He was a talented, expansive and enterprising director. He always tried to show a close-up of his face, to expose human feelings, thus ignoring the most daring and unusual cinematic delights. Abram Room made films in which all attention is focused on a specific person, his problem and hidden secrets. At the same time, the director was constantly looking for new solutions and forms in cinema, trying to expand the boundaries of classical art. Abram Romm compared a professional actor with a master of technology, a kind of machine designed with the latest biomechanics…
Over the years of his work, three cities have become his favorite and dear: Vilna, Saratov and Moscow. In one he spent his childhood, in another he took his first steps in art, and in the third he created his best films. However, Abram Romm became famous not only as a director, he was also a talented screenwriter. What was his creative path and what films brought him national recognition? Let's take a closer look at this issue.
Childhood and youth
Abram Matveevich Room is a native of the B altic city of Vilna. He was born on June 28, 1894.
His parents were we althy people, so they wanted their offspring to get a decent education. The boy studies at the gymnasium, and after graduation he enters the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute. A few years later, a civil war begins in the country, and the young man takes a direct part in it.
The beginning of a creative career
At the end of the 1910s, Abram Room found himself in Saratov. Here, on the stage of the newly opened Theater of Miniatures, he staged his performance for the first time. Very little time will pass, and the young man will create his own temple of Melpomene called "Dovecote". However, his offspring will subsequently be closed, seeing in the work of Room elements of philistinism, bourgeois and provincialism. But the young man, who studied medicine at Saratov University, continued to engage in creative work, first as a teacher at the local department of arts, and then as rector of the higher state workshops of theatrical art. Well, the leadership of the Children's and Demonstration Theaters wanted Abram Matveyevich to stage performances on their stages, and the young man did it with pleasure.
Once A. V. Lunacharsky himself, during his stay in the city on the Volga, saw the theatrical performances of a young man and was very pleased with them. The People's Commissar of Education personally spoke with the novice director and insisted that Abram Room go to the capital, where he could fully develop his talent.
In 1923 a young man comes to Moscow.
Career in the capital
First, he is accepted as a director at the Theater of Revolution, and then he becomes a teacher at the Higher Pedagogical School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Gradually, Room awakens interest in cinema. Soon the young man tries his hand at a new field.
First work on set
It should be noted that Abram Room, whose filmography includes more than two dozen works in cinema, also worked on films, the shooting of which was never completed.
In the last years of his work, he tried to turn to the classics.
His first work was the comedy The Moonshine Race (1924). In the center of a humorous plot is an apprentice shoemaker who was able to transfer the most ordinary moonshiners into the hands of the police. However, all this happens in a dream. Unfortunately, this picture of the maestro has not survived to this day. This was followed by a short film "What says "Mos", this guess the question" (1924). And this work, in which Abram Room acted as a director and screenwriter, has not been preserved. The plot of the picture also remained undisclosed.
In 1926, the maestro started shooting the full-length film "Death Bay". However, the story of the events that unfolded on the Swan ship during the Civil War did not evoke enthusiastic responses from film critics. The film was also disliked by Soviet officials, who felt that the author tried to reveal too complicated topics.
First success
Glory came to Abram Matveyevich after the release of the tape "Third Meshchanskaya" (1927). In it he put onthe foreground of a person and his feelings. The story of a love triangle very excited the inexperienced Soviet viewer. Abram Room, whose films have become classics of Soviet cinematography, demonstrated as clearly as possible how a woman can feel feelings for two men at the same time, for men who are also friends with each other. But at the end of the picture, the woman leaves both of them. However, the authorities did not share the audience's enthusiasm, considering the picture far from the ideas of socialist realism.
In the late 20s, Abram Room, whose biography, of course, deserves separate consideration, shoots another picture that is incomprehensible to the Soviet authorities. We are talking about "Ghost that does not return" (1929). In this film, the maestro draws the viewer's attention to the fact that even in conditions of isolation from society, a person is capable of rebirth.
Opala
After the release of the feature films "Third Meshchanskaya" and "Ghost that does not return", as well as the documentary "Khobs", which tells about the life of Jewish colonists, the authorities took up arms against Room in earnest.
As a result, the director was "expelled" from Moscow to the capital of the Ukrainian SSR.
Work in Kyiv
Here the maestro gets a job at the Ukrainfilm film studio. Soon, Abram Room, whose photos were regularly published in the Soviet press, starts filming the film The Strict Young Man (1935). This philosophical and romantic drama about love will enter the treasury of Soviet cinema. The script was written by Yuri Olesha.
Philosophical love story
In the moviethere are no clear time limits: in parallel, the “dying off” heroes of the past era coexist: the accustomer Fyodor Tsitronov, Dr. Stepanov and representatives of the new generation, whose bodies are built like those of Greek athletes. At the same time, they try to be perfect both physically and spiritually, strictly observing the rules of the code of honor, which are based on fortitude, sentimentality, perseverance, chastity.
However, there is another set of laws in the film, which is guided by one young girl. His main rule is: “If you really want something, then indulge your desires, no matter what. You should not hold back your impulses.”
The picture is built in the format of an eternal competition, a constant struggle for the right to become perfect. Here money does not play any role, there is no social inequality, and everything is done in order to form a new tribe. But the remarkable fact is that it is impossible to build equality even in an ideal environment. You can carry out any kind of propaganda, give any kind of edification, but you won’t be able to raise two identical people, no matter how hard you try.
There is also a love line in "The Strict Youth". Once again, director Abram Room raises the theme of unrequited tender feelings. Heroes are forced to make a choice, despite the fact that, from the point of view of morality, it is difficult. Thus, the maestro clearly proved that even in an ideal society there is a place for unrequited love.
The film turned out to be philosophical and dramatic: for a long time they could not come up with a name for it. At firstthey suggested "Discoball", then "Magic Komsomolets", but later changed to "Strict young man". And in 1936, censors forbade showing this philosophical picture on a wide screen, explaining that the plot of the picture was far from reality, and its concept was completely incomprehensible. The film lay on the shelf until the mid-sixties, and only then it began to be shown to the mass audience. It should be noted that the problems raised in the "Strict Young Man" tape are still relevant today.
Creative break
Naturally, after the reaction of the authorities to the painting "The Strict Youth", the maestro can no longer calmly look at how his work is criticized. He no longer makes films, focusing solely on teaching.
But after a while he suddenly realized that his true calling was directing.
Second wind
In 1940, Abram Matveyevich came to work at Mosfilm to make films again. This time he puts on pictures that are pleasing to the censors. The following tapes were approved for viewing: "Squadron No. 5" (1939), "Invasion" (1944), "In the mountains of Yugoslavia" (1946).
Late creative stage
In 1956, Room turned to the theme of the responsibility of doctors, who at all costs must save human lives. As a result, the film "The Heart Beats Again …" appeared. In the 60s, the maestro directed paintings based on the works of Russian classics. In particular, we are talking about the tapes "Pomegranate Bracelet" (according to Kuprin, 1964), "Belated Flowers" (according to Chekhov, 1969year).
Other roles
Abram Matveyevich was not only a director of films, but also the artistic director of such films as "Case No. 306" (1956), "On the Count's Ruins" (1957). In The Kiss of Mary Pickford, he tried his hand as an actor.
Contribution to art
Undoubtedly, Room became the author of a new direction in cinema. Modern film critics would call his style hyperrealism, which is based on the concentration of attention to the environment, the play of the performer with the thing, the emphasis on the inner world of a person.
The works of the psychologist V. Bekhterev and the psychology analyst Z. Freud helped him find his niche in art, work on the theater stage, and practice medicine on a professional basis.
Out of profession
Was Abram Room happy outside of the profession? The personal life of the director has developed in the best way. He married actress Olga Zhizneva, whom he subsequently shot in almost every picture of his. But Abram Matveyevich had no children.
Maestro died on July 26, 1976 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vvedensky (German) cemetery, next to his wife.
