Abram Room: Biography and Filmography

He was a talented, expansive and enterprising director. He always tried to show the close-up of a person, to uncover human feelings, thus ignoring the most daring and unusual cinematic delights. Abram Rohm made films in which all attention is focused on a particular person, his problem and secret secrets. At the same time, 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 with a master of technology, a certain machine designed with the latest biomechanics ...

For the years of his work, three cities became for him his beloved and native: Vilna, Saratov and Moscow. In one his childhood passed, in another he made the 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 creative path and what films brought him national recognition? Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Childhood and youth

Abram Matveyevich Room 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 son to get a decent education. The boy goes to the gymnasium, and afterwards he goes to the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute. A few years later, a civil war begins in the country, and the young man takes part in it.

The beginning of a creative career

At the end of the tenth years of the last century, Abram Room is in Saratov. Here, on the stage of the Theater of Miniatures that he opened, he puts his first play for the first time. A little time will pass, and the young man will create his own Melpomene temple called "Pigeon". However, his offspring will subsequently be closed, seeing in the work of Room elements of philistinism, bourgeoisness and provincialism. But the young man, who studied medicine at the University of Saratov, continued to engage in creativity, first as a teacher of the local arts department, and then as rector of the higher state workshops of theatrical art. Well, the management of the Children's and Demonstrative Theaters wanted Abram Matveyevich to stage performances on their stage, and the young man gladly did it.

Once Lunacharsky himself during his stay in the city on the Volga saw the theatrical performances of the young man and was very pleased with them. The People's Commissar for Education personally talked to the beginning director and insisted that Abram Room go to the capital, where he could fully develop his talent.

In 1923 a young man comes to Moscow.

Career in the capital

At first he was accepted as a director in the Theater of Revolution, and then he became a teacher at the Higher Pedagogical School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Gradually, Room wakes up interest in cinematography. Soon the young man tries his hand at a new field.

The first work on the set

It should be noted that Abram Rohm, whose filmography includes more than two dozen works in films, also worked on paintings, the shooting of which was never completed.

In the last years of his work he tried to appeal to the classics.

His first work is the comedy "Race for the vodka" (1924). In the center of the humorous story is a shoemaker-apprentice, who was able to hand over to the police the most common moonshiners. However, all this happens in a dream. Unfortunately, this picture of the maestro has not survived until our days. Then followed the short film "What says" Mos ", this guess the question" (1924). And this work, in which Abram Rohm acted as a director and scriptwriter, was not preserved. The plot of the picture also remained undisclosed.

In 1926, the maestro began to shoot the full-length film "The Bay of Death." However, the story of the events unfolding on the ship "Swan" during the Civil War, did not cause rave reviews from film critics. I did not like the film and Soviet officials, who felt that the author tried to reveal too complicated topics.

First success

Glory came to Abram Matveyevich after the release of the tape "The Third Meshchanskaya" (1927). In it, he put the person and his feelings on the forefront. The story of the love triangle very excited the unsophisticated Soviet viewer. Abram Rohm, whose films have become classics of Soviet cinema, demonstrated as clearly as possible how a woman can feel feelings for two men at once, to men who are also friends among themselves. But in the final 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 Rohm, whose biography certainly deserves a separate examination, removes one more picture that is incomprehensible to the Soviet authorities. It is a question of a "Reduction that does not return" (1929). In this film, the maestro draws the viewer's attention to the fact that in conditions of isolation from society, a person is capable of rebirth.

Opal

After the release of the art ribbons "The Third Meshchanskaya" and "The Bride that does not Come Back", as well as the documentary "Bumps", which tells the story of the life of the Jewish colonists, the authorities jumped on Room.

As a result, the director was "expelled" from Moscow to the capital of the Ukrainian SSR.

Work in Kiev

Here the maestro is arranged to work for the film studio "Ukrafilm". Soon, Abram Rohm, whose photo was regularly published in the Soviet press, began filming the film "Austere Youth" (1935). This philosophical romantic drama about love will enter the treasury of Soviet cinema. The script was written by Yuri Olesha.

Philosophical love story

In the film, there are no clear time limits: in parallel, the "dying" heroes of the past era coexist: the survivor Fedor Citronov, Dr. Stepanov and representatives of a new generation whose bodies are folded like those of Greek athletes. At the same time, they try to be perfect both physically and spiritually, adhering strictly to the rules of the code of honor, which are based on hardness of spirit, sentimentality, perseverance, chastity.

However, in the film there is another code of laws that guides a young girl. His main rule is: "If you want something, then indulge your desires, no matter what. Do not hold back 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 remarkable is the fact that equality can not be built even in an ideal environment. You can conduct any kind of propaganda, give any kind of edification, but two identical people will not be able to grow, no matter how hard you try.

There is a love line in the "Strict Boy". Again director Abram Rohm raises the theme of undivided tender feelings. Heroes are forced to make a choice, despite the fact that, from the point of view of morality, it is complex. Thus, the maestro vividly proved - even in an ideal society there is a place of undivided love.

The film turned out to be philosophical and dramatic: for a long time they could not come up with a name. At first, offered "Discobol", then "Magic Komsomolets", but then changed to "Strict Youth". And in 1936 the censors were forbidden 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 it began to show to the mass audience. It should be noted that the problems raised in the tape "Strict Youth", and today are relevant.

Creative break

Naturally, after the reaction of the authorities to the picture "Austere youth", the maestro can no longer look calmly at the criticism of his work. He no longer films, concentrating exclusively on teaching.

But after a while he suddenly realized that his real calling was directing.

Second wind

In 1940, Abram Matveyevich came to work for Mosfilm, to shoot the movie again. This time he puts pictures that are acceptable to censors. The following films were approved for viewing: "Squadron No. 5" (1939), "Invasion" (1944), "In the mountains of Yugoslavia" (1946).

The Late Stage of Creativity

In 1956 Roem turned to the topic of responsibility of doctors who, at all costs, should save lives. As a result, the film "Heart beats again ...". In the sixties the maestro directed pictures based on the works of Russian classics. In particular, we are talking about the ribbons "Garnet 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 the Count's ruins" (1957). In the film "Kiss Mary Pickford" he tried his hand at acting as an actor.

Contribution to art

Undoubtedly, Roh became the author of a new direction in cinema. Modern cinematographers would call his style hyperrealism, which is based on the concentration of attention to the environment, the game of the performer with the thing, the emphasis on the inner world of man.

To find his niche in art he was helped by the works of psychologist V. Bekhterev and analyst of psychology of Z. Freud, work on theatrical stage, occupation of medicine on a professional basis.

Outside the profession

Was Abram Room happy outside the profession? The personal life of the director was the best. He married an actress Olga Zhizneva, who subsequently shot almost every picture. But there were no children with Abram Matveyevich.

Maestro passed away on July 26, 1976 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vvedensky (German) cemetery, next door to his wife.