The greatest and most beautiful women of the 20th century...who were admired by millions...
02.10.2012, 23:57
By Editorial
The most beautiful women...the most beautiful men...rating all kinds of the very best...It's fashionable now. And every self-respecting print or online publication, at least once a year, will post a list of the best of the century or of the past year. And almost always the results will be relative, since all lists are compiled based on survey results ordinary people, and, as is known, a sufficient number of factors influence people’s choices.
In the same ranking - the most beautiful women of the 20th century - I would like to take into account all those generations who admired their beauty. Of course, now these beauties have either long since left for another world, or are not in their prime. And perhaps today their names are not so often remembered. However, at one time, crowds of fans followed them, they ruled the roost in gossip columns, and posters with their images were sold out fleetingly. Nowadays, there are other faces, other stars, but the women of the 20th century left the most indelible mark on the history of beauty and femininity, and it is simply impossible to imagine the past century without them.
Sofia Villani Scicolone. She was born on September 20, 1934 in the city of Rome, but spent all her childhood and interesting youth in the town of Pozzuoli near Naples. From the age of 14 she dreamed of becoming an actress. Sophie took part in the Miss Italy competition and was also a fashion model. Sophie Scicolone met Carlo Pontii in 1952, famous producer, who not only became her husband, but also opened the doors to big cinema for her.
At first she got episodic roles, for example, “Hearts at Sea.” But Sophie quickly managed to win the love of the audience and also attract the attention of famous directors. Therefore, by the age of 20 she had become a recognized film star.
For the film “Chochara” in 1960, Sophie received the most prestigious awards - the American Oscar and the Cannes Film Festival. For many years Marcello Mastroianni was her permanent partner in so many films. For the romantic film “Marriage Italian Style,” the actress also received an Oscar and was awarded an award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1965.
In total, she managed to star in more than 20 films.
Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jean Baker Mortenson was born on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles. She died in 1962 in Braithwood, California.
She was a legend during her lifetime, and remains a legend even in death. She lived a rather bright, but also short and difficult life. The object of dreams of many men, the sex symbol of America, a beauty who was the envy of many women, an actress whose meteoric rise to the top of cinema was a miracle, but in reality she was a tragic figure.
Unsuccessful personal life, vain attempts to prove to herself and the directors that the “beauty” is capable of more than just demonstrating her charms. These are the main reasons for the tragedy that took place in a large, rich mansion in 1962 on the morning of August 5, where Monroe’s body was discovered.
But to understand the full depth of that tragedy, it is enough to go back in time, when Jean was just beginning to comprehend the first steps of life. And these lessons were harsh: her mother’s tantrums, poverty, rape by her stepfather when she was only 8 years old, melancholy and a feeling of loneliness.
And it is unknown how her fate would have developed in the future if God had not endowed her with beautiful body, a pretty face and amazing skin, when the charm of an angel is combined with seductiveness. Early bad marriage and a quick divorce, an invitation to work as a fashion model and fashion model - this is Marilyn’s youth.
In 1947, she received her first invitation to act in a movie, when the actress appeared in the episode “Dangerous Years.” Then other proposals followed - “Skudda-U! Skudda-hey!” (1947), “Ladies from the corps de ballet” (1949), “ Ball lightning"(1950), etc. Then the young and pretty actress was liked by critics and the public.
However, for all directors, Monroe always remained sexy, beautiful woman, so none of the inviting directors saw her as an actress. Therefore, such is the repertoire of films with her participation, the content of which can be judged even by the titles: “Love Nest” (1951), “Let’s Get Married” (1951), “We Are Not Married” (1952), “ You can come in without knocking" (1952), "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953), "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953), etc.
The excitement around Monroe reached its climax when it became known that her next husband was the famous American writer, and also playwright, Arthur Miller.
All attempts to change her sexy on-screen image were doomed to failure. And she receives invitations to participate only in the next dramas, where she is still assigned the role of an empty-headed and seductive beauty.
A divorce from Arthur Miller, thoughts of approaching old age, constant dissatisfaction with work - all this led the actress to acute depression. And she found a way out in alcohol, drugs and sleeping pills. Despite the fact that the official conclusion is suicide, and to this day the day of death greatest actress causes a lot of speculation and gossip.
After the death of Marilyn Monroe, she continues to attract attention. Both in Europe and America, many books and many articles were published in which an attempt was made to understand its phenomenon.
And almost half a century later, the authors of many books and films are trying to penetrate the soul of this woman, who remains misunderstood. But her memory lives on and proves that Marilyn Monroe was a much more striking phenomenon than just a sexy and beautiful blonde.
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Belgium (the town of Ixelles near Brussels), the daughter of a Dutch baroness and an English banker.
Audrey's school years spent in Holland, in Nazi-occupied Arnhem, where she lived after her parents’ divorce from her mother. Audrey Hepburn studied ballet at the conservatory there. She then continued her education in London after the war. In the 50s, Audrey starred in several films and attended acting classes with Aylmer Felix.
The French writer Colette in 1951, after seeing the actress on the set of the film “The Baby from Monte Carlo”, strongly recommended that she perform main role in the film based on her novel Gigi. And it was after this successful work that Audrey soon received a role in the comedy Roman Holiday, for which she received an Oscar, as best actress. She went on to be nominated for an Oscar four times.
Her extraordinary and stunning appearance, combined with her acting skills, provided her with a dizzying career in show business and cinema. She devoted her free time social activities and charity, was a UNICEF ambassador, took part in a relief mission in Somalia, and also in other hot spots.
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot was born in 1934 on September 28 in Paris, to the family of Anne-Marie Musel and businessman Louis Bardot. She and her younger sister have been dancing since childhood under the influence of their mother. Bridget was not a very bright student in primary school, but at the same time she had grace and natural plasticity, so she focused on a ballet career, while her younger sister, Mijanu, showed the greatest inclination towards the exact sciences, which is why she left dancing.
Bardot then filed documents in 1947 National Academy dance, but, despite the most severe selection, she was among those enrolled, and there were only eight of them. She attended the class of Boris Knyazev, a Russian choreographer.
Bardot participated in a fashion show in 1949, then her photographs were shown to screenwriter and director Marc Allegre, who invited Bridget to a screen test. Bardot successfully passed these screen tests and got the role, but soon filming was canceled for unknown reasons. Nevertheless, these acquaintances influenced her career and future destiny.
At the age of 18, she starred in a film for the first time and the same year she married Roger Vadim.
In total, from 1952 to 1956, Bardot starred in 17 films, these were mainly lyrical comedies or melodramas, and she also played in theater plays.
She gained worldwide fame after the film “And God Created Woman,” in which she played main character, rushing between men. This film caused shock and a lot of negative feedback in Europe and was condemned Catholic Church due to nude scenes and Bridget's provocative behavior. But in America the film became a sensation. Some historians consider this painting to be the beginning of the sexual revolution.
Since then, Bardot began working with such famous world directors as Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Christian Jacques. No less famous films with Bardot’s participation: “Babette Goes to War”, “Rum Boulevard”, “Viva Maria!”, “Contempt”. "True".
During her cinematic career, Bridget starred in more than 50 films.
Shortly before her fortieth birthday, Brigitte Bardot announced the end of her career and devoted herself to the fight for the welfare of animals.
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve. She was born in Paris on October 22, 1943 and became the third child in the acting family of Reni Deneuve and Maurice Dorleac.
My acting career Deneuve started at the age of 16 in the comedy “College Girls” by Andre Junnebel. However, they did not pay much attention to her, but noticed only in 1963 after participating in the film “Prophet and Virtue” by Roger Vadim, Catherine’s lover. Vadim Christian was the fruit of their love, born in 1963.
But Deneuve gained worldwide fame after Jacques Demy’s film-musical masterpiece, “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” which received the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
More than once Catherine starred with her other lover Marcello Mastroianni. In 1972, they had a daughter named Chiara.
Catherine Deneuve always maintained the image of an icy bourgeois beauty, so she remained a sought-after actress for long and difficult decades and was not afraid to star in projects by radical and extraordinary directors. Films with her participation - “Bitch” and “Savage” (1975), “Dancer in the Dark”, “Hunger”, “Beloved Mother-in-Law”, “East-West”, “Place Vendôme”, “Monastery”, “Letter”, “Regained Time” and others.
Elizabeth Taylor
It is impossible to imagine the history of Hollywood without this extraordinary beauty of a woman with bright violet eyes, a scandalous character and velvet eyebrows. Willful, capricious, cruel, sinful, hung with jewels and dressed up, it was she who personified femininity, which was so attractive not only in art, but also in life.
Elizabeth Taylor was born into the family of an English merchant who sold works of sculpture and painting. But at the age of seven, her parents moved to America, where Elizabeth's dad opened his art gallery in the most fashionable and wealthy area of Los Angeles.
Since childhood, Taylor has been distinguished by her extraordinary beauty. Therefore, the first offer to act in a movie was at the age of 10. “There’s one born every minute,” it was this film that launched her acting career.
From child roles such as Lassie Come Home (1943), Jane Eyre (1944), White Cliffs of the Louvre (1944), The Courage of Lassie, Cynthia (1947), gradually Liz moved on to romantic roles - “Places in the Sun” (1951).
As for her personal life, there was always food for gossip. When she turned 17, she began an affair with Howard Hughes, a billionaire. And soon there was a wedding with Nick Hilton, the owner of numerous hotels. After just a few months of a happy life, scandals, squabbles, noisy quarrels began, which became public knowledge. Then divorce and new marriage. This time Elizabeth's marriage to Michael Wilding lasted five years. After this, a new passion is so strong that Taylor adopts the Jewish religion. And perhaps everything would have turned out happily, but her tritium husband Mike Todd, a film producer, crashes on a plane that was named after his beloved wife - “ Happy Liz" Eddie Slate, the deceased’s closest friend, became the beauty’s next passion. But this time America was incredibly indignant, because for the sake of Taylor, Eddie went to noisy divorce proceedings with Debbie Reynolds.
Stormy romances only created additional bright advertising for her and the films with her participation. Even skeptics admitted that Elizabeth was not only incredibly beautiful, but fantastically talented. There were also passing roles that did not require much effort - “Little Women”, “Ivanhoe”, “The Girl Who Had Everything”, etc., there were many serious works - “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, “Rhapsody”, “Suddenly Last Summer” - where she also showed herself to be an excellent intuitive actress who can play any psychological role.
Despite the fact that she was nominated for the highest award three times, she received her first Oscar only for the film Butterfield 8 (1960), and not for her most successful role.
Then her personal life is also intertwined with her creative life. After filming the film “Cleopatra” with actor Richard Burton, she began a stormy and dizzying romance that lasted 20 years with varying degrees of success. This couple's drinking bouts and noisy scandals were savored in the press for many years. But still, this union led to great creative success. Such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for which she received her second Oscar, and The Taming of the Shrew.
Elizabeth is a rather unpredictable person. Many times, newspapermen wrote incredible fables: Taylor would soon give birth to her eighth grandson, or Elizabeth would get married for the eighth time. Of course, this was preceded by a considerable number of stormy romances with actors, jewelers, barons and an official marriage with Jack Warner, a senator. And in general, it is unlikely that anyone will predict her future fate, but for now she is quite happy with her former truck driver Larry Fortensky, whom she accidentally met in a clinic for alcohol addiction.
But maybe this is where Elizabeth’s most important charm lies: just as you can’t predict the fate of her next silver-screen work, you can’t predict her subsequent actions in life. But in one thing she still remains constant...she is a unique phenomenon, she is simply an Actress and a Woman. And no more words are needed.
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly was born on November 12, 1929 in Finland, and died on September 14, 1982 in Monte Carlo.
Unapproachable, elegant, beautiful and charming, Grace had a fantastically attractive power. It was she who became the symbol of a luxurious woman, followed by admiring glances from all those who were not just looking for in their idol something that was limited to an inviting sway of the hips and a large bust, but something completely more. She was endowed with a special, slightly chilling charm, which was clearly expressed in her delicate facial features, breaking through the impeccability of her manners and aristocratic behavior.
Despite the fact that Kelly was born in America, Irish blood flows in her veins. Her father was a wealthy industrialist who was engaged in construction and was a former world rowing champion. Her mother was a fashion model in her youth. Uncle, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright George Kelly. Grace's family lived in a luxurious mansion in Philadelphia. From childhood, Kelly had access to high society. But she yearned for a different world, different from the one where her parents lived.
Grace received a Catholic education at Rainhill, a religious college. And it was in college that she first appeared on stage at the age of six, playing the role of the Virgin Mary in a Christmas play.
After moving to New York, Grace began working as a fashion model while studying acting. She often auditioned for various roles, but received contracts only for advertising cigarettes, beer, vacuum cleaners and hats.
Finally, in 1949, she still managed to play in the play “Father” by A. Strindberg. And from 1950 to 1952, she often began to appear in all kinds of television programs. Therefore, attention was paid to her beauty, and Hollywood offered her a cameo role in the film “14 Hours” in 1951. And from this began her wonderful, but short life to the cinema.
He played in a little over 10 films. But at the same time she has an Oscar, as well as the fame of the highest-grossing actress of the time of her glory. Grace starred with Fred Zinnemann in High Noon and with John Ford in Mogambo. Also in the 1954 film “The Country Girl.”
There is no doubt that there was something attractive in her beauty, but at the same time alarming. It is possible that it was precisely these qualities of Grace that Alfred Hitchcock drew attention to, in three of whose films she later starred. “In case of murder, dial “M”” and “Window to the rear” - best works director. And when the third film, “To Catch a Thief,” was filmed, the Prince of Monaco drew attention to Kelly. This was followed by a magnificent wedding, Grace became a princess on April 18, 1956.
This was basically the end of her film career. However, from 1976 to 1981, she was a member of the board of directors at XX Century Fox. Several times they approached her with a request to return to cinema, but the Monegasque court was against it, because Grace is their first lady. Now her face appears on stamps. Newspapers still wrote about her, but in gossip columns.
Grace died tragically on September 14, 1982 in a car accident. The only survivor was her daughter, who was driving the car.
Grace Kelly has achieved everything she set her mind to in life. She worked with the best actors and directors, received an Oscar, was not only the princess of American cinema, but also in real life crowned aristocrat.
Vivien Leigh
Vivian Mary Hartley was born on November 5, 1913 in India, Darjeeling, and died in London in 1967 on July 8.
Vivienne was the daughter of an English official, so she was educated in more than one closed boarding house in various European countries, and in 1932 Lee entered and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first appearance in cinema was in 1934, and on stage in 1935. The first screen tests did not bear much fruit, but the appearance of the young actress at the Ambassador Theater was noticed immediately. A. Cord immediately concluded a contract with Vivien. “Flame over England”, it was after the filming of this film that the romantic legend cinema, which connected the names of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
By that time, the actress was married to Herbert Lee Holman, a lawyer, and Lawrence was married to Jean Esmond, an actress. The romance of the two lovers developed painfully until 1940, then they finally united their destinies.
It was then that the image of Lee’s on-screen heroines was formed. They were fragile beauties who were mercilessly pursued by the vicissitudes of life. However, this image did not emerge immediately. In her first films she played a frivolous beauty - “A Yankee in Oxford”, and in “St. Martin's Lane” - a young street child.
She became a star after filming the film Gone with the Wind in 1939, where she played the role of Scarlett O'Hara. This film was a box office champion until the early 70s. Vivien Leigh received an Oscar for her leading female role in this film.
Only in 1941 did joint performances with Olivier move into cinema. A. Korda, who for many years was their cordial attorney, involved both in the melodrama filmed in the United States, “That Hamilton Woman.”
Subsequently, Vivien Leigh often performed together with L. Olivier in the theater. Despite this, everyone remembers her role as Anna Karenina from the otherwise unsuccessful film by J. Duvivier. And the role of Blanche DuBois in the film A Streetcar Named Desire brought her another Oscar.
By this time, Lee's personal crisis, associated with an unstable psyche and frequent outbreaks of mental illness, had progressed. The divorce from Olivier, which occurred in 1960, was a strong blow for her. She made two more film appearances, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and "Ship of Fools." And in 1967, Lee died from tuberculosis, which tormented her for almost a quarter of a century.
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale was born on April 15, 1939 in Tunisia, where she lived with her parents, who moved from Italy. Italian television and film actress.
The actress's career began in 1957 after winning a beauty contest. In Venice, during an incentive trip, many producers began to offer Cardinale screen tests and then episodic roles, but she initially refused them. Cardinale began attending acting classes at the Rome Experimental Film Center. Then the Vides film company offered and signed a contract with her for the next seven years, playing supporting roles. According to the contract, she did not have the right to cut her hair, get married or gain weight. However, Claudia soon married Fr. Cristaldi, who was the owner of the Vides company and became its producer for many years. It was cooperation with this company that provided the actress with quite good roles in many films. And her name became famous after the film “Beautiful Antonio” by M. Bolognini.
Cardinale made her debut in 1960 in the film “Rocco and His Brothers” by L. Visconti. And despite the small number of episodes and the minimum of words, her Ginetta was very well remembered by the viewer. Visconti also invited her to the films “The Misty Stars of Ursa Major,” “Leopard II,” and “Family Portrait in the Interior.”
Cardinale received the Silver Ribbon in 1963 for her role as a simple girl in the anti-fascist film Bube's Bride. In this film, the actress herself voiced her voice for the first time - many did not like her hoarse voice. The same year she starred in the film 8 1/2.
Despite the fact that Cardinale worked a lot in Hollywood, she never achieved fluent English conversation like Sophia Loren. Her American works include The World is a Circus, The Pink Panther, The Professionals, The Lost Team, The Devil with Heroes, Don't Make a Tide and The Wonderful Couple. Cardinale divorced her husband Cristaldi in the early 1970s and a few years later married P. Squitieri and had a daughter.
Like most sexual symbols, Cardinale switched to psychological roles. Such paintings: “The Red Tent”, “Fitzcarraldo”, “Audience”, “Skin”. The actress starred in almost all of her husband's films. Including "Corleone" and "The Iron Prefect II".
In 1988, the actress received the David, an Italian national award, for her contribution to cinema. And in 1965 she was awarded the English Order. She played over 100 roles. Lives in Paris, and very often appears in documentaries and television films.
Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 on July 4th in a very poor large family. Therefore, very early on, she realized that she wanted to achieve fame in life, which could bring her money, and most importantly, freedom.
Gina had the most important weapon - hard work. And, of course, her beauty. At the age of three she was dubbed the most beautiful child all over Italy. In 1945, her entire family moved and settled on the outskirts of Rome. Gina also continues to draw and sells her caricatures and caricatures. This was a real help for her family, as well as an opportunity to raise money for studying in Rome. But this turns out to be not enough. She begins to study to become a sculptor, and at the same time takes vocal lessons.
Her film debut took place in 1964, when she began acting in episodic roles: “Elisir of Love”, “Black Eagle”, “The Crime of Giovanni Episcopo”, “Lucia Lammermoor”. But this is only the beginning of her career.
In 1947, Gina participates in a beauty contest, but still takes only second place. The audience gave her a standing ovation, demanding that she go to the Miss Italy competition. However, there was another failure there; she again took second place. But now Gina has become famous, many people began to recognize her on the street, and an invitation to the cinema did not take long to arrive. Again small roles - “Alarm”, “Pagliacci”, “Anselmo forever”. This continued until 1951, when she was invited to take part in Carlo Lindzani’s film “Danger, Bandits.” It was in 1952 that “big cinema” began for her. She becomes famous outside the country. New works appear - “Roman Woman”, “Provincial Woman”, “Bread, Love and Fantasy”, others. The first awards were “Silver Ribbon”. .
In the late 60s, the actress appeared on television less often, and then stopped acting altogether.
In 1981, Gina insured her bust.
Gina ran for the European Parliament in 1999 and collaborates with UNICEF and UNESCO.
She is now 75 years old and in excellent shape. The actress has already given birth to a grandson, and she still loves low-cut, bright dresses and says that everything is still ahead of her.
An exhibition of paintings by the legendary Mexican Frida Kahlo, not only one of the greatest artists in world history, but also a woman with a very difficult fate, has ended in St. Petersburg. We talk about Frida and other extraordinary women of the 20th century whose lives took a tragic turn.
Marilyn Monroe
Norma Jean Baker's mother was admitted to a psychiatric clinic when the future movie star was still a child. The girl spent many years wandering around relatives' houses and shelters, and suffered a series of sexual harassment. At the age of 16, Norma was forced into marriage. Despite worldwide recognition and an endless series of lovers and admirers, Marilyn Monroe was a very lonely person all her life, she was never able to have the child she wanted, she was afraid, like a mother, of going crazy and said that life in the spotlight and the title of “sex symbol” " - not her dream at all. The actress died under mysterious circumstances: she was found dead in her own home with a telephone receiver in her hands. A package of sleeping pills lay nearby.
"What's good about being Marilyn Monroe? Why can't I just be an ordinary woman? A woman who can have a family... I would like to have just one child. My own child No.
Anna Akhmatova
Many of Anna's loved ones were victims of repression. The poetess's first husband, Nikolai Gumilyov, was shot, and the third died in the camps. Tragic fate was also destined for Akhmatova’s son, who spent more than ten years in prison. Anna wrote a letter to Stalin asking him to release the boy, but it remained unanswered.
"Shakespearean dramas - all these spectacular villainies, passions, duels - are trifles, child's games compared to the life of each of us"
Vivien Leigh
Vivien's marriage to main love throughout her life, Laurence Olivier, was not easy: the actor was jealous of his wife’s success, and once even threw her Oscar out the window. The Gone with the Wind star also suffered from poor health - she was prone to manic depression, and in 1945 she contracted tuberculosis. Vivien Leigh suffered from hysterical fits, at times did not recognize her husband and even beat him, was in a psychiatric clinic, and was diagnosed with bipolar personality disorder. Olivier was not ready for life with Leigh, whose mood was jumping from side to side, and eventually asked for a divorce in order to marry someone else. Seven years after breaking up with her beloved, Vivienne died during another attack of tuberculosis.
"Remember that scene from Gone with the Wind where Scarlett says, 'It's a good thing my mother is dead and can't see what her little girl has become?' So, this is about me"
Marina Tsvetaeva
After the civil war, the poetess found herself in exile, where, due to the collaboration of her husband, Sergei Efron, with the Soviet government, Tsvetaeva’s works were almost never published. The poetess's family almost died of hunger. As a result, Efron, and then Tsvetaeva herself, went home. But terrible news awaited Marina at home: it turned out that her sister had been arrested several years ago. Then the poetess’s daughter went into exile. Efron was shot by the communists. Tsvetaeva hanged herself in 1941, almost immediately after she and her son went into evacuation.
"No one can imagine the poverty in which we live. My only income is from what I write. My husband is sick and cannot work. My daughter earns a pittance by embroidering hats. I have a son, he is eight years old. The four of us We live on this money. In other words, we are slowly dying of hunger."
Frida Kahlo
At the age of 6 she suffered from polio, and one of her legs remained thinner than the other for the rest of her life, and at 18 she became a victim terrible accident: the bus in which Frida was traveling collided with a tram. Fractures of the spine, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, bones of the right leg, a dislocated shoulder and stomach pierced with a metal pin... Frida, an energetic and cheerful girl, found herself bedridden for a long time. Health problems tormented Kahlo all her life: she was never able to bear the child she dreamed of and underwent several dozen operations. There was no less mental suffering in the life of the great artist than physical suffering. Her husband, artist Diego Rivera, constantly cheated on her (one of the artist’s mistresses was Native sister Kahlo). Frida and Diego repeatedly tried to separate, once even divorced, but they could not live without each other - and in the end they got married again. The great artist died of pneumonia.
“There have been two tragedies in my life. The first was the tram. The second was Diego. The second was worse.”
Grace Kelly
One of the most prominent actresses of her time left a brilliant career for the sake of her wedding with Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The monarch's relatives were against the newly-made princess continuing to be a “actor,” and the beauty had to devote herself to her husband and children. However, life at court did not bring Grace happiness: the Hollywood beauty felt like a bird in a golden cage. Rainier was unsociable, often publicly laughed at his wife, and hated her popularity among his subjects. Grace's involvement in charity work and exhibitions made him angry. The children grew up too capricious and spoiled. Kelly dreamed of returning to her old acting life... It all ended tragically: the princess had a stroke while she was driving a car. Grace died in hospital the next day.
"Here in Monaco, as Rainier's wife, I can only play one role... to be his princess."
Regina Zbarskaya
“Soviet Sophia Loren” is known as the queen of the catwalk, the darling of the entire USSR and a woman shrouded in mystery. Regina was completely devoted to her husband, artist Lev Zbarsky, who forced the model to have an abortion when she became pregnant. Trying to cope with feelings of guilt, Regina became addicted to antidepressants. Leo suddenly left his wife and started a new family. Zbarskaya, whose mental state was rapidly deteriorating, gave up her career in the hope of returning her husband, but the loving man emigrated to the United States. Then Regina realized that Lev was lost irretrievably, opened her veins and ended up in mental asylum... After long-term treatment, unsuccessful attempts to return to the podium and another suicide attempt, Zbarskaya again found herself in a hospital. There she died, having swallowed sleeping pills.
“I brought so much evil into this world, and now comes the punishment for my sin.”
Margarita Nazarova
The trainer and star of “The Striped Flight” completely shared her main passion - taming tigers - with her husband, Konstantin Konstantinovsky. But, by an evil irony of fate, it was this passion that destroyed the unfortunate man. He died after being attacked by a tiger during a performance. Margarita could not come to terms with the loss of her beloved, without whom life became unpleasant to her. She left the circus because nervous breakdown. The son of Nazarova and Konstantinovsky grew up and went abroad. Margarita, refusing any help to the last, died in poverty and loneliness.
“Did they fall in love with me? Yes, often. All my partners proposed marriage to me. But I answered: “Why leave your family?”
Jacqueline Kennedy
The journalist, style icon and one of the most prominent first ladies of the United States was not happy in her marriage: she was coldly received by the Kennedy clan, her husband kept walking to the left, her first child was stillborn, and another died two days after birth. Portraying the ideal presidential wife was probably not easy, but Jacqueline became a model of strength and resilience in the eyes of the whole world when John Kennedy was shot right in front of her eyes. She refused for a long time to take off the pink suit stained with his blood, saying that she wanted “everyone to see what they did to John.” Five years after the assassination of the president, his widow married the Greek businessman Aristotle Onassis, whom - alas - she was also destined to outlive. Jacqueline died in the 90s from lymphoma.
“Who can understand what it’s like to live in the White House, and then in an instant turn into the widow of the president? There is something hopeless in this. And the children? The whole world sympathizes with them. I’m scared for them, because they are everyone’s I mean, how can we provide them with a normal childhood?”
Women of the 20th century
What do you know about portrait films? Well, yes, generational. There are few of them, there are even fewer quality ones, and the latter are united by one very important point: THAT'S where you want to be. And it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s the Roaring Twenties, or post-war years, the generation/decade is depicted as if it were “the very time” in which you had to be born in order to feel But what, exactly? Happiness? In fact, there is one more common feature: the search for a place in the world and the search for happiness, it just so happens that these are important things for a person of any time.
So, the film “Women of the 20th Century” is exactly that: a generational portrait with a special charm.
Let's talk about the title: the main characters (there are three of them) of different ages appear with their own set of problems and a ton of charm on screen as the entourage of a 15-year-old boy named Jamie, and the plot essentially spirals around him. The guy found himself at a time when doubts drive everything, and any guy starts with his mother And she, too, is driven by doubts.
Mother, Dorothea (aged Annette Benning), born in 1924, survived war time and the Great Depression, her son was born when she was 40, and partly because of the age difference, it is difficult for her to establish a connection with her son, which seems fragile to her. In addition, she is raising Jamie alone, and worries that she is not coping, which makes her close not only from the world, but also from her son, however, she remains optimistic. She smokes a lot, works with stock market indicators, does lengthy repairs to big house and hosts fun dinners.
There is Abby (Greta Gerwig), Dorothea's lodger, 9 years older than Jamie. She is a creative person, a cancer survivor, searching for herself either progressively or aggressively, she listens to groups that sing, knowing that they cannot sing, she dresses brightly and takes a lot of photographs. She is from a generation of girls whose mothers were treated for infertility with a dangerous drug that guaranteed cancer in their children. But then we had not yet heard of HIV. Of course, she influences the boy, she enlightens him, or simply dedicates him to stories from her life, teaches him something, shows him something, sometimes it even opens his eyes.
There is also Julie (Elle Fanning), she is a couple of years older than Jamie, and they have been friends since childhood. Her mother is a psychologist, which is fashionable, popular, and even sometimes useful, but not for Julie. She tries to be strong and free from all feelings, she is closed and quiet, although inside, of course, she hides the same things as other owners of a quiet pool. She is very close to Jamie until he realizes that this is closer than a friendship. She rushes around in search of anything - herself, or sensations, or that very power with freedom, and she has a hard time.
Here are three ages of women who were tormented by doubts in the 70s. And this portrait of the decade is played out beautifully: Elle, awkwardly tall, stooped, with protruding ears and bangs in front of her eyes; red-haired Greta, whose facial expressions for some reason are damnably reminiscent of Jared Leto’s touching face in Aronofsky’s film (also a portrait film, by the way); Annette Benning, a wonderful non-stereotypical mother who perfectly fits into the running 70s, who strives to get to know her son through the music he listens to, through conversations with his friends, through an excursion into modern times from the lodger. Just great work! It's a pleasure to watch this cast play. By the way, Jamie was played perfectly by Lucas Jade Zumann, who has never had roles in large-scale film projects before, so after this film he will probably grab better and more serious roles. But it is not necessary to spell out his character and type, because the title of the film does not contain a word about men (although he is oh so good and oh so important!), and let there be at least some intrigue left for the viewer.
The atmosphere of those years, a time of doubt in the United States, is perfectly conveyed. Car trips anywhere look magical and narcotic, the variety of costumes that speak most clearly about that time is interesting, the wonderful music of the group “Talking Heads” sounds, and the humor of this picture is very charming, which allows you to join the atmosphere of a rather difficult and painful atmosphere if only it weren’t for the sun and a smile.
Vitaly Wulf, Serafima Chebotar “50 Great Women”
This book is not a collection of random essays, but a collection of life stories with a cross-cutting plot. Here are collected portraits of famous actresses, movie stars, ballerinas, women writers and women politicians of the 20th century, who remained in Russian culture and history forever.
They shone in different eras, but their destinies, their faces, their talent are not only memorable to this day, but are also still in demand and strikingly modern, which is a sign of a shift in Times. As they say, times change, we change, but over the years it becomes meaningful.
This book is about those who defined the FEMALE FACE OF RUSSIA in the field of Theater, Ballet, Cinema, as well as in Literature and Politics. Part of our work is also dedicated to extraordinary women of Western European culture.
The first part is about the great actresses who gave their lives to the stage and with their creativity forever changed the people around them, such as Olga Knipper-Chekhova and Lidia Mikhailovna Koreneva, who served in the pre-revolutionary Art Theater; Angelina Stepanova, who came to the Moscow Art Theater in the early twenties; Alla Nazimova, who played at the Art Theater in the year of its opening, and then, once in the USA, became famous American actress; the brilliant Maria Babanova and Faina Ranevskaya, who worked for some time in the same troupe of the Moscow Drama Theater (now called the Mayakovsky Theater) - but Babanova, who started with Meyerhold, played on the stage of this theater all her life, even when it was called the Theater of the Revolution, and Ranevskaya had a passion for moving from troupe to troupe, until in 1963 she settled at the Mossovet Theater, where she worked for 21 years.
The atmosphere of life in the twentieth century changed very often, broad cultural movements were determined towards the development of modernism - towards Prokofiev, Meyerhold, Stravinsky - but theatrical life was dominated by the ideas of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, who were the first to guess the role of subtext - not only on stage, but also in the lives of people of the new century. “Subtext is what keeps people connected. The text can destroy these connections, the subtext can restore them, wrote critic Vadim Gaevsky. “From this understanding of the subtext arose the famous pauses of the Art Theater.”
Under the influence of Stanislavsky's ideas, the actresses described in this book clearly imagined inner world man and played him with rare depth and subtlety. They were people of dreams and real action. They knew how not to remember previous grievances and subordinate themselves to the stage. This brought them great success, recognition and a special position. They sought the truth and understood all the lines of romanticism, symbolism, impressionism only as a means of finding in the role and conveying to the viewer the spirit of truth and lofty human thoughts. They themselves reached unprecedented heights, and this was the source of their personal dramas, connections and breaks... Their biographies intertwined creative successes and family troubles, attacks from the press and the love of the audience, male attention and the deceit of the most important enemy of every woman - Time, fight with dignity which you need to be able to handle.
The second part of the book is devoted to the “stars” of the screen. Lyubov Orlova, Marina Ladynina, Valentina Serova, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Alla Larionova, the “queen” of silent cinema Vera Kholodnaya and Olga Chekhova, O.L.’s dear niece. Knipper-Chekhova, who ended up in Germany in the early twenties of the last century and became the Fuhrer’s favorite actress... Each of them had their own destiny, their own domestic fate, made up of accidents and patterns, they all became part of a black-and-white cinematic fairy tale, characters of an off-screen myth - although not everyone strived for this, sometimes it happened as if by itself, as a result of the vicissitudes of their screen and life drama. Sensations accompanied them all their lives; serious, funny and vulgar were mixed together, and popularity sometimes took them away from art...
Today, when the success of films depends entirely on the box office, and “stars” are often a product of publicity as such, being exorbitantly “inflated” by advertising, but having nothing behind their souls - against this dim background, the “screen stars” of the twentieth century lit up again, like neon lights of advertisements, and forced people to talk about themselves again. An example of this is the television film about Valentina Serova “Star of the Epoch,” filmed thirty years after her death and owing its popularity only to the magic of the name and fate of this unforgettable actress.
Of course, today no one stands behind tickets all night long, performances are not erected, as before, like buildings, on a solid foundation, seriously and for a long time, and none of the current one-day “stars” is able to forever retain the viewer’s interest, as was the case in twentieth century. But we still love the theater, and there is a rush of demand, just as there are arrogant resellers, foreign cars and crowds at theater entrances. It would seem that nothing has changed - except for one thing. The great “Three Sisters,” staged by Nemirovich-Danchenko back in 1940, oddly enough, called to the future. Today’s “fashionable directors” do not call for the future - they only “express themselves”, without any creative foundation, which is why there is so much theatrical rubbish with bare butts, pseudo-erotic scenes and that pseudo-sexuality that attracts - or rather distracts - an inexperienced viewer, but is not able to present those female images and those women who shocked and fascinated the world quite recently.
The current audience is fed up with theatrical kitsch and film fantasies, performed at the highest technical level, but completely empty and soulless; the viewer is tired of flat comics, crime “sagas” and exaggerated sensations, from the tricks of plastic surgery, which has turned today’s pop culture into a gallery of artificial masks - therefore LIVING FACES of the twentieth century today again attract the attention of the public, causing extraordinary interest... And their fates are happy and not so well-known and forgotten - they serve as models by which they build their lives, by which they learn to avoid mistakes and falls...
The third part of the book is dedicated to the “stars” of ballet - the brilliant Anna Pavlova and Matilda Kshesinskaya, Ida Rubinstein and Galina Ulanova. Ballets are always poems of silence. The world of sublime beauty has always been and remains a phenomenon of high culture. But today ballet has also changed, which is natural. It is enough to watch the ballet “Bolt” to the music of Shostakovich at the Bolshoi Theater, staged by Alexei Ratmansky, to understand that the choreographer gravitates toward that “modernity” that can be seen in any nook and corner of Europe.
But before, the Mariinsky Theater and the Bolshoi Theater, the famous “Diaghilev Seasons” gave beauty and mysterious harmonies. The artistic possibilities of Anna Pavlova and Matilda Kshesinskaya seemed to have no limits. They became legends for centuries. Ida Rubinstein was the heroine of Diaghilev's Seasons - her Cleopatra and Salome staged by Fokine at one time shocked audiences. Galina Ulanova was the most mysterious ballerina I was lucky enough to see. It was captivating with its exciting remoteness and poetic world. After her dance I wanted to live...
... About muses and wives, great companions of great people: Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina, Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok, Olga Glebova-Sudeikina, famous actress 20-30s Zinaida Reich, who was loved by Sergei Yesenin and Vsevolod Meyerhold, Elena Dyakonova, known to the whole world as Gala, wife of Salvador Dali, Princess Irina Yusupova and the greatest adventurer, the smartest Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya, who was the last companion of Gorky, who dedicated her novel "The Life of Klim Samgin". All these names remained in Russian culture. The prosaic details of their lives are no less fascinating than the creations of their great men. Lyrics existed within the domestic sphere.
The atmosphere of life is changing before our eyes, new cultural movements have emerged, the era of tragic confrontations has ended, new names of actors, directors, rock singers, and artists have appeared like mushrooms after rain, but those famous women to whom this book is dedicated do not leave the stage of life. They turned out to be irreplaceable props of documentary literature. Many years have passed since they disappeared from the face of the earth, but with all the variability of the mood of the public, it is much less seduced by new names than by the portraits of those about whom the essays included in this volume were written.
Following the muses there is a section about women writers - Anna Akhmatova, Zinaida Gippius, Elsa Triol, the brilliant Marina Tsvetaeva. As Tsvetaeva’s husband once wrote, tragically deceased Sergei Efron: “Giving in headlong to her hurricane became a necessity for her, the air of her life. A huge stove that requires wood, wood and wood to heat. Unnecessary ash is thrown away; the quality of the firewood is not so important. The traction is still good - everything turns into flames.”
Her name today ignites the souls and hearts of millions of people. She lived terrible life. Just read her note shortly before her suicide: “I don’t want to die. I want not to be. Nonsense. For now I am needed, but, Lord, how small I am, how I can’t do anything! To live and chew. Wormwood. How many lines have passed! I don't write anything down. It's over."
She left as she lived. French writer Henri Troyat (of Russian origin) ended his biography of Tsvetaeva with the words: “Marina, with her fearful pride, could not have chosen a better ending for herself than this anonymous departure into nowhere.” She passed away at the age of 49. Not a single note appeared in the newspapers, not a single farewell word was said over the coffin. There was a war going on. Blood flooded the Russian soil, and no one cared about the suicide, a brilliant poet, a brilliant prose writer, who lost her life in distant Yelabuga. They didn’t even put a cross on the grave with his name and dates of life. The burial place is unknown. And the name of Tsvetaeva excites minds today. She became part of the life of the modern generation and, half a century after her death, she found herself on the public stage, just like great Anna Akhmatova.
Ariadna Efron, Tsvetaeva’s daughter, wrote surprisingly accurately: “They were sisters in poetry, but by no means twins; “Akhmatova’s absolute harmony and spiritual plasticity, which so captivated Tsvetaeva at first, later began to seem to her as qualities that limited Akhmatova’s creativity.” “She is perfection, and this, alas, is her limit,” Tsvetaeva said about Akhmatova.
In fact, everything was different. The wise Anna Akhmatova was able to demonstrate her great gift under different regimes; Tsvetaeva had admirers among people of opposite tastes: those who admired her, no matter what she wrote, and those who reproached her for a lack of clarity.
Today they are both classics of Russian poetry, and it was very difficult to equate Zinaida Gippius and especially Elsa Triolet with them. But each of them has its own destiny, its own domestic fate, made up of accidents and patterns, which turned them into a myth for everyone.
The last part of the book talks about women involved in the political destiny of their country. These are Empress Maria Feodorovna, Lenin's beloved Inessa Armand, the first female ambassador and female minister in history Alexandra Kollontai, Larisa Reisner, whose name resounded loudly in the twenties of the last century, the unforgettable Minister of Culture of Soviet times Ekaterina Alekseevna Furtseva and the First Lady of the USSR Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachev...
Part of our story “Female Faces of the West” is dedicated to such extraordinary women as: Virginia Woolf, Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Frida Kahlo, Edith Piaf, Maria Callas, Francoise Sagan, Audrey Hepburn and others.
This book is about unforgettable names, about those who were divinely inconsistent and sublimely unjust, because their dramatic relationships with their environment developed mysteriously and unexpectedly. Most of these women were tormented by their responsibility to life. Each of them knew love and suffering, and over the years a mask of concern fell on their faces. A troubled spirit united them all. Today, at the turn of the century, these names are of great interest. Many people - lost, confused, offended - do not find ideals and idols around them. The shortage of great names has turned the current generation towards the past. I have become very tired of extravagant musicals, polished aesthetics and undisguised eroticism. The world is still fascinated by secrets and riddles human destinies, which is why all the box office champions and masters of adventure burlesque are stepping aside. Everyone yearns for personalities, rare individualities and seductive female beauty, coupled with romanticism. It is precisely such women – the great women of the 20th century – that our book talks about. Vitaly Vulf
It is common to think that making history is a purely male matter, and the main characters in it are brutal commanders, courageous rulers, talented orators, restless revolutionaries and public figures. However, in the history of our country there were many strong and intelligent women who made their invaluable contribution to its development.
Women scientists, women empresses, women writers - they were the ones who meticulously built and methodically destroyed the careers of great men, more than once sharply turning the course of history and culture. Women who were ahead of their time more than once, women who showed true endurance and incredible toughness, women we admire and still try to emulate.
Duchess Olga
Princess Olga was the ruler of the ancient Russian state from 945 to about 960. The first of the Russian rulers accepted Christianity even before the baptism of Rus' and the first Russian saint. After the death of her husband, Prince Igor Rurikovich, she cruelly and subtly took revenge on the worst enemies of the Drevlyans for his death, and then completely gathered an army for a military campaign, walking with a sword through the Drevlyan land, establishing tributes and taxes.
Thus, the unity of the territory was preserved and even increased, and Olga herself was considered by the people to be a wise and fair ruler.
After her triumphant return to Kyiv, with her fearlessness, wisdom, will and cunning, she proved that she was capable of single-handedly ruling the state, protecting it from enemies. Leaving external affairs, she turned to internal problems: she carried out the first financial reform in the history of Rus' and laid the foundation for stone urban planning.
Although both the squad and the Russian people with her were pagans, Olga herself was baptized, and after her death she was canonized as an Equal-to-the-Apostles saint. Only 5 other holy women have received this honor. Christian history(Mary Magdalene, First Martyr Thekla, Martyr Apphia, Queen Helen Equal to the Apostles and Nina, the Enlightener of Georgia).
Feodosia Morozova
Boyar Feodosia Morozova (Yulia Melnikova). Still from the film “Split” Boyarina Morozova is the most famous Old Believer, who has become a symbol of masculinity, iron will and fearlessness in the fight for her beliefs. The main figure of the Russian Old Believers, an associate of Archpriest Avvakum, was arrested for her adherence to the “old faith” by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and then deprived of her estate and all honors, she was exiled to the Pafnutyevo-Borovsky Monastery, where she was subjected to severe torture and interrogation and, having endured them, was imprisoned in an earthen prison in the Borovsky city prison, and 14 of her servants were burned in a log house for belonging to the old faith at the end of June 1675. Dying from physical exhaustion, Feodosia Morozova asked her jailer to wash her shirt in the river before her death so that she could die in a clean shirt. She is revered by the Old Believer Church as a saint.
Ekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova
One of the notable personalities Russian Enlightenment, Ekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova became the first woman in the world to run the Academy of Sciences. A friend and associate of the future Empress Catherine II, an active participant in the coup d'etat of 1762, which she described in great detail in her memoirs.
However. After the empress ascended the throne, Dashkova did not play any role in politics. At her suggestion, the Imperial Russian Academy was also established, with one of its main goals being the study of the Russian language. On her initiative, the magazine “Interlocutor of Lovers of the Russian Word” was founded, which was published in 1783 and 1784 (16 books) and was of a satirical and journalistic nature. The best literary minds of that time were published in it: Fonvizin, Derzhavin, Kheraskov, Knyazhnin and Bogdanovich.
Dashkova personally translated Voltaire’s “Essay on Epic Poetry”, wrote poetry in Russian and French, was the author of several academic speeches.
Catherine II the Great
Empress of All Russia, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, who came to power as a result of a palace coup that overthrew her husband, who was unpopular among the people and the guard, from the throne Peter III. As a result of Catherine's reign, there was a significant strengthening of the Russian state, and the policy pursued by her was called enlightened absolutism. Culturally, the Empress contributed to Russia’s entry into the ranks of the great European powers, and she herself was interested in literary activity, was engaged in philanthropy, collected masterpieces of painting and corresponded with French educators. Under her, the borders of the empire were greatly expanded: the annexation of New Russia, Crimea, partly the Caucasus, as well as the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Sofia Kovalevskaya
The first woman professor in Russia and Northern Europe and the first woman professor of mathematics in the world. Foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The daughter of Lieutenant General of Artillery V.V. Korvin-Krukovsky and Elizaveta Fedorovna, she received her first lessons in mathematics from governesses and a home tutor.
Women's entry into higher education educational establishments Russia at that time was prohibited and the only opportunity to continue education was to travel abroad to enter a foreign university. However, a passport for travel could only be issued with the permission of the parents or husband. The father opposed his daughter’s “scientific” future, so Sophia had to independently organize a fictitious marriage with the young scientist V. O. Kovalevsky.
In 1874, after defending her dissertation at the University of Göttingen, Kovalevskaya was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
In 1879 she made a report at the 6th Congress of Natural Scientists in St. Petersburg, and in 1881 Kovalevskaya was elected a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society.
In 1884 - professor of mathematics at Stockholm University, in 1888 - laureate of the Borden Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences.
Awarded a prize in 1889 Swedish Academy Sciences and is elected a corresponding member of the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In addition to mathematics, she was engaged in literary work: the author of several stories, essays and a book of memoirs.
Anna Pavlova
One of greatest ballerinas XX century, whose name is still a symbol of Russian ballet of the XX century. According to some critics, the main difference between Pavlova and other dancers who shone on theater stages before and after her was her unique and incomparable character, individuality and temperament. She herself was the living embodiment of dance: she lived it, lived in it and for its sake.
After graduating from the Imperial Theater School, Pavlova was accepted into the troupe Mariinsky Theater and, after 7 years of performing roles in classical ballets, she took the place of the leading dancer of the troupe. In 1907, at a charity evening at the Mariinsky Theater, she performed the miniature “The Dying Swan,” which was fateful for her career, composed for her by M. Fokin and brought her fame, and after participating in Sergei Diaghilev’s “Russian Seasons” in Paris, she gained worldwide fame .
“The secret of my popularity is the sincerity of my art,” Pavlova repeated more than once, drawing up her tour routes, crossing all continents of the earth, bringing choreographic culture even to the most remote corners of the world. The Russian ballet school is still associated with her name.
Natalia Goncharova
The most famous painter, theater artist and graphic artist, whose name is associated with the art of the avant-garde era in Russia, was the great-grandniece of Pushkin’s wife, Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova. She was actively involved in book illustration, lithography, and poster art, participated in productions of Sergei Diaghilev’s “Russian Seasons,” and held personal exhibitions. Natalya Sergeevna Goncharova was distinguished by her incredible ability to work.
At one exhibition in Moscow she presented 762 works. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, she had extraordinary charisma and was a brilliant speaker. Even after her death, her exhibitions continue to be extremely popular, and her paintings are more expensive than any other artist in world art.
Anna Akhmatova
The greatest Russian poetess, one of the most prominent figures Silver Age Russian culture, whose poems remain relevant for any time. Her bright talent, extraordinary personality and incredibly tragic fate left perhaps one of the deepest marks not only in the culture of the 20th century, but in the history of Russia in general.
Translator and literary critic, nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, mother and wife, disgraced poetess - all this is one person, a woman who pre-revolutionary Russia managed to get a taste of fame, publishing her first collections in considerable editions. In post-revolutionary Russia, however, there was no place for Akhmatova and could not be found, as for many talented people, scientists, cultural and artistic figures.
And then everything went downhill: arrests of loved ones, exile only son, executions, Patriotic War and the siege of Leningrad... Akhmatova’s tragedy is the tragedy of an entire people, which she embodied in her poems, talking about the monstrous and unfair shocks that befell them.
Having gone through a literary path from poems, in the words of Akhmatova herself, which were “suitable only for lyceum students in love,” and ending with writings about Soviet repressions, Akhmatova became a symbol of several eras that quickly, bloodily and cruelly succeeded each other.
Vera Kholodnaya
Her extraordinary appearance, natural charm and naturalness helped Vera Kholodnaya, in a very short period of her film career, to become the most famous and celebrated actress of her time. “The Queen of the Screen,” a trendsetter, the personification of a new decadent type that came to Russia in the 1910s, replacing the rather boring image of the “cheeky, rosy-cheeked Russian beauty.”
Vera Kholodnaya starred with the best directors of that time: E. Bauer, V. Viskovsky, P. Chardynin, Ch. Sabinsky. In 1917, one of her best films, “By the Fireplace,” was released, which was a resounding success with the public and, of course, was later destroyed by the Soviet government, like other popular pre-revolutionary films.
Vera Kholodnaya was incredibly popular abroad: films with her participation were shown on the screens of Europe, America, Turkey and mysterious and unknown Japan. European film studios vying with each other offered her contracts, but she refused, saying that her place was only in Russia.
It seemed that nothing threatened her popularity: neither revolution nor civil war, but the sudden and early death of the actress disrupted all plans and led to a long series of rumors and disputes about the real reason her sudden death. Thus, Vera Kholodnaya went down in history not only as the most popular actress of the silent film era in Russia, but also as one of the most mysterious women in its history.
Valentina Tereshkova
The first and so far the only woman in the world to have made a solo space flight, Valentina Tereshkova was born into the family of a tractor driver and a textile factory worker.
In early 1962, out of several hundred applicants, she was selected as candidates to be considered for the role of the first female astronaut in history. During training, I underwent endless training on body stability and parachute training. Start spaceship Vostok 6 took place on the morning of June 16, 1963, and the first female astronaut in history landed on the morning of June 19.
In total, the flight lasted two days, 22 hours and 41 minutes. During this time, Valentina Tereshkova made 48 orbits around the Earth. By the way, Valentina Tereshkova naturally did not tell her family about her flight: firstly, it was a military secret, and secondly, like the others, she did not know how such a flight could end. So Valentina Tereshkova’s relatives learned about the hero’s feat on the radio.
Loading...
