Ilya Averbakh, Soviet film director: biography, personal life, films

Ilya Averbakh is a Soviet film director, screenwriter and cameraman. In his personality concentrated all the typical features of the Leningrad intellectual: human and creative honesty, moral stoicism, a quivering and altruistic attitude towards his profession. He belonged to those people for whom truth and truth were worth more than all material values.

Biography of Ilia Averbakh

Averbakh Ilya Alexandrovich was born in Leningrad in 1934. His parents were descendants of the nobility. Mother - Xenia Kurakina - actress, father - Alexander Averbakh - economist. Both revolved in intellectual circles, theatrical, musical, literary connections were maintained by them throughout their lives. Ilya grew up in an artistic atmosphere, the desire for beauty was instilled in him from an early age.

Despite the apparent creative inclinations, at the behest of his father, Ilya Alexandrovich entered the First Leningrad Medical Institute. The teaching was given to him quite easily thanks to excellent memory and a tenacious mind, but more and more he felt that medicine was not in the sphere of his interests. Comparisons with Chekhov, Bulgakov, who were also doctors by education, did not help for long.

After graduation, in 1958, Averbakh was sent to the Sheksna settlement for distribution. Here he drank a full cup of uncomfortable village life: a room with six beds, one bedside table, one chair, amenities in the courtyard and water from the well.

Finding Yourself

Having fulfilled the put three years, Averbakh decided to completely withdraw from medicine. Hard years began during which he tried to write poetry, stories, scripts for television programs. His wife Aba Norkute recalled that during this period Averbakh often had attacks of despondency and despair. To keep the family turned out badly, besides Sheksna did not have optimism. Finally, one of the friends announced that the Higher Scenario Courses were opening in Moscow. In the requirements for applicants there was only one point - the availability of published works. In a short time Ilya Averbakh printed several reports and one article. In 1964 he enrolled in these courses in the workshop of E. Gabrilovich.

The first steps in the cinema

Almost immediately after the end of the Higher Courses of Scriptwriters under the USSR State Committee for Film, in 1967, the film "The Personal Life of Valentina Kuzyaev" appeared on the screens. It consisted of three short stories, two of which - "Out" and "Dad" - Ilya Averbah removed. In the film, the story of a high school student Valentina Kuzyaeva on the joke of Kuzya, who was invited to take part in the program "Whom I want to become." Vigilant criticism sharply criticized the film, seeing in it the slander against Soviet youth, the main character was branded as a caricature of a modern young man, and the director was accused of trying to blacken reality.

Success

The first full-length film was shot by Averbakh according to his own script. "Degree of risk" is the work of a completely mature master, confidently managing the material. The actors are also excellent: B. Livanov as the main hero of the Sedov surgeon, I. Smoktunovsky as the mathematician Kirillov, his patient. The drama of the plot line is built on the confrontation between these two absolutely different people - the philosopher and the cynic. Sedov, vested with unlimited power over people due to his profession, is forced to take vital decisions every day and has no right to make a mistake. He is focused and not inclined to excess philosophizing. Kirillov, seriously ill and aware of this, does not trust medicine, asks tricky questions and calls into question the capabilities of doctors.

This time, the criticism favorably took the film, noting the incredible skill that Ilya Averbakh demonstrated. The director, however, was dissatisfied with the result. Later he said that in the film medicine turned out, and philosophy - no. Nevertheless, the "Degree of Risk" was awarded in 1969 with the Grand Prix for the division of feature films at the International Festival of Films on the activities of the Red Cross.

"Monologue" and "Fantasy of Faryatyev" (Ilya Averbakh): films that make you think

In the filmography of Averbakh there are only seven feature films, which is probably why each of them left an indelible mark in the memory of the audience. One of them is "Monologue" according to the scenario of E. Gabrilovich, which was published in 1972. In the center of the plot - the relationship of the famous scientist and academician Nicodemus Sretensky and his daughter. Leaving the post of director of the institute, he faces his home face to face. It turns out that, despite mutual love, some of the features they can not tolerate in each other. Intolerance gives rise to numerous conflicts leading to alienation. In this film, Marina Neyolova, Stanislav Lyubshin, Margarita Terekhova, Mikhail Gluzsky played. In 1973, the painting participated in the Cannes Film Festival, received an Honorary Diploma at the International Film Festival in Georgetown.

"Fantasy of Faryatyev" is, of course, the best film by Ilya Averbakh. One of the reviews on this picture is called "Hear someone else's pain." This name is the quintessence of not only the meaning of the film, but of the whole work of Averbakh. Alexandra, or Shura (Marina Neelova), is a music teacher who lives with her mother and can not find a common language with her. Here again the theme of impossibility of mutual understanding between close people sounds. Shura is hopelessly in love with the scoundrel Bedhudov, who can not make her happy, because he himself is not capable of deep feelings. When Farajev appears in the family of Shura, a dreamer, an idealist who speaks of some non-existent things as something self-evident, a turning point is set in the life of the main heroines. They are opened a new world, they get the opportunity to look where harmony and love are the defining values. The role of Farjatiev was performed by Andrei Mironov. Suddenly, see the merry fellow and joker, with whom the song about the butterfly is associated, in the image of an ugly, shy dreamer. However, the actor coped well with such a dramatic and complex role.

"Alien Letters" (1979)

This film evokes associations with the picture "We'll Live To Monday". Here we are talking about the relationship of a young teacher and her student. Vera Ivanovna (I. Kupchenko) believes that she must take an active part in the moral education of Zina Begunkova (S. Smirnov). However, reality shows that her students are real barbarians, for whom other people's feelings are only a cause for laughter. This is a shock for the teacher, the meaning of her work is seeing the nurturing of the best in a weak mind. She realizes with horror that she no longer loves her charges. "Alien Letters" is a magnificent chamber drama with an excellent cast and strenuous action.

Disease and death

In 1985, Averbah went to the hospital. He had an operation on the bladder, as all his friends thought. At first he was cheerful, joking, interested in chess matches. However, after the first operation he completely fenced himself off from all friends and acquaintances. None of them could break through to him. Soon it became clear that another operation had taken place. Ilya Averbakh struggled with the disease for two months. The cause of death, most likely, was that the emaciated body of the director could not cope with the onslaught of the disease. He died in his native Leningrad on January 11, 1986.

Averbakh was married twice. The first spouse is Aba Norkute (a specialist in stage-based iconography), from whom he has a daughter Maria, the second - Natalia Ryazantseva, scriptwriter. In the second marriage, the director did not have children.

Ilya Averbakh made films about the personal dramas of people. In his work there is no place for general phrases, loud slogans and trivial trivial truths. His heroes are persistently trying to find a common language with this world, often deaf to their feelings. In his paintings a voice empathizes with these dramas, they make up the gold fund not only of Russian but also of world cinema.