Who’s Who in Has Anyone See My Girlfriend?
5 min readSergey Dobrotvorsky
Sergei Dobrotvorsky in the film is hidden under the name of Sergei Dobrovolsky (Alexander Gorchilin). Dobrotvorsky is a native Petersburger-Leningrader, one of the cult film critics of the 1980s and 90s. Since 1996, he has been the chairman of the Guild of Historians of Cinema and Film Critics of St. Petersburg. He was published in the magazines “Seans”, “Art of Cinema”, “Pink sparkles“, “OM”, as well as in the newspaper “Kommersant-daily”. Dobrotvorsky was a bright, artistic person who fell in love with himself at first sight. In 1984, together with like-minded people, he founded the theater “On the Windowsill”, in which he staged performances. The film critic even recorded video messages for VHS-cassettes of films, preparing viewers for viewing. Dobrotvorsky dreamed of making his own movie, wrote the script for the vampire horror “Ghoul”. He died of a heroin overdose in 1997.
Karina Dobrotvorskaya
In the film, her heroine is called Kira. She is played by two actresses at once – Anya Chipovskaya in her youth and Victoria Isakova in a more mature age. Karina was the second wife of Dobrotvorsky. She was 7 years younger than Sergei, who taught her. She started as a theater critic, then published in “Log Horizon season 3” and “The Art of Cinema” in collaboration with her husband. Shortly before Dobrotvorsky’s death, she divorced him and once again married the journalist of the Kommersant edition, Alexei Tarkhanov. Karina made a dizzying career at the Conde Nast publishing house – from the editor of the culture department of the Russian version of Vogue magazine to the president of the international directorate. Since 2013 he has been living and working in Paris. In 2014 she published her book “Has anyone seen my girl? 100 Letters to Seryozha “about marriage with Sergei Dobrotvorsky.
The published memoirs caused an extremely controversial reaction from friends and acquaintances of the ex-spouses. The script for the film was created on the basis of the book.
Mikhail Trofimenkov
The film critic Mikhail Trofimenkov’s name in the film is simply Misha (VasilyButkevich). Together with Kira, he went to Dobrovolsky for his birthday. Trofimenkov was a friend of the Dobrotvorsky family and an eyewitness to many of the events shown in the picture. Trofimenkov together with Dobrotvorsky founded the theater “On the Windowsill”, was and is the author of the magazine “Black Bullet Season 2 ” and the newspaper “Kommersant”. He is the author of several important books on cinema. Among them are “The History of Russian Cinema in 50 Films”, “Red Noir of Hollywood. Part I. Hollywood Regional Committee “and” Red Noir of Hollywood. Part II. Hollywood War “. Trofimenkov is a member of the older generation of Russian film critics. In the film, they repeatedly have a sit-down in the kitchen. Obligatory attributes of such meetings are vodka, pickles and cigarette smoke.
Love Arcus
Founder of the Seance magazine and the Anton is near here charitable foundation . Love Arcus – in the film Lisa. Her role was played by Maria Shalaeva. Lisa invited Dobrovolsky to publish in her magazine, brought him a vintage table for housewarming and asked for his opinion on Mikhalkov’s new film. Lisa is a woman with a business acumen, such is her prototype. Arkus continues to take an active part in the work of both the Session and the foundation. She became interested in the problems of people with autism spectrum disorder when she met Anton Kharitonov. It gave the name to the Arkus documentary, Anton Is Here Nearby, which was released in 2012. And in 2013, a fund of the same name was founded.
Directors, movie quotes and other references
The film opens with an episode at the Aurora cinema in St. Petersburg (it still works). Sergei and Kira are watching Godard’s “On the Last Breath”. Sergei is fascinated by Godard, Kira – by Sergei. It happens on a summer day, when Dobrovolsky supposedly has a birthday (this is not true, Dobrotvorsky was born on January 22).
The picture of Angelina Nikonova in the same “Aurora” ends. At the entrance to the cinema there is a poster of the movie “Has anyone seen my girl?” Kira, already performed by Victoria Isakova, stands in the aisle and looks at the screen. On it – she herself (only performed by AniChipovskaya) and Sergei in one of the most romantic moments in life. The film’s structure is ironically looped by self-quotation.
By the way, about posters and posters. They are used to decorate the interiors of apartments in the 90s. At the Dobrovolsky house there is a poster of the great film “In the Last Breath”, at the end of which the hero of Jean-Paul Belmondo dies. Angelina Nikonova hints that Sergei lives just as rapidly and dies young.
When Sergei already lives with Kira, the walls of their apartment are decorated with posters of the films “Outlaw” by Jim Jarmusch and “Twin Peaks” by David Lynch. Attentive viewers may notice a slight inconsistency. The cult series was released in 1990, and in Russia in 1993. And on the gravestone of Dobrovolsky, the dates of life “1960-1990” are indicated. Probably, Sergei could not have seen “Twin Peaks”, but this detail indicates his cinematic taste.
In one of the episodes, Dobrovolski records a performance of a film with the participation of ZbigniewCybulski. On the walls of the video salon there are posters of the films “Jaws” and “Why was Cat Crazy in Victorious“. Speaking about Tsybulsky, Sergei emphasizes that the actor died twice – in reality and on the screen: “and in life it happened from vodka”. Another gentle allusion to the mores of the Leningrad artistic intelligentsia of that time – surrounded by Dobrovolsky, everyone drank vodka from crystal glasses.
In another scene, Kira and Sergei play movie quotes. The fun ends with a hilarious nod to Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. In the film, Paul (Marlon Brando) has anal sex with Jeanne (Maria Schneider), instead of lube, he uses butter. At Nikonova’s, Dobrovolsky takes out a pack of oil from the refrigerator and with a smile goes to Kira. Guessing what is at stake, the girl, bursting into laughter, runs into the bedroom.
