Elena Korikova in the series “Poor Nastya”.
In 2002, Amedia was the first in Russia to enter into a co-production agreement with Sony Pictures. The first project of this tandem was the 127-episode telenovela “Poor Nastya,” which was released in 2003 on the STS channel. The series was sold to 25 countries, including Latin America.
It features both historical characters, but with fictitious circumstances and storylines, and completely fictitious ones.
11 million 400 thousand dollars were allocated for the production of 120 episodes. The final script is 9600 pages. 36 leading and supporting actors, selected from 7,200 applicants, took part in the filming.
More than 1,500 costumes were used for filming. About 300 of them were sewn by craftsmen based on historical sketches. In addition to dresses, hats, gloves and, of course, shoes are sewn. But Elena Korikova’s heroine came to her first ball wearing real 19th-century ballroom shoes.
Filming took place in the seventh pavilion of Mosfilm and in the Stolypin-Lermontov estate.
Anna Petrovna Platonova is formally a serf, a pupil of Ivan Ivanovich Korf.
Elena Korikova: Our day begins at 6 o’clock and ends late at night. I hardly sleep. About four hours at most... We rarely have days off. Usually these days we give interviews and shoot for magazines.
Elena Korikova: At first it was difficult. I haven’t yet understood what I need to play and how. When you let a role pass through you, you find something relatable in it, then everything goes as planned.
- How much sleep do you need?
- The bigger, the better. Sleep won't hurt any woman, it will only straighten your face.
Elena Korikova: They wanted to shoot a completely unknown actress, but they couldn’t find one. They approved me. And that was only when I came to audition for the second time and played a couple of scenes with partners.
— Was there a big casting for your role?
— I heard that 7,000 actresses tried.
The main condition of the producers of Sony Pictures was to find beautiful actors; in their opinion, there were not enough beautiful faces on the screen in Russia.
— Daniil, how did you get on “Poor Nastya”?
— The casting took place over two years. I got there a year and a half after I started. Tests were immediately done on the sets and costumes.
Daniil Strakhov: We were not given time to rehearse. Right before filming, it was necessary to memorize a new text from a sheet that was given out. Lena Korikova was outraged by this attitude towards the film process.
Daniil Strakhov : Once I was filming with pneumonia, I caught a cold during filming. It was hard, but useful for my character in love - his eyes sparkled.
Albert Filozov: I appear from time to time, like the shadow of Hamlet's father. That is, exclusively in “Shakespearean” scenes, as my friend Peter Stein jokes.
Albert Filozov: I like my serial son Daniil Strakhov. He is a sensitive, nervous actor and completely suits his role. Filming has been going on for a long time, he is tired and plays in a hysterical manner, but this is exactly what the image of Vladimir Korf requires.
Daniil Strakhov : Is Baron Korf a sex symbol? Fear God. At first he is an extremely unpleasant, hard-drinking, ambitious outsider. Slowly - towards the 120th episode! - the baron gets out of that hole into which Russian people love to climb, and gradually turns into a romantic hero. But not as a sex symbol!
— They tried you only on Vladimir? - Only. And glory to you, Lord! This is my role.
— Is it true that the filming regime was very strict? - Eighteen days during each month, ten to twelve hours per shift, or even thirteen. Sometimes I had to spend the night away from home: they finished at three in the morning, and the next shift was at eight in the morning. I stayed in a hotel next to Mosfilm.
Daniil Strakhov: This was the first work that resonated with the audience. Walking down the street, I saw: there is a reaction! At some point, it even began to irritate him, because not only fans, but also colleagues developed a certain stamp: Daniil Strakhov is an equally arrogant lieutenant.
Daniil Strakhov: They also said that he became a sex symbol. In which place? My hero is a hard-drinking, ambitious outsider. Therefore, I gladly take on any roles that go beyond the boundaries of that boring role! I am still breaking the stereotype.
Director Petr Stein: We have six directors on the project: editing, location shooting, two television directors who make the storyboard for the cameras. I'm the only one working with actors. Sometimes we shoot 15 hours a day. We all hope that we will gradually adjust the schedule. After all, this is the first attempt to work according to American standards. We try to do 30 minutes of screen time per shift, but in “normal” cinema it’s common to do only five minutes of film per day.
Director Petr Stein: The series “Poor Nastya” should turn out to be a beautiful, powerful blockbuster, the likes of which has never been seen on our television. In terms of scale and emotional intensity, I would compare it with the famous film “Gone with the Wind.”
Director Petr Stein: Six directors film in turns. Each of them spends two weeks preparing—working with actors, storyboarding, planning sets, costumes, and props. And a week to film a block of five episodes, 45 minutes each. During the third week, work is underway in the pavilion and on location - filming five episodes.
Daniil Strakhov: In general, I advocated for “Poor Nastya” to end differently from the way it ended - with an American (from my point of view, vulgar) happy ending. Well, the heroes get married in the church, and then what? This is not the finale, but some kind of sugar syrup.
Daniil Strakhov: I proposed, given that Makarsky’s hero dies innocently, to exile Korf to the Caucasus, to the war. Imagine the last shot: Korf is leaving, and his passion is looking after him. And it is unknown whether he will return, no? Will she wait for him? Then we could talk about a continuation.
Daniil Strakhov: Now what should we play next? How does the overweight, drunken Korf, who regretted marrying Anna, begin to accuse her of all mortal sins? And all this over the course of the new 120 episodes?
Updated 11/08/20 04:09:
Filming the final scene.
Elena Korikova
(Anna Platonova - Anastasia Dolgorukaya)
Elena Korikova starred in the films “The Peasant Young Lady”, “Mu-Mu”, “Three Sisters”, “The Black Room”, but it was “Poor Nastya” that brought great fame to the artist. The image of the illegitimate daughter of Prince Dolgoruky Anna Platonova made the actress recognizable. In the mid-2000s, Korikova practically disappeared from cinema, and a few years later she returned and explained the lack of new work as the revenge of an influential official.
While studying at VGIK, Elena met Dmitry Roshchin, the son of actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva and playwright Mikhail Roshchin.
Having learned about Korikova’s pregnancy, the man proposed to her, but the marriage never took place. The actress raised Arseny alone; Dmitry did not even communicate with his son. In 1995, Elena met cameraman Maxim Osadchiy and was happy with him for almost 10 years. The subsequent romance with Sergei Astakhov ended in a break. In August 2019, Elena hinted that she was married, but chose to keep her personal life a secret.
