Marriage with a movie star, alcoholism, attempted suicide: what happened in the life of Marina Vladi, except for Vysotsky
'27.06.2021'
Source: Lady.tut.by
In 99% of cases, Marina Vladi is remembered exclusively in conjunction with the great Vysotsky. Which is not very honest, because the life of this actress was full of exciting adventures and events that are interesting to remember, writes Lady.tut.by.
In the post-Soviet space, her name is associated exclusively with the name of the famous artist and bard, who loved her very much. And she loved him. Marina Vladi is a wonderful companion, muse and wife of the magnificent Vladimir Vysotsky. But today we offer to learn interesting facts from her biography, including those not related to Vysotsky.
Ekaterina Marina Vladimirovna Polyakova-Baidarova (such a long and real name of Marina Vlady) was born on May 10, 1938 in France, in the town of Clichy-la-Garenne. The youngest of four daughters in the family of a Russian ballerina of noble origin and an opera singer from Ukrainian gypsies.
Father - Vladimir Vasilievich - a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, who left for France to take part in the First World War. He was not accepted into the Russian tsarist army for family reasons. But in French, he managed to make a career as a pilot, and then he was demobilized and entered the Paris Opera.
“... When the First World War began, he left for France to join the army as a volunteer. He was the only son of a widowed mother, and they did not take him into the Russian army. He became a pilot, was wounded, awarded a military cross. After the war he stayed in France, worked in the Paris Opera, sang seven seasons in the opera Monte Carlo. He was familiar with Modigliani, Matisse, Delaunay. "
But my mother - Militsa Evgenievna Envald - left Russia already in 1919. Her father - the general of the tsarist army - could not find a place in the "new world", which was built by the "red". And the family emigrated from Petrograd.
“My mother was brought up at the Smolny Institute of noble maidens. In 1917, she was 18 years old. She was one of those who, inspired by new ideas, hung red rags on the windows on the day of the uprising. Then she saw how the Jewish cloth-mongers were smashed, and for the rest of her life she remembered how huge pieces of fabric, cast in different colors, were lying around, unrolling around the street. Then they killed her beloved classy lady, and she, like many girls, fled abroad in fear. ”
Marina's parents met in Belgrade. She lived there with her family. And he came on tour. Married, 4 daughters were born in the marriage: Olga, Tanya, Militsa and the youngest - Marina.
Three out of four chose the acting profession, and the fourth became a television director. Everyone changed their long, albeit sonorous, surname to pseudonyms. Olga became Olga Varen, Tanya - Odile Versois, Militsa - Helen Valle, and Marina - in honor of Vladimir's father - Marina Vlady.
On the subject: How the stars of the film 'D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers' passed away
At the beginning of his acting career, Odile, Helene and Marina played together in the Chekhov's Three Sisters. The audience went on a rampage to look at the Polyakov sisters. It was a real victory. In one of the publications of that time, the popular magazine Pari-Match even suggested that the common capital letter V in all four sisters' aliases means the word victory (la Victoire).
But much stronger than the theater, Marina was fond of cinema. She played her first role when she turned 10 years old in the film "Summer Thunderstorm." Most likely, the young actress was brought to the set by the older sister Odile, who played the main role in this melodrama. Then there was work at Black Feathers, where on the set 15-year-old Vladi met 27-year-old Marcello Mastroianni. This couple constantly flirted, but things didn’t go further than flirting - according to the assurances of Marina herself. True, Mastroianni rendered her invaluable service: he introduced many famous artists and directors, because even then he was very popular and included in the bohemian circle.
On the subject: Poverty youth, leaving Menshov and a knife in the back from colleagues: the difficult fate of Vera Alentova
After a very short time, Marina was entrusted with the part of the "first violin" in the ensemble of actors. Vladi plays the main roles and wins the first professional awards. They learn about the actress in the USSR: in 1956, the drama “The Witch” based on the work “Olesya” by Kuprin was released. This film has long become the hallmark of Marina Vlady.
“I was not then 16 years old, and although I, like all the girls of my generation, read a lot, including Kuprin, but I did not do much psychology. They gave me the text, and I played it. It seems to me that so far I play like that - more as a person, not as an actress. They still write a lot to me from Russia - not only as Vysotsky’s wife, but also as a “witch”. You really loved this movie. I remember how in 1959 I flew to Moscow, to the French Cinema Week, and crowds of girls rushed to me, each of which was my copy - loose hair, bangs. They kissed me, I was all in lipstick. "
The audience was in love with the starlet, and many colleagues became indifferent to it. Directors Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard make her an offer of marriage. But she rejects them in favor of the 28-year-old actor and director Robert Hossein - the very Joffrey de Peirac from "Angelica".
“Marina was then 16 years old, and I fell in love with her so much! I bought magazines with her photographs in the city and thought about how to conquer her. And came up with! Invited her to play in my film. It was absolute impudence, because Marina was a star, and I was just starting. Nevertheless, she agreed, and we began work on the film “Scoundrels Go to Hell”. I arranged romantic walks, we talked a lot. But Marina once told me: “In vain! You're not my type. For me to become your wife, scoop out the ocean! ” I promised! Fortunately, the ocean did not have to be drained - after 2 years Marina became my wife, ”Robert recalls.
In this marriage, the spouses have two sons - Igor and Peter. Husband and wife work together on the set, and this tandem is a great success. Everything, as often happens, ruined life. After only a few years of family life, Hossein initiated the breakup:
“We lived in the huge Polyakovs' house: tea at the samovar, conversation, games. Life of a large Russian noble family, which they moved to Paris. This life and ruined our family with her. Marina did not want to part with her sisters, parents, with this usual way. And I could no longer live on a collective farm! Sometimes it seemed to me that I was married to all four sisters at once. Years of scandal and strife ensued. We parted painfully, even two little sons could not hold us together. I will say one thing: I really loved Marina. Did she love? Ask her. ”
The spouses had another chance to build relationships. Marina is offered the role of Angelica in the film of the same name, where her husband was to become her partner. Filming began, and scandals resumed with them. Marina leaves the project, and she is replaced by Michel Mercier, who became the reference Angelica for many years.
Meanwhile, Vladi is not discouraged, he has been filming a lot with the most eminent directors. Her partners in paintings are French stars of the first magnitude: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Mare, Gerard Depardieu. She has the "Silver Branch" of the Cannes Film Festival as the best actress of the year, a nomination for the "Golden Globe" and ... a new husband! Test pilot Jean-Claude Brouillet won her heart. Marina gets married again and gives birth to her third son, Vladimir.
But family life does not go well again. The couple is breaking up. Maybe all the blame was a strange Russian actor who vowed to win her heart? They first saw each other in 1967. Marina came to the Taganka Theater to see the famous Russian bard and actor, in one of his best roles - Khlopushi in the play "Pugachev" based on the poem by Sergei Yesenin.
“On stage, a half-naked man screams furiously and beats. From belt to shoulder he is wrapped in chains. The feeling is terrible. I was invited to see the rehearsal of Pugachev, promising that I would see one of the most amazing performers - a certain Vladimir Vysotsky. Like the whole audience, I am shocked by the strength, despair, and the actor’s unusual voice. He plays in such a way that the rest of the characters gradually dissolve in the shade. ”
At dinner after the performance, he went up to her. Of course, he could not help but recognize the "sorceress" by whom the whole Union went crazy. They talked all evening, and in the end, Vysotsky said: “Finally, I met you. I would like to leave here and sing only for you. " And he sang, and then confessed his love.
“I appreciated Volodya primarily as a poet and actor. It was not love for him at first sight as a man. I think that he also respected me as an actress. Although he liked me as a woman, I felt it. We rubbed each other for a long time. Almost a year they remained only friends: met in companies, talked. Gradually, interest in each other turned into love. ”
On the subject: Married to Vysotsky: Lyudmila Abramova - about marriage with a bard, children and life after
“Volodya, you are an extraordinary person, but I only have a few days to travel, and I have three children,” said Vladi.
“I also have a family and children, but all this should not prevent us from becoming a husband and wife,” he retorted.
And so it happened. Marina again came to the Union to star in the Soviet-French film "The plot for a short story." And they met again:
“One of the autumn evenings, I ask one of your friends to leave us alone in the house. The owner of the house disappears to the neighbors. Friends silently hug us and leave. Closing the door behind them, I turn around and look at you. You are trembling. You whisper words that I cannot make out. I reach out to you and hear snatches of phrases: "For life my wife ..."
In the winter of 1970, they got married. We spent the honeymoon on a boat cruise. And then came gray days. Catch a glimpse during her visits on a tourist visa.
Decades later, this love will be extolled to the skies: a documentary will be dedicated to their relationship, and in Yekaterinburg, a monument will be erected to the couple in love Vysotsky-Vladi. In the meantime, he could not even go to his wife in France. This "liberty" Vysotsky will be allowed only six years later. Such a life, of course, broke down the actor, who was already acutely experiencing various troubles. The addiction to alcohol worsened. Countless times, Marina pulled him out of the apartments, where the artist and his friends walked unconscious.
Of course, Vysotsky vowed to forever tie her with a drink. But…
“4 a.m. on July 25, I wake up in a sweat, light a light, sit on a bed. There is a red mark on the pillow. I crushed a huge mosquito. I, not looking up, look at the pillow, as if I was bewitched by this bright spot. The phone rings, I know that I will not hear your voice: "Volodya is dead." That's all. Two short words spoken in an unfamiliar voice. "
She immediately flew over to him: she sat at the tomb all night and escorted him on his last journey.
She will return to France completely broken. The loss pulled all her strength out of her, from now on she could not even listen to the recordings of songs performed by him - it was just physically painful. Tried to commit suicide. She was saved from a terrible step by a family friend, oncologist Leon Schwarzenberg, who was treating Marina’s sister. Leaving his family, he spent the next 23 years with Vlad.
Marina is happy again. She works a lot, as before, in the cinema and in the theater. Over his long career, Vladi has starred in more than a hundred films. He writes a lot. The actress had already tried herself in the epistolary genre, but here she publishes a real bestseller - a book about her beloved - “Vladimir, or Interrupted Flight”. It included unknown facts about the life of the artist and rare archival photos.
“Nothing resembles the brilliant and such short-lived life of Vladimir Vysotsky as a breakaway piece of a star melted in the air, leaving a fiery mark in the sky and completing its swift flight to the poet’s grave.”
In 2003, Leon was gone. An oncologist died of cancer. Marina suppressed the pain of alcohol for several years. She pulled herself out of the alcoholic swamp: she began working on memoirs and other projects.
“Work always saves me. Love, of course, is very important for a woman, but not everyone falls out. Not everyone manages to meet such people with whom I lived. All my men were unique people. ”
In 2006, she, along with director Jean-Luc Tardieu, released a French production of "Vladimir, or an interrupted flight ..." based on her book.
“This is a very big job. Forty-five numbers in an hour and a half. I read fragments of my book and Volodya’s notes in French, I sing his songs in Russian. Nearby are three musicians. She wrote the novel "My Cherry Orchard", which is essentially an autobiography. I decided to tell the story of my family, extending the life of the heroes of The Cherry Orchard, which I played many times. And the story of my loved ones is very similar to this Chekhov play, because my grandmother near Kursk had the same big cherry orchard. My grandfather is a general in the White Army, and my mother is the main character of the book, a graduate of the Smolny Institute, who survived the revolution and the Civil War. At the end of the book, as in life, she meets with Volodya, blessing me to live with him. "
She also wrote a book about her fight against alcoholism, “On the beach, a man in black” and sells things related to him: including a death mask, shot with his own hand, and his last poem dedicated to her, autographed by the poet.
“I'm moving. I live alone in a big house, which is not so simple. That is why the time has come to move closer to Paris. I will have a small apartment, and, of course, you can’t take everything with you. I part with jewelry, paintings, sculptures, books. Fortunately, the Russians bought the autograph for the Vysotsky Museum in Yekaterinburg, created with great love. There, a room was recreated in the St. Petersburg hotel where we lived, there is a Mercedes that I brought from Germany ... I kept a memory picture of him in the role of Galileo, which hangs in my apartment. All the rest I have long given to the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art - manuscripts, photos, our correspondence, which will become available after my death. All this should belong to Russia. ”
