- Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov ( _ru. Григорий Васильевич Александров - original family name was Мормоненко or Mormonenko; [Jay Leyda. "Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film." Princeton University Press, 1983. Page 124n.]
23 January ,1903 -16 December ,1983 ) was a prominent Sovietfilm director who was named aPeople's Artist of the USSR in 1947 and aHero of Socialist Labor in 1973. He was awarded theStalin Prize s for 1941 and 1950.Initially associated with
Sergei Eisenstein , with whom he worked as a co-director,screenwriter andactor , Aleksandrov became a major director in his own right in the 1930s, when he directed "Jolly Fellows" and a string of other musical comedies starring his wifeLyubov Orlova .Though Aleksandrov remained active until his death, his musicals, amongst the first made in the
Soviet Union , remain his most popular films. They rivalIvan Pyryev 's films as the most effective and light-hearted showcase ever designed for Stalinist Russia. [See, e.g., Evgenii Dobrenko, Eric Naiman. "The Landscape of Stalinism: The Art and Ideology of Soviet Space". University of Washington Press, 2003. Page 205.]Early life and collaboration with Eisenstein
Aleksandrov was born Grigori Vasilyevich Murmorenko in
Ekaterinburg, Russia in 1903. Starting at age nine, Aleksandrov worked odd jobs at the Ekaterinburg Opera Theater, eventually making his way toassistant director . He also pursued a musical education, studyingviolin at the Ekaterinburg Musical School, from which he graduated in 1917.Aleksandrov came to
Moscow after studying directing and briefly managing amovie theater . In 1921, while acting with theProletcult Theatre he met a then 23-year-oldSergei Eisenstein . Eisenstein and Aleksandrov collaborated on several plays before Eisenstein made his first feature length film, "Strike", which Aleksandrov co-wrote with Eisenstein,Ilya Kravchunovsky , andValeryan Pletnyov . Next came Eisenstein's landmark "The Battleship Potemkin ", in which Aleksdanrov played Ippolit Giliarovsky. Aleksandrov co-directed Eisenstein's next two features, "" and "The General Line ", which were also their last works in the silent era.Along with Eisenstein's other major collaborator,
cinematographer Eduard Tisse , Aleksandrov joined the director when he came toHollywood in the early 1930s. He also traveled with them to Mexico for the filming of Eisenstein's unrealized project about the country. An edited version of the footage, known as "¡Qué viva México! ", was put together by Aleksandrov in 1979.Musical comedies
Aleksandrov returned to the Soviet Union in 1932 under direct orders from
Stalin . He directed a pro-Stalin film, "International" ("Интернационал"), the following year and after a meeting with Stalin andMaxim Gorky , he embarked on making the first Soviet musical, "Jolly Fellows ", starringLeonid Utyosov andLyubov Orlova , whom Aleksandrov would later marry. Orlova had been previoulsy married to an economist who had been arrested in 1930. She would go on to star in his most successful films: "Circus", "Volga Volga ", and "Bright Path ".After World War II
Aleksdandrov's first
postwar film was "Spring", another musical comedy starring Lyubov Orlova, as well as several other top-notch actors, includingNikolai Cherkasov ,Erast Garin , andFaina Ranevskaya .Popular public figures in the Soviet Union, Aleksandrov and Orlova had a difficult relationship with Stalin, who admired their films (he reportedly gave a print of "
Volga Volga " as a present toFranklin Delano Roosevelt ) but frequently harassed the pair, imprisoning or executing several of their close friends. Paradoxically, Aleksandrov found it harder to work in the more politically relaxed atmosphere that followed Stalin's death. He taught directing atVGIK from 1951 to 1957 and made several films about the years leading up to the Russian Revolution, including several aboutLenin .His last narrative feature was "
Skvorets i Lira " ("Skoverts and Lira") (1973), which starred Orlova in her last role and was not released. Orlova died in 1975. In 1983, he worked on a documentary about the career of his late wife. He died in December of that year of a kidney infection and was buried next to Orlova inNovodevichy Cemetery inMoscow .References
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