'Calmly walked towards the train': why Ekaterina Savinova took her own life at 43
'27.10.2020'
She dreamed of shining on stage and stubbornly walked towards her goal, overcoming all the difficulties that arose on her way. Ekaterina Savinova has been waiting for her starring role for fourteen long years. However, the circumstances and serious illness were stronger. The story of the actress is told by the author of the channel PRO Cinema | PRO Cinema on Yandex.Zen.
The future actress was born in the tiny village of Eltsovka in the Altai Territory. Her parents were simple peasants. Probably the same fate awaited Savinova. Like any country girl, she had to get married, acquire a household and have children. However, the naturally brave and assertive girl was not ready to put up with this fate. She wanted something more.
From an early age, Katya's parents began to notice her surprisingly thin ear and strong voice, as it later turned out, three and a half octaves. However, Savinova did not want to become a singer, she was attracted by cinema. In 1944 she plucked up courage and went to Moscow. Catherine's mother had to sell all the potatoes in order to buy her a formal dress. Almost the whole village went to see Savinova off to the station.
Many dissuaded her from going to the capital, doubting that she would make a famous film actress. However, the purposeful Katya walked forward like a tank. She was taken to the station in a huge granary cart. Once at the station, Savinova was seriously scared of the train, which she saw for the first time in her life. He was puffing and noisy, and almost drove a simple country girl to a state of fainting. She could not imagine how this monster would take her to Moscow.
When the applicant finally got to the capital and entered the lobby of VGIK, she realized with horror that she was late. However, Katya was not going to return home without a fight. She decided to stay in Moscow and try again a year later. And yet she was lucky to become a student at VGIK. Leading theater teachers Boris Bibikov and Olga Pyzhova became Savinova's mentors. Ekaterina became one of the best students of the course. She brilliantly coped with the proposed roles, which she passed through herself. Immediately after graduating from VGIK, Savinova was invited to the Moscow Art Theater, the only one from the entire course. However, she was not going to become a theatrical actress. Catherine dreamed of a movie.
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After graduating from high school, Savinova married her classmate - the novice director Yevgeny Tashkov, to whom in 1957 she gave birth to a son, Andrei. One of the first striking films by Savinova was Ivan Pyriev's film "Kuban Cossacks". Even then, the director was widely known for his despotic character and fanatical love for young actresses. He began to hint Savinova at closeness, and she, due to her simplicity and naivety, did not even immediately understand what was what. When Catherine realized the true message of Pyriev's actions, she rejected him with indignation and disgust. It cost her her career. An influential director closed her way to the film studio. Savinova's name was blacklisted.
A real breakthrough for her was the role of Frosya Burlakova in the film Come Tomorrow, which was directed by her own husband for Catherine. At the very beginning of filming, the actress felt a sharp discomfort. As it turned out later, she contracted brucellosis after drinking fresh milk. The infection instantly began to destroy the central nervous system. The first signs were constant dizziness, nausea and fever. However, the most terrible thing is that Catherine began to fall into a state of trance and hear voices that sounded in her head. Later, the worst fears of the family were confirmed. The actress was diagnosed with a complication with symptoms of sluggish schizophrenia. With each passing year, periods of remission occurred less frequently. According to the recollections of Savinova's son, my mother drank so many pills every day that they barely fit in a handful.
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At some point, the always smiling and cheerful Catherine closed in on herself. Voices began to guide her actions. Once she packed a small suitcase and went to her sister in Novosibirsk. They sat and remembered their childhood. When my sister fell asleep, Savinova washed all the floors and went to the station. People saw how she calmly walked along the rails towards the train, after which Catherine disappeared forever. According to the doctors' conclusion, at that moment she was not in charge of her actions, but was under the influence of a schizophrenic seizure.
Original column published on the blog. PRO Cinema | PRO Cinema on Yandex.Zen
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