“If I am offered to shoot a film in conditions close to combat - without scenery, with defective film, with an amateur operator, but with the full opportunity to work with the actors you love, work pulse to pulse, create a magnetic field around you, infect them performers, and then, as God willing, convey all this to the audience, I will say: I agree."
V. P. Basov
Vladimir Pavlovich was born on July 28, 1923. His mother, the daughter of a Pokrovsky priest, was named Alexandra Ivanovna, and his father, a Finn by nationality and a philosopher by education, was Pavel Basultainen. Imbued with the ideas of the revolution, he chose the path of a career soldier, an officer of the Red Army. His party pseudonym, which later replaced his surname, was "Basov". Soon after the wedding, the philosopher, who never became a bookworm, was sent to Central Asia. While Basov fought there for the establishment of Soviet power, his young wife became a bookseller. Bookmen went to remote Soviet villages and taught the local residents to read and write. In one of these trips in the village of Urazovo (Belgorod region), she had a son named Vladimir. The appearance of the child did not in the least cool the educational fervor of the young Komsomol member. Together with the baby, Alexandra Ivanovna continued her journey, driving through almost all areas of the Central Russian strip and the entire Volga region. Subsequently, Vladimir Pavlovich said that the first acquaintance with the most beautiful places outlined by the classics of Russian literature began for him not from printed words, but from pictures he saw with his own eyes.
In the end, Alexandra Ivanovna came to her husband. Pavel Basov, fighting the Basmachi, served at the border outpost located near the town of Kushka. The difficult everyday life of the border detachment began to flow, and while Basov Sr. repulsed the attacks of the bandits, his wife worked in a commune for children of the military. Volodya went to school at the age of seven, but his studies seemed terribly boring to him - the knowledge he received from his mother was much richer and deeper. In 1931, Pavel Basov heroically fell in a battle with the Basmachs, and the orphaned family was forced to move to the city of Zheleznodorozhny, where Alexandra Ivanovna's brother lived. In 1932, the well-read and educated Vladimir, according to the results of the exams, was immediately admitted to the third grade of the local school. However, soon his mother was appointed to the editorial office of one of the newspapers in the Kalinin region, and Basov graduated from the fourth grade in Kashin. On a summer vacation, he went to his aunt in Abkhazia, and there, in New Athos, he spent two academic years. And the seventh grade Vladimir spent already in the village of Alexandrov (Gorky region), where Alexandra Ivanovna again worked as a bookseller. Soon they moved together to Moscow, where Basov finally graduated from high school.
It should be noted that from an early age the young man was distinguished by tremendous artistry. Vladimir Pavlovich himself recalled that the craving for acting manifested itself in mimicking - as a child he loved to make faces in front of a mirror, imagining himself as the hero of a recently read book, a watched performance or a film. Later, at school, Basov gladly recited poetry from the stage and presented literary and dramatic stories in faces. In addition, the young man drew beautifully, knew many works by heart, and also tried to write poetry. In the last year of his studies at school, Vladimir went to lessons in a theater studio and often visited the backstage of the Moscow Art Theater. From the lighting box the young theater-goer saw for the first time "Days of the Turbins" and "Blue Bird". And in the studio itself, Vladimir managed to play the role of Khlestakov in The Inspector General.
Pre-war photo with mom
Basov's graduation party fell on a terrible and memorable day for our country - June 22, 1941. Young men and women were preparing to enter adulthood, but instead of work suits and overalls, time gave them khaki uniforms. The very next day, Vladimir, like many other peers, stood in line at the military registration and enlistment office. As a volunteer, he went to the front and went through the entire terrible school of war - he led an artillery battery, worked at the headquarters of an artillery division, starved and lost friends, fought with himself, with his weaknesses and fears. Subsequently, he said: “During the protracted battles, the ground reared up from artillery attacks from both sides. You look out of the dugout - and the ant will not survive in this hell. I still remember the bench. Seven sit on it. The one sitting on the edge goes to hell. The task is to find the break, restore the connection, and return. If the person returns, he sits on the bench from the other end. Again the cliff, there is the next one. And the battle is getting fiercer. There are six left, then five, four, three … The queue is strictly observed - this is an unwritten law."
At the age of twenty, Vladimir Pavlovich was awarded the medal "For Military Merit", and he met Victory Day in the Baltic States with the rank of captain. Basov spoke about the war: “It took away from our generation many of the joys of youth. We didn’t sit on the benches with our girls, didn’t read poetry to them, didn’t have time to choose a profession, didn’t feel the exciting happiness of changing school to student … The war became our universities. And my generation received a true certificate of maturity at the walls of the Reichstag. " After the war, the future director served in the artillery regiment for another year. His position was quite significant, albeit difficult to pronounce - deputy chief of the operational department of the twenty-eighth separate artillery division of the breakthrough of the reserve of the main command. Like his father, Vladimir Pavlovich became a career officer, a professional military man, and was in good standing with his superiors. However, dreams of theater and cinema were still glimmering in him. Even during the war years, Basov, as a Komsomol organizer of the division, often helped projectionists from the secret service to “play movies”. Here's how he recalled it: “Several times a van came to our unit. She was placed closer to the front line for cover. At dusk, the scouts unrolled the screen in the neutral lane, and movies were launched from the van. At first - for "seed" - some species: the Volga, fields, birches … The sounds of music, speech in the evening air carried far away, the tapes were watched from our side and from the other side. And suddenly Hitler appeared on the screen in the satirical performance of Martinson. Our people laughed loudly, and on the other side they scribbled on the screen with tracer."
One fine day, Captain Basov appeared before Artillery Marshal Mikhail Chistyakov. According to the actor, they talked for a long time and mainly that everyone has the right to fulfill their dreams. As a result, Vladimir Pavlovich was allowed to demobilize. Basov spent all the severance pay owed to him on seeing off, and bought a civilian coat for an overcoat sold in the market. He returned to Moscow - matured, fit, seasoned - at the end of August 1947. And in September of the same year, Vladimir Pavlovich was already sitting in the student auditorium of VGIK. The problem of choosing a faculty (directing or acting) was resolved by itself - that year the course was made a joint acting and directing course under the guidance of the leading masters of Russian cinema Sergei Yutkevich and Mikhail Romm. Together with Basov, such future stars of Russian directing as Grigory Chukhrai, Vitaly Melnikov, Revaz Chkheidze took part in the course … Film director Vladimir Naumov recalled that time: “Despite the age difference, all VGIK students were very clearly divided into two groups - those who visited in the war and yesterday's schoolchildren, otherwise called "civilian hazel grouses." All the "soldiers" wore boots and military tunics, and Basov was the brightest among them. A brave, smart officer, always like a string."
By the way, Vladimir Pavlovich was a notable figure not only because of his characteristic, memorable appearance. He had an amazing gift to make people around him fall in love with him, and even his enemies adored his improvisations and jokes. Basov literally gushed with ideas, the creative imagination of this man was distinguished by amazing plausibility, turning the most incredible sketches into realistic portraits, as if peeped from nature. In addition, friends noted his amazing courage in judgments, sharpness and directness of statements on sensitive issues, both in the profession and in life. The brilliant wit Basov made an indelible impression on the female half of the stream. However, the future director was never a "walker" - he really fell in love. And he fell in love, according to the recollections of fellow students, tightly, behaving like a real man, that is, offering to marry. Already at the end of the first year of study, Basov began dating one of the most beautiful and noticeable girls of the course, Rosa Makagonova. Actress Nina Agapova, who was among her classmates, recalled: “Our Rose was a beauty, albeit of poor health. After the war, she, like many, was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was fantastically musical, her voice was very beautiful, and in all her films she sang herself … We were always amazed how she manages everything - both to study and to act in films. And Rose, after all, was also the first to marry here … At first they lived in Matveyevskoye with Basov's mother, then rented a room, and only then on Mozhaika in the House of Cinema Workers in a communal apartment they got their own."
After graduating from the institute, Rosa Makagonova was immediately admitted to the Theater of Film Actor, and Vladimir Pavlovich - to Mosfilm, where he got a job as a full-time director and began filming his first, truly serious film (before that he had already shot a film-play based on Turgenev's play "Freeloader"). The new picture was called "School of Courage", and Basov shot it in 1953 together with his friend and classmate, a former front-line soldier Mstislav Korchagin, who tragically died in a plane crash during filming. Subsequently, the School of Courage was awarded the Best Educational Film Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. At the box office in 1954, the picture took tenth place, which was a good result for the debutant director. By the way, the future stars of Russian cinema Rolan Bykov and Leonid Kharitonov played their first roles in this film.
Already during the filming of the tape, the professional qualities that distinguished Basov's directorial personality were well manifested. In this man, in the most incredible way, it seemed that directly opposite and incompatible properties were combined - rationalism and naivety, severity and a tendency to sentimentality, deepening into oneself and phenomenal sociability. Director Alexander Mitta once said about him: “Musicians in the profession have concepts of ability - perfect pitch, incredible fluency of the fingers. So in directing, Basov had an absolute pitch of a violin virtuoso and Horowitz's fantastic fingers. He had a rich spatial imagination and phenomenal memory. It was with him that I first saw how the director builds a mise-en-scene, and then, without changing anything, turns it at ninety degrees, because the sun has gone. He did not forget a single take, he kept all the material in his head, he edited very neatly and clearly”.
They said that the literary script, which had gone through all the stages of approval and familiarization, was immediately put on the shelf by Vladimir Pavlovich. His own text was laconic, like a telegram - in and out. Basov kept everything else in his head, saying that "at first he hears the picture with an obscure melody, and only with time the images take shape, the sharpness of the frame." The young director treated his film crew like an orchestra, where everyone has their own place, their own voice, and their own party. And he conducted this orchestra truly masterly - always remaining a leader, he delved into all the details of the process, studied all the filmmakers. People who worked with Vladimir Pavlovich said that, if necessary, he could masterfully make up an actor as a Russian hussar or an English lord. It should also be noted that Basov was the first in Russia to master a technical novelty that came from Germany in the early seventies - equipment for multi-camera shooting. Three cameras installed in different corners of the pavilion were connected on a common editing console, allowing you to observe the shooting object from several points at once and carry out rough editing of the already filmed material along the way. Today, such a technique does not surprise anyone, but in those years Vladimir Pavlovich became a pioneer, being the only one truly ready to use such a shooting technique. Operator Ilya Minkovetsky, who worked with him for a long time, said: “He was an amazing organizer, a real commander, but I have never seen Vladimir Pavlovich raise his voice to someone or lose his temper. He wrote notes, and if the actor did not remember something from the text, he immediately composed a mise-en-scène in which a person could read a piece of paper … He had an unprecedented energy, a cosmic force. No one around could withstand this tension, this rhythm. Basov suffered most of all on weekends, when filming stopped. " Unlike most directors, Vladimir Pavlovich was given the green light from the very first steps in cinema, and he released films one after another. His works only at the end of the fifties include the following films: "The Collapse of the Emirate", "First Joys", "An Unusual Summer", "An Accident at Mine Eight", "Life Has Passed By", "The Golden House".
Unfortunately, in the director's personal life, everything was not so smooth. With his first wife, Rosa Makagonova, he broke up for unknown reasons. There is a version that Basov left when he found out that due to illness, Rosa would never be able to give him children. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but at the end of 1956, Vladimir Pavlovich met Natalia Fateeva, a fourth-year student at VGIK. At the end of the fifties, this young and gifted girl was considered one of the most promising actresses in Russian cinema. However, dizziness from success was not peculiar to her. Purposeful and efficient Natalya Nikolaevna graduated with honors from high school, was the champion of her native Kharkov in long and high jump, as well as in shot put. In addition, before entering the theater institute, Fateeva studied vocal a lot, discovering good data as an opera singer. Vladimir Basov met her at VGIK while searching for a performer of one of the main roles in the film "A Case at Mine No. 8". Seeing the student who came to the test, Vladimir Pavlovich literally lost his head, telling her already at the first meeting: "Marry me." Fateeva, for whom these were the first auditions at Mosfilm, took the famous director's proposal for a joke and joked herself in response: “I'll play for you, then we'll decide.”
Their romance developed on the set. Subsequently, Natalya Nikolaevna recalled: “When we met, I was 21 years old, he was 33. He was a man in his prime, a bright and brilliant personality. And Basov had only ten talents at all”. By the time Vladimir Pavlovich started his next job, they were already married, and at the beginning of February 1959 they had a son, who was named Volodya. For about three years, Natalya Nikolaevna worked on a contract at the Yermolova Theater. She was repeatedly invited to the state and promised serious roles, but family concerns did not give the actress the opportunity to work fruitfully. Often there were situations when she was not up to rehearsals - there was no one to leave the young Volodya with, because the “big” Vladimir was also busy on the set.
In 1960, at the time of the invitation of Vladimir Pavlovich as the director of the film "Battle on the Road", his second marriage was going through a tragic ending. The film was originally directed by Zakhar Agranenko, but he died during filming. Basov was invited to complete the picture, which he successfully did. The tape, released in 1961, was watched by forty million viewers in our country alone, and at the box office it took sixth place at the end of the year. The film brought national recognition and worldwide fame to Vladimir Pavlovich - for many years "Battle on the Road" was the "calling card" of Russian cinema - with this picture the creative team traveled almost all over the world, except perhaps South America and Australia. Unfortunately, in Basov's personal life, the success of "Battle on the Road" could no longer change anything. Both spouses were very upset by the tragedy of parting, but if for Natalya Nikolaevna it was her own decision, then for the director the situation was seen completely differently - he was left by his beloved woman. Close friends of Vladimir Pavlovich said that his despair was so great that at some point the director wanted to commit suicide. Fateeva and Basov did not part as friends, and although they lived on the same street for many years, Vladimir Pavlovich practically did not see his own son - Vladimir grew up with his grandmother in Kharkov.
Basov found salvation from depression in his work. Here it is necessary to note another facet of the talent of this outstanding person - in addition to directing, Vladimir Pavlovich loved to act himself, and mainly as a comedic actor. Throughout his life, Basov played about a hundred roles in films, and in each one he skillfully puzzled, discouraged, amazed the viewer with more and more paradoxes in the character and fate of his characters. All his heroes, as a rule, lived on the screen for only a few minutes, however, for each character Basov, just according to Stanislavsky, composed a full biography, as well as the motivation for participation in the events taking place. Tall, plastic, nosed, with huge ears and sad eyes, he instantly attracted attention, bringing a fair amount of eccentricity to the scene. It is curious that when Vladimir Pavlovich was offered to star in the main roles, he, according to his colleagues, always answered: "You are not offering me the main role, but simply a long one." And he chose a tiny episode in the same scenario, remaining true to the principle he established once and for all: "An actor must come to the screen as if by accident and leave a little earlier than they want to let him go."
Another Basov's film "Silence" in 1962 produced the effect of an exploding bomb - after viewing it by the State Committee for Cinematography, a terrible scandal broke out. The work of two front-line soldiers - director Vladimir Basov and writer Yuri Bondarev - was declared anti-Soviet and banned from distribution. On the day when the results of the viewing were announced, the patient and courageous Basov could not stand it and went to his friend Zinovy Gerdt for "combat hundred grams." However, at night, according to the director's relatives, he was summoned to Khrushchev's dacha, where Nikita Sergeevich told him that he had just watched Silence and found the film one of the best he had ever seen. Soon the tape received a "green street", and in 1964 was awarded the Main Prize of the All-Union Film Festival held in Leningrad. Natalya Velichko, who played Asya in Tishina, recalled: “Basov loved people very much, felt like a father-benefactor of the group. He could always recruit the best - people came to him with pleasure, since working with Basov was easy, fun, and, as he liked to say himself, “satisfying and rich”. I remember how from my first foreign trip to Finland with the premiere of the film "Silence", I returned in a fashionable coat and a suitcase of charming little things - Vladimir Pavlovich reprimanded me for an exclusive interview with a newspaper … Basov had a mindset - life is a difficult thing, and everyone needs encouragement. That is why everyone who at least once came across him had a smiling and sweet face, kind eyes, heartfelt words imprinted in his memory …”.
A couple of months after the end of the filming of the film "Silence" Basov took up a new job - an adaptation of Pushkin's "Blizzard". At the same time, Valentina Antipovna Titova appeared in the life of Vladimir Pavlovich. An actress of the Sverdlovsk Theater School, she managed to get into the only set in the studio at the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad. In those years, Titova had an affair with the famous film actor Vyacheslav Shalevich, who lived and worked in Moscow. They constantly called back, and on free days Shalevich traveled to Leningrad. Trying to cut the "Gordian knot", the actor left the family, persuaded Valentina Antipovna to leave her studies with Tovstonogov. However, she did not agree, and one day Shalevich figured out how to extend the time of their joint stay. Thanks to his connections, Titova began to be summoned to Moscow for screen tests. At the same time, Basov could not find an actress for the main role in the film "Snowstorm". Shalevich talked with the eminent director and soon Titova, who had come to audition for the film "Pomegranate Bracelet", was brought to Basov. Vladimir Pavlovich's first question, when he saw the girl, was: "Well, are we going to film?" And in response I heard: “We will not. Tovstonogov has iron rules - not to act in films while studying. " After the door closed behind Valentina Antipovna, Basov, according to the recollections of witnesses, announced: "I will marry!" In vain did the familiar filmmakers tell him that “she loves another, that they have an affair,” Basov remained adamant.
For Titova, the approval for the main role in "Blizzard" was largely unexpected - the decision to participate in the film was made at the very top, but Basov achieved his goal here too, having received official permission from the BDT to take the student in the filming. The work on the film took place in Suzdal, one of the most beautiful places in Russia. When the shooting ended, Valentina Antipovna returned to Leningrad and continued her studies, but Vladimir Pavlovich came to the city with her. As a rule, he met Titova after rehearsals or classes and took her to a restaurant. When Shalevich arrived in Leningrad, Titova, with her usual frankness and sincerity, told him about Basov's courtship. Obviously, she expected some kind of special reaction from her beloved, but Shalevich did not do or say anything. They parted with a heavy heart, and soon Valentina Antipovna became Basov's wife. Subsequently, she wrote: “Basov knew how to charm, stun. As soon as he walked up, ten minutes later everyone was listening only to him, looking only at him. The beauty of the rest of the men paled in comparison with his eloquence … ".
Titova moved to Vladimir Pavlovich's house in a cooperative building of "filmmakers" on Pyreva Street, where he had three small rooms. For the first time in the life of Valentina Antipovna, her own "nest" appeared, which she began to "domesticate" and improve. In 1964, the couple had a son, Alexander, and five years later, a daughter, Elizabeth. Their housemates Elena and Ilya Minkovetskiy recalled: “It was very interesting with them. Basov adored Valya, and she was loyal to him. Smart, cheerful, kept the house in perfect order, cooked superbly. They were easy-going, they could come in the morning and tell them - get ready, let's go to Suzdal, or - we have to show you Vladimir. And we packed up and went by cars … ". After "Blizzard" Valentina Antipovna played the role of Nina in Basov's film "Shield and Sword", in "Return to Life" by Marie, in "Nylon 100%" by Ingu, in "Days of the Turbins" by Elena.
It is worth noting that the four-part "Shield and Sword", included in the ten highest-grossing domestic films, is undoubtedly one of Basov's best films. Based on Kozhevnikov's novel, it tells the story of Alexander Belov, a Soviet intelligence officer who managed to penetrate the very top of the fascist leadership. Before starting shooting, Vladimir Pavlovich demanded that his superiors organize a meeting with Soviet intelligence officers - real prototypes of Belov. Such a meeting really took place and brought the picture of undoubted benefit. Its important result was that Basov managed to persuade the film management to approve Stanislav Lyubshin for the main role. Cinema officials were categorically against this candidacy, because they wanted to see a hero-actor in the role of a scout - with strong muscles and an eagle's gaze. But the Chekists took the side of the director, saying that real intelligence officers are inconspicuous in appearance and never catch the eye. Lyubshin just fit this characterization. The film "Shield and Sword" appeared on the screens of the country in 1968, from the very first days it became the leader of the box office. Four episodes took from first to fourth places, collecting about seventy million viewers on views, and Stanislav Lyubshin was named the best actor of the year according to the results of the audience competition.
Between the filming of the films, Basov's family life was gaining momentum - for an expanded family, he knocked out a new apartment in the very center of Moscow. Children grew up along with the roles and pictures of their parents - Titov and Basov always took Lisa and Sasha with them, both to the shooting and on tours around Russia. Titova recalled: “The most crucial time in our life came when Basov was working on the script for the next film. For a month, or even two, he hardly left his home office. He scribbled something, crossed out something, smoked a lot, drank, without ceasing, very "cool" coffee. Basov "was exhausted" and lost weight literally before our eyes, and then, at the end of the forced retreat, he could eat a pot of borscht at a time. " The director's son, Alexander Basov, said: “Father loved order. He always washed his own things, starch his collars, loved to clean the apartment. I could wake up early in the morning and start cleaning the floors, then I cooked breakfast, washed the dishes and went to the studio … I was embarrassed to wear my orders. He believed that he had not done anything special in the war, he just did like all his male work … Once his father was asked what his happiest day was. He replied: “I have not had the most unhappy or the happiest days. If the day of absolute happiness comes, then spiritual death is near. This is not a phrase or a paradox. At the very edge of the fall, there is more happiness because the ascent begins from here."
It should be noted that Basov loved beautiful things. He was distinguished by good taste - Vladimir Pavlovich always chose all shirts and suits himself. He was also a passionate car enthusiast and a virtuoso driver. He cared for and cherished his cars - he could fiddle with them for hours, get up early in order to warm up long before leaving, bought special steering wheel covers, mirrors and other trifles abroad. His first car, bought immediately after graduating from VGIK, was Moskvich, and later he acquired only Volga. Moreover, the cars were delivered to the director directly from the factory. During his life, Vladimir Pavlovich changed four of them. The only one who successfully competed with him in this was another famous director Sergei Bondarchuk.
In the seventies, Basov continued to work fruitfully - he played as an actor, shot new films. He was noted for roles in the films "Crime and Punishment", "Running", "The Adventures of Pinocchio", "For family reasons." As a director, during the same period, he shot the films "Return to Life", "Nylon 100%", "Dangerous Turn", "Days of the Turbins". The trouble, as often happens, came suddenly, becoming a complete surprise for Titova. Once, having left alone for the shooting of the film "Running", Basov returned as a completely different person. Vladimir Pavlovich started drinking. For a long time, Valentina Antipovna fought for her husband, took him to the doctors, tried folk remedies, but nothing helped Basov. The last two years of their life together were very difficult, and, in the end, Titova could not stand it and filed for divorce. Divorce cost both dearly - Titova ended up in an oncological clinic, and Basov had a severe heart attack. The doctor who came to call the ambulance did not take the director's condition seriously and ordered him to take warm baths, which he regularly did for three days until he was hospitalized. The actor stayed in the hospital for a month and a half, and then returned to normal life.
The children were left with Basov by court order, and in the last years of his life, Vladimir Pavlovich was primarily an exemplary father. From now on, he did all his affairs with tripled energy. It seemed to many in those years that the actor "multiplied" - and without that noticeable, he filled everything with himself, having time, among other things, to appear in television programs and on the radio. Tirelessly Basov starred in films of fellow directors. To the question: "When do you have time to read the scripts?", The actor replied seriously: "I don't read them." Honestly doing his job, Vladimir Pavlovich ensured a decent existence for his children. And they grew up - in search of a life path, Sasha rushed about, dreamed of becoming a ballerina Liza, having entered the Vaganov School.
Meanwhile, after the mid-seventies, Basov's creative activity as a director dropped noticeably. After filming Days of the Turbins in 1975, he did not film anything for five years - he had a heart attack, and his third marriage broke up. For some time, Vladimir Pavlovich was inactive, and returned to directing in 1980, filming a picture based on the novel by Osprey "Facts of the past day." In 1982, the film was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR, a year later, Vladimir Basov was awarded the title of People's Artist. And in April 1983, Basov had his first stroke. The director had problems with movement, and he could no longer drive a car on his own. Vladimir Pavlovich was treated a lot. In the hospital, by the way, Titova constantly visited him - according to the recollections of close people, “she helped in everything, washed the ward, fed with a spoon.”
After suffering a stroke, Vladimir Pavlovich began to move around with a cane, he quickly got tired and his health deteriorated sharply. However, the actor still went to the studio, where the position of "director-consultant" was composed for him. And Basov actively worked in a new place, not giving anyone a single reason to see him as a disabled person. Regularly, overcoming physical suffering and pain - Vladimir Pavlovich's legs went numb and his hands refused - he continued to go to work. His new work was the tape "Time and the Conway Family" based on the play of the same name by Priestley. In Basov's life, this was the last triumph, soon came partial paralysis - Vladimir Pavlovich did not feel more than one arm and one leg. From now on, he was forced to lie in bed almost all the time. The housekeeping helped him to run the housekeeping and all the same Titova, who came to clean the apartment. Vladimir Basov died on September 17, 1987. His son Alexander wrote: “Father experienced immobility in the most difficult way - weakness for him was a real tragedy. He always loved movement, flew, not walk. The second stroke happened to him in the bathroom - he went to shave, which he always did himself, despite the fact that his hands practically did not obey. He resolutely rejected any attempts to help - until the last moment of his life, his father wanted to remain a man. He started shaving and suddenly began to fall. I caught him and he died in my arms."
There is a monument on Basov's grave at the Novokuntsevskoye cemetery: a marble slab on which two pieces of film are crossed - either a sealed window in a military fashion, or an army chevron, or a "crossed out" editing frame, or a crossroads, or a "wind rose" …Significance, as in the greatest director - interpret, as you can see, everything is permissible, since life is endless. On one of the "ribbons" there is an inscription: "The brooks of human destinies merge into one raging channel."
