"The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia": Cars, stunts, and bloopers that remained behind the scenes

The Soviet-Italian comedy "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia" became one of the first examples of international cooperation in Soviet cinema and, in fact, the first domestic action movie with elements of car chases and large-scale stunts. The filming was not easy, but the result was so bright that the film still arouses interest among viewers and film enthusiasts.

The script for the film was written by Eldar Ryazanov and Emil Braginsky back in 1970 under the title "Spaghetti in Russian." However, Goskino rejected the script. They managed to return to the project a few years later, when the Italian company Dino de Laurentiis owed "Mosfilm" for the film "Waterloo" and offered to shoot a joint film. The Italians found the original version boring, so screenwriters Franco Castellano and Giuseppe Pipolo, the future authors of hits with Celentano, joined the project. It was they who turned the story about treasures into an adventurous comedy with chases, accidents, and even light flirting — in short, they did everything to make the film appeal to the European audience.

Filming took place in Moscow, Leningrad, and Rome. Ryazanov recalled in his memoirs that the conditions for the film crew in Italy were modest, and the partners saved on literally everything. Even the costumes, according to him, "became unusable after the first day of shooting."

The film used dozens of cars, and many scenes were performed without computer effects — everything was filmed "live." For example, the famous landing of the Tu-134 aircraft on the Minsk highway was filmed at a military airfield near Ulyanovsk, where a fragment of the highway with kiosks, kvass, and dummy houses was recreated for realism.

The red VAZ-2103 with tourist license plates, which the characters use, also became a movie star. It was specially reinforced with metal inserts in the sills to withstand the jump over the fence. Seat belts for stuntman Sergio Mioni were brought from Italy — there were simply none in the USSR.

In some scenes, the role of the "troika" was played by Fiat 124 — this is visible by the interior and door handles. The Moskvich-412, stolen by Andrei Mironov's character, in different episodes "turns" into either a Fiat 1500 or a Fiat 1100d. One of the most spectacular stunts is the rollover of the Moskvich with a landing on the roof of the "Zhiguli." To shoot the scene without editing, the engine and gearbox were removed from the car.

No less impressive was the scene under the pipe carrier — the idea belonged to Ryazanov and stuntman Alexander Mikulin, who first performed a similar maneuver during the filming of "Beware of the Car." In the film, the gas station explosion was also real — a model of the gas station was built near Zvenigorod, and it looked so realistic that drivers tried to refuel.

Despite the attention to detail, there are enough "bloopers" in the film. Cars in chases are either broken or whole again; the Volga cars of the characters suddenly change numbers, and the characters move around Leningrad as if by teleportation: from under St. Isaac's Cathedral — to the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, then to Vosstaniya Square, where a monument to Leo Tolstoy suddenly appears.

There are also comical mistakes: the mafioso drills the trunk lid, but "hits" the passenger, although this is physically impossible. Such flaws only add charm to the film, and the farcical nature of the picture makes them part of the comedic style.

"The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia" became one of the main hits of 1974: it was watched by about 50 million viewers. The film still stands out for its dynamics, the scale of stunts, and the number of cars in the frame.

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