Файл: DENISENKO1.pdf

Notes:

1.household – семья;

2.to thrive – преуспевать;

3.to forgo – отказываться;

4.heiress – наследница;

5.straight-to-video – кинофильм, который выпускается сразу на видео до или вместо его выхода на экраны;

6.to garner – (зд.) получать;

7.low-key – слабый, не производящий впечатления;

8.to take notice – замечать;

9.budding – подающий надежды;

10.to join the ranks – пополнять ряды;

11.household name – общеизвестное имя;

12.character-driven – ориентированный на героя;

13.tomboy – девчонка сорванец;

14.crush – (амер. разг.) страсть.

EISENSTEIN AS A TEACHER

S. M. Eisenstein is world famous as a great film-director, a great theoretician of film-art and a stage-producer. But not many people know that in addition to that he was a great teacher. Few know how much of his life and personality, how much attention he gave to class-teaching at VGIK.

As a teacher he was outstanding. He was an artist-teacher. He taught with not less talent and enthusiasm than he made his films and stageproductions. He was a teacher to everybody who wanted to become a filmdirector and everybody was able to learn from him.

Eisenstein really believed that there existed universal guiding principles of all artistic expression and he was to find and formulate them. He was sure that the study of those guiding principles might help to understand the artistic methods of any art. He believed that the future director had no right to ignore anything that could make him better as a man and specialist. «The director is to be an architect, a poet, a painter, a composer – all in one, but in the first place a film-artist,» said S. M. Eisenstein.

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Eisenstein considered the work of the director as a continuation of the creative work of the scenario-writer. That's why he gave so much attention to the director's ability to express the ideas of the scenario most vividly.

When we speak about Eisenstein as a teacher, we should remember that he often invited actors, artists, musicians, or art-historians to his class. He loved to give «a lecture in two voices». His lectures in two voices were especially interesting when he came with N. M. Tarabukin, an art-historian, to discuss compositional structure in painting.

When he came with actors they had to show their work at the character that they were to play. They had to analyse the work at the image.

But really, the most interesting lessons were those which S. M. Eisenstein gave himself on the compositional structure of the film.

When he began a new theme he never started with a lecture. He always showed himself how to solve production problems. He made everything clear. The students could not only watch and follow what he was doing, but they could take part in what the master was doing. This was an original way to «think aloud». This type of lessons created a very good intimate contact between teacher and class. His students could make any comments, give any ideas. The master organically developed them. He did it so artistically and fundamentally that any student was able to see what was good and what was bad in their ideas and why. Such lessons gave practical experience, formed the students' artistic imagination and vision. Eisenstein taught them to think creatively. His students never could and will never be able to forget Eisenstein's lessons.

Notes:

1.in addition to – кроме этого;

2.stage-production – театральная постановка;

3.all in one – все в одном лице;

4.art-historian – искусствовед;

5.an original way – оригинальный способ.

LEONID GAIDAI

Leonid Iovich Gaidai was born on January 30, 1923, in the town of Svobodny, Amur region of Siberia, USSR. He was the third child in the family of a railroad worker. His father, Iov Isidorovich Gaidai, was exiled to Siberia

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from Poltava, the Ukraine. His mother, Maria Ivanovna Lubimova, came from the Russian city of Ryazan. In 1930 the family moved to the Siberian city Irkutsk. There Gaidai went to school and finished it in June 1941.

In 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Russia in the Second World War, Gaidai was drafted in the Red Army. He was assigned to the front-line Army intelligence at the Kalinin Front near Moscow. He was involved in clandestine intelligence operations against the Nazi invaders because he spoke German. In 1943 he was seriously wounded, when he stepped on a land mine. He became physically handicapped and was decorated for his courage. He was discharged with honors as a disabled veteran of World War II.

Gaidai went back to Siberian city Irkutsk. He studied acting at the Drama Studio of the Irkutsk Drama Theatre. He graduated from the studio in 1947, and was an actor of that theatre until 1949. From 1949-1955 he studied as film director at State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) under Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Romm, and Ivan Pyryev. From 1955 Gaidai was a film director at the Mosfilm Studios under his mentor Mikhail Romm. Gaidai used literary material by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov, Mikhail A. Bulgakov, Mikhsil Zoschenko, and O, Henry among other writers.

His early films of the 1950's had little success. In the 1960's Gaidai created the «goldmine» with comediansYuri Nikulin, Georgiy Vitsin, Yevgeni Morgunov, and Aleksandr Demyanenko. Comedies with those actors were the highest-grossing box office hits ever in the Soviet Union with the attendance of 222, 800, 000 in the first 15 months. Total admissions of the Gaidai's comedies during the 1960's only in the USSR exceeded 600, 000, 000 without counting the reruns and the international sales.

During the 1970s and 1980s Gaidai worked with the best comedians of the Soviet cinema, such as Evgeni Leonov, Leonid Kuravlyov, Archil Gomiashvili, Mikhail Pugovkin, Yuriy Yakovlev and many other renown actors. Alhough the inevitable changes in society during «perestroika» affected the film industry, Gaidai's films still remained on the top. Gaidai's comedies on video even gained popularity after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a 1995 poll in Russia, «Diamond arm» (1968) was voted the best Russian comedy ever.

Financial success did not reach Gaidai personally, he lived in a co-op flat and had one car, «Lada», driven by his wife, actress Nina Grebeshkova for many years. She was the fortress behind his success by being a quiet help and

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never demanding more than they had. She described her husband, Gaidai, as being similar to the popular character 'Shurik' in his films.

Notes:

1.to be exiled – быть сосланным;

2.to be drafted in – быть призванным в…;

3.clandestine operations – тайные операции;

4.physically handicapped – с физическими недостатками;

5.to discharge with honours – увольнять с почестями;

6.a disabled veteran – нетрудоспособный ветеран.

ROLAN BYKOV

Rolan (Roland) Anatolyevich Bykov was born on November 12, 1929, in Kiev. In 1951 he finished the actor's department of the theatrical school of B. V. Shchukin and until 1958 he was an actor of Moscow Theater for Youths. In 1958-1960 Bykov worked as the director of Leningrad (St. Peterburg) Lenin Komsomol theater, led the student theater of Moscow State University. In 1960 Rolan Bykov started working for motion picture studio Mosfilm, where he was an actor at first, and later became a director. In movies he started in 1954, the first role after playing in the film of Vladimir Basov «School of Courage». His artistic range is extraordinarily wide: from comic and satiric roles to the powerful dramatic ones, created by actor in the collaboration with the best directors of Soviet and Russian cinema. Among his best films as an actor, most notable pictures are: movie versions of the Gogol's works «The Overcoat» and «Nose», «Andrei Rublev» by Andrei Tarkovski, «Commissar» by Aleksander Askoldov, «Once there served two friends» by Evgeny Karelov, «Dead Season» by Savva Kulish, «Check up on the Roads» by Aleksey German, «Adventures of Buratino» by Leonid Nechaev, «Dead man’s letters» by Konstantin Lopushansky, «It» by Sergey Ovcharov.

His debut as a director in the cinema took place in 1962, when he directed comedy «Too many cooks». His second movie «Lost Summer» was also a comedy (together with N. Orlov). The film «Aybolit 66», directed by him and based on fairy tale by Korney Chukovsky, became noticeable step in the development of musical comedy in Russian cinema, and the role of Barmaley played by Bykov himself was one of the bright pages of his acting biography. He can be rightfully called one of the best directors of children's cin-

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ema, and the films created by him such as «Attention, Turtle!», «Telegramm», «Automobile, violin and «Kliaksa», the dog» and especially «Chuchelo» are part of «Golden Fund» of Soviet cinematography. In 1989 Rolan Bykov organized the All-Union center of cinema and television for children and youth, later reorganized into the 'International Fund for development of cinema and television for children and the youth', and after death of the outstanding director it was named after him.

Rolan Bykov died on October 6, 1998, having lived one year and one month short of his 70th anniversary.

Notes:

1.noticeable step – заметный (значительный) шаг;

2.bright pages – яркие страницы;

3.«Golden Fund» – Золотой фонд;

4.to reorganize – преобразовывать;

5.to be named after… – быть названным в честь…

ELDAR RYAZANOV

The name of Eldar Ryazanov is popular with film-goers because for almost forty years now he has been making comedies. Fame came to him long age and came, on the face of it, very easily. His very first feature, «Carnival Night», a musical comedy, was at once popular. It was the greatest hit ever, and after the noisy success of the first public performance at the end of 1956, «Carnival Night», was on the screen for years and years. Audiences loved it, film critics sang its praises at the top of their voices. Thus, the young film director began his career under circumstances which were more than favourable. But his career turned out to be neither straightforward nor easy.

The initial roaring success turned into a weighty burden later, because it made him feel some particular obligations, it demanded repetitions. Spectators would not accept anything less than another «Carnival Night». But the director appeared to possess a peculiar quality, which was that he could not stand any repetitions whatsoever, even a repetition of success. In each of his new films he would depart from what he had previously gained; he would not use the same trick twice, however felicitous. He was forever seeking a new style,

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a new manner, a new treatment of the genre. Eldar Ryazanov has produced 12 film-comedies (by 1988), all very funny and yet with hidden depths. Subtly and with kind humour, they all take up the little everyday things that bring us joy or sadness, making us smile from the heart.

«My favourite character, the one I take from one film to the next», says Ryazanov, «is the person on integrity. Always a bit naive and totally unselfish, he has his own yardstick of good and bad, a measure that those around him sometimes fail to comprehend. A very sociable character, he is considerate and responsive».

Notes:

1.to depart from – отклоняться, отступать от чего-либо;

2.to sing one’s praises – восхвалять;

3.under circumstances – при обстоятельствах;

4.neither straightforward nor easy – ни простой, ни легкой;

5.integrity – честность, целостность;

6.own yardstick – собственное мерило (критерий оценки).

NIKITA MIKHALKOV

Nikita Mikhalkov (his full name is Nikita Sergeyevich MikhalkovKonchalovsky) was born in the distinguished artistic Mikhalkov family in 1945. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess. Nikita's father, Sergei Mikhalkov, is a wellknown children's writer, although he also wrote lyrics to his country's national anthem on three different occasions spanning nearly 60 years – two different sets of lyrics used for the Soviet national anthem, and the current lyrics of the Russian national anthem. Nikita's mother, the poetess Natalia Konchalovskaya, was the daughter of the avant-garde artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and granddaughter of another outstanding painter, Vasily Surikov. Nikita's elder brother is a filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky, primarily known for his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and his own Hollywood action movies, such as «Runaway Train«.

Mikhalkov studied acting at the children's studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and later at the Schukin School of the Vakhtangov Theatre. While still a student, he appeared in Georgi Daneliya's film «I Step Through Moscow»

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(1964) and his brother Andrei Konchalovsky's film «Home of the Gentry» (1969). He was soon on his way to becoming a star of the Soviet stage and cinema.

While continuing to pursue his acting career, he entered VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under filmmaker Mikhail Romm. He directed his first short film «I'm Coming Home» (1968) and another for his graduation «A Quiet Day at the End of the War» (1970). Mikhalkov had appeared in over twenty films, including his brother's «Uncle Vanya» (1972), before he co-wrote, directed and starred in his first feature, «At Home Among Strangers« (1974), a Red Western set just after the 1920s civil war in Russia.

Mikhalkov established an international reputation with his second feature, «A Slave of Love» (1976). Set in 1917, it followed the efforts of a film crew to make a silent melodrama in a resort town while the Revolution rages around them. The film, based upon the last days of Vera Kholodnaya, was highly acclaimed upon its release in the U. S.

Mikhalkov's next film, «An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano» (1977) was adapted by Mikhalkov from Chekhov's early play, Platonov, and won the first prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 1978, while starring in his brother's epic film «Siberiade«, Mikhalkov made «Five Evenings», a love story about a couple separated by World War II, who meet again after eighteen years. Mikhalkov's next film «Oblomov» (1980) with Oleg Tabakov in the title role is based on Ivan Goncharov's classic novel about a lazy young nobleman who refuses to leave his bed. «Family Relations» (1981) is a comedy about a provincial woman in Moscow dealing with the tangled relationships of her relatives. «Without Witnesses» (1983) tracks a long night's conversation between a woman and her ex-husband when they are accidentally locked in a room.

In the early 1980s, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, appearing in Eldar Ryazanov's immensely popular «Station for Two» (1982) and «A Cruel Romance» (1984). At that period, he also played Henry Baskerville in the Soviet screen version of «The Hound of the Baskervilles». He also starred in many of his own films, including «At Home Among Strangers«, «A Slave of Love», «An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano» and «Burnt by the Sun».

Incorporating several short stories by Chekhov, «Dark Eyes« (1987) stars Marcello Mastroianni as an old man who tells a story of a romance

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he had when he was younger, a woman he has never been able to forget. The film was highly praised, and Mastroianni received the Best Actor Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Mikhalkov's next film, «Urga» (1992, «a. k. a. Close to Eden»), set in the little known world of the Mongols, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Mikhalkov's «Anna: 6–18» (1993) documents his daughter Anna as she grows from childhood to maturity.

Mikhalkov's most famous production to date, «Burnt by the Sun» (1994), was steeped in the nervous atmosphere of Stalinist purges. The film received the Grand Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, among many other honours. As of 2000, «Burnt by the Sun» was the top grossing movie to come out of the former Soviet Union.

Mikhalkov’s epic film «The Barber of Siberia» (1998) which opened the 1998 Cannes Film Festival was designed as a patriotic extravagance for domestic consumption. It featured Julia Ormond and Oleg Menshikov, who regularly appears in Mikhalkov's films, in the leading roles. The director himself appeared as Tsar Alexander III of Russia.

Mikhalkov was elected the President of the Russian Society of Cinematographists and has managed the Moscow Film Festival since 2000. He also set the Russian Academy Golden Eagle Award in opposition to the traditional Nika Award.

In 2005, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, starring in «The Councillor of State», a mystery film which broke the Russian box-office records.

On September 8, 2007, Mikhalkov’s film «12« has received a special Golden Lion for the «consistent brilliance» of its work and was praised by many critics at the Venice Film Festival.

On January 22, 2008, film «12» was named as a nominee for the 2008 Academy Awards. Commenting on the nomination, Mikhalkov said, «I am overjoyed that the movie has been noticed in the United States and, what's more, was included in the shortlist of five nominees. This is a significant event for me».

Mikhalkov's first wife was a renowned Russian actress Anastasiya Vertinskaya, whom he married on March 6, 1967. They had a son, Stepan Mikhalkov, born in September 1966.

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