Richard Viktorov is a Soviet screenwriter and director, creator of science fiction films. The creative path of the filmmaker is the topic of the article.
Biography
Richard Viktorov was born in 1929, in Tuapse. A teenager went to the front as a volunteer. After the war, Viktorov became a student of the Faculty of Philology. Then he entered VGIK, the directing department. After receiving his diploma, he worked for a while at Belarusfilm, and later for many years at the Gorky film studio.
Director Richard Viktorov made films in the genre of science fiction. There were few such people in those years at the Soviet film studio. And the point is not that this direction was not favored. Rather, science fiction for a long time could not be established in Russian cinema. After all, even Tarkovsky, who turned to this genre, used it only as a background for his complex philosophical ideas.
Carier start
Richard Viktorov is a director whose name the viewer associates precisely with fantastic cinema. Although his track record has only four such paintings. According to the recollections of colleagues, Richard Viktorov was an extremely stubborn man. He was not afraid of the new and unpopular genre in the seventies. The graduation work was the film "On my green land." And already in the first years after graduating from VGIK, he created paintings that brought him fame. It is worth listing the main films that were shot by Richard Viktorov.
The filmography of the Soviet science fiction director includes the following films:
- “Ahead is a sharp turn.”
- "The third rocket."
- "Beloved."
- "Transitional age".
- "Obelisk".
- "Comet".
- “Cross the threshold.”
In Moscow
After creating several paintings, the beginning director was invited to the capital - to the Gorky film studio, where he worked until the end of his life. In Moscow, he successfully made a film based on Pogodin’s novel “Amber Necklace”. The picture was released in 1965. Then there was the film "Transitional Age." And finally, the last work in the spirit of realism was the picture “Cross the Threshold”. It was created in 1970.
Fantasy
Richard Viktorov, whose films are for the most part still created in the genre of realism, turned to science fiction for a reason. He dreamed of making such a movie for a long time. Moreover, the director believed that science fiction could become a wide area of cinema art and embody such genres as drama, comedy, tragedy, a fairy tale, and even a musical. In the seventies, what seems obvious today was surprising among Viktorov’s colleagues.
"Moscow - Cassiopia"
This film was the first science fiction film by Richard Victorov. The film, which premiered in 1973, gained tremendous success. This picture is intended for a teenage audience. It tells about a stellar expedition to one of the planets in the constellation Cassiopeia.
The success of the film was largely contributed by, of course, a high-quality, interesting script. Its authors are Avenir Zak and Isai Kuznetsov.
"Adolescents in the Universe"
The film about traveling to an unknown planet turned out to be so successful that when a year later the sequels - “Adolescents in the Universe” appeared on the screens, telling about the space adventures of a crew captured by robots - incredible lines formed at the box office of Soviet cinemas. Both children and their parents wanted to see the picture.
Films about the adventures of Soviet teenagers in space were a huge success not only in the USSR, but also beyond its borders. In terms of the number of film awards and prizes received, Viktorov’s paintings in Russian science fiction cinema can only compete with Tarkovsky's Solaris film.
