In February 2016, it was fourteen years since the day when the People's Artist of the Soviet Union Lev Kulidzhanov died, whose grave is located on Kuntsevsky churchyard in the capital of our country.
For more than seventy-seven years, this film director managed to leave a rather significant mark in Soviet and Russian cinematography, as well as in the public and cultural life of the state.
Children and school years
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose nationality is referred to as “Russian” in many reference books and encyclopedias, was nevertheless born into an Armenian family in the Georgian capital.
The date of his birth in various publications indicate differently: 08.19.1923 or 03.19.1924.
The father, a well-known party clerk, was arrested in the 37th and his further fate is unknown. Mother was then repressed, exiled to the camp.
The future director Lev Kulidzhanov was brought up by his grandmother. All his childhood and youth passed in the capital of Georgia. Even from school, his active passion for theatrical activities showed itself. Not a single school play could do without him, while he participated as a playwright, director and actor.
Young years
After graduating from high school in 1942, he became a student in the evening department of Tbilisi State University, while working as a mechanic at the factory. The enterprise was engaged in the production of weapons during the war.
During a break from study and work, Lev Kulidzhanov studied at the acting school of the Georgian Goskinoprom. There he met a sister of a friend who studied at VGIK as a screenwriter. She refused to evacuate with her classmates to Kazakhstan and stayed with relatives in Georgia.
Her love of cinema and fascinating conversations about cinema led to the fact that Lev Kulidzhanov decided to become a student in the directing department of VGIK.
Dream come true
When in 1943 the institute returned to Moscow, the girl went to study, giving Kulidzhanov a promise to send data about what is necessary for admission to directing.
By this time, Leo had to leave the plant, because after suffering pneumonia in his body, a focus of tuberculosis began to develop. The military registration and enlistment committee considered him non-combatant.
With the help of relatives, the development of the disease was stopped by the summer of 1944, the foci began to scar. By this time, Lev Kulidzhanov, having received the promised conditions for admission to the directing faculty of VGIKA, prepared everything necessary (the corresponding package of references, as well as work for the creative competition) and sent along with the application to the institute selection committee.
Fees at VGIK
N. Fokina at one time wrote the book "Lev Kulidzhanov. Comprehension of the profession", the hero of which talks about this period.
All gatherings took place under the guidance of grandmother Tamara Nikolaevna, who was a spectator of all the grandson's rehearsals. For admission, the future student was selected Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", he constantly scared his grandmother with a German exclamation about the old woman.
Life in wartime was rather poor. Grandmother on the road were purchased insulated pants, knitted woolen sweater. The bed was equipped with a blanket and a small mattress.
From a non-native grandfather, a military man, he got a piece of jeans, from which local tailors sewed trousers on the wrong side of the fabric to the outside, since such material was new.
My grandmother was invited to bring apples for sale, half a bag. She believed that in this way Leo will be able to get money for a start.
However, commercial activity was unsuccessful, no one bought fruit and they eventually deteriorated.
Training at VGIK
Kulidzhanov Lev entered the first time, examinations were conducted by Kozitsin G. M., gaining a new stream, and the director of the institute L. Kuleshov
Having started his studies, a half-starved student living in a cold hostel became seriously ill and had to return to Georgia. By this time, mom returned from the camp.
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose personal life changed when he met his future wife Natalia Fokina in Tbilisi, was nevertheless very worried about leaving the institute. He constantly had doubts about his physical abilities, he was afraid that he could never return there.
However, 1948 was marked by the fact that he again managed to start his studies at the VGIKovsk workshop, which was led by Gerasimov S. A. and Makarova T.F. He completed his studies in 1955.
Classmates remembered his outstanding acting abilities. Gerasimov was even invited to pass additional exams in dance and singing in order to get a second acting diploma along with the director’s diploma.
The graduate refused this offer, citing the fact that a second diploma is not necessary. Such a proposal itself, of course, says a lot.
The beginning of creative work
Kulidzhanov Lev Aleksandrovich began his creative career with the debut of the short-length Chekhov "Dam" in 1955. The co-author of the film was G. Hovhannisyan
Further, Kulidzhanov chose Y. Segel as a partner, with whom the picture “It began like this …” was shot the next year, her heroes were the first conquerors of virgin lands.
A year later, the same duet shot the film "The House I Live in" about the pre-war and post-war fate of the residents of one of the Moscow courtyards.
At that time, directorial tandems were in fashion in the cinematic environment, it is worth recalling Danelia and Talankin, Mironer and Khutsiev, Saltykov and Mitt, Alov and Naumov.
From the first films, Kulidzhanov raised not only questions of the modern world order, but also viewed the relationship of the public with the personal, created images of an ordinary person with his spiritual anxieties, feelings, hopes.
Close, understandable people addressed the viewer, whose clearly expressed individuality, regardless of social status, corresponded to the views of the author.
Kulidzhanov Lev Aleksandrovich, filmography
Since 1959, starting with “Why at Home”, Kulidzhanov began to make films independently.
In 1961, he shot his best work, “When the Trees were Big, ” where he spoke about the so-called little people with unusual sincerity, sincerity, lyricism, warmth and humanity.
Even in the Nikulin drunkard - Kuzma Iordanova - the viewer sees a human being that evokes true sympathy and love.
The film "Crime and Punishment" according to Dostoevsky amazed moviegoers with its cinematic expressiveness, the graphic series is shown sharply and even cruelly.
For this picture Lev Kulidzhanov, whose biography contains not only difficult, but also very bright periods, was in 1971 awarded the Russian State Prize.
The difficulties of the Soviet period
The director had to overcome certain difficulties in working on the documentary "Starry minute" (1972-75) on Gagarin's space flight, when Kulidzhan's expressiveness and paradox in the reflection of historical events did not find understanding among the nomenclature leadership in charge of the country's cultural life.
Lev Kulidzhanov, whose filmography is simply amazing in its diversity, sought to humanize and give drama to the images of Soviet idols - V. I. Lenin (film "Blue Notebook", 1963) and Marx (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 pressure “from above” to idealize these ambiguous political and historical figures.
The last tapes of the director were "It's not scary to die, " filmed in 1991, and "Forget-Me-Nots" in 1994.
