He was a talented, expansive, and enterprising director. He always tried to show his face in close-up, to expose human feelings, thus ignoring the most daring and unusual cinematic delights. Abram Rome made films in which all attention is focused on a particular person, his problem and hidden secrets. However, the director was constantly looking for new solutions and forms in the cinema, trying to expand the boundaries of classical art. Abram Romm compared a professional actor to a master of technology, a certain machine designed with the latest biomechanics …
Over the years of his work, as many as three cities have become his beloved and family: Vilno, Saratov and Moscow. In one his childhood passed, in the other he took his first steps in art, and in the third he created his best films. However, Abram Romm became famous not only as a director, he was also a talented screenwriter. What was his career and what films brought him national recognition? Let's consider this question in more detail.
Children and teenagers
Abram Matveyevich Rome is a native of the Baltic city of Vilna. He was born on June 28, 1894.
His parents were wealthy people, so they wanted their offspring to receive a decent education. The boy is studying at the gymnasium, and after graduation he enters the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute. A few years later, a civil war begins in the country, and the young man takes a direct part in it.
Beginning of a creative career
At the end of the tenths of the last century, Abram Rome ends up in Saratov. Here, on the stage of the opened Miniature Theater, he staged his first performance. It will take a little time, and the young man will create his own temple of Melpomene called "Dovecote". However, his brainchild will subsequently be closed, having seen elements of philistinism, bourgeoisie and provincialism in the work of Rome. But the young man, who studied at the physician at the University of Saratov, continued to engage in creativity, first as a teacher in the local department of art, and then as rector of the highest state workshops of theatrical art. Well, the leadership of the Children's and Demonstration theaters wanted Abram Matveyevich to stage performances on their stages, and the young man did it with pleasure.
Once A.V. Lunacharsky himself, during his stay in the city on the Volga, saw theatrical performances of the young man and was very pleased with them. The People's Commissar of Education personally spoke with the beginning director and insisted that Abram Rome go to the capital, where he could fully develop his talent.
In 1923, a young man came to Moscow.
Career in the capital
First, he is accepted as a director in the Theater of the Revolution, and then he becomes a teacher at the Higher Pedagogical School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Gradually, interest in cinema woke up in Rome. Soon the young man is trying his hand in a new field.
The first work on the set
It should be noted that Abram Rome, whose filmography includes more than two dozen works in the cinema, also worked on paintings, the shooting of which was never brought to an end.
In the last years of his work, he tried to turn to the classics.
His first work is the comedy Race for Moonshine (1924). In the center of the humorous plot is a journeyman shoemaker who was able to hand over to the police the most ordinary moonshiners. However, all this happens in a dream. Unfortunately, this picture of the maestro has not survived to the present day. Then came the short film “What Mos says, guess this question” (1924). And this work, in which Abram Roma acted as a director and screenwriter, was not preserved. The plot of the picture also remained unsolved.
In 1926, the maestro began filming the full-length film "Bay of Death." However, the story of the events that unfolded on the ship "Swan" during the Civil War, did not cause enthusiastic responses from film critics. The Soviet officials, who felt that the author had tried to reveal too complex topics, did not like the film.
First success
Glory came to Abram Matveevich after the release of the tape "Third Meshchanskaya" (1927). In it, he brought to the fore the man and his feelings. The story of the love triangle excited the inexperienced Soviet audience very much. Abram Rome, whose films became classics of Soviet cinema, demonstrated as clearly as possible how a woman can feel feelings for two men at the same time, for men who are also friends with each other. But in the finale of the picture, the woman leaves both. However, the authorities did not share the enthusiasm of the audience, considering the picture far from the ideas of socialist realism.
In the late 1920s, Abram Rome, whose biography certainly deserves a separate review, takes off another picture incomprehensible to the Soviet regime. We are talking about the "ghost that does not return" (1929). In this film, the maestro draws the attention of the viewer to the fact that even in conditions of isolation from society, a person is capable of degeneration.
Opal
After the release of the feature films “The Third Meshchanskaya” and “The Ghost That Will Not Return”, as well as the documentary “Potholes”, which tells about the life of Jewish colonists, the authorities took a serious offense against Rome.
As a result, the director was “expelled” from Moscow to the capital of the Ukrainian SSR.
Work in Kiev
Here the maestro gets a job at the Ukrainfilm film studio. Soon, Abram Rome, whose photo was regularly published in the Soviet press, begins filming the film "The Strict Young Man" (1935). This philosophical and romantic drama about love will enter the treasury of Soviet cinema. The script was written by Yuri Olesha.
Philosophical love story
There are no clear time boundaries in the film: the “dying” heroes of the past era coexist in parallel: the engraver Fedor Tsitronov, doctor Stepanov and representatives of a new generation whose bodies are folded, like those of Greek athletes. Moreover, they try to be perfect both physically and spiritually, strictly observing the rules of the code of honor, which are based on firmness of mind, sentimentality, perseverance, chastity.
However, in the film there is another set of laws that governs one young girl. His main rule is: “If you want something badly, then indulge your desires, no matter what. You should not restrain your impulses."
The picture is built in the format of eternal competition, a constant struggle for the right to become perfect. Here money does not play any role, there is no social inequality, and everything is done in order to form a new tribe. But the fact that equality cannot be built even in an ideal environment is noteworthy. One can carry out any kind of propaganda, give any kind of edification, but two identical people cannot be raised, no matter how hard you try.
There is a "Lovely Young Man" and a love line. Once again, director Abram Rome raises the topic of unrequited tender feelings. Heroes are forced to make a choice, despite the fact that, from a moral point of view, it is complicated. Thus, the maestro clearly proved - even in an ideal society, there is a place to be unrequited love.
The film turned out to be philosophical and dramatic: for a long time they could not come up with a name. At first they offered "Discobolus", then "Magic Komsomolets", but then changed to "Strict young man". And in 1936, censors forbade to demonstrate this philosophical picture on a wide screen, explaining this by the fact that the plot of the picture is far from reality, and its concept is completely incomprehensible. The film lay on the shelf until the mid-sixties, and only then they began to show it to the mass audience. It should be noted that the problems raised in the tape "Strict young man", and today are relevant.
Creative break
Naturally, after the authorities reacted to the picture “The Strict Young Man”, the maestro can no longer calmly look at how his work is criticized. He no longer makes films, focusing solely on teaching.
But after some time, he suddenly realized that his real vocation was directing.
Second wind
In 1940, Abram Matveyevich came to work for Mosfilm to shoot a movie again. This time he puts pictures censorshipable. The following tapes were approved for viewing: “Squadron No. 5” (1939), “Invasion” (1944), “In the Mountains of Yugoslavia” (1946).
Late stage of creativity
In 1956, Rome turned to the topic of the responsibility of doctors who, by all means, must save human lives. As a result, the film "Heart beats again …" appeared. In the 60s, the maestro directed paintings based on the works of Russian classics. In particular, we are talking about the ribbons “Pomegranate bracelet” (according to Kuprin, 1964), “Flowers are belated” (according to Chekhov, 1969).
Other Role
Abram Matveyevich was not only the director of films, but also the artistic director of such films as “Case No. 306” (1956), “On Count Ruins” (1957). In the film "Kiss Mary Pickford" he tried his hand as an actor.
Contribution to Art
Undoubtedly, Rome became the author of a new direction in the cinema. Modern film experts would call his style hyperrealism, which is based on focusing on the environment, the artist’s play with the thing, and an emphasis on the person’s inner world.
Finding his own niche in art was helped by the works of psychologist V. Bekhterev and psychology analyst Z. Freud, work on the theater stage, and occupation in medicine on a professional basis.
