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Every year, when “The Irony of Fate” is on TV, I want to take a bath. So boot up, gather friends and – to hell with it, a New Year’s feast.
They drink so deliciously there, so artistically! I recently learned that it was just sober artists who played drunks, but how deliciously, with a delay, with meaning and knowledge of the matter, they did it!
I wonder how it was in other situations? After all, it is rare that a Soviet film did without alcohol. There were no drinkers in the frame except in documentaries and tapes for children.
Cultural drinking was even promoted by the Soviet system, and therefore any film not only hinted, but downright convinced: you can drink, but, as Gosha said from the film Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, “after hours and with a good snack.”
“Who doesn’t drink? Name it! No, I’m waiting! – from the movie “Pokrovsky Gates”
Well, with a snack in the cinema, everything is clear to me – the food was simpler put in a real frame, the delights were sham. But what about hot drinks? It was in the movies that they drank Khvanchkara, they drank Borjomi, but what did they really pour into the glasses of the artists?
The most famous Soviet films where they drank alcohol
Now everything that is on the tables in the frame is not just there, but for the PR of the manufacturer of an alcoholic drink or food. Sometimes it comes to a curiosity: in one modern Ukrainian historical film, the other day I saw a completely fresh bottle of a brand that is now popular. Oh how!
But Gaidai did not allow himself this – when a bottle of Borjomi flashed in the frame, which fell on the table of Ivan the Terrible in Ivan Vasilyevich, he reshot the entire episode. For nothing, luxurious dishes were bought in a restaurant with the director’s own money …
Now brands of alcohol in the frame help to reduce budget spending. And before, the bottle appeared in the frame with meaning – it created an atmosphere. And in some films, alcohol was one of the main characters at all. I will list, and you imagine the scenes from the films:
- “Moonshiners” is simply an ode to an old Russian occupation based on fermentation and distillation. Moonshine is clean, like a Komsomol member’s tear.
- “Prisoner of the Caucasus” is the main drink here, foamy beer, and Shurik, poorly prepared for the study of folklore, was treated to local wine everywhere.
- “Ivan Vasilyevich is changing his profession” – vodka reigned there in all ages, “Stolichnaya” or home-grown, which the housekeeper did.
- “Autumn Marathon” – some of the heroes of the film were ruined by the idea of mixing port with vodka.
- “Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath” – Zhenya Lukashin’s mistake was that he mixed vodka with beer.
- “The Diamond Arm” is just a storehouse of table quotes about aristocrats and degenerates, teetotalers and ulcers, etc.
I note that the “drunk” masterpieces of the Soviet period were created simply out of people’s love for the process, and not for the sake of the notorious “product placement”.
A bottle of port wine “777”, known as “Three Sevens” or “Three Axes”, accompanied many events in the life of a Soviet person.
Did they drink real alcohol during filming?
In almost every film there are characters who drink alcohol. And, of course, actors can’t afford to drink for real.
It is known that once Yuri Nikulin, on the set of the film “When the Trees Were Big,” decided to sip real vodka over a plate of borscht. I would do the same for the sake of authenticity.
The result, in the frame was an uncle with a completely idiotic smile. Everything had to be redone. Because actors, in order to endure many takes and remain professionals, cannot drink.
“Yes, you, your honor, cut yourself!” – from the movie “Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession”
What was used as a substitute for alcohol on film sets?
Yes, they will not be allowed to drink. Even the timely and spectacular release of the champagne cork is a whole science for the props. It still needs to be built! Like everything else that looks so easy, spectacular and beautiful in the frame.
Therefore, alcohol is usually replaced with harmless substances. Here, for example, are:
- vodka – usually mineral water without gas, and if you do not drink, but only pour, then vinegar, reminiscent of alcohol in texture;
- cognac – water diluted with freshly brewed tea, only in this way does tea give the vintage color of a noble drink;
- white wine – lemonade, red wine – blackcurrant or cherry juice;
- champagne – lemonade;
- beer – apple juice or tinted mineral water.
However, on the set of the famous episode at the barrel of beer in The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Nikulin, Morgunov and Vitsin drank real beer.
Vitsin, who did not drink in principle, was poured a rosehip decoction. But, seeing the absence of foam in the mug, the director forced the non-drinking actor to drink. They say that he toiled with his stomach for a long time …
“I don’t drink. And what is there to drink? – from the movie “Prisoner of the Caucasus”
What brands of alcohol were mentioned in Soviet films
On the Soviet screen, vodka dominated the feasts. Everything else has always been on the sidelines – beer, wine, cognac.
Cocktails of the Soviet period were sometimes based on creative recipes
In the USSR, for many years only a few types of forty degrees were known – “Stolichnaya” and “Moskovskaya”, later “Russian” joined.
Champagne, of course, “Soviet”, and what else could you drink on New Year’s Eve? The beer was Zhigulevskoe. Cognac – Armenian. “Vodka, whiskey, sherry” in such a set were found only in a film about a beautiful life (for example, “Blonde around the corner”).
Cinzano and Johnnie Walker in Soviet times could only be found in the bar of the wealthy dentist Shpak
As a conclusion
Cinema does not tolerate natural drunkenness. Although, without prejudice, let’s say that the artists would not mind replacing props alcohol with something more natural.
Sometimes they succeeded, and then the acting skills, multiplied by the real pleasure of the drink, gave rise to masterpieces like the story in the Sandunovsky baths from The Irony of Fate.
And after the frames from the “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, played with such enthusiasm, every time you agree; yes live well! And run for beer! And how does it happen for you?