The Blackamoor of Peter the Great
Short description
The Blackamoor of Peter the Great is a historical romantic comedy set during the expansion of the Russian navy. The story follows Ibrahim Petrovich Hannibal, a man of African descent who was raised and educated under the guardianship of Tsar Peter the Great. After a failed romance in France, Ibrahim resolves to avoid love until he becomes interested in the daughter of a wealthy boyar. Although the Tsar supports the union, Ibrahim refuses to force the woman into a marriage without her consent. His nobility and loyalty are later challenged when another man attempts to marry her.
Directed by Aleksandr Mitta, this production followed his 1962 film No Fear, No Blame. The movie was produced in the Soviet Union by Mosfilm and features a cast of 30 credited actors, including Vladimir Vysotsky as Ibrahim Gannibal and Aleksey Petrenko as Czar Peter I. Other cast members include Irina Mazurkevich, Ivan Ryzhov, Mikhail Kokshenov, and Evgeny Mitta.
The film has received generally positive feedback from audiences on IMDb, where it holds a 7.2 rating from 551 votes. It has a lower rating on TMDB, where it sits at 5.8 based on 18 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- During filming, Vysotsky stayed at the Jurmala Hotel on Jomas Street, the center of the resort's bustling life. Rooms for the film crew were provided from the fund of the Jurmala City Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia by its First Secretary, Karlis Licis. This was arranged by the film's administrator, Julijs Krumins, who was also responsible for the production process and, to prevent the artist from suffering from hangovers, gave him kefir into which a small amount of vodka had been previously injected.
- The first version of the film, edited by director Alexander Mitta, consisted of two episodes. However, at the insistence of the Goskino leadership, the director was forced to re-edit and significantly shorten the film, returning to the previously approved single-episode version.
- Ibrahim Hannibal was never married to a Russian girl. In 1731, he married a Greek woman, Evdokia Andreevna Dioper, and in 1736, he married Christina Scheberg.
- According to V. Frid's memoirs, Vysotsky was very glad for the opportunity to play the role of an "intelligent man in an unintelligent world." He threw himself passionately into the work, and not only as an actor. After just a few days, Vladimir Semyonovich brought two songs for the film: "The Brigand's Song" and "The Cupolas." However, during editing, it became clear that these songs "set a bar that the film could no longer reach." Therefore, although it had already been decided which episodes these songs would appear in, Alexander Mitta decided to discard them.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
