Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession
Иван Васильевич меняет профессию (1973)
Production
Director
Scenario
Composer
Aleksandr Zatsepin
Actors
Aleksandr Demyanenko
Aleksandr 'Shurik' Timofeyev, inventor
Yuriy Yakovlev
Ivan the Terrible / Ivan Vasilievich Bunsha
Leonid Kuravlyov
Zhorzh Miloslavsky / knyaz Miloslavsky
Savely Kramarov
Feofan the diak
Natalya Seleznyova
Zinaida, Shurik's wife
Natalya Krachkovskaya
Uliana Andreevna Bunsha, superintendent's wife
Natalya Kustinskaya
Yakin's mistress
Vladimir Etush
Anton Semyonovich Shpak, dentist
Short description
A Moscow inventor, Aleksandr Timofeyev, constructs a time machine in his apartment and links it to the chambers of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in sixteenth-century Moscow. When the device starts up, two visitors in his flat, the building superintendent Ivan Vasilyevich Bunsha and a burglar known as Zhorzh Miloslavsky, are carried back to Ivan's court, while the Tsar himself is transported into 1973. Bunsha's resemblance to the ruler lets him pass for the Tsar on the other side, and the machine's breakdown keeps the two centuries entangled, with the Tsar at large in the modern city. The screenplay is by Vladlen Bakhnov and Leonid Gaidai.
The film is a comedy with science fiction elements, directed by Leonid Gaidai and released in the Soviet Union in September 1973. It is the fifth of the seven features listed for Gaidai, arriving after The Diamond Arm and before Incognito from St. Petersburg, and it was made by Mosfilm. Aleksandr Demyanenko plays the inventor Shurik, a character at the centre of some of the director's earlier films. Yuriy Yakovlev takes the dual role of Ivan the Terrible and Bunsha, Leonid Kuravlyov plays Miloslavsky, and Natalya Seleznyova appears as Zinaida, the inventor's wife. Thirty-seven cast members are credited.
The film runs eighty-eight minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 8.2 from around 20,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7.9 from 423 votes, so the audience scores at both are close.
What's left behind the scenes
- At the 19th minute of the film, when Shurik uses the time machine to remove the wall in Shpak's apartment, it can be noticed that the secret wall cabinet, which Georges had previously tried to break into, is now sitting on a stand with legs.
- The phrase spoken by L. Kuravlev, "Citizens! Keep your money in the savings bank," was written in the script, while its continuation – "...if you have any, of course" – was an improvisation by the actor.
- Due to a bruise under her eye, Nina Maslova had to constantly lower her gaze during the feast scene, which ultimately benefited the role – this gesture added coquetry to the queen.
- When asked by Bunsha, the Tsarina replies: "I am Marfa Vasilyevna." This can only be Marfa Vasilyevna Sobakina, who was the wife of Ivan IV the Terrible for only 15 days. Thus, Georgy Miloslavsky and Ivan Vasilyevich Bunsha were in ancient Moscow on one of the days between October 28th and November 12th, 1571. On November 13th, Marfa Sobakina died.
- At the 27th minute of the film, when Georges closes the bolt on the door, modern welding seams and hex-head bolts can be seen on the lock.
- The film features "The Song About the Hares" ("And we don't care... ") performed by Yuri Nikulin from Leonid Gaidai's 1968 film "The Diamond Arm".
- It ranks 17th in attendance among domestic films for the entire history of Soviet film distribution.
- Natalia Selezneva, Natalia Gundareva, and Natalia Gvozdikova were all considered for the role of Zina.
- In the elevator (“They’ve walled us in, demons!”), the Tsar makes the sign of the cross with three fingers. Before 1653, Orthodox Christians made the sign of the cross with two fingers.
- Sofia Rotaru auditioned for the song "January Blizzard Rings," but her performance, due to her rather low voice, did not suit the comedic genre of the film.
- The film is based on Mikhail Bulgakov's play "Ivan Vasilyevich".
- In the 30th minute, Ivan Vasilyevich fills Shurik's shot glass, but Shurik refuses the drink and places the glass on the table. When the tsar prepares to drink again in the 36th minute, he fills Shurik's glass, which is already empty.
- Filming fees: Leonid Gaidai — 7948 rubles (5948 rubles for filming plus 2000 rubles for the script). According to other sources, the director's total fee was 18,000 rubles, which became one of the reasons for the closure of the experimental creative association "ETO," created as an experiment in commercial cinema; Yuri Yakovlev — 4350 rubles; Leonid Kuravlev — 2312 rubles; Alexander Demianenko — 1663 rubles; Savely Kramarov — 1129 rubles; Mikhail Pugovkin — 788 rubles; Vladimir Etush — 630 rubles; Natalya Selezneva — 362 rubles; Natalya Krachkovskaya — 347 rubles; Sergei Filippov — 258 rubles; Natalya Kustinskaya — 168 rubles; Anatoly Podshivalov — 139 rubles; Nina Maslova — 101 rubles.
- The Crimean Khan was indeed having fun on the Izium Path in 1571. He had so much fun that he burned Moscow in May 1571. The following year, the Crimean Khan was defeated in the Battle of Molody.
- Zina (Shurik's wife), caring for Ivan the Terrible in the apartment, says: "Who knows what they might think!", but her lips read: "You might be seen here!"
- Tsar Ivan the Terrible in modern Moscow listens to Vysotsky's song "Oh, once, once more" on a tape recorder.
- When Bunsha hides in the chest during the chase by the streltsy, he changes his body position to the opposite one, without getting out of the narrow chest.
- In the 29th minute of the film, Shurik tries to pull a stuck weapon out of the time machine and calls it a 'berdysh,' although it is actually a halberd, which only appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century.
- The costume designers borrowed royal attire from Sergei Eisenstein's painting "Ivan the Terrible," and a young designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, created costumes for Selezneva's character.
- The scepter and orb, held by Bunsha (and depicted in the icon), as symbols of royal power, appeared a hundred years after the events depicted, in the 17th century.
- Gaidai re-dubbed the film due to censorship attacks in several episodes. First: during the royal banquet, Bunsha asks Miloslavsky: "And who will pay?" He replies (censored): "Well, not us, anyway," while the original intention of Gaidai was, "The people, the people, father." Second: the interrogation scene of Ivan the Terrible at the police station: "Place of residence," the Tsar replies: "In the chambers." According to Gaidai's intention: "Moscow - the Kremlin."
- The comedic image of the impostor Tsar was perceived as ridicule of Ivan the Terrible, and therefore the episode where the Tsar fries cutlets in Timofeev's kitchen was removed from the film.
- Miloslavsky and Bunsha flee from the streltsy without closing the chest from which they took their clothes. A fallen helmet lies on the floor. When Miloslavsky returns to close the chest, the helmet is back on the armor.
- In the 38th minute, Bunsha pretends to be the tsar on the throne, and Miloslavsky plays the role of the scribe. Arrows are stuck in the left side of the column behind the throne, although in the 27th minute, the arrows hit the right side of the column.
- During the interrogation scene, when asked about his year of birth, Ivan Vasilyevich replies: "One thousand five hundred and thirty-three from the Birth of Christ." However, Ivan the Terrible was born on August 25, 1530, and the reckoning "from the Birth of Christ" was introduced by Peter I only in 1700. Before that, Russia used the reckoning "from the creation of the world." Therefore, Ivan Vasilyevich's answer should have been "The seven thousand thirty-eighth year from the creation of the world."
- Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin, and Evgeny Lebedev could have played Ivan Vasilyevich.
- In foreign distribution, the film was released under the title "Ivan the Terrible: Back to the Future."
- Gaidai initially wrote the first draft of the script for Yuri Nikulin, who, after reading it, flatly refused to film it, arguing that a year of filming would be wasted and the film would be shelved.
- At the 15th minute of the film, Georges finds a stack of bonds in a drawer. When he addresses the audience in the next scene, he is holding bundles of cash.
- The handle that Miloslavsky stole from Shpak and gave to the ambassador depicted a nude woman. Close-ups were cut from the film because nude women were forbidden to be shown at that time. After all the changes, the film's runtime was reduced by 10 minutes, but the original negative of the film is still stored at the Mosfilm studio.
- In the film, Ivan the Terrible says: "I once had a fellow like that – he made wings. I sat him on a barrel of gunpowder – let him fly!" This has certain historical parallels. It is known that Ivan the Terrible ordered the boyar Kazarinov-Golokhvastov, who had taken monastic vows to avoid execution, to be blown up on a barrel of gunpowder on the grounds that monks are angels and therefore should fly to heaven.
- The police arrive to investigate a burglary at an apartment in a traffic police car.
- In the 49th minute of the film, when Ivan Vasilyevich hides behind the curtains, it can be noticed that the water in the aquarium is cloudy, while the long flask mounted on the time machine is filled with a transparent liquid. When Zina opens the curtains in a subsequent scene, the water in the aquarium becomes transparent, and the liquid in the flask changes to red.
- At the 24th minute of the film, Georges demands that Bunsha stop calling the police and hang up the phone. In one of the subsequent scenes, when Ivan Vasilyevich lets go of the receiver, it flies toward the telephone and lands on the lever via thin dark threads.
- The chase scenes for the "visitors from the future" were filmed in Rostov the Great, Yaroslavl Region.
- Bunsha, disguised as the Tsar, says to the Swedish ambassador "Hitler is finished," but his lips read "Peace, friendship."
- At the 13th minute of the film, during a telephone conversation, Shpak says the word "zhdu" (I'm waiting) with his mouth closed.
- In the 35th minute of the film, Georges climbs out of the knight's armor and drops the helmet onto a musketeer lying on the floor. When Miloslavsky and Bunsha run away from the guards with the tsar's clothes in a later scene, the previously fallen helmet is back on the armor.
- At one point in the film, viewers might think there's a dubbing error. When Bunsha asks Miloslavsky how he got into Shpak's apartment, he replies: "Go to hell, what impertinent questions!", even though Miloslavsky's mouth is closed. In fact, this line is spoken not by Miloslavsky, but by Shurik, who is off-screen at that moment (the voices of Kuravlyov and Demyanenko are, in fact, very similar).
- The scene of Georges calling Shpak in a 'woman's voice' is voiced by Natalia Kustinskaya; the song "Conversation About Happiness" is sung by Valery Zolotukhin.
- The extra phone number "3-62" that Georges Miloslavsky gives when calling Shpak's workplace represents the price of a bottle of ordinary vodka in the USSR. This episode parallels the film "The Diamond Hand," where the director used the same technique, encoding the price of a bottle of vodka in the car's license plate number. In the play, the extra number is 501.
- Andrei Mironov, Georgy Yumatov, Sergei Nikonenko, and Georgy Burkov could have played Miloslavsky.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
