faster, but her love was given to only one Sergei Gerasimov. She was next to him in life, and in thoughts, and in creativity.

The First Lady of Soviet Cinema Tamara Makarova

Soviet Greta Garbo was called Tamara Makarova by contemporaries. Her image inspired the brilliant director S. Gerasimov to new creative achievements. After filming in the films "Stone Flower" and "Masquerade", she was invited to Hollywood for the role of the main character in the film "War and Peace", but refused to shoot. Actresses of the USSR should not act in the West, and they don’t need to, because she, an actress, wife and comrade-in-arms, very often got the main roles in the films of the brilliant director S. Gerasimov.

Tamara Makarova. Biography

The future star of Soviet cinema was born in St. Petersburg in 1907 in the family of a Russian military doctor. From childhood, the girl developed creative inclinations, and already in her teens, Tamara Makarova was seriously interested in ballet and theater. In 1924, after graduating from schoolenters the creative workshop of Foregger, later called the GITIS workshop No. 2. It is here that she meets Sergei Gerasimov, with whom her whole future life will be connected.

Film debut took place in 1927, Makarova gets the role of typist Dudkina in the film "Alien Jacket". She got to the set literally from the street thanks to her acquaintance with the director's assistant. But, apparently, it was a happy occasion, and it is here that for the second time in her life she intersects with Sergei Gerasimov, who also starred in this picture. Young people fell in love with each other, so the marriage and creative union of two great people was formed - T. Makarova and S. Gerasimov. The whole subsequent life of the young actress was dedicated to her husband.

By the time she appeared in Gerasimov's paintings, Tamara Makarova, the actress, was already an accomplished person in the profession. She managed to work with the outstanding directors of that time I. A. Pyryev and V. I. Pudovkin, very often acted in films with her husband. Their first joint work as a director and actress appeared on the screens of the country in 1934. It was the film "Do I Love You?", Unfortunately, it has not survived to this day. The real sensation was made by the film "The Bold Seven" in 1936. During the war years, Tamara Makarova worked as a nurse, sanitary trooper and instructor of the Political Administration, remaining until 1943 in Leningrad.

Tamara Makarova. Star personal life

In 1943, the family of Makarova and Gerasimov was evacuated to Tashkent. Here they have an adopted son, Arthur,who subsequently receives from the adoptive parents the mother's surname, and the patronymic - from the father. Arthur was the nephew of the actress, his parents were repressed. The spouses had no native children.

Outwardly, the family looked like a completely prosperous and happy couple. A great actress and a talented director, both teachers at VGIK, winners of many awards, outstanding public figures, People's Artists of the USSR. But friends and acquaintances of the couple claim that resentment, disappointment and tears were often skillfully hidden behind the screen mask of a restrained secular lady. The addicted Gerasimov with an unbridled disposition often gave rise to jealousy. Neither his students nor the actresses who starred in his films could resist him. But Tamara Makarova was a wise woman and never took out emotions in public. All this has remained at the level of gossip and gossip. They were always shoulder to shoulder. Later, after the death of her husband, Tamara Makarova wrote in her book “Afterword”: “Everything I have lived is interesting to me. If a miracle were possible, I would repeat everything again and marry Gerasimov …"

Pedagogical activity

Since 1944, Makarova has been working at VGIK, and in 1968 she becomes a professor. Many outstanding actors of our time remember Tamara Makarova as an outstanding teacher with inexhaustible personal charm and a sense of tact. Ten issues of VGIK, where Makarova was a professor, consider her and Sergei Gerasimov to be their second parents. Among their students were Inna Makarova, Natalya Belokhvostikova, Lyudmila Gurchenko,Evgeny Zharikov, Lidiya Fedoseeva-Shukshina, Sergey Nikonenko, Zhanna Bolotova, Sergey Bondarchuk, Natalya Fateeva, Nikolai Eremenko Jr. All of them subsequently became famous actors and always remember their mentors with warmth and love.

A graduate of Makarova's course, People's Artist of Russia L. Luzhina, says that Tamara Fyodorovna cared about her students not only within the walls of the institute, but also outside them. The leaders of the creative workshop always made sure that their students had a job, and very often care was manifested not only in creative matters, but also in everyday ones. Tamara Feodorovna spent her time shopping with students, helping them make a choice in clothes or shoes, and often paid for the purchases herself.

Film memory

There are about thirty roles in the filmography of the great actress. The last joint work of the creative couple was the film "Leo Tolstoy" (1994), where the role of Tolstoy was played by S. Gerasimov, and Tamara Makarova embodied the image of the wife of the great writer and thinker. At the international film festival in Karlovy Vary, the tape was awarded the Crystal Globe prize.

Gerasimov died in 1985, and Tamara Makarova never acted anywhere else. She preferred to be less in public and led an almost reclusive lifestyle. The great actress died on January 20, 1997.