Gleb Panfilov, an outstanding director and screenwriter of Soviet, Russian and world cinema, has maintained inner freedom with absolute constancy throughout his career. None of the films (and a great many of them have accumulated in the national cinema throughout his life) can be called passing or failed: each of them is an event in the world of art. For several decades now, he has maintained a reputation as a genuine artist.
Childhood, family
December 21, 1934 in the Urals, in the city of Magnitogorsk, in the family of Vera Stepanovna and Anatoly Petrovich Panfilov, a son was born, who was named Glebushka. His dad worked as a journalist, so it is quite possible that when choosing a profession, Panfilov many years later started from this.
After graduating from the Faculty of Chemistry of the Ural Polytechnic Institute in 1957, he worked a little at the Sverdlovsk Plant of Medications, then at the Research Institute as a researcher. Gleb Panfilov was even once the head of the propaganda department in the city committee of the Komsomol. And already there his creative nature made itself felt: he contributed to the organization of an amateur film studio.
In tandem with friends Gleb Panfilov, whose biography thenmade a new turn, began to shoot documentaries. His first successes were noticed and invited to local TV.
Well hello, VGIK
In 1960, Panfilov entered the capital at the correspondence department of the camera department at VGIK, where he studied until 1963. And then immediately successfully passes the entrance tests to the directing department. He graduated from the higher directing courses three years later, in 1966. In parallel with his studies, he has been working on television all this time. Panfilov has an unshakable confidence that the path he has chosen is absolutely right and that he will reach certain heights by following it.
After receiving a director's diploma, Gleb Panfilov comes to work at the Lenfilm film studio. A decade later, in 1977, he becomes a director at Mosfilm and at the same time runs a workshop at the Higher Director's Courses.
His film debut
His first feature film was "There is no ford in the fire", for which Panfilov was awarded the prize of the International Film Festival in Locarno (Switzerland) two years after filming, in 1969. In this picture, he portrayed the Civil War - with its ideological disputes among the Bolsheviks, with a very tough and realistic vision of the confrontation from its inside out, through the prism of the ordinary everyday life of an ambulance train.
But the main discovery of the picture (as well as the main meeting in the life of the venerable director) is the discovery of the main character - the artist and, concurrently, the nurse Tatyana Tetkina. Tanya, played by Inna Churikova, has an unusually interesting character, she is original and talented, sacrificial almost to the point of foolishness. The manner in which Churikova's character is portrayed is both sharply grotesque and deeply dramatic at the same time.
How to find Baba Yaga?
At first, the work on the film did not go well, because the director could not find an actress for the main female role. The day was getting closer and closer when the filming process should be started, but the heroine was not there. And then one day, looking at the TV and seeing Baba Yaga on the screen, Panfilov realized: this is she! For the first time in his life, an adult and serious person, watching the game of a young actress, felt sorry for the fabulous evil sorceress. He immediately started looking for her. This actress turned out to be his future wife, Inna Churikova, and Gleb Anatolyevich reflected the story of the search for Yaga later in the film “The Beginning”.
The artistic council of "Lenkom" was categorically against this candidacy. But Panfilov defended his point of view and convinced everyone to change their mind.
A little later, Gleb Panfilov and Inna Churikova created a family in which their only son Ivan was born. Inna Mikhailovna, for many years of work in cinema, played the main roles in most of her husband's films.
"Start" and others
It is impossible to ignore the film that has become a classic of Soviet cinema - "The Beginning". This film won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. It deals with the ordinary Soviet weaver Pasha, who is rather unattractive in appearance and cannotarrange your personal life. And suddenly she is invited to the role of Joan of Arc herself. Now, during the filming, the fate of a simple Soviet girl and a great French heroine are woven into a single whole.
Another interesting film directed by Gleb Panfilov is Theme. But due to the fact that this picture touched on the problem of emigration, it was not released for several years. At the forefront of this film is a very poignant and sarcastic depiction of a successful metropolitan playwright who everywhere tries to show his importance and significance. But all this turns out to be "puff" in comparison with the integrity, decency and purity of life in the provinces.
It is impossible not to dwell on another milestone in the work of the great director. Gleb Panfilov, whose photo can be seen on the pages of various glossy publications, in 1983 made the film "Vassa", based on Maxim Gorky's play "Vassa Zheleznova". He somehow especially, in his own way, read this textbook work. In the main character, he considered not just a rude, despotic egoist, but also a subtle, intelligent woman, an active housewife, and a loving mother. Through the echoes of Vassa's personal tragedy, one can see the future tragedy of Russia, which is already doomed to revolution. Gleb Panfilov, whose filmography includes dozens of amazing works, has always attached great importance to visual textures. Therefore, his "Vassa" is designed in the style of Russian Art Nouveau.
A year later, Gleb Anatolyevich staged the play "Hamlet" on stage"Lenkom". In his presentation, the main character, played by the great Yankovsky, was interpreted as a man of the crowd. In 2000, another of his films, The Romanovs: A Crowned Family, was released on the screens of the country. In it, he spoke so truthfully and accurately about the last months of the life of the Russian imperial family that it seemed that he lived at that time and knew each of the characters personally.
Tsar, Tsarina and Ivan Tsarevich
Here he is, director Gleb Panfilov. The personal life of famous people is always interesting to the audience. And many popular personalities willingly talk about their private lives. But Gleb Anatolyevich does not really like to let journalists into the secret places of his soul.
It is known that from his first marriage he has a son, Anatoly, who was born in 1957. In an alliance with Inna Churikova, his second son, Ivan, was born in 1978.
Now the parents regret that they did not give their son the opportunity to make a voluntary choice of profession, because they really did not want their heir to follow in their footsteps. Although it was obvious that Ivan had an artistic gift.
The parents decided that their son should be a diplomat. Therefore, Vanya graduated from MGIMO (he studied at the Faculty of International Law). Now he knows several foreign languages, but that doesn't make him any happier.
At first, the parents thought that he was tormented by an unsettled personal life, and then they realized what the reason was. His acting talent remained unrealized. However, Ivan is still young and, of course, he has everything ahead of him. Now Panfilov and Churikova are waiting forin the near future, the son will shoot his film (he graduated from film school in London).
