Vasily Katanyan: biography and filmography

Most known as a cinematographer, Vasily Katanyan did a lot of work in the field of writing. He was lucky to participate in the life of people close to Mayakovsky, he devoted a lot of work to this great poet. Even more he was lucky to be born in 1924 in Tiflis, who sheltered many poets, artists, with whom his father talked and worked, and then - and moved after them to the capital. And later to become a famous documentary filmmaker and author of memoirs.

Path

Everything had to this path, since the Katanyans surrounded the whole life with real idols. His father, also Vasily Katanyan, married in 1937 for the third time - on Lila Brik. This was at the same time a tragedy, since his wife and mother Vasily the younger, Galina Dmitrievna, suffered very much, and at the same time the happiness to plunge into that isolated world, into which not everyone is. The book about the most famous woman of his time, written by Vasily Katanyan (son), is considered comprehensive in terms of revealing the atmosphere of this most interesting era.

A family. Tiflis

The father of the famous cinematographer, born in April 1902, already anticipating revolutionary events in Moscow, the senior Katanyan quickly entered the most famous companies of the Silver Age poets, as he was gifted as a literary critic and wrote good poetry. Vasily Katanyan (senior) studied in Tiflis, at the Polytechnic Institute. Being a student, he made friends with Evreinov, Kamensky, Kruchenykh, Zdanevich, appeared in their company with articles and with poems.

Then, in 1919, Katanyan the elder was admitted to the Union of Russian Writers of Georgia and was given membership in the "Poet's Workshop." Since 1921 he published the newspaper "Art", he worked at the publishing house Zakkniga, where he published books by Mayakovsky, who remained for life a favorite poet, among them the following: "To Sergei Yesenin", "Syphilis", "Talking with the financial inspector" (they were illustrated by the famous Rodchenko), and the dearest book for children with Zdanevich's illustrations - "Whatever the page, the elephant, the lioness". In 1926 he published his first literary work, which aroused noisy interest and universal approval - about censorship seizures in Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection."

Moscow

The Katanyans moved to the capital in 1927. Vasily Katanyan (father) drove around Moscow a three-year-old boy, showed him the editors of the journal "New Lef", where he got a job as a secretary. By the way, Katanyan Sr. was printed everywhere - in the most important publications of the country: Izvestia, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Vechernyaya Moskva, Literaturnaya gazeta, Molodaya Gvardiya, where he later worked, too. Little Katanyan Vasily Vasilyevich listened attentively and watched intently: his father was a member of the Executive Bureau and the Council of the Union of Soviet Writers, people around were exceptionally interesting. Especially those who helped write about the great poet.

It so happened that the great love for the creativity of this in all respects the giant led to the tragedy in the Katanyans' family, but otherwise the book about Mayakovsky - "The Roots of Poems" would not have appeared in 1934, and in 1940 the collection of articles "Stories about Mayakovsky ", When everything had already somehow settled, and the young Vasily Vasilyevich Katanyan reconciled with the appearance of Lily Brick in his life, and with the rest of the reality. Mayakovsky completely entered the Katanyan family - all three editions of this poet passed through the hands of Basil the elder as a compiler and editor: in 1939, and in 1949, and in 1961. Vasily Jr. like a sponge absorbed everything that happened around. And things happened amazing.

Atmosphere

Vasily Jr. penetrated into everything that his father was engaged in, from his youngest years. He not only watched, but also helped. Even after his departure (or rather, after he was expelled) his father from the family got the most fundamental work of Katanyan the elder. At this time, Vasily the younger lived no longer with his mother, but in his father's family and Lily Brick. Students are still studying Mayakovsky's work on the "Brief Chronicle ...", which was published in 1939, and absolutely do not suspect what tragedies this accompanied. The world knows two talented Katanyans - father and son, and who is Vasily Leontyevich Katanyan, formerly a citizen of the USSR, for some reason unknown to the world.

But Vasily Abgarovich wrote both plays and screenplays, perhaps that is why his son was expecting a magnificent cinematic career. One can not fail to mention the play "They knew Mayakovsky" staged at the Leningrad Academic Theater, the opera "Not only love" by the composer Shchedrin, where the libretto was written by Katanyan Sr., the screenplay of the film "Anna Karenina" and the script (probably excellent) of the failed film about Chernyshevsky. I could not have a missed son from such a multiply gifted person. All the environment, the atmosphere itself helped to get the impressions and knowledge necessary for life, lived exclusively for the sake of creativity.

Half a century in the cinema

Katanyan Vasily Vasilievich was on friendly terms with his colleague Eldar Ryazanov. That's why in two popularly loved films this name sounded: from the mouth of Myagkov ("Katanyans come") and Filatov ("Katanyan my name"). The films of Katanyan Jr. are no less famous, despite the fact that they are documentary. Because in them the audience again meets with their favorite celebrities: Anna Akhmatova, Rodion Shchedrin, Maya Plisetskaya, Sergei Eisenstein, Paul Robson, Arkady Raikin, Lyudmila Zykina ...

Vasily Katanyan - film director - was an active participant in the creation of the TV series "The Great Patriotic War". He also made a number of independent documentary films that received prizes from international film festivals. Vasily Katanyan is a director who filmed a documentary film for just under half a century! Not every person has the opportunity for so long to receive satisfaction from his profession. He also wrote books, and many writers consider younger Katanyan one of the best memoirists.

Two Loves

In the journal The New Yorker not so long ago an article by Francine du Plessis Gray, daughter of the very Tatyana Yakovleva, who, being a young Parisian emigrant, conquered the heart of the great Mayakovsky was published. At that moment, only one and a half years remained for him to live in the world. The article was called "The Last, Who Loved Mayakovsky." Du Plessis did not learn anything from her mother about this relationship, since the family acted aristocratic "it is not customary to talk about it." A bunch of letters and telegrams fell into her hands after the death of both mother and stepfather. In 1999, the poet's daughter came to Moscow to acquaint the Mayakovsky Museum with the documents that she had found.

A year later, a book about another woman, written by her stepson, was published. Russia met with trembling this still unknown correspondence of sisters - Lily Brik and Elsa Triolet. And they corresponded for a very long time, almost the whole life - from 1921 to 1970. It was prepared by the writer and director Vasily Katanyan, who was coming to the last threshold, whose biography was filled with the breathing of these historically famous women, since his father was married to one of them for about forty years.

Two hundred ninety-five letters saw the light. Collected Vasily Katanyan photo with solemn autographs and random table drawings made by the poet's hand, the smallest notes, lengthy letters and telegrams sent from all over the world, classified and published, revealing the veil of secrecy over the poet's relations with his women. Perhaps, no one could do it more tactfully and chastely, as Vasily Katanyan managed.

Lilya Brik

Life ordered so that Lily became the poet the closest of people. This is proved undeniably and tragically, since the suicide note with the enumeration of his family was started by Mayakovsky with the name of Lily Brick. Even my own mother and sisters are mentioned below. Du Plessis refers to a kind of masochism to which the poet supposedly had a penchant. All the friends were really surprised by the cruelty with which her communication with him was painted, this was despotism of the highest level. And he was with her quiet, shy and servile, always and always threw for the slightest of her whims. Nevertheless, du Plessis is certainly biased, and friends did not see the whole truth.

This deep attachment to stay on one despotism for so many years simply could not. Otherwise, how to explain that even after his death, Lilya Yurievna was profoundly extraordinary, even in old age, attracting people to her and sharpness of mind, and personal charm. She knew how to be friends. The talented cinematographer Spergey Paradzhanov, whom she repeatedly saved from all sorts of ills, confirmed this. Always was benevolent in his writings in relation to his stepmother and Vasily Katanyan. Lilya Brik inflicted a huge injury on a fourteen-year-old boy, when his father left the family for her, the stress that Galina Dmitrievna, his beloved mother, experienced, even can not be said. And yet.

High Relationship

To persuade the wife of the Katanyan-eldest came Osip Brik himself. Let them - Lilya and Vasily - continue to prepare the complete works of the poet, he said, they need to see each day. Show tolerance, he said, do not drive a husband, despite the fact that close relationships with Lily Vasily are tied all the same. But Galina Dmitrievna, this morality was not close. Even when in the book Vasily Katanyan writes about the most severe depression that overtook his mother, he is cautious with statements about Lila and bitterly drops several phrases about the influence of Osip Briq.

And still, the writer's tolerance, as they say now, is off scale. He carefully conceals his anti-sympathy, even his sympathy is not in the foreground. Nobody appreciates, all badly received as if wisely forgives. On the foreground are bright characters, not action, however dramatic it may be. It ended, everything went away, - as if the reader is told by Vasily Katanyan. "Touching the idols" is completely built like this. The writer-memoirist, probably, must first of all keep in himself such aesthetic attitude. For him, the color of personality, originality and significance are more important. Sergei Paradzhanov, Maya Plisetskaya, Lilya Brik - all people who are at the center of this book, become the main characters at the expense of the individual.

Memoirist

Katanyan, the junior, for sure more than once experienced the elements of life-creation, overcame the gravitation of norms and laws, which were considered generally accepted. Maybe that is why he refuses moralizing and does not appear to the reader a bore. Let everyone understand the events in his own way, how he can, and assess how he is learned. But this is a double-edged sword - a defender from Vasily Vasilyevich, too, no.

He does not prove things that could be proved, leaving all complexity and all ambiguity to the reader. There remains the person, painted by the author brightly and convexly, in which the secret is not discovered at all. Open only the charm. Before the secrets, the Katanyan chastely retreats, humbly bending over. He does not make ends meet, his understanding of the concept of personality of the hero described does not impose.

Heroes

Such were the results of Roman Carmen, George Balanchine, Grigory Kozintsev, and Sergei Eisenstein. Passionarity for Vasily Katanyan is the main characteristic of the hero of the film or book, pushing out other qualities to the second and subsequent plans. This documentary evidence in his films. Data. A real person, familiar to everyone. But miraculously on this canvas there is such a multifaceted image, which draws to the reader a much broader picture of the long-past reality. Spectators and readers interpret this canvas in accordance with their own ideas about life's realities.

Biographies

During the war, Vasily Katanyan, still a minor boy, worked at the aviation plant as a turner and as a milling machine - and he learned this. In 1944 he entered the VGIK for Kozintsev - directing, where he got acquainted with Eldar Ryazanov. I got a diploma as a director of a feature film, but I started documentary. He came to work in the TSSDF and stayed there for forty years. Since 1957 he was a member of the Union of Cinematographers. In the sixties he got acquainted with the family of the well-known Tallinn art critic Julius Gens and married his daughter - Inna, who was a film critic and was better than anyone else in Japanese cinema.

Father's archives, his own and Lily Brick, they now stored and studied together. Part of it is stored in the archives of the state - manuscripts, letters, diaries. A personal fund of the director and writer was created on the basis of home audio recordings. For example, they recorded the voices of Lily Brik, Elzy Triolet, Louis Aragon, Pablo Neruda, Nazim Hikmet, David Burliuk, Alexei Kruchenykh, Konstantin Simonov, the voice of the opera celebrity Denise Duval and much more. Vasily Katanyan died in 1999 after an exhausting and long illness, buried in Moscow. His wife prepared for publication posthumous memoirs, taking as a basis his diaries, and also completed work on books, which he did not have time to finish.

Artist

In addition to literature and cinema, Vasily Katanyan created interesting collages, intertwined books, and it turned out so well that his work with great success participated in a variety of exhibitions - sometimes very, very high level.

For example, in 2003 there was an exhibition of a collage in the Russian art of the twentieth century in the Pushkin Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery; In 2005 the exhibition "Collage in Russia" in the Russian Museum; Exhibition "Patchwork" 2009 in the Literary Museum of Moscow, where many exhibits from the family archive were presented besides collages and self-made books - letters, photographs, other interesting documents.

Books by Vasily Katanyan

• "Magic Kasanya" (with collages Paradzhanov), Moscow, 1987.
• "Contemporaries of Mayakovsky" (introductory article, compilation, commentaries of Katanyan). Literary memoirs. Moscow, 1993.
• "Touching the idols." "Vagrius", 1997.
• "Immense Ryazanov." Collection, p. 91-96. "Vagrius", 1997.
• "Parajanov". Moscow, 1994.
• "Patchwork". "Vagrius", 2001.
• "Lilya Brik: Life." Moscow, 2002.

And, finally, the films that Vasiliy Katanyan left to his descendants. Filmography is quite extensive:

1. "Sakhalin Island". 1954 year. The international festival in Brussels in 1955 is a prize.

2. "Stories about Kabarda." 1956 year.

3. "The Stars in Moscow." 1959 year.

4. "Sergei Eisenstein." 1958 year.

5. "The Road of Spring". Movie Panorama. 1959 year.

6. "The USSR with an open heart." 1961 year.

7. "American Ballet". 1962 year.

8. "Day of poetry". 1964 year.

9. "When soldiers sing". 1965 year.

10. "The debut of the young." 1965 year.

11. "Paul Robeson". 1959 year.

12. "Arkady Raikin". 1967 year.

13. "Maya Plisetskaya." 1964 year.

14. "Maya Plisetskaya". 1982 year.

15. "Anna Akhmatova." 1987 year.

16. Epic "The Great Patriotic War" (participation). 1979 year.