The Star of Captivating Happiness

The Captivating Star of Happiness
Directed by	Vladimir Motyl
Written by	Vladimir Motyl Oleg Osetinsky Mark Zakharov
Starring	Igor Kostolevsky Irina Kupchenko Aleksey Batalov Natalya Bondarchuk Oleg Strizhenov
Cinematography	Dmitriy Meshiev
Edited by	Ye. Sadovskaya
Music by	Isaak Schwarz
Production company	Lenfilm
Release date	November 11, 1975 (1975-11-11)
Running time	167 min.
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Captivating Star of Happiness (Template:Lang-ru; lit. The Star of Fascinating Happiness) is a 1975 Soviet historical drama. The title is an allusion to a line from a poem by Alexander Pushkin. It is a costume drama dedicated "to the women of Russia".

The story is set in the aftermath of the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I in 1825. The revolt is repressed, and the military officers involved confess one by one. They are sentenced to exile in Siberia and their wives face the decision as to whether or not to follow them.

Cast

• Irina Kupchenko - Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna Trubetskaya
• Aleksey Batalov - Prince Sergei Trubetskoy
• Natalya Bondarchuk - Princess Mariya Volkonskaya
• Oleg Strizhenov - Prince Sergey Volkonsky
• Eva Shikulskaya - Polina Göbl-Annenkova, in marriage Praskovya Yegorovna
• Igor Kostolevsky - Ivan Aleksandrovich Annenkov, Decembrist, cavalergard
• Lev Ivanov - Nikolay Raevsky, a general from the cavalry (not in the credits)
• Raisa Kurkina - Sofya Alekseevna Raevskaya, the wife of NN Raevsky
• Tatyana Pankova - Anna Annenkova, the mother of IA Annenkov
• Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov - Pavel Pestel
• Victor Kostetskiy - Pyotr Kakhovsky
• Yuri Rodionov - Sergey Muravyov-Apostol
• Oleg Yankovsky - Kondraty Ryleyev
• Tatyana Fedorova - Natalia Ryleeva, the wife of KF Ryleeva
• Vasily Livanov - Emperor Nicholas I
• Innokenty Smoktunovsky - Ivan Bogdanovich Zeidler, Irkutsk Governor
• Vladislav Strzhelchik - Count Laval
• Dmitry Shilko - Count Mikhail Miloradovich, St. Petersburg Governor-General
• Igor Dmitriev - Count Lebzeltern, Austrian Envoy in St. Petersburg
• Boris Dubensky - Emperor Alexander I
• Victor Terekhov - Vasily Vasilyevich Levashov, Adjutant-General
• Vadim Makarovsky - Vosh
• Arkady Trusov - Fedor, valet Annenkov
• Mikhail Kokshenov - Nikita, servant of Annenkov-senior
• Alexei Kozhevnikov - Paphnutius, servant of Zeidler

Production

After making the 1970 hit film White Sun of the Desert, Motyl did not get directorial projects for five years.

When Motyl got the green light from Goskino to make a film about the Decembrists, he still had problems and had to do many rewrites because the authorities believed that the picture had too many parallels to the Soviet regime and allusions about Soviet dissidents.

Nevertheless, the screenplay was rejected. Then Motyl went to Leningrad, to the regional party committee. He handed the script to the secretary on ideology; the woman did not have time to read it and instead gave the text to her daughter who ended up adoring it. The mother called Filipp Ermash, Moscow's Minister of Cinematography and declared that "The Leningrad Regional Committee is interested in the film about the Decembrists!" Thus the script got to Lenfilm, but the budget was cut to 1.5 million rubles from the initial 3.5 million.

The locations of the film included the Peterhof Palace and the Winter Palace.

External links

• The Star of Captivating Happiness at IMDb