The famous Soviet actor, director, screenwriter, theatrical figure and film theorist Sergei Yutkevich came into the world of art as a very young, one might say, a child, and remained in it until the very last days of his long and fruitful life. The creative path of this man was not easy and smooth, but he never turned off the chosen path.
At the dawn of creativity
Yutkevich Sergei Iosifovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1904 (December 28). And already in the seventeenth year, his creative life began. Russia was tormented by the Civil War, but, obsessed with the dream of an acting career, the teenager paid little attention to what was happening in the country and stubbornly walked towards his goal.
A young actor, artist, assistant director named Sergei Yutkevich Sevastopol and Kyiv can rightfully be called their "chick" - after all, it was the theaters of these cities that "feathered" a potential star, it was here that the future People's Artist of the Soviet Union received his first practical experience and honed his skills.
Butpractice is practice, and without education you won’t get far, and the young nugget understood this very well. In 1921, seventeen-year-old Sergei Yutkevich entered the theater and art department of VKhUTEMAS, from which he graduated in 1923. The same period dates back to his studies at the State Higher Director's Workshops, led by Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Revolutionary Art
The period during which Sergei Yutkevich's first steps in art fell was characterized by rapid changes in the life of the country. Russia said goodbye to everything old and inspired to build a new one. Naturally, the revolutionary mood also affected the acting environment.
In 1922, Yutkevich S. and G. Kozintsev, with the assistance of L. Trauberg and G. Kryzhitsky, issued a manifesto under the loud title "Eccentrism", which became the theoretical foundation of FEKS (Factory of the eccentric actor). The goal of the authors of the manifesto was to create a completely new, revolutionary art, which they were going to give to the world, combining different genres: variety art, circus, propaganda work and theater. This was the innovation that the young Soviet state needed.
Two years after the loud statement, Sergei Yutkevich moved from words to deeds and released the film "Give me the radio!", which told about the life of homeless children in the capital. In this eccentric comedy, the director tried to embody the idea of mixing genres. The electorate received the picture with enthusiasm.
And two years later, Yutkevich created the Experimental Film Group and became its leader. The search for new forms in artcontinue.
Lenfilm
In 1928, Yutkevich the director began to gain authority, and he was appointed head of the First Film Workshop at Lenfilm.
Having received such an important position, Sergei Iosifovich is trying to realize his creative ideas as much as possible, but that was not the case. The Soviet state needed films of a certain theme, and the directors did not dare to turn off the direct socialist path and realize some of their plans.
At first, Yutkevich still tried to somehow combine his experiments with social order ("Black sail", "Lace"), but he did not last long. The films "Oncoming", "Golden Mountains", etc., shot under the direction of a young director a little later than those mentioned above, are already saturated with ideology through and through.
For the sake of power
From time to time Sergei Yutkevich makes attempts to escape from the cage. One of these can be called the documentary film "Ankara - the heart of Turkey", where reliable factual material is effectively combined with a peculiar plot. This experiment was a success for Yutkevich.
But by the mid-thirties, I had to give up liberties - a very disturbing time was coming. Starting around 1934, Sergei Iosifovich shoots only what can and should be shot. He understands that the time is not right for creative experiments.
Paintings "Miners", "Man with a gun", "Yakov Sverdlov", etc., created in the second half of the thirties,praised by critics and even awarded state prizes. But they had practically no artistic value. The main thing in them was the Soviet ideology.
By the way, in the film "A Man with a Gun" Yutkevich first touched on the theme of Lenin, which later became one of the most important in his future work.
Jack of all trades
Yutkevich Sergey was noted in the world of art not only as a director. He also proved to be a successful administrator, heading the Soyuzdetfilm studio, an authoritative teacher, an enthusiastic art critic, a talented theorist, etc., often acting in all these roles at the same time. He even had a chance to work as a director in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the People's Committee of Internal Affairs from 1939 to 1946.
In general, the pre-war and war years were marked for Yutkevich by a burst of creative activity. He even managed to shoot several "out of the box" films, among which, for example, the comedy "Schweik's New Adventures". During this period, the maestro was just like hot cakes. Students who were lucky enough to study in the directing workshop of Sergei Iosifovich at VGIK recalled that their teacher always disappeared somewhere: either on the set in France, or at some festival, or at Mosfilm. And when he appeared: elegant, fragrant - the students could not take their eyes off him. Sergei Yutkevich, whose photo is presented in this article, has always been distinguished by a bright, memorable appearance. Contemporaries characterized him as an elegant, cheerful andinteresting.
Black stripe
But after the war, a black streak began for Yutkevich. The second half of the forties is perhaps the most difficult period in the life of a filmmaker, and it began with one work on his favorite topic (about Ilyich).
This is a film adaptation of Pogodin's play "Kremlin Chimes", which was supposed to be released under the title "Light over Russia".
After a “tasting” of the picture, the party leadership considered that the image of Lenin was not disclosed in it on a large enough scale, and a flurry of criticism fell upon the author. Everyone remembered Yutkevich, and first of all his pre-war experiments. The director was accused of cosmopolitanism, of currying favor with America and its filmmakers, they called him an esthete and a formalist.
In the forty-ninth year, Sergei Iosifovich was forced to leave VGIK and the All-Russian Research Institute of Art Studies and for some time to move away from directing.
Return and triumph
In 1952, Yutkevich made an attempt to return to the world of cinema by shooting the film Przhevalsky, far from politics, which was a biography of the famous researcher. But the director manages to finally recover on Olympus only after the death of Stalin. And since the mid-fifties, his life is again full of creativity and popular recognition.
The film "The Great Warrior of Albania Skanderberg" receives an award at Cannes. The maestro does not forget about the theater either. He returns to VGIK and tirelessly pleases the audience with his new productions. Literally in the next ten years "from under his pen"there are about thirty performances. The most striking of them, critics call the performances of "Banya", "Bedbug", "Arturo Ui's Career", etc.
Yutkevich actively travels abroad, he is warmly received in France, introduced to the jury of the Cannes Film Festival and even given the post of vice-president of national cinematics.
Together with the French, Sergei Iosifovich is filming the film "A Plot for a Short Story" about Chekhov's personal life. The picture is a great success among European viewers, it was not popular in the Soviet Union.
Lenin
As noted above, one of the main themes in the work of Sergei Yutkevich was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. It was difficult to imagine that the director would turn to this person again after the film Light Over Russia, which brought him so many troubles. Nevertheless, Yutkevich is making the film Stories about Lenin. In it, he actually raises Ilyich to the pedestal of a saint, or at least the most honest, kind and decent person on Earth.
The next work, dedicated to the leader of the proletariat, was the painting "Lenin in Poland", a film adaptation of 1965. It brought great success to Yutkevich and is objectively one of the best in his collection. Here the master finally manages to fully satisfy his long-standing craving for experimentation. The film received an award at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the State Prize of the USSR.
And one more picture was taken by Yutkevich about Ilyich. It is called "Lenin in Paris", the release date is 1981. It can be called the last significant work of Sergei Iosifovich. The film also received the USSR State Prize, but critics call it,to put it mildly, unsuccessful and obscure in terms of artistic value.
On the finish line
Sergei Yutkevich, who began his career as a teenager, did not leave him until the last days of his life. In the eighty-second year, he was still working at the Moscow Musical Chamber Theater, where he staged A. Blok's plays "The Stranger" and "Balaganchik". In addition, the maestro continued to “sculpt” shots for the world of theater and cinema at VGIK, wrote books and even edited the Film Dictionary.
Sergey Yutkevich's family
Sergei Iosifovich Yutkevich was married to his peer, ballet dancer Elena Ilyushchenko. This marriage was his only one. The couple loved each other very much and were able to keep their feelings until old age.
If we talk about what Sergei Yutkevich was proud of in this life, his daughter Marianna must be remembered. After all, she followed in the footsteps of her father and achieved considerable heights in her field. Marianna Yutkevich (Shaternikova) became a film critic, taught, studied the history of cinema.
In 1990, Yutkevich's daughter left the USSR and emigrated to the USA. At that time, her parents were no longer alive.
People's Artist of the USSR Yutkevich died on April 23, 1985. His ashes rest at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Elena Mikhailovna outlived her husband by two years, having died in 1987.
