Maria Vinogradova's creative range in the context of voicing Soviet cartoons. To the 100th anniversary of the "Queen of the Episode"

Shumov Maksim Vladimirovich Associate Professor, Department of Directing and Choreography, Dostoevsky Omsk State University 644043, Russia, Omsk region, Omsk, Krasny Put str., 36 mvshumov@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Pavlov Andrey YUrievich Associate Professor, Department of Directing and Choreography, Dostoevsky Omsk State University 644043, Russia, Omsk region, Omsk, Krasny Put str., 36 a.u.pavlov62@mail.ru

Some aspects of the culture of speech and film scoring. Introduction

Over the past decades, the image of the Russian literary language has transformed quite a lot. Changes have occurred in its forms such as the language of fiction, journalism, mass media, cinema, theater.  Speaking about the works of cinema, along with speech in the mass media, a modern public mood is largely created, mass consciousness, modern speech culture and attitude to speech itself are formed. It often happens that speech in cinematic works also has a great influence on the formation of "linguistic" taste and linguistic ideal.

Speaking about the problem of studying the culture of speech, it should be recalled that "linguists and literary publicists V.I. Chernyshev, V.G. Belinsky, L.V. Shcherba, S.I. Ozhegov, G.O. Vinokur, S.P. Obnorsky, V.V. Vinogradov and many others made a significant contribution to the study of speech culture. It should be noted a serious contribution to the development of the culture of speech, more precisely the art of speech, theater artists and specialists in stage speech, who developed the methodology of teaching stage speech. These are the works of K.S. Stanislavsky, M.A. Chekhov, M.O. Knebel, M.M. Mikhoels, I.P. Kozlyaninova, A.P. Petrova, Z.V. Savkova, E.M. Chareli, I.Y. Promptova and others. Thanks to the theoretical and practical works of the above-mentioned figures of science and literature, culture and art during the XX century, the foundations of culture and speech techniques in the field of cinema and television were formed and continue to develop at the present stage (M.G. Bezyaeva, B.D. Gaimakova, M.P. Ossovskaya, V.I. Novikov, S.K. Makarova, L.I. Vansovskaya, O.A. Lapteva, etc.) and systematic methods of teaching stage speech, culture and speech techniques (M.P. Petrova, I.Y. Promptova, L.D. Alferova, V.N. Galendeev, S.P. Serova, I.A. Avtushenko, V.P. Kamyshnikova, etc.)" ^[1].

A.S. Kuzin in his article "Speech sounding from the stage (director's view of acting problems)" notes: "There is no such professionally wealthy director, at least in the Russian art space, who would not attach importance to this very quality of speech sounding from the stage. Moreover, this meaning is not proclaimed, not declared, but is present in real practice, which can be observed in stage works" ^[2].

In Vasily Shukshin's film "Stove-benches", a professor-folklorist speaks about the Russian word: "The people are rich (approx. authors: Russian). He keeps his goods for centuries, but gives them away for free. Nate!". At the same time, he calls the entire language culture he collected "a pood of gold." At the same time, there were "artists of the sounding word" in our cultural space. Each national language has its own phonetic, architectonic and rhythmic features. "The chant of Russian speech, its breadth and multicolour, dynamics and softness, its emotionality are well known. Russian Russian language's inestimable virtues have been captured by great Russian readers and actors. Recordings of brilliant artists of sound and words have survived to this day: F. Chaliapin, V. Sobinov, V. Kachalov, V. Yakhontov and others. The sound of the voice, the sound, emotional and semantic interpretation of the performed literary or musical work, every word, every sung or spoken phrase captured on film, made these recordings immortal works of art" ^{[3, p. 46]}.

The sound series of the film contains many elements: various, quite real and artificially created noises, fragments of music, pauses and rhythmic counterpoints, etc. "If we assume that certain combinations of these elements are perceived, at least relatively, as a kind of sign system, as a sound effect, the emotional significance of which for the perceiver can be predicted and, accordingly, to fix it, then the speech of the artist, probably, can be perceived as a certain symbol, a sign within the system. That is, the artist's speech in the sound-sign matter of the film is semiotic, since it has many additional meanings and meanings" ^[4].

Yadong Yu in his article notes: "Speech in the cinema involves certain technological nuances. But this is not another speech, this is a different perspective of a single phenomenon, which can be called "speech creativity of an actor" ^[5]. 

"Children love cartoons, as their favorite toys and characters come to life on the screen, who speak a language that is understandable to children. To be closer to the child, to get on the same level with him, the voicing of cartoons is carried out using the "children's voice" ^[6]. The plot of the cartoon is constructed in such a way as not only to be intriguing, but also to touch on problems relevant to children.

A person voicing cartoons should not only be an announcer – translator of sound, he should be an actor. Any cartoon character has its own character, mood, style. All these qualities characterize his unique voice, manner of performance, speech features. It is unlikely that a simple announcer will cope with this. The actor, having really studied his cartoon character, fully gets used to this role, feels it and holds it until the very end.

One of such talents is the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Maria Sergeevna Vinogradova.

"Actor's portrait" by Maria Vinogradova. Review

At the time of writing, it is exactly 100 years since the birth of the actress, Honored Artist of the RSFSR Maria Vinogradova. If you try to remember the films with her participation, then not immediately, gradually small episodes from the films "Office Romance", "Garage", "Interdevochka", "Draw", "The Master and Margarita", "The Magic voice of Gelsomino", "Kalina Krasnaya", "From the life of vacationers" will come to mind". Meanwhile, Maria Sergeevna was one of the most sought-after Soviet actresses, but she always remained in the shadows. As a consequence, she was often called the "queen", but only the "queen of the episode". Maria Vinogradova has played in more than 130 films, but viewers are unlikely to remember her heroines in these films. Eldar Ryazanov and Vasily Shukshin loved to shoot her, but at the same time her huge acting potential was not even half used.

The situation is different with the voice-over roles. Audrey Hepburn, Gina Lollobrigida, Suzanne York, Elizabeth Taylor, Pedro Alvarez, Sandra Chavez and many others spoke in the unique voice of Maria Sergeevna in the Soviet dubbing. At the same time, it is quite easy to recall the voices of Soviet cartoon characters – Uncle Fyodor from Prostokvashino, a Ball from A Kitten named Woof, a pioneer from Cheburashka, a cat from The Magic Ring, as well as Mowgli, Dunno and a Tin Soldier. Several hundred well-known and not very Soviet and foreign cartoons succumbed to the talent of Maria Vinogradova's voice acting.

The most difficult and the most important role in voicing, she herself considered "Hedgehog in the fog" by Yuri Norstein. To find the right intonation, she spent a lot of time, but then at creative evenings she introduced herself: "Hello, says the Hedgehog in the fog!" The creator of the cartoon Yuri Norstein said about Vinogradova: "An amazing actress-episodist, and could play a big dramatic role! She portrayed cleaners, supervisors, grandmothers not on her scale" ^[7].

People's Artist of the RSFSR Sergey Nikonenko recalls Maria like this: "Together with Musya, we were filmed together more than once, and I shot her in my paintings "Tryn-grass" and "Dawn Kissing". It's a pity that in the theater, as a travesty, she was offered to portray boys and animals. Her neighbor Nadia Rumyantseva was of the same build, but played the main roles in the same "Girls". The fly was less fortunate in this regard. Sorry. She is an extraordinarily kind person, an intelligent and caring, warm-hearted woman" ^[8].

Vinogradova's colleague, actress Lydia Smirnova, said about her: "Maria Sergeevna, Musya, the Fly... How we loved her! It's not a person, it's a whirlwind, a temperament. Everything was boiling in her, she was always rushing somewhere: filming, concerts. At rehearsals, I don't remember her standing or sitting, she was on the move all the time. How well the nickname Fly stuck to her! She decorated any passing episode with her talent, because she fantasized a lot and brought it from herself. And, like no one else, she knew how to be friends. There wasn't a person in the theater who didn't love her. Maria Sergeevna was not beautiful, but she had so much charm that she seemed beautiful" ^[9].

For 40 years, Musya Vinogradova was the mascot of Soviet animators. A unique recognizable voice was an integral part of her acting profession. It was he who helped her feel needed even in the most difficult times. So there was a period when she did not work in the theater, but worked only on voice acting. It was the so-called transitional age period when she was not in demand. And then she dubbed films and cartoons for 15 years. In each new project, the actress was required to demonstrate a whole range of feelings in just a few phrases, and all this had to not resemble her previous works in any way.

Dubbing of Soviet cartoons by Maria Vinogradova. Study

Please note that in our study we will be interested only in the dubbing of Soviet cartoons. Maria Sergeevna's acting works, as well as dubbing of foreign films and cartoons are not considered in the context of this study. If Maria Sergeevna voiced several characters of the selected category in the cartoon, they will be indicated through the "/" icon. If characters of different categories were voiced in the cartoon, then the same cartoon will be listed in different categorical tables.

We have selected the following as the categories of voice-over characters in the study:

1) Characters-boys (male characters)

2) Girl characters (female characters)

3) Animal characters (the gender of the animals is not defined)

4) Characters-objects (inanimate objects whose gender is not determined)

5) Indeterminate characters (characters are not defined or their gender is not known)

Let's analyze the entire period of creativity associated with the dubbing of Soviet cartoons by Maria Sergeevna (from 1954 to 1995) in the above categories and draw some conclusions.

Table 1. Maria Vinogradova's voice-over roles in cartoons. Category "Boy characters"

So, as can be seen from Table 1, as well as based on the period specified in the analysis conditions (from 1954 to 1995) and having identified those works in which the category "boy characters" is declared, we found that out of 41 years of dubbing, 40 years accounted for the dubbing of boys. The exception was 1995, the year of the actress' death. Over 40 years, 87 boys and male characters have been voiced in 79 cartoons. At the same time, she voiced several characters in 7 cartoons at the same time.

Table 2. Maria Vinogradova's voice-over roles in cartoons. Category "Girl characters"

As can be seen from Table 2 - out of 41 years of dubbing, 22 years are spent on dubbing in the category of "girl characters" (and female characters). During this time, 22 female characters were voiced in 22 cartoons. At the same time, in 12 projects, age–related characters are seen in the voice-over roles - an old woman (grandmother), baba yaga, mom, cook.

Table 3. Maria Vinogradova's voice-over roles in cartoons. Category "Animal characters"

As can be seen from Table 3 - out of 41 years of voicing, 34 years are spent on voicing in the category "animal characters". During this period, 109 characters were voiced in 119 cartoons. At the same time, in 12 cartoons, Maria voiced several animals, including 2 cartoons where Maria Sergeevna voiced all the characters. Of the entire palette of animal characters, 19 hares, 14 puppies, 8 cats managed to be voiced the most.

Table 4. Maria Vinogradova's voice-over roles in cartoons. Category "Characters-objects"

As can be seen from Table 4 - out of 41 years of voicing – 8 years are spent on voicing in the category "characters-objects". During this period, 9 characters were voiced in 8 cartoons.

Table 5. Maria Vinogradova's voice-over roles in cartoons. Category "Undefined characters"

As can be seen from Table 5 - out of 41 years of dubbing – 11 years are spent on dubbing in the category of "indeterminate characters". In this category, 7 projects with characters that do not belong to other categories were identified. In 7 projects, the role of Maria Vinogradova is not defined, although it is stated.

The speech range of Maria Vinogradova. Conclusion of the study

From 1954 to 1995, Maria Sergeevna took part in the dubbing of 213 Soviet cartoons. In this time range, it was only in 1962 that Maria did not take part in the dubbing of Soviet cartoons. For the remaining 40 years, Musya Vinogradova was the mascot of Soviet animators. The most fruitful years for the actress in terms of voice acting were 1976 – 15 works; 1975, 1984 - 12 works; 1973 – 11 works; 1974 – 10 works.  In general, it is worth noting the 1970s (1970 – 1979) in the work of voicing Maria. During these years, 91 Soviet cartoons were voiced by her. These data indicate a high creative rise of the actress during this period.

When conducting a study of 213 cartoons, the categories of roles that we have entered into the research condition are ranked as follows.  In the first place in terms of the number of roles is the category "animal characters". In it, Maria Sergeevna voiced 109 characters in 119 cartoons. At the same time, in 12 cartoons, Maria voiced several animals, including 2 cartoons where Maria Sergeevna voiced all the characters. Of the entire palette of animal characters, 19 hares, 14 puppies, 8 cats managed to be voiced the most. The most fruitful year in this category was 1976. This year, 9 animal characters were voiced.

This is followed by the "boy characters" category. In it, in 79 cartoons, the actress voiced 87 characters-boys and male characters. At the same time, she voiced several characters in 7 cartoons at the same time. In 1974, 1976, 1979, 6 boy characters were voiced. Such a large number of male roles is not surprising for an actress. From a young age, she was assigned the role of travesty.

In third place was the category "girl characters". In this category, 22 characters were voiced in 22 cartoons. At the same time, in 12 projects, age–related characters are seen in the voice-over roles - an old woman (grandmother), baba yaga, mom, cook. All these projects were located in the second half of the creative path of the actress. And only in the last work, published in the year of the actress' death, a girl character reappears.

This is followed by the category of "Undefined characters". 7 projects with characters that do not belong to other categories have settled here. In 7 projects, the role of Maria Vinogradova is not defined, although it is stated.

And in the last place was the category "characters-objects". There were 9 characters in 8 cartoons in it. Some cartoons have already been listed in other categories, as they feature several characters voiced by an actress.

The results, figures and ranks we have obtained speak of nothing else than the great talent of the actress and a wide speech range. Actresses – deserved, but still not popular. However, it is not popular only in the documents and is completely unfair in our opinion.

"The word "popular" in Latin popularis, i.e. popular, popularly known. This is a literal semantic translation. In our case, "people's" as the highest recognition in society" ^[10].

How can it not be a folk talent, whose characters, after many decades, delight not only new and new generations of children, but also their parents. Isn't this the comprehensive recognition in society?!