Prudkin Mark: the camera will not replace live communication with the audience

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

From childhood, he dreamed of only one thing: the career of an opera singer. But after performing several roles in amateur performances, he firmly decided to become an actor. He is known to a wide range of viewers for his roles in their favorite films: "12 Chairs" (1976) - Varfolomey Korobeinikov, "The Brothers Karamazov" (1968) - Fyodor Pavlovich and "The Blonde Around the Corner" (1984). c.) - Gavrila Maksimovich, father of Nikolai. Probably, everyone has already guessed that we will talk about one of the pillars of Soviet cinema. So, Mark Prudkin, People's Artist of the Soviet Union.

Childhood and the family tree

Little Marik was born in the town of Klin (Moscow province) on the fourteenth day of September 1898. The boy spent all his childhood and youth in his native land.

His family lived quite modestly. His ancestors - both grandfather and father (Isaac Lvovich Prudkin) were also residents of this town. They were tailoring. Almost the entire townspeople were their customers. In addition, peasants from neighboring villages came to them with orders. Tailors did not break the price for their work, and sometimes they could sew in installments. Therefore, there were no special problems with clients.

From the outside it might seem that this family is quite we althy. But Mark Prudkin remembered something completely different: as a boy, he (at the request of his father) ran with notes to familiar villagers in order to borrow five or ten rubles for several days. Then the whole large family could stretch to the nearest "salary". And yet, although not all childhood memories were joyful, the actor Mark Prudkin always remembered his mother, father, his entire family and his native land - the town of Klin with special tenderness and warmth.

Dreams, dreams…

If you figure it out, then Mark Isaakovich did not dream at all of seeing himself on stage or in front of a movie camera lens. He really wanted to become an opera singer. The first role of the future actor took place when he was still a student of a real school, on the stage of an amateur theater. When he was only 15 years old (1913), his character was a warrior in the play A Life for the Tsar. Around the same age, the artist's first failure was expected. He then read Pushkin, "Slanderers of Russia." Suddenly he forgot the whole text in the middle. Marik ran away from the stage, and at home, calling himself a loser, he was sure that his career in the theater was over.

Two years passed before Prudkin Mark again tried his luck on the same stage. They staged a play by A. Ostrovsky "Poverty is not a vice." Anyone can trytheir abilities in acting. Many aspired to play the role of Lyubim Tortsov, even a competition was held. As a result, Mark Prudkin played Tortsov.

After the premiere, which was more than successful, one of the teachers turned to Mark's parents with the words that, unlike others who played like fools, their offspring played like a real artist. The performance had long ended, the noise of applause subsided, and a real storm of emotions raged in the soul of young Prudkin. And several decades later, he very vividly remembered his feelings after the performance. His stage colleagues forgot about the premiere immediately after it ended, they returned to their daily activities. But Mark was like a man possessed. He felt an inexplicable loss and worried that it might never happen again.

Then there was the role of Mizgir in the play "The Snow Maiden" (the younger brother of Pyotr Ilyich - Modest Tchaikovsky, invited to the premiere, expressed his gratitude and praise to Mark and assured him that he had very good stage abilities) and other theatrical works.

I'll be an actor

A circle of dramatic art begins to work in Klin under the leadership of Vladimir Rubtsov. Mark Prudkin, whose biography is an amazing mixture of talent, perseverance, desire to create and great love for art, decided to go there. Actors who were members of this circle played absolutely free of charge, because all the money that was possible to get from the performances went to help people in need.

To enroll inMoscow Art Theater, Mark had to go to Moscow. In the entrance exams, he demonstrated his talents so well that he was accepted.

There was still a year left before graduation, so he was enrolled in the studio, issued a certificate and sent home to finish his studies.

“To Moscow, to Moscow”…

Soon Mark Prudkin returns to Moscow and plays in the second studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. For six years he had different images: Karl More in The Robbers, Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Prince Myshkin in The Idiot, Volodya in The Green Ring … In 1924, the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio finished its work. Everyone who worked there entered the troupe of the Moscow Art Academic Theater as if it were its second generation. They, regardless of the role they had to play, set a very high bar, which they never, under any circumstances, lowered.

At first, Prudkin played romantic men, conquerors of the tender hearts of women - Don Luis, Karl Moor … He became truly famous only at the age of 28 after working in the play "Days of the Turbins" (his character is Shervinsky's adjutant). The success was stunning. A little later, tests of the boundaries of acting began, which the young actor really liked. Mark Prudkin saw his calling in living an endless number of new lives on stage. In the image he created, he could combine external comedy and internal ruthlessness. Ostrovsky's plays contributed to the fact that the audience saw the actor as diverse, one of his roles was absolutely not likeanother. Prudkin said that accurate images are obtained from memories of the city of Klin and the townspeople.

Road to screen

In 1961, Prudkin played one of his best theatrical roles - Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov. And eight years later, director Ivan Pyryev invites him to the same role in the film adaptation of the novel. Prudkin was not particularly fond of cinema, but Pyryev was not the kind of person to abandon his idea halfway through. Yes, and Prudkin himself nevertheless decided to try his hand, especially in the company of Kirill Lavrov, Mikhail Ulyanov and Alexei Myagkov. As a result, the invitation to Mark Prudkin's film was a huge win and good luck for Pyryev.

After such a surprisingly delightful film debut, Mark Prudkin found himself invited to many films. But he didn't agree to everything. His creative track record includes interesting paintings - "The Twelve Chairs", "Blonde around the Corner", "Solo for Chilling Clock", "Swan Song", "Choice of Target" and others. But the actor was sure that even the best production could not replace the live communication of the actor from the stage of the theater with the audience in the hall.

In his last period of life, Mark Prudkin played with the young talents of the Moscow Art Theater. The master treated the new generation with both some irritation and admiration. He did not understand their mood for the stage action, but he kindly admired how quickly they could get into the role without changing their mind after the end of the performance: “succeeded - failed.”

Already old enoughman (this is 1983) Prudkin embodied on stage the role of Pontius Pilate in the play "Ball by Candlelight". It was a kind of reading of The Master and Margarita. And this performance was staged by a young and very talented director Vladimir Markovich Prudkin, his son.

Prudkin Mark Isaakovich lived a long and happy life. His personal life also seems to have developed, but in recent years, and especially days, only his son Volodya was in it. The actor celebrated his 96th birthday in the hospital. He was cheerful, joked, even gave some impromptu to the medical staff. And the next day he suddenly became weak and slept almost constantly. The son had to return from a trip abroad to be with his father at that time. He recognized his boy and even asked about the outcome of the trip. But then the temperature went up and up. September 24, Mark Prudkin left this mortal world.

His body was laid to rest at the Novodevichy Cemetery, "next door" to his colleagues - Oleg Borisov, Evgeny Leonov, Sergei Bondarchuk…