February 2016 marks fourteen years since the death of People's Artist of the Soviet Union Lev Kulidzhanov, whose grave is located on the Kuntsevsky churchyard in the capital of our Motherland.
For more than a seventy-seven-year period, this film director managed to leave a fairly significant mark on Soviet and Russian cinematography, as well as in the social and cultural life of the state.
Children and school years
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose nationality is indicated as "Russian" in many reference books and encyclopedias, was nevertheless born into an Armenian family in the Georgian capital.
The date of his birth is indicated differently in various publications: 1923-19-08 or 1924-19-03.
Father, a well-known party official, was arrested in 1937 and his fate is unknown. Mother was repressed at the same time, exiled to the camp.
The future director Lev Kulidzhanov was brought up by his grandmother. All his childhood and youthful years were spent in the capital of Georgia. Even from the school bench, his active passion for theatrical activities manifested itself. Not without himnot a single school play managed, while he participated as a playwright, and director, and actor.
Young years
After graduating from high school in 1942, he became an evening student at Tbilisi State University, while working as a mechanic at a factory. During the war, the enterprise was engaged in the production of weapons.
During the period of rest from study and work, Lev Kulidzhanov studied at the acting school of the Georgian State Film Industry. There he met the sister of a friend, who studied at VGIK as a screenwriter. She refused to be evacuated to Kazakhstan with her classmates and stayed with her relatives in Georgia.
Her love for cinematography and fascinating conversations about cinematography led to the fact that Kulidzhanov Lev decided to become a student of the directing faculty of VGIKA.
Dream come true
When the institute returned to Moscow in 1943, the girl went to study, giving Kulidzhanov a promise to send information about what was needed for admission to directing.
By this time, Lev had to leave the plant, because after suffering pneumonia, a focus of tuberculosis began to develop in his body. The military registration and enlistment office considered him a non-combatant.
With the help of relatives, by the summer of 1944, the development of the disease was stopped, the foci began to scar. By this time, Lev Kulidzhanov, having received the promised conditions for entering the directing department of VGIKA, prepared everything necessary (the corresponding package of certificates, as well aswork for the creative competition) and sent it along with the application to the institute's admission committee.
VGIK fees
N. Fokina once wrote the book "Lev Kulidzhanov. Comprehension of the profession", the hero of which talks about this period in this way.
All gatherings took place under the guidance of grandmother Tamara Nikolaevna, who was a spectator of all her grandson's rehearsals. For admission, the future student was chosen by Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", he constantly frightened his grandmother with a Germanic exclamation about an old woman.
Life in wartime was pretty poor. Grandmother bought insulated pants for the trip, knitted a woolen sweater. From a blanket and a small mattress, the bed was equipped with it.
From my step-grandfather, a soldier, I got a piece of jeans, from which trousers were sewn by a local tailor with the wrong side of the fabric outward, since such material was new.
Grandma was asked to bring apples to sell, half a bag. She believed that in this way Leo would be able to get the money to start.
However, the commercial activity was not successful, no one bought the fruits, and they eventually deteriorated.
Education at VGIK
Lev Kulidzhanov entered the first time, the examinations were conducted by Kozitsin G. M.
Having begun training, a half-starved student living in a cold hostel became seriously ill and had to return toGeorgia. By this time my mother had returned from the camp.
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose personal life changed when he met his future wife Natalya Fokina in Tbilisi, was nevertheless very worried about leaving the institute. He constantly had doubts about his physical abilities, he was afraid that he would never be able to return there.
However, the year 1948 was marked by the fact that they again managed to start their studies at the VGIK workshop, which was led by Gerasimov S. A. and Makarova T. F. He completed his studies in 1955.
Classmates remember his outstanding acting skills. Gerasimov even invited him to take additional exams in dancing and singing, in order to get a second diploma along with a director's diploma - acting.
The graduate refused this offer, citing the fact that there is no need for a second diploma. The offer itself, of course, speaks volumes.
Starting creative work
Kulidzhanov Lev Aleksandrovich began his creative activity with the debut of Chekhov's short films "Ladies" in 1955. The co-author of the film was Hovhannisyan G.
Further, Kulidzhanov chose J. Segel as a partner, with whom the picture "It began like this …" was shot the following year, its heroes were the first conquerors of virgin lands.
A year later, the same duet filmed the film "The House I Live In", about the pre-war and post-war fate of the residents of one of the Moscow courtyards.
On thatFor a period of time in the cinematic environment, directorial tandems were in vogue, it is worth remembering Daneliya and Talankina, Mironer and Khutsiev, S altykov and Mitta, Alov and Naumov.
From the first films, Kulidzhanov raised not only questions of the modern world order, but also looked at the relationship between the public and the personal, created images of an ordinary person with his spiritual anxieties, experiences, hopes.
From the screen, close, understandable people addressed the viewer, whose pronounced individuality, regardless of social status, corresponded to the views of the author.
Kulidzhanov Lev Aleksandrovich, filmography
From 1959, starting with "Father's House", Kulidzhanov began to shoot films on his own.
In 1961, he shot his best work "When the Trees Were Big", where he spoke about the so-called little people with unusual sincerity, soulfulness, lyricism, warmth and humanity.
Even in Nikulin's drunkard - Kuzma Iordanov - the viewer sees a human essence that evokes true sympathy and love.
The film "Crime and Punishment" after Dostoevsky impressed the audience with its cinematic expressiveness, the pictorial series is shown sharply and even cruelly.
For this picture Kulidzhanov Lev Aleksandrovich, whose biography contains not only difficult, but also very bright periods, was awarded the Russian State Prize in 1971.
Difficulties of the Soviet period
CertainThe director had to overcome difficulties while working on the documentary "Star Minute" (1972-75) about Gagarin's space flight, when Kulidzhanov's expressiveness and paradox in the reflection of historical events did not find understanding among the nomenklatura leadership in charge of the country's cultural life.
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose filmography is simply amazing in its diversity, sought to humanize and add drama to the images of Soviet idols - V. I. Lenin (the film "The Blue Notebook", 1963) and Marx (the series "Karl Marx. Young Years", 1980). Although the last picture was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1982, it is rather difficult to call these two works highly artistic, the author had to deal with the idealization of these controversial political and historical figures under pressure "from above".
The director's last films were "It's Not Scary to Die", filmed in 1991, and "Forget-Me-Nots" in 1994.
Community activities
Until the end of his days Lev Kulidzhanov did a lot of public and administrative work.
In 1962, he joined the ranks of the CPSU. In 1963-64, he headed the main department of feature cinematography at the Union State Film Agency.
1964 - Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Film Union of the country. The first congress of cinematographers elected the director to the post of first secretary of the board of the Union. He held this position for 23 years.1986-89 - artistic director of the film epic "20th century".
Since 1976, Kulidzhanov bore the title of people'sartist of the Soviet Union, since 1984 - Hero of Socialist Labor. He was a professor, corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic, served as candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, headed the Society for Cultural Relations "Mexico - USSR".
