Not one true connoisseur of cinematography knows the Soviet and Russian director, actor and teacher Valery Vladimirovich Fokin. The biography, personal life and creative activity of this wonderful person will be presented to your attention in the article. So let's get started.
Valery Vladimirovich Fokin: biographical information
- Date of birth – 1946-28-02
- Place of birth - Moscow, Moscow region, USSR.
- Worked at the Sovremennik Theater (1970-1985), the Yermolova Theater in Moscow (1985-1991), since 1991 - artistic director of the Central Theater Institute, since 2003 - artistic director of the Alexandrinsky Theater.
- From 1975-1979 - worked as a teacher at GITIS.
- Teaches at a theater school in Poland (from 1993 to 1994) and theaters in Japan, conducts master classes around the world: in Spain, Sweden, Bulgaria.
- Member of the People's Headquarters.
- Confidant of presidential candidate V. V. Putin (2012).
- Supported the annexation of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation in 2014.
Childhood and adolescence
Valery was a very gifted guy from childhood, he drew well, studied at an art school, planned to become a famous artist and connect his future life with art. Perhaps that is why even then he was attracted to the theater.
Entered the Moscow Art School in memory of 1905. After graduation, he began working as a set designer. Designing theatrical productions at the Zuev Palace of Culture, he thoroughly pursued his dream. In 1970 he graduated from the theater school named after B. V. Shchukin. The performances for the diploma work were performed in French. Even in his student years, he managed to stage his first 3 performances, which were a huge success. For example, the play "Someone else's wife and husband under the bed" is a wonderful interpretation of Dostoevsky.
Valery Fokin: filmography
The list of films of our hero is quite impressive, since works directed by Fokine began to appear since 1974. The first was a production of Dombey and Son. From 1976 to 1980, 4 more performances were released on TV screens: “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt”, “Between Heaven and Earth”, “Cousin Pons”, “Deficit on Mazaev”. In 1982 - the melodramatic story "Transit", in 1992 - the drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", in 1996 - again a drama, but "The Karamazovs and Hell", in 1999 - a 40-minute documentary "Mysteries of the Inspector", in 2002 - the dramatic story "Transformation". Of the most recent works in the filmography of director Valery Fokin, it is worth highlighting: the dramatic "Memories of the Future", 2014, and "The Overcoat" - 2004,tragic comedy "NN Hotel Room" - 2003.
Family
The personal life of director Valery Fokin is not on public display. It is known that he is divorced, has two sons: Fokin Orest Valerievich and Fokin Kirill Valerievich. Ex-wife Ekaterina Fokina is currently married for the second time.
Awards
Valery Vladimirovich over the years of work in theater and cinema has many awards and honorary titles, among them People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Poland, RSFSR, Laureate of the Stanislavsky State Prize, awards in the field of literature and arts for 2000, 2003, 2017, was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of the fourth, third and second degrees, diplomas from the Mayor of Moscow, and this is not the whole list.
Interesting facts
After graduating from the theater school, he devoted more than 15 years of his life to the Sovremennik Theater. Every year he staged at least one performance in his theater and on other theatrical stages in Moscow.
Critics called it versatile, fragmentary, even styleless, because all the performances were so different and not similar to each other that they simply defied common sense. He staged a deep and sad play about love, separation and death “Don't part with your loved ones” in 1972; Performances based on Dostoevsky’s works (“And I’ll go! And I’ll go!” - 1976) alternate with The Inspector GeneralGogol (1983) and the production of Love and Doves (1982).
Fokine does not have one style, he is multifaceted and unique, therefore he filmed on the stage of the theater "Do not shoot at white swans" - about cruelty, evil and suffering, "The Taste of Cherry", where both laughter and tears are mixed. The last performance on the stage of Sovremennik under his direction was released in 2004. This is Gogol's "Overcoat", which has become, in fact, a step towards the creation of a new theater ready for innovation.
"Speak!" with Fokin
In 1985, director Valery Fokin, whose films quickly found their audience, moved to a new stage - he headed the Yermolova Theater and staged the play "Speak!", which was the main theatrical event of that time. It was shown in telerotation so that absolutely everyone could see it. The play by A. M. Buravsky based on Ovechkin's essays was a dubbing of events in the USSR in the 50s. Meetings of district committees, collective farmers, to whom the managers do not care, but have their own problems and concerns on their minds. And everyone has one goal - to fight for truth and honor. Fokin managed to lure the viewer even with such simple material.
Baluev still remembers the production, and how a Georgian woman was simply brought into the hall with a crowd of people who wanted to, although, as she believed, she was standing in line for cosmetics. As a result, the door was also broken. This is the popularity Fokine brought to the theater, and he himself received an award for his contribution to art and literature. He then directed "Sports Scenes 1981", "Second Year of Freedom", "Invitation to the Execution" and "Possessed".
Fokincreates CIM with his own hands
Since 1986, Valery Vladimirovich has chaired the commission on Meyerhold's creative heritage. In 1991, he created a new powerful theater to develop and support directing based on the experience of Giorgio Strehler, who organized a combined theater in Milan from many independent institutions. The new institution brought together the most talented directors, who, unfortunately, did not fit the format of the Bolshoi Theater. And since 1999, CIM has been a state-owned enterprise. For educational activities in the field of development and support of the heritage of Meyerhold, Fokin received a state award. In 2001, the CIM moved to a new building on Novoslobodskaya, where until 2011 Valery Vladimirovich was the director and artistic director, and after that he was the president of the CIM.
The mystical-fiction adaptation of Gogol and his "Dead Souls" brings Valery Vladimirovich the "Golden Mask" and a nomination for best director. Fokin himself said that the idea of the performance was being prepared for a long time. With any production of Gogol, the director had the feeling that he was missing something, that there were some elusive moments, that the author had a different language, not so rude and standard. Therefore, several episodes of "Dead Souls" were chosen, read in a completely new way. This production makes you feel what the characters lived and thought, what they listened to, what smells they smelled. These are not standard scenes about the sale and purchase of souls, but a modern vision with inherent lightness, weight and tangibility.
“Transformation” according to Fokin
"Transformation" - the author's work together with AlexanderBakshi based on a novel by Franz Kafka brought 3 awards and was nominated in 5 festivals (1995-1998, 2001). According to the creators, this is a new direction of theatrical search, for which the motto was the words of Kafka himself that the theater becomes strong when it can make the unreal real. For this performance, not just the best directors, directors, cameramen, but real sculptors of their craft were gathered.
Fokine and his performances
In 1996, in the two capitals of Russia - St. Petersburg and Moscow - the festival Valery Fokin. Three Performances at the Manege” and “The Transformations of Valery Fokin”. In his work, he focuses on the most acute and painful topics of the whole country in the past and now, perfectly analyzes the characters of the characters, recreates the pictures of that time - no matter classical or modern. Therefore, his works are of great interest abroad, performances are staged in the USA, Hungary, Poland, Japan, Germany and France.
The Living Corpse at the Alexandrinsky Theater
Since 2003, Valery Vladimirovich has been the artistic director and director of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. And immediately the director Valery Fokin begins to work actively, staging The Government Inspector, Your Gogol and Gogol's Marriage, filming Dostoevsky with his The Double and Liturgy ZERO (based on the novel The Gambler), Shakespeare's classic Hamlet and Tolstoy's Living Corpse. The latter continues a series of Fokin's reflections on the relationship of the individual, which is inherent in tragedy and disappointment, with reality: cruel, soulless and greedy,prompting a person to leave this mortal world.
With his personal attitude to the characters, director Valery Fokin infects the entire cast, calling for reasoning about the strength and weakness of the Russian people. After all, he himself argued that modern civilization, with its scientific discoveries and technologies, also brought destruction, all entertainment became available, there was no taboo for anything. And only the theater, with its culture, customs and traditions, should set an example for the younger generation and teach them how to live the right way.
"Today. 2016" - a play by the son of Cyril
On the seventieth birthday of Valery Vladimirovich - in 2016 - the festival "Valery Fokin's Ten Performances" was held, which showed all the stages of his work in St. Petersburg and presented them to the audience. It ended on the director's birthday - February 28 - with the production of “Today. 2016".
This performance is the story of the son of Cyril, skillfully filmed by his father with the help of the latest technologies, about alien lives that save the human world from themselves and self-destruction. Genre - politics, detective and science fiction. The plot itself is based on an unknown civilization that is watching people and wants to stop fratricide. They want to destroy nuclear weapons, to bring morality and peaceful thoughts into the minds of people. But humanity does not aspire to this. Fokin himself claims that he staged this performance with pleasure, even if the idea was not his son's. He always reads Kirill's scripts and draws something for his productions.
WithinMarathon hosted the presentation of the book by the artistic director "Conversations about the National Theater" and the production of "Masquerade" in memory of Meyerhold.
About young Stalin (2017)
Director Valery Fokin, whose biography was the subject of our review, is working on a production about Stalin's youth. The first version has already been prepared for rehearsals. Work is underway in collaboration with A. Solomonov. In January 2018, a performance about Schweik is planned to be released. And in February, rehearsals of a play about Stalin are already planned. The protagonist there is young, ambitious and little by little begins to think about freedom through revolution. The plot itself is focused on what prompted such a young man to become the most influential person, how his worldview and thoughts were formed at that moment. After all, his character combined both a bandit who attacked banks in his youth, and a diligent student, the best in the seminary. And these two personalities will constantly clash - both old and young.
Budapest Dostoevsky
The artistic directors of the Alexandrinsky Theater and the Budapest National Theater conducted an experiment and staged performances based on Dostoevsky's works. When a colleague chose the standard version of crime and punishment, Fokin took to work a very extraordinary story "Crocodile". Indeed, at one time, all segments of the population were affected by the "Crocodile", everyone took it as a personal insult, the work caused just a storm of aggression and unflattering words. But Fokin was not afraid and recreated a whole spectacle with a huge figure of a crocodile and a glass cube with panels, managed to extract the metamorphoses of today from the text, translating hispresentation in a modern direction, where there are selfie sticks, greedy press, the desire for immortality, of course, quarrels with the EU. Everything is imbued with topicality, anger and aggression, because this is the story of a man in a crocodile and crocodiles inside everyone.
