May 3: Leonid Nechayev – the wizard of Soviet children's cinema
Leonid Nechayev was born on May 3, 1939, in Moscow. He created some of the most legendary Soviet children's films—"The Adventures of Buratino" and "Little Red Riding Hood," which are still watched by children and adults alike.
From hunger to art
Nechaev's childhood was spent in poverty. His father died at the front when he was four years old, leaving his mother and three children struggling to survive. Nechaev recalls his youth as a youth spent under the motto "I'm hungry!" Left to his own devices, he skipped school and even ended up in the police force.
His salvation came in the form of a theater studio at the Palace of Pioneers, where a classmate dragged him. Here, Nechayev truly became fascinated with art and performed in amateur productions even after dropping out of school and getting a job as a loader in a garment factory.
Cinema instead of theatre
After serving in the army, Nechayev graduated from VGIK. His thesis was a film based on a screenplay by Alexei Batalov, "Lame Wolf," about a boy and girl whose hut is haunted by a wolf. Initially, the director worked for the Ekran creative association, making documentaries, but soon retrained for feature films and moved to Minsk to work at the Belarusfilm studio.
Buratino and Little Red Riding Hood are films that were not released.
At 35, Nechaev was offered the opportunity to direct a children's film, "Adventures in a City That Doesn't Exist." The script bounced around from director to director for four years—the management didn't like the idea of the villains being more active than the heroes. Nechaev rewrote the script himself, and the film was a hit.
The following year, his crowning achievement, The Adventures of Buratino, was released, starring Rolan Bykov, Rina Zelenaya, and Vladimir Etush. The studio resisted releasing the film for a long time: critics found it blasphemous that animals were played by humans, that Basilio the Cat was depicted without a tail, and that Buratino mocked adults. The film was released only because the year was ending and the production schedule had to be completed. The Moscow premiere was such a success that the studio's editor fainted.
Two years later, "Little Red Riding Hood" hit screens. According to one version, the idea came to Nechayev unexpectedly, right during a report to management. The screenwriter was shocked: the fairy tale only had two pages of text. But Nechayev was so enthusiastic about the idea that he wrote the script in half a month—enough for two full episodes.
The director and his children
During his career, Nechayev directed 17 films—almost all children's films. He possessed a rare gift for connecting with young actors. He said the children trusted him, and he didn't work with them, but rather befriended them. The director himself was the father of five children and was married nine times.
After the collapse of the USSR, Nechayev returned to Moscow, but he didn't make any films in the 1990s due to a lack of funding. In the 2000s, he dreamed of adapting "By the Pike's Command," and sponsors promised three million dollars. But when the director was offered Timati for the role of Yemelya and a girl from the band "Blestyashchie" for the role of Princess Nesmeyana—for the sake of "making a ton of money"—Nechayyev declined.
Honor and awards
In 2003, Leonid Nechayev received the title of People's Artist of Russia. In 2005, he became the first recipient of the Order of Buratino—an award given to adults who have excelled in instilling in children inner freedom, purity of thought, civic engagement, and self-confidence.
The director died in January 2010 at the age of 70. When critics asked about the quality of his films, Nechaev responded briefly: "But kids like them!"
