Description of the bitches from the story three fat men. The story of the tutti heir doll

Tatiana Ryzhkova

Literature and Film Lesson: "Three Fat Men"

We are completing the publication of the article (see the beginning in No. 22), which presents the experience of organizing the reading and viewing activities of pupils of 5-6 grades in the study of the fairy tale novel by Yuri Olesha "Three Fat Men". Comparison of the plot and motives of a literary tale with its cinematic reading during the lesson helps young readers discover the hidden meanings of the text, to understand the difference between the language of cinema and the language of literature.

We continue to work on the novel's plan - looking for the culmination. The composition of the second movement is more complex than the first. Therefore, the plan turns out to be complicated, but it is precisely such painstaking work that clearly shows how the storylines are intertwined in the novel and what is the role of the secondary characters. In the lesson, we dwell in detail on only one storyline.

- Who could enter the palace, guarded so that even a mouse would not slip by, who could learn about the underground passage?

- How did the secret become known?

She was accidentally recognized by a seller of balloons, who got into the palace, and in an absolutely incredible way.

- When we analyzed the scene on Zvezda Square, you decided that it resembles a circus performance. Are there more “circus scenes” in the novel?

Yu.K. Olesha comes up with another circus act - flying on balloons. The seller is, in fact, a clown, just like, let's add, running ahead, Razdvatris. It is no coincidence that the writer “connects them” in clowning with a shoe falling on Razdvatris's head. Foolishness and buffoonery prepare the reader in advance for a successful outcome and reduce images of evil, turning them into comic ones. (In fact, almost all the scenes of the novel are solved as circus acts - it is easy to verify this by rereading the text: episodes in the kitchen, at breakfast at the Fats', the release of Prospero, etc.)

We see the breakfast scene from the point of view of the balloon seller, who watches what is happening, shaking with horror, but not for the life of the rebels and Prospero, but for his own. He is generally incapable of sympathizing with anyone: the writer informs the reader of his callousness at the very beginning of the second part. His flight is an accident and the author's punishment for selfishness and heartlessness. Fate confronts the seller with even more heartless people, more like animals in their cruelty and lust for blood. Thanks to the seller, the reader learns about everything that happened in the palace and led to the cancellation of celebrations and executions, and also about the secret of the underground passage.

Inside the story of the seller, there is a new story - about the doll of the heir Tutti broken by the rebellious guardsmen and about the heir himself. The doll, in turn, again leads us to Dr. Arneri - a scientist who can do everything in the world, according to ordinary people who are far from science. Let's pay attention of the students to the chronological loops that add some mystery to the narrative.

All these episodes develop the action and finally lead us to the main character.

Similarly, we are working on plans for the third and fourth parts, identifying the climax and denouement.

The culminating episode in the novel is the execution of Suok, followed by the denouement: the animals did not touch the doll, Suok was hidden in the clock, and the rebellious people defeated their oppressors. The storylines are connected again. Before the epilogue, neither we nor the heroes know that Tutti and Suok are separated brother and sister: the author repeatedly hints at this secret, promising that in due time the reader will find out about everything.

- Why doesn't he tell it right away?

Having told about how the Three Fat Men instructed Tuba to make a doll, and then separated their brother and sister, taking Tutti into upbringing, the author would first have to introduce us to the Fat Men and their lives, tell us what happened to Suok. But then it would be a novel about children, and this novel is about the struggle for freedom. Having constructed the novel differently, Yu.K. Olesha would deprive the novel of intrigue, secrets: why is Suok so doll-like (or vice versa)?

In the film, the execution is also a culmination, especially since not only the girl should be executed, but also Dr. Gaspard. But if the execution of Suok in the novel turns the circus into a stadium, into an arena of martyrs and reminds of other circuses in which bloody gladiatorial battles and executions of the first Christians took place, then the stretched final scene of the film with the kidnapping of the ax does not bear this emotional tension, is presented in a comic vein. and to tickle the nerves of the viewer, the scriptwriter comes up with a wound to Tutti (which goes beyond the probable and at least somehow explainable by the logic of the relationship between the characters).

This stage of the work on the novel and the film is completed by the analysis of the images of the booth of Uncle Brizak and the world of the Three Fat Men. This task was performed by group 2.

These images are opposed to each other and have a symbolic meaning. In the booth, the doctor feels calm, comfortable - like at home. Everything in it is simple, at first glance, wretched, but this is a world of light (ten mirrors, in front of each candle). There are no bright lanterns, only a kerosene lamp, but light and warmth come from human hearts. In this world, the luxury of costumes is illusory, and beneath the ugly, but funny, and not scary masks, good faces are hidden, while in the world of the rich, the opposite is true: behind luxurious clothes there are emptiness of souls and poverty of hearts, and well-fed faces are masks that hide ugliness and the rudeness of their carriers. Yu.K. Olesha lovingly, in detail, building long rows of homogeneous members, creates the image of a booth, while to describe the palace he does not find even a couple of words, paying attention only to canals, iron bridges and guards. This world is cut off from the world of ordinary people, brought out of the city gates, you can live here without hearing the groans of the people, without seeing their grief.

- How Alexey Batalov presented the Three Tolstyakov Palace?

High walls, heavy towers, the luxury of the halls can be seen on the screen. But there is no panorama of the palace in the film. Therefore, we invite children to describe or draw a palace.

The show in the film is only a background, the director does not show it on purpose, as the author of the novel does - the antithesis is erased.

In order to help the children understand what an image-symbol is, we suggest answering household questions related to the images of the Three Fat Men and their supporters, Uncle Brizak and the circus.

Let us restore how the action develops in the film, which episodes of the novel and why the director refuses, whether he introduces new ones and for what purpose.

Here are the conclusions we come to.

1. A.V. Batalov as a whole preserved the plot of the novel, but at the same time made some changes to its plot, and sometimes these changes also affect the general meaning of the work.

2. Having abandoned the motive of the separated brother and sister, the scriptwriters removed from the film the ethical problem of the responsibility of scientists for their achievements, and by removing the scenes with the parrot in the menagerie and the scientist-caretaker, they removed the opposition of positions that scientists can occupy.

4. By changing the story of the seller, the writers deprived the action of the motivation, without explaining how Prospero became aware of the secret of the underground passage.

5. Having abandoned the motive of the insurgent guardsmen and the scene of the trial of Suok, A.V. Batalov gave the action great dynamics, but ahead of time revealed the secret of saving Suok (seeing a doll and a girl in the camera, the viewer immediately guesses about the substitution, and the execution scene does not cause such excitement as in the novel).

Now that we have looked at the film and the novel as an artistic whole, we can take a closer look at the individual images of these works.

New homework performed in groups.

Group 1compares the images of minor characters with their film incarnation. The pupils' attention is drawn to the images of the balloon seller, dance teacher Razdvatris, captain Bonaventure.

Group 2 receives a similar assignment and works with the images of the guests of the Three Fat Men, guards and teachers of Tutti.

Group 3 analyzes the images of Uncle Brizak, Dr. Gaspard and the scientist Toub.

Questions for groups 1–3

1. How does the rich man, the dance teacher Razdvatris and the balloon seller, make you feel? Why? Reread the descriptions of these characters. What kind of artistic techniques help a writer make you feel these feelings?

2. What impression did Captain Bonaventure make on you? Highlight artistic means to help the writer create this image. Is there an image in the film that is similar to the novel Bonaventure? Where do you see the similarities? Why did the director turn the captain into a comic character in the film?

3. What feelings did Dr. Gaspard, Uncle Brizak, make you feel? What qualities of Dr. Gaspar Arneri do the residents of the city appreciate? Why? How is the image of Dr. Gaspard connected with the image of the booth? Why did the artists agree to help the doctor? What does Uncle Brizak appreciate in people?

4. Whom do the guests of the Three Fat Men remind you of? How do guests feel about hosts? How does the author relate to the Fat Men and their guests, what artistic means help him express this attitude?

5. What impression did the teachers of the heir to Tutti make on you? Why did the Three Fat Men choose just such teachers?

Group 4analyzes the images of the Three Fat Men and the heir to Tutti.

2. Are Fatties in a novel scary or funny? And in the film? What helps the director create this image?

3. What connection exists in the novel between the images of the people and the Three Fat Men?

4. Why did the Three Fat Men need an heir? Why did they decide to take a small child? How do the Three Fat Men feel about the heir? How do they want to see him? How do you achieve your goal? Does the film have answers to these questions?

5. How and why did your attitude towards Tutti change? What in the story of the fate of the heir evoked your sympathy? What does the heir of Tutti know about life? Find epithets and metaphors that characterize the world of Tutti.

6. What qualities is endowed with Tutti in the novel, what in the film? What episodes with Tutti does the director come up with? Why is he doing this?

Group 5works with images of Suok and Tibula.

1. Reread the conversation between Suok and Tibula. How do circus artists relate to each other? What qualities does the circus bring up in artists?

2. Are there episodes in the film that reveal the relationship of circus artists?

3. Remember the feelings that you experienced when you visited the circus. Compare your circus experiences with those from the episodes of the novel telling about the pursuit of Tibulus, the adventures of a balloon seller, the defeat of a pastry shop, etc. How are these episodes similar to a circus performance?

4. What do circus performers give people? What can a circus show open to viewers, what can it teach them? Prove your opinion with examples from the novel. For what purpose does the author draw a parallel between the circus and life?

5. Are there any episodes in the film that play the same role? What impression did the episode on Zvezdy Square, directed by A. Batalov, give you?

6. Why is the world of the show, the circus opposed by the author to the world of the Three Fat Men and the Rich?

7. What does Suok know about life in the novel?

8. Can you answer the previous question by watching a movie?

9. Why wasn't Tutti's story about the life of the poor included in the film?

10. What qualities is endowed with Suok in the novel, what - in the film?

The goal of each group is to identify the role of the image in the novel and in the film, as well as to discover what artistic means the authors use to create the image and express their attitude towards it.

Stage III. Comparative analysis of images of the novel and the film

It is obvious that the changes introduced during the dramatization of the text of the novel could not but be reflected in the interpretation of the characters' images. We have already talked about some in the previous lessons; at this stage, it is necessary to understand how the images are related to each other, why even small deviations from the author's intention by the scriptwriters lead to a significant distortion of the artistic idea of \u200b\u200bthe original source.

A comparative analysis of the images of secondary characters reveals that they are either excluded from the plot (bribed actors, Tuba, the menagerie caretaker and a parrot), or are distorted to one degree or another (balloon seller, chief pastry chef, clown August, heir to Tutti), or “grow ”(Razdvatris, Dr. Gaspard), or“ bifurcate ”(Captain Bonaventure turns into a comic character, and a cynical general who inherited the features of the novel Bonaventure will appear in the film as a villain).

So, the seller of balloons in the film is a negative character: he is an informer, and he takes off into the air not by chance, but because one of Tibulus's supporters cuts the rope with balloons. The seller in the palace, flying over the table of the Three Fat Men, continues to inform, informing the general where he saw Tibulus. He is subjected to caustic ridicule by the authors of the film and is deprived of any sympathy that still sounds in the text of the novel.

The image of Uncle Brizak acquires a stronger social sound. In the novel, Uncle Brizak is an ordinary person, numb with fear when a Negro enters the booth and grabs Suok, who sees off his girl with a sigh. He clearly does not like the Three Fat Men and the rich, but he fights with them with a word, supporting the spirit of the people, giving him joy. This is a clown, telling people the truth, making fun of the rich and greedy, regretting the fate of the missing Tibulus, himself in need of the support of Dr. Arneri, a friend of the disadvantaged, but not trying to stop Tibulus or convince him that the rebels cannot defeat the Three Fat Men. In the film, the clown resigned himself to the inevitability of injustice, doubts the need to fight and the success of the rebels and, loving Suok and Tibula, fears for their lives.

However, behind the direct meaning of the image of the booth, we can see others that the author gives it. Balaganchik is a small circus, whose arena is limited to spectators who have stood in the circle. In the circus, everything is for real, although this is a game and funny masks on the actors. The artist is not immune from failure, fall and even death. But for the writer it is a symbol of freedom of the human spirit, brotherhood based on understanding, almost bestial instinct of a partner and trust in him, fearlessness, without which no circus trick is possible. The reader is told about this by a conversation between Tibula and Suok, in which Tibulus gives the girl a task and explains her new role (part III, chapter 8).

The show in the novel becomes a haven for everyone who is in trouble, because mutual assistance is one of its main rules. Here, Dr. Arneri finds help, who himself once saved Suok from the beatings of a rich old woman. Tibulus returns here before continuing the fight. And even after the victory of the people, the show remains the same as it always was. Here they value not money and fame, but good, help everyone who needs support. So, Suok, saving Prospero, thinks not about reward, not about fame, but about his duty. The image of the circus pushes the reader's associations, who conjectures what the author did not finish: circus people are eternal wanderers, deprived of a sense of property, living in peace with people and animals, working for a piece of bread, but giving people hearts and giving them joy. Circus performers are the heirs of buffoons, they not only entertain, make people laugh, but also tell them the truth, ridiculing human vices in their verses and numbers. It is no coincidence that next to the gunsmith Prospero, who for fifteen years taught the people to hate the Three Fat Men and their power, Olesha puts Tibulus, a circus artist who taught people to admire courage and dexterity - the miracles that a man creates, who taught the people to believe in themselves.

These simple rules of life in the novel are opposed by the attitude of the rich. The image of the Three Fat Men in the novel is a symbol behind which there are phenomena and human qualities hated by the writer: wealth taken from the people (bread, coal and iron), cruel rule, inhumanity, stupidity, cowardice, narcissism - everything that prevents people from living on earth in peace and harmony. Wealth in the novel is evil, because it kills a person in a person, turns him into a fat animal. It is no coincidence that the Three Fat Men and their guests are drawn by Olesha with large satirical strokes: there is nothing human in them, and all their thoughts are focused on food and at the same time on how not to get fat even more. They resemble rubber dolls that can burst. In this image, the writer combines the funny and the terrible: they are stupid, their cruelty is akin to the beast, they want to make the beast out of the heir to Tutti. They need an heir in order not to transfer power into the wrong hands: everything should be as it was, and a pupil is better than a random heir, because anything can be molded from a child - and he will become the same as yourself. Tutti lives in a palace, but in fact he is put, like a wolf cub, in a cage, albeit luxurious. In several episodes from the life of the palace, Olesha exposes its owners, revealing that they are cowardly, stupid creatures that cannot see beyond their noses, only outwardly resembling people. In the finale, the Fatties are put in the cage in which they kept Prospero, showing them like animals in a menagerie for the amusement of the people.

Two opposite worlds, who have entered into a duel for life and death, meet in the novel: instead of a doll, Dr. Arneri brings a living girl to the heir of Tutti - the circus artist Suok.

Three Fat Men fail to deceive nature: Tutti does not have their blood, and he prefers a doll to wild animals, though not a living creature that resembles a person. Probably, the image of his sister is preserved in his memory, which served as a model for the doll. The behavior of the doll delights the heir: he still did not fully understand that there was a living girl in front of him, because he had never seen children. The world the doll is talking about surprises Tutti: there is no wealth, but there is something that he is deprived of - an interesting life, full of events. This is all a child needs to be happy.

In the film, we do not know anything about Tutti, about the intentions of the Fatties - we are facing a boy in whom there is no inner discord. But his presence is a guarantee of rebirth from heir to comrade Suok. Tutti in the film is a self-confident, capricious, but easygoing child. He is used to commanding. Tutti does not suffer from gluttony - on the contrary, he does not feel like eating at all, and he gives breakfast to the dog. The dog should probably replace the menagerie in the film and emphasize Tutti's isolation. But the authors of the film fail to achieve their plans: firstly, the dog traditionally contacts us with a friend, a human helper, and secondly, the heir treats it like a human.

The main difference between this episode in the film and the literary source is that Tutti quickly learns that Suok is a living girl. But Suok's amazing resemblance to a doll does not raise any questions for him. The reasons why the writers refuse to tell Suok about their life also remain unclear (perhaps the viewer has already got an idea about it, and the monologue would take a long time).

It is difficult to find the reasons for these and other changes that the viewer will discover, except that it can be assumed that it is important for the filmmakers to show that the lonely Tutti managed to become attached to the girl and is ready to defend her in front of the Fat Men. Perhaps, therefore, in order to arouse greater trust and sympathy for Tutti, A.V. Batalov makes the boy rush to save Suok and shed blood, making sure that his blood is real, and his heart is not iron. In the novel, Tutti is temporarily taken out of the plot so as not to interfere with Suok's trial and execution.

The rejection of the storyline of the scientist Toub, who made a wonderful doll that grew and changed like a real girl, together with Tutti, the rejection of the motive of the kinship of children forces A.V. Batalov to tie them up with the blood spilled by the boy in a desperate impulse. “Children are Heroes” - this theme dominates the film: Suok saves Prospero, Tutti is ready to save Suok, and both forget about themselves.

True magic is in the power of friendship. Tibul, Prospero, and Tutti (in the film) are fighting for the life of Suok. A. Batalov's position is clearly manifested: friendship, love help to work miracles, but love those who are generous in soul, honest and fair, who are ready to forget about themselves, helping those in need in trouble. And in this Yuri Olesha would absolutely agree with him.

And yet, the authors of the film failed to consistently implement the writer's plan, to preserve the uniqueness of the Three Fat Men genre. Olesha writes a novel, similar to a detailed literary script of a large circus performance, with red and white clowns, gymnasts, strongmen (Lapitup, Prospero), arrows, dancers, animals and trainers. This circus spirit gives the novel a zest, makes it a unique literary work: we are not afraid to read about terrible things, we are breathtaking from tricks, but we are always somewhere in the very depths of our consciousness that everything will end well. In the film, everything is too serious, too real, although there are balloon flights, and Tibulus's incredible tricks, and the "performance" of the strongman Prospero, songs and dances with juggling, and even a tigress dispersing a crowd of courtiers and guards in the Three Fat Men Park. But the atmosphere of the circus is still lacking.

Working with films reveals to students that the laws of cinematography are quite tough: they dictate certain conditions to the screenwriter and director - laconicism, dynamism, highlighting the main thing and rejecting everything secondary - the enlargement of small figures or, on the contrary, their complete “destruction”. In the credits - based on the novel - appears precisely because the authors of the film are aware that a complete translation of a literary work into the language of cinema is impossible. Their task remains to preserve the thoughts and ideas of the writer. The more complex a literary text is in concept and structure, the less chances filmmakers have to make a film adaptation that is adequate to the writer's intention.

And "Three Fat Men" is not an adaptation, but a film based on the famous novel by Yuri Olesha - even the titles of the works are spelled differently.

The doll looks like a real girl. She is dressed in a pretty dress and her blonde hair is curled in curls. On the doll's head is a huge bow made of delicate transparent fabric. The toy has big, as if alive, beautiful eyes. The doll was in height from a child of 7-8 years. The doll has no name. The entire magical world knows her as the doll of the heir to Tutti.

Creation history and owner

The scientist Tub made such a beautiful doll by order of the rulers of the city, Three Fat Men, for their pupil, the heir of Tutti. The fat men raised Tutti as their son to inherit the throne. They took his sister away from him and gave her a doll instead.

It is clear that the doll was a very expensive toy. And this was one of the reasons why three fat men, after the attack of the guards on Tutti and his doll, decided to repair the toy.

Magical properties

At first glance, it may seem magical that the doll "Could walk, sit, stand, smile, dance"... However, these are all common skills of the most common mechanical wind-up toys. Another thing is that the doll grew, grew in the same way as its owner grew.

Reincarnation and destiny

Dr. Gaspard and the doll
(still from the film strip "Three Fat Men", part 1)

The prince's doll is pierced with bayonets during the uprising. Doctor Gaspar Arneri was entrusted to fix the doll. The doctor figured out a complex mechanism and tried to restore it, but failed: “There, in this cunning mechanism, there is a cogwheel - it cracked ... It is worthless! I need to make a new one ... I have a suitable metal, like silver ... But before starting work, this metal must be kept in a solution of vitriol for at least two days. You see, two days ... "... The doctor did not have enough time to fix the doll, he was taking it to the palace, but on the way he lost the toy.

As a result, the role of the doll was played by a circus girl Suok, like two drops of water similar to a lost toy. Everyone believed her. For an even more lively doll, as everyone thinks, which now knows how to sing songs and talk, the doctor who “repaired” the doll asks to spare ten rebels as a reward. Suok rescues Prospero, the head of the uprising, whom the Fatties settled in the menagerie, but they themselves do not have time to escape with him through a secret passage, and the girl is arrested.

The toy is found by the dance teacher Razdvatris and wants to take it to the palace to receive a reward. But one of the guards takes away the doll and takes it to the Fatties himself. The guardsman went over to the side of the people and therefore replaced the living girl Suok, who was held captive by the rulers, with a spoiled doll. And at this time, the liberated Suok Prospero and the circus gymnast Tibul storm into the palace. This is how the Fatty Empire is being destroyed Then Suok remembers the tablet, which was given to her by the scientist who invented the doll, but refused to invent an iron heart for Tutti. And on this tablet it is written that Suok is Tutti's sister, from whom he was separated as a child. Having united, the sister and brother go together with the circus, where they work as acrobats.

Audio versions

Screen adaptations

"Three Fat Men", filmstrip in 2 parts. Artist K. Sapegin, studio "Filmstrip". USSR, 1966

Please tell us about the characteristics of the Three Fat Suok! and got the best answer

Answer from Elena Pugacheva [guru]
The character of Suok - gaiety, courage, resourcefulness - was also imprinted in the features of his appearance - a smile, a gait, a turn of the head, the glitter of gray attentive eyes. The artist made sure that Suok's pretty face was a reflection of her soul. It is no coincidence that Suok immediately liked Dr. Gaspar. And not only because she looked like two drops of water like a doll of the heir to Tutti. No, she was charming with the charm of a living girl. Even the fierce guards and those at the sight of Suok for a moment forgot their ferocity.

Answer from Ksyunka Kiseleva[newbie]
what?

Answer from Elizaveta Gnezdyukova[newbie]
Not true

Answer from satellite[active]
The character of Suok - gaiety, courage, resourcefulness - was also imprinted in the features of his appearance - a smile, a gait, a turn of the head, the glitter of gray attentive eyes. The artist made sure that Suok's pretty face was a reflection of her soul. It is no coincidence that Suok immediately liked Dr. Gaspar. And not only because she looked like two drops of water like a doll of the heir to Tutti. No, she was charming with the charm of a living girl. Even the fierce guards and those at the sight of Suok for a moment forgot their ferocity.

If we talk about the possible sources of the image of the heir to Tutti, then here I see two parallels.

First, of course, is the story of Kai and Gerda from Andersen's The Snow Queen. A kidnapped boy living in beautiful palaces under the supervision of an evil sovereign is a direct analogue of Tutti's "imprisonment" in the Palace of Three Fat Men. Separation from Kai's childhood friend and Tutti's sister. An icy heart in one - "iron" in another. The girl who came to the palace and managed to save the recluse from soullessness, awaken life in him - in both tales. Yes, and the very fact that, despite all the tricks of the villains, neither Kai nor Tutti have become completely heartless.

And one more curious detail. Freedom Kai should bring the word "eternity", composed of pieces of ice. Alone, Kai cannot cope with the task, and only the joy of meeting Gerda helps the pieces of ice themselves to form a cherished word. Well, the heir to Tutti is symbolically "freed" by the meeting with Suok, whose name means "all life." "Eternity" and "all life" - there is a cross-talk of meanings.

The second possible parallel is less obvious and much less rosy. It seems to me that the image of Tutti's heir could partly go back to the fate of a real historical character, Louis XVII. The seventeenth Louis, as you know, never ruled: when the French Republic abolished the monarchy, he was still a child, the heir to the deposed King Louis Sixteenth. The entire royal family was imprisoned at Temple Castle. Then the king and queen went to the scaffold, and the young heir remained in the castle under the supervision of a shoemaker, who treated him rudely and sought to re-educate him in a revolutionary way. In the end, the imprisonment undermined the prince's health and he died.

The tragic fate of little Louis is still considered one of the most shameful pages of the French Revolution: it turned out that the revolutionaries killed an innocent child. An unpleasant aftertaste has remained from this story for centuries. Even opponents of the monarchy admitted that everything turned out somehow very ugly.

And perhaps the happy ending of the Tutti storyline is a kind of attempt to close the historical gestalt, i.e. somehow to disown the dirty stain on the face of the revolution. An attempt to show an idealized alternative to the fate of Louis XVII: how everything could be wonderful if ... if ... For example, if Tibulus and Prospero were at the head of the victorious people, and not Marat and Robespierre.

This method, by the way, is used in the story "Dinka" by Valentina Oseeva. The story is written based on real events, which, however, were well "combed". In particular, the boy Lenya, a homeless child and an orphan, with whom Dinka became friends, after which Dinka's mother adopted him - in reality also existed. Only, unlike the book, he did not take root in the family that adopted him and did not stay there for long. The "experiment" on adoption ended in failure. And in the book, on the contrary, the realization of a dream is embodied: Lenya became a reliable member of the family, brother and protector of Dinka, a support for his adoptive mother. He outlived his vagrant past, went to study ...

Good day!
Many of us remember well the fairy tale novel by Yuri Olesha "Three Fat Men" - a story about an imaginary country ruled by Three Fat Men - greedy, evil gluttons who oppress ordinary people in every possible way: artisans, small shopkeepers, poor merchants and craftsmen. The people, languishing under the yoke of greedy rulers, raised an uprising, led by the gunsmith Prospero and the rope-walker gymnast Tibulus. But the fairy tale is not only about this, but also about the fate of the Heir to Tutti and the girl Suok - brother and sister, separated in childhood. The girl was an artist in a traveling circus, and the fat men took the boy to raise him as a cruel ruler. Thanks to the girl's kindness, her conversations, games and actions, the boy became kind and just. An interesting and kind story, isn't it? But where did the story of the creation of the novel begin? Where did the idea for the fairy tale come from?

Yuri Karlovich Olesha left us a rather modest artistic legacy - in fact, only two significant works of art - "Three Fat Men" and "Envy". But they were quite enough to firmly stake out a place for themselves in Russian literature.
The images of the acrobat girl Suok and her mechanical counterpart were not just born by chance, but are the real quintessence of the writer's feelings, impressions and memories.

When Olesha was little, he fell in love with a circus girl with golden curls, but what a shock it was for him when that very girl actually turned out to be a disguised boy, in life he was a very unpleasant person. After Yuri lived in Moscow in an apartment that belonged to Valentin Kataev, in Mylnikovsky lane. From time to time, the owner shared his square meters with many homeless writers. Olesha recalled that in that apartment there was a doll made of papier-mâché, which was brought by the artist Maf (Ilf's brother), being one of the temporary residents. That very doll looked amazingly like a real girl. Writers often amused themselves by putting her on the window, from where she periodically fell out, shocking passers-by.
It is worth noting the fact that the work of Yuri was greatly influenced by Hoffman, whose works the writer simply adored, and the creepy story "The Sand Man" made a huge impression. This work tells about a mechanical doll named Olympia, which replaced the hero of the story with his living beloved.
It seems that everything is clear with the doll and the circus. But what is the story behind the name Suok?
“Forgive me, Suok, - which means:“ All life ”...” (“Three Fat Men”). It turns out that three girls with the mysterious surname Suok actually lived in Odessa: Olga, Serafima and Lydia. Olesha was passionately in love with the youngest - Seraphim - Sima.

Sisters Suok, from left to right: Lilia, Seraphima, Olga

The writer called her affectionately: "my friend." Almost also in the fairy tale "Three Fat Men" Tibul calls Suok. The first years they were happy, but Sima turned out to be, to put it mildly, a fickle person. Once the hungry writers decided to joke with the accountant Mack - the owner of the ration cards that were valuable in those years. Taking advantage of the fact that he was fascinated by Sima, they came to visit him, had a hearty snack and suddenly noticed that Mac and Sima were gone. After a while, the couple returned and announced that they were ... husband and wife. In those days, the registration of a marriage or divorce took several minutes (remember the film "It Can't Be" based on Zoshchenko's stories?). The joke turned into misfortune for Olesha. Unable to see the grief of his friend, Kataev went to Mak and simply took Sima away from there. She did not resist too much, but managed to take with her everything she had acquired in a short time of family life. Olesha's newfound happiness did not last long.

Sima unexpectedly marries again and again not to Olesha - but to the "demonic" revolutionary poet Vladimir Narbut, it was he who would later publish the fairy tale "Three Fat Men". Olesha was able to return her this time, but by the evening a gloomy Narbut appeared at Kataev's house and said that if Sima did not return, he would shoot himself in the forehead. This was said so convincingly that Sima left Olesha - this time forever. Between love and comfort, the real Suok preferred the latter. After Narbut perishes in the camps, and Lida, the older sister (and E. Bagritsky's wife), will go to work for him and she will roar for 17 years, Sima will marry the writer N. Khardzhiev. Then for another writer - V. Shklovsky.
And Olesha, left by Sima, will one day ask the middle of the Suok sisters - Olga - "Wouldn't you leave me?" - and, having received an affirmative answer, marries her. Olga will remain a patient, caring and loving wife until the end of her life, although she will always know that the new dedication to the fairy tale "Three Fat Men" - "Olga Gustavna Suok" - does not apply only to her. “You are two halves of my soul,” Olesha himself said honestly.

Olga Suok

The author of "Three Fat Men" will lean heavily on alcohol, which greatly undermined his health, and more than once come to talk to Sima, and when leaving, he will squeeze money in his hand. On May 10, 1960, Yuri Karlovich will leave this world.

Tamara Lisitsian was originally going to film the fairy tale, but in the end the production was staged by Alexei Batalov. Batalov dreamed of staging Three Fat Men for a long time, although at first he was going to give Olesha's characters a second life on the stage - in the Moscow Art Theater, where he worked. But then he failed to carry out his plans, according to Alexei Vladimirovich, for ideological reasons, because, in his words, the novel is a "caricature of the revolution," and the images of three fat men were copied from the "bourgeois from the Kremlin." But nevertheless, Alexei Batalov turned out to be a dynamic, full of humor, bright and emotional film that has delighted more than one generation of viewers. Alexey Batalov acted not only as the director of the film, but also took part in writing the script for the film, and played one of the main roles.

To play Tibulus, the actor had to learn to walk on a tightrope.Besides Batalov, a whole galaxy of brilliant actors are involved in the film: Valentin Nikulin, Rina Zelenaya, Roman Filippov, Yevgeny Morgunov, Alexey Smirnov, Viktor Sergachev, Georgy Shtil and others.
Lithuanian girl Lina Braknite was chosen for the role of Suok, and she also had to sweat a lot, mastering circus acrobatics and juggling.

Fortunately, there was always a mentor nearby - Batalov's wife and part-time circus actress - Gitana Leontenko. However, the difficulties did not end with circus training. Since the dummy doll did not come out very similar to the actress, in most of the scenes Lina had to play for the doll. The most difficult thing was to keep an unblinking gaze, for which the poor girl was glued to the eyelids with a special film.

Here are some memories from Lina Braknite's interview:
“- When I played a girl in the story, there weren't so many cosmetics, but a special make-up was done for the doll. They even stuck my eyes on a special film - the doll could not blink, and Alexey Batalov thought that I could not hold out for long. Of course, there was a dummy doll, but my copy was used only for stunt scenes.

- So, at first, they glued my eyes, and then they began to do with just false eyelashes. It was also hard to walk in a wig in the heat. Often it stuck to the hair, and in some places it was "removed" with a razor. But all the hard things are forgotten, and only the best remains in the memory. "

The only thing the young actress did not fully cope with was the voice acting, so in some scenes Suok spoke in her voice - Alisa Freindlich.

By the way, Lina Branknite has not been in films for a long time, but leads a quiet life in Lithuania, raising her granddaughter and helping her beloved husband, the famous photographer and book publisher Raimondas Paknis.

But what happened to the doll's mannequin, created for filming in 1966 by the artist Valentina Malakhieva? The doll of the heir to Tutti was made of latex, synthetics and papier-mâché and was supposed to be an exact copy of the actress Lina Braknite.

After filming, the doll was kept for a long time in the museum of the Lenfilm Film Studio, but then it was sold to private hands. The collector who bought the Suok doll in a damaged condition took it apart into separate parts, creating two "improved" copies of them. Yulia Vishnevskaya acquired the original details of the doll, put them together and restored the author's “Doll of the heir to Tutti”. It was this doll with a difficult fate that became the pearl of the collection and a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Unique Dolls in Moscow.

Also in Moscow, in the Polytechnic Museum at VDNKh, you can see the Suok doll, created by the St. Petersburg mechanic and art designer Alexander Getsa.

The heroine of the novel by Yuri Olesha is undoubtedly the master's favorite. Alexander Getoi created a mechanical frame that hides the girl's mannequin. Suok dances, freezes, looks at the viewer, brings the key to his lips and whistles ... Her movements are regulated by a built-in timer. If the doll breaks, there is a special door in the back to repair it.

The fashionista's outfit was developed by fashion designer Olga Denisova, the art mechanic picked up the fabric, shoes and ribbons himself. The master went to dozens of shops and sales to find à la vintage shoes, combined with an amazing golden dress. Alexander Getoi conceived his Suok in the style of mechanical dolls of the 18-19 centuries.

Thank you for attention!
Sources.