Mikhail Romm
Encyclopedia
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
He was born in Irkutsk. His father was a social democrat
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
of Jewish descent who had been exiled there. He graduated from gymnasium in 1917 and entered the Moscow College for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. From 1918 - 1921, he served in the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
during the Russian civil war
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, first as a signalman
Signalman
A Signalman is a person who historically gave signals using flags and light. In modern times the role of Signalmen has evolved and now usually uses electronic communication equipment. Signalmen usually work in rail transport networks, armed forces, or construction...
and later rising to the rank of inspector of a Special Commission concerning the numbers of the Red Army and Fleet (Russian: Особая комиссия по вопросам численности Красной Армии и Флота) of the Field Staff of the Supreme Military Soviet of the Republic (Полевой штаб Реввоенсовета Республики)http://planeta.rambler.ru/community/mishel33rus/?tags=9388025. As such he travelled a lot and had the opportunity to see much of the life in different parts of the country, something that he later said he "recalled with gratitude".
After the end of his military career, Romm received a scholarship from the Soviet government. In 1925 he graduated as a sculptor from the class of Anna Golubkina
Anna Golubkina
Anna Semyonovna Golubkina was a Russian impressionist sculptor. As the first Russian sculptor to receive the Paris Salon prize, she is regarded as the first female Russian sculptor of note. Golubkina also had an exhibition at the prestigious Alexander III Museum...
of the Highest Artistic-Technical Institute and worked as a sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and translator. In 1928-1930 he conducted research on the theory of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in the Institute for the methods of extra-scholastic work (Institut metodov vneshkol'noy raboty). Since 1931 he worked on the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
. In 1940-1943 he was an artistic leader for the Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
films production. In 1942-1947 he was the director of a theater studio for movie actors. From 1938 he was a lecturer, from 1948 he was the leader of the actor's-producer department of the VGIK, professor (from 1962). He influenced many prominent film-directors, including Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
, Grigori Chukhrai
Grigori Chukhrai
Grigori Naumovich Chukhrai was a prominent Soviet film director and screenwriter. He is the father of director Pavel Chukhrai.-Career:He was born in Melitopol in the Zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine...
, Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was a notable Soviet/Russian actor, writer, screenwriter and movie director from the Altay region who specialized in rural themes. Upon his death, Shukshin was interred at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.-Biography:...
, Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
, Georgi Daneliya
Georgi Daneliya
Georgi Daneliya is a Soviet/Georgian/Russian film director, who became known throughout the Soviet Union for his "sad comedies" .Daneliya graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and worked as an architect...
, Aleksander Mitta, Igor Talankin, Rezo Chkheidze, Gleb Panfilov
Gleb Panfilov
Gleb Anatolyevich Panfilov is an internationally acclaimed Russian film director noted for a string of mostly historical films starring his wife, Inna Churikova:...
, Vladimir Basov
Vladimir Basov
Vladimir Pavlovich Basov was a Soviet actor, film director, and screenwriter. Vladimir Basov was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.-Biography:...
, Tengiz Abuladze
Tengiz Abuladze
Tengiz Abuladze was a Georgian film director.Abuladze studied theatre direction at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute, Tbilisi, Georgia, and filmmaking at the VGIK in Moscow. He graduated VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziya-film as a director...
, Elem Klimov
Elem Klimov
Elem Germanovich Klimov was a Soviet Russian film director. He studied at VGIK, and was married to film director Larisa Shepitko. He is best known in the West for his final film, 1985's Come and See , a powerful tale of a teenage boy in German-occupied Byelorussia during the German-Soviet War,...
and many others.
Dream (Mechta) (1941) starring Faina Ranevskaya
Faina Ranevskaya
Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya is recognized as one of the greatest Soviet Russian actors in both tragedy and comedy. She was also famous for her aphorisms....
and other brilliant actors is considered one of the high points of Romm’s career. The film reveals deep spiritual crises, material and spiritual misery of inhabitants of a hostel titled Dream (Mechta). President Roosevelt said it was one of the greatest films in the world.
Another prominent film of Romm's was about young nuclear physicists; Nine Days of One Year (1962). The documentary Obyknovennyy fashizm (Common Fascism), (aka A Night of Thoughts) (1965) about the Third Reich gained over forty million viewers. No other historic documentary won such a numerous audience.
He wrote many books and articles on the theory of cinematographic art, and also memoirs. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1941). Romm was an honorable corresponding member of the Academy of the skills of DDR (1967).
Filmography
- Boule de Suif (Пышка) (1934)
- The Thirteen (Тринадцать) (1936)
- Lenin in October (1937); co-directed with Dmitri VasilyevDmitri Vasilyev (director)Dmitri Ivanovich Vasilyev was a Soviet film director. He directed in 9 films between 1931 and 1960.-Selected filmography:* Iron Brigade ; co-directed with Mikhail Verner* Lenin in October ; co-directed with Mikhail Romm...
- Lenin in 1918Lenin in 1918Lenin in 1918 is a 130-minute long Soviet revolution film released in 1939. It gives the background of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution.The film was directed by Mikhail Romm with E. Aron and I. Simkov as co-directors...
(1939) - Dream (Мечта) (1941)
- Girl No. 217Girl No. 217Girl No. 217 is a 1945 Soviet drama film directed by Mikhail Romm. It was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.An anti-Nazi film, it depicted a Russian girl enslaved to an inhuman German family. She is even robbed of her name and forced to answer to "No. 217". Subplots depict abuse...
(1945) - The Russian QuestionThe Russian QuestionThe Russian Question is a Soviet political drama by renown filmmaker Mikhail Romm. The film is an adaptation of a play of the same name by Soviet poet and journalist Konstantin Simonov.- Subject :...
(Русский вопрос) (1947) - Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Владимир Ильич Ленин) (1949); documentary
- Secret Mission(Секретная миссия) (1950)
- Attack from the Sea (Корабли штурмуют бастионы) (1953)
- Admiral Ushakov (Адмирал Ушаков) (1953)
- Murder on Dante Street (Убийство на улице Данте) (1956)
- Lenin Is Alive (Живой Ленин) (1958); documentary
- Nine Days in One YearNine Days in One YearNine Days in One Year is a 1962 Soviet black-and-white drama film directed by Mikhail Romm about nuclear particle physics, Soviet scientists and their relationship.The film won the Crystal Globe Award in 1962.-Plot summary:...
(1962) - Boris Schyukin (Борис Щукин) (1963); documentary
- Ordinary FascismOrdinary FascismOrdinary Fascism is a 1965 documentary film by Mikhail Romm about the German society, Nazi Germany government and Holocaust during World War II....
(Обыкновенный фашизм) (1965); documentary - First Pages (Первые страницы) (1970); documentary
- And Still I Believe... (И все-таки я верю...) (1976); documentary