Nameless Star (film)

Romania , the 1930s . In a provincial city, where the townspeople attach great importance to what their neighbors think about them, and the non-stop passage of the Bucharest - Sinai express train is an event that this express train suddenly stops at night. The express was stopped by a conductor in order to land a stowaway passenger. Sumptuously dressed, she has nothing in her pockets except casino chips. At the same time, Marin Miroy, a teacher at a local gymnasium, happens to be at the train station.

Since without documents the unlucky traveler is not accommodated in a hotel, Mirou offers the stranger to spend the night in her home, in the bachelor's haven, and plans to spend the night with her friend, music teacher Oudry. She agrees. However, being alone with him, Mona is convinced that this ordinary teacher at first glance is an interesting person, and she is looking for an excuse not to let Marina go. Mona learns the secret of Marina - he talks about the star he discovered, which is not in any catalog of the starry sky . They are happy together tonight ...

In the morning Mona again shook Marina, telling him about his intention to stay with him.

Meanwhile, Mona is looking for her lover Grieg and finds in a wretched teacher's house. Mona expresses a desire to stay here forever. However, Grieg, with his cold, cynical arguments, convinces the spoiled Mona that she has no place in the province, in the role of the wife of an underprivileged teacher. They leave this town together.

And Marin is left alone with the truth, which he grasped in his astronomical observations: "Not a single star deviates from its path."

• The picture is based on the play of the same name by the Romanian writer and playwright Mihai Sebastian (his real name is Joseph Gechter). However, Alexander Khmelik significantly reworked the author's text. Some episodes of the play were not included in the film, however, a lot of new moments were added, new characters were introduced into the plot (for example, the wife of the Ispas station chief, the judge).
• In 1956, the BDT was rapidly losing the viewer, was on the verge of collapse, for the last 5 years has not put a single performance that would have been an event of theatrical life. And it was the performance of Tovstonog's "Nameless Star" in it that brought the theater out of its creative impasse. The audience enthusiastically accepted this play. Ivan Ryzhov played teachers in it, and Mademoiselle Cook was played by Evgeny Lebedev . Tovstonogov put the play as a comedy, but in the script of Khmelik , according to which the film was shot, another motive prevailed - sadness and longing ^[1] .
• In the late 1960s, Kozakov wanted to make a TV show called the Nameless Star, starring Oleg Dale and Anastasia Vertinskaya . But then Sergei Lapin was appointed to the post of chairman of the Committee on Radio and Television, and the drama was not filmed ^[1] .
• The script of the future film, Mikhail Kozakov, first brought to television in 1970. And at the same time Lapin came to the post of chairman of the Committee on radio and television broadcasting. He was known for the severity of censorship. Therefore, the script brought by Kozakov was deleted from the thematic plans of the television. Cinematic bosses too much embarrassed in the script of the film. It did not help even the fame of the play itself, which was already successfully marched on the stages of theaters. In the 1970s, editors were on the alert, looking for allusions and parallels literally in everything, because there was a struggle against dissidence. (For example, in the play, only rare curious people come to look at the passing train, and already in the script of the film, a huge crowd of onlookers throws out on this show to the platform - the parallel with the Soviet “iron curtain” immediately comes to mind). Therefore, Kozakov was forbidden to even think about this film. But he still filed and filed regular applications for the "Nameless Star" in the hope of a miracle. And all of it was crossed out and deleted from plans. Even then, Kozakov had great authority, but he could not help in this matter ^[1] .
• In 1978, Kozakov got acquainted with Gennady Bokarev (at that time he was the editor-in-chief of the Sverdlovsk Film Studio ), to whom Kozakov offered the script. Bokarev promised Kozakov to “punch” the film, and not as a television show, but as a television movie from the Sverdlovsk film studio. And "struck." Filmed on the money of the Sverdlovsk film studio, but on the basis of "Lenfilm" . Kozakov invited his proven actors to the film. He planned to invite Zinovy ​​Gerdt to the role of Odri, he agreed, but the disease prevented him. Then Grigory Lyampe , also a friend of Kozakov, had to be promptly introduced into the film without trial, when the shooting was already in full swing. Kozakov invited Oleg Dahl to the main role, as it was 8 years ago when planning a drama play. But it soon became clear that Dahl had become gloomy over these 8 years and acquired many depressive symptoms. Dahl suggested making a film in the depressed style of Kafka , which was clearly not part of Kozakov’s plans. The second aspirant was 43-year-old Sergei Yursky , but in those years it was problematic for people with Semitic blood to get through to television - Lapin did not like Jews (which, however, did not prevent the director of Jewish origin from involving Jewish actors, Lyampe, Svetina, Rutberg, Budnitskaya). Then Kozakov invited Igor Kostolevsky , who, as it turned out, had long dreamed of this role. He, having already starred in several famous films, remained a supporting actor in his Mayakovsky theater - there was a lot of competition. Anastasia Vertinskaya immediately agreed to the role. Kozakov knew her as a movie star, and as a wonderful theater actress. She was the first beauty of the Sovremennik Theater , and some gave her all-Union primacy. With Svetlana Kryuchkova, Kozakova was in love with passionate love for poetry. They read poems to each other even in the BDT dormitory ^[1] .
• Co-author Kozakova on the film was the operator George Rerberg , who later refused to leave his name in the credits of the film. It was Rerberg who invented the image of Mademoiselle Cooke for Svetlana Kryuchkova - she invented a haircut and costume. Rerberg was a great master of his craft. On the set of the scandal broke out between the co-authors of the film - Kozakov and Rerberg. Kozakov saw in the role of Grieg Leonid Filatov . But Rerberg categorically refused to shoot Filatov - he allegedly had a “non-cinematic face”. Then they agreed on Rodion Nakhapetov . The first remembered about him Vertinskaya. Nakhapetov came to act, but during the rehearsals I realized that it was not his image, not his role, not his tempo rhythms. Then Kozakov approached Gosha (Rerberg) and said, “Gosh, choose, or Filatov, or me.” Rerberg replied - "Well, come on you." But still, in the end, Kozakov and Rerberg on one of the last scenes of the film have already quarreled completely, and Rerberg said that he disclaims any responsibility and does not even want his last name to appear in the credits. (As it turned out, he and Kozakov had rather different views on how the film should be). And only the second cameraman, Yuri Raisky , got into the captions, and cameraman Vladimir Ivanov appeared as the cameraman. The television authorities are having a hard time, but they accepted it - the authority of Gennady Bokarev was indisputable ^[1] .
• The premiere of the film took place in the Moscow House of Cinema. The film participants did not receive awards, but the film was sent to the festivals. And Kostolevsky became a kind of national hero in Romania . The Franco-Romanian film ( fr. Mona, l'étoile sans nom , rum. Steaua fără nume , 1965), where Marina Vlady played Monu, did not have such success in Romania as the film Kozakova. In 2006, the Hollywood director of Romanian origin, Robert Dornhelm, invited Igor Kostolevsky to play the role of Tsar Alexander I in the television series War and Peace .
• The film was shot at the expense of the Sverdlovsk Film Studio , but at the base of Lenfilm and in the vicinity of Leningrad . The exterior of the station station shot in the film is the Shuvalovo Oktyabrskaya railway station . The railway station in Shuvalovo built at the beginning of the 20th century is still preserved ^[1] . The D1 diesel train (when passing by the station) and the usual CMV carriages of Soviet railways (when stopped) were used as an external shooting of the express train “ Bucharest - Sinai ”.
• Miroy tells Monet under a starry sky that the double star in the constellation Ursa Major is called Algol . However, it is not. The famous star in this constellation is called Alcor , and Algol is the variable star in the constellation Perseus . At the same time in the play of Sebastian the star is called Alcor.

• "Nameless star" on the site "Encyclopedia of the national cinema"
• "Nameless star" on the site "Our Cinema"
• play "Nameless Star"