MOSFILM… (In the Entertainment industry. Russians first film studio… Mosfilm)

Mosfilm Studio / Photo Credit: Mosfilm Moscow

MOSFILM… (In the Entertainment industry. Russians first film studio… Mosfilm)

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Mosfilm

Mosfilm (Russian: Мосфильм, Mosfil’m pronounced [məsˈfʲilʲm]) is a film studio that is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely acclaimed Soviet-era films, ranging from works by Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Eisenstein (commonly considered the greatest Soviet directors), to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) and the epic War and Peace (Война и Мир).

Film production in Russia

Film production in Russia appeared almost immediately after the invention of cinema (the first films of the Lumiere brothers were screened in Paris in 1895, Russia became acquainted with cinematography already in 1896, and in the same year the first Russian film was filmed). The cinema, as the cinema was then called, was very popular with Tsar Nicholas II, and thanks to his patronage the novelty was rapidly spread in Russia. 

Already in the first decades of the twentieth century, several film studios worked in Russia, among which the most famous were the atelier of Alexander Khanzhonkov and Joseph Yermoliev.

"The development of my own production of paintings absorbed all my attention, all thoughts, dreams and thoughts. I bought a plot of land on Zhitnaya Street, with old houses that could only be regarded as a building material. On this site, I moved the atelier from Krylatsky, so that from now on I will work all year round. Work began in the spring, was carried out at an accelerated pace and in June 1912 were already completed, "Khanzhonkov recalled the beginning of his work. It was his studio at Zhitny (area of ​​400 square meters) that became the basis of the future Mosfilm.

After the revolution, the government of Soviet Russia quickly assessed the role of cinema as a powerful tool of propaganda, and in 1919, by a special decree, nationalized all existing film studios. By the way, the phrase of VI Lenin on the meaning of the cinema completely sounded like this: "While the people are illiterate, for us the most important of the arts is cinema and circus ..."

The Moscow film production unit with studio facilities was established in November 1923 by the motion picture mogul Aleksandr Khanzhonkov ("first film factory") and I. Ermolev ("third film factory") as a unit of the Goskino works. The first movie filmed by Mosfilm was On the Wings Skyward (directed by Boris Mikhin).

In 1923, after nationalization and overhaul, Khanzhonkov's film studio turned into the First Goskino factory. Another, the factory - the Third, was located in the former studio of Ermoliev in Bryansk lane, near the Kiev railway station. Their unification in 1923 laid the foundation for the future "Mosfilm". In November 1923, work at the new enterprise began with the filming of the film directed by Boris Mikhin "On the wings of skyward." On the screens the film was released in January 1924. Since that time, the studio began to work as a formed creative team and it is this date that is considered today the birth of the studio. 

 

  "I came there in 1924," recalled the famous director of Mosfilm, Abram Matveyevich Rohm. - Everything was just developing. It was a wooden building, very naive, very old - not in a museum sense, but simply old. It was cramped, not always comfortable, but cozy. Without any invitation, without pay, as for work, Babel, Shklovsky, came. Aseev, Brick, took up everything, helped to make inscriptions, shared ideas, criticized shamelessly. This was our home on Zhitny; the names changed every two years, and we all called it simply "Zhitnaya", and for many years later recalled this unique flavor of the beginning, the youth of art. We were young. And the young was the very art of cinema, to which everyone on Zhitnoy gave themselves entirely, not caring about time. The equipment barely breathed, there was no transport, but it was there, on Zhitna, films were made, which served as the basis for our cinema. We were all very friendly. They swore, argued, quarreled, but were friends. The small viewing room was divided into two parts by a cotton curtain, in one half I mounted the "Bay of Death", behind the curtain worked Eisenstein. From time to time we dropped the curtain and looked at each other for what it was. In this case, the disputes began unimaginable.

The mechanics and laboratory assistants took an active part in all this. We came to a close laboratory, the developer took out a frame with a wet film from the water, worrying no less than us. Everything was handcrafted, everything was done by hands, and maybe that's why in the old paintings I still feel the warmth of these hands.

Ideas were born unplanned, came from life, perhaps because the small studio was not a separate island in this life. The currents of time pierced it, like the rays of X-ray, and in response to questions that asked time, films came.

In the mid-1920s, along with the famous "Battleship Potemkin" Sergei Eisenstein, for the first time the directors of the Goskino Factory, who soon became widely known, were voiced - Lev Kuleshov, Abram Roome, Vsevolod Pudovkin.

Cinema became the most effective confirmation of the new life of Soviet Russia. But making films became more difficult. "The tiny studio on Zhitnaya Street, its glass sides with purple curtains, was more like an old photo studio," Eisenstein recalled. At the same time, many works on the film were produced in other places - printing films, sewing costumes and other - were carried out in different areas of Moscow. 

New horizons required a new scope  

And then it was decided to build not just a new studio, but a fundamentally new movie city, where all the stages of film production will be assembled, so that all the necessary works can be produced without loss of time, where all services should be conveniently and compactly and expediently, and it would be possible to prepare all you need for shooting - to make a movie, conduct editing and toning work, developing and printing a film, up to the release of the film's circulation in the rental. This Europe did not know yet. In a sense, Hollywood was the analogue of such a movie city, with which young directors Eisenstein, Alexandrov and operator Tisse met while on a trip to the USA in the 1920s. 

An undeniable advantage of this principle was the project of building Mosfilm model for architectural projects of other film studios of the USSR. The same principle is distinguished by Mosfilm till now - the introduction of the newest developments in all the indissoluble technological chain firmly hold our studio the place of the foremost enterprise of the Russian film industry.

On November 20, 1927, the solemn laying of a new film factory was held on the Lenin Hills (near Potylikha Farm). The invitation card details how to drive and pass to the place where the buildings of the Mosfilm studios will rise several years later. There ended the town and began the village suburbs - with small wooden houses, gardens and orchards. On the Sparrow Hills there was still a summer pavilion, where Muscovites came to rest on weekends and drink tea from the samovar, admiring the village outskirts of Luzhniki, behind which from the outpost to the outpost in the blue evening haze electric lights were lit.

By the end of January 1931, in a building that had not been completely rebuilt, the relocation of the First and Third Soyuzkino film studios began. On February 9, 1931, the grand opening of a new film factory took place. In March, it was merged with the Moscow Sound Factory on Lesnaya Street and was named the Moscow United Factory "Soyuzkino" named after the Decade of October.

Despite the fact that at that time the factory represented only one-third of the bulk that was being built and two-thirds built, in which, it seemed, there could be no talk of any kind of shooting, the work began here immediately.

However, the film industry had to face an unexpected problem - the cinema became sound, but the project that built the "Mosfilm", was developed back in the 20's, when the films were still dumb. Therefore, the constructed pavilions were not adapted for synchronous with the sound of filming, and the production of sound pictures under these conditions cost the studio employees a lot of work. Serious work on acoustic finishing and soundproofing the first four shooting pavilions was possible only after the war.

Already in the first decades films were filmed, which we look at with pleasure until now. Following the "Merry Guys" Grigory Alexandrov released such wonderful comedies as "Circus", "Volga-Volga", in which glittered the popularly beloved actress Lyubov Orlova. In the same years, Ivan Pyryev shot the comedy "Tractor" and "Pig and Shepherd", in which the main role was played by another star of the Soviet screen of the 30s - Marina Ladynina. In the film of Konstantin Yudin "The Girl with the Character" of the audience won Valentina Serova, and the brilliant role of Faina Ranevskaya in the picture of Tatyana Lukashevich "The Foundling" we admire today. 

Everything changed with the war

In September 1941, when the Germans were advancing towards Moscow, all the studios were evacuated to the east in Alma-Ata by the government's decision. 950 employees of Mosfilm, abandoning their armor, left as volunteers in the division of the national militia and in the Special 3rd Moscow Communist Infantry Division. 685 studio workers were awarded orders and medals, 146 Mosfilm students did not return from the front.

Only one special purpose shop remained in the Vorobyovy Gory buildings, in which a group of masters, engineers and hundreds of adolescents carried out military orders - manufactured missile and assault boat parts.

At the end of 1941, based on the local Alma-Ata studio of feature films and evacuated "Mosfilm" and "Lenfilm" - the Central United Film Studio of feature films (COCS) emerged. In difficult conditions, the production of films was quickly established. Instead of pavilions, a circus "chapito" was used, large mock-ups and backgrounds were placed under its enormous dome, the pictures were shot in poorly adapted rooms, with a severe shortage of actors, technical workers, in the conditions of severe shortage of film, equipment and so forth.

During this period, the question arose as to what to do with unfinished films started in peacetime - such as "Pig and shepherd". Director Ivan Pyryev recalled: "I decided that it would be useless to continue shooting our purely peaceful film. Many members of our film crew applied for membership in the army, received a summons to appear at the military enlistment office and I. Having informed the director of the studio about this, I was already at the collection point the next morning. However, when we, the "spare" people, examined, registered and built to take us to the barracks, the car of the studio entered the courtyard ... I was immediately "put out", put in a car and taken back. It turns out that it was instructed to shoot "Piglet" at any price to continue, and I have to book for the time being. Four months, during the period of enemy raids on Moscow,

In the hardest front-line conditions, people are much more than in peacetime it took rest. That is why during the war the film industry was equated with the military - in spite of everything in these years sparkling comedies or films supporting general morale continued to be shot, and many popular actors went to the front as part of special front-line brigades.

Already at the end of 1942, as soon as it became possible, it was decided to restore the film studio "Mosfilm". It was necessary to resume the work of all production and technical and subsidiary shops, and creative workers and engineering personnel began to return from Alma-Ata. At the studio, the old workers demobilized from the army after the wounds were sent to the studio. In addition, a small art and craft school was organized at Mosfilm to train new cadres. And by the end of 1943 all the main studios of the studio were working with full load. In all, during the war years, Mosfilm created about twenty full-length pictures, including the famous paintings "Ivan the Terrible" by Sergei Eisenstein, "Invasion" by Abram Room, and others.

On the central square "Mosfilm" in front of the Main Building, on the 20th anniversary of the Victory, an obelisk was opened in memory of the dead workers of the studio. From here they went to the defense of Moscow and 146 people gave their lives for the freedom of the Motherland. In the May days, solemn rallies are held here annually, where veterans of the Great Patriotic War are honored. Nearby there is a monument - specially made for the shooting of the picture "Optimistic tragedy", he remained forever standing on the square as a symbol of indestructible courage.

Despite the difficult years of war, film production continued to develop, and in 1944, one of the first color films, Ivan Nikulin-the Russian Sailor (directed by I.Savchenko), was filmed on a specially created studio equipment. And already in 1946 the picture of director Alexander Ptushko "Stone Flower" received the International Prize at the Cannes Festival for the best use of color.

At this time, the studio was worked by such masters as Alexander Dovzhenko, Ivan Pyryev, Julius Reisman, Sergei Yutkevich, Boris Barnet, Leo Arnstam, Alexander Ptushko, Alexander Zarkhi, Mikhail Kalatozov and others. Despite the fact that in the first post-war decade, as in the war years, like all Soviet cinema, Mosfilm did not have an influx of young directors, the situation changed dramatically in the mid-1950s and early 60s, which became the era of discovering new talents. In those years Grigory Chukhrai won the audience with the films "Forty-first" and "Ballad of the Soldier", Sergei Bondarchuk at the first Moscow Film Festival received the award for the film "The Fate of Man", "The Cranes Are Flying" by Mikhail Kalatozov were awarded the Golden Palm Branch at the 11th International Film Festival in Kanne, Eldar Ryazanov became popular after the films "Carnival Night" and "Beware of the Car"

The 60s brought in even more new director's names: Tarkovsky withdrew the "Ivanovo Childhood" and looked at the Russian history in Andrei Rublyov, Andron Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky turned to the internal problems of the Russian village in "Asin's Happiness", Elem Klimov released a brilliant the picture "Welcome, or No Trespassing", Marlene Khutsiev took down the textbook "July Rain", Vladimir Motyl practically created a new genre of the domestic "Eastern" film "The White Sun of the Desert", Leonid Gaidai conquered millions of z The famous comedies "The Caucasian Captive" and "Operation" Y ", and Sergei Bondarchuk - the epic" War and Peace "- one of the most difficult in the production of paintings in the world cinema. During these years Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, Larisa Shepitko, Vladimir Basov, Yury Ozerov, Alexander Mitta, Rolan Bykov and many others. Simultaneously with the young directors continued to work successfully the masters of the older generation - Michael Romm withdrew "Nine Days of One Year", Alexander Zarkhi - "Heights".

In the 1960s, Mosfilm created the first television association in the country, where a popular multi-series film appeared. It was here that in the 1960s and 1980s many well-known television films were shot, such as "Calling fire on themselves" and "Operation Trust" directed by Sergei Kolosov, "Adjutant of His Excellency" Yevgeny Tashkov, "Little Tragedies" by Mikhail Schweitzer, "Mikhailo Lomonosov" Alexander Proshkin.

In the 1970s, Mosfilm was glorified with paintings "The Irony of Fate or With a Light Steam!" And "The Service Novel" by Eldar Ryazanov, "The Red Kalina" by Vasily Shukshin, "One Hundred Days After Childhood" by Sergei Solovyov, "Running" by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov , "My own among strangers, a stranger among my own" Nikita Mikhalkov and many others.

Each subsequent decade, the studio produced new wonderful pictures - "Stopped the Train" by Vadim Abdrashitov, "Go and See" Elema Klimova, "We Are from Jazz" and "Courier" by Karen Shakhnazarov, "Scarecrow" Rolan Bykov, "Autumn Marathon" and "Kin "Dza-dza!" George Danelia, "Moscow does not believe in tears," Vladimir Menshov. In complex perestroika times, the studio was able to survive the chaos and general devastation, still films continued to be filmed here, the most significant of which were "Midshipmen" by Svetlana Druzhinina, Shirley-Myrli by Vladimir Menchov, Zvezda by Nikolai Lebedev, and others.

For many years, large-scale research and experimental production work was carried out on the technical basis of the studio, as a result of which new technologies and samples of new technology were introduced into the national cinema piracy, the studio has a large number of registered patents for serious inventions. The successes achieved by the film studio contributed to the fact that the novelties were widely introduced in other studios of our country. Today, the Mosfilm Cinema concern after serious modernization, as always, is open to creative cooperation, firmly holding the place of Russia's leading film enterprise.

In 1927 the construction of a new film studio complex began on Mosfilmovskaya Street in Sparrow Hills of Moscow. This film studio was named after the Moscow amalgamated factory Soyuzkino the Tenth Anniversary of the October. In 1934 the film studio was renamed to Moskinokombinat, and in 1936 – to Mosfilm. During World War II the film studio personnel were evacuated to Alma-Ata (August 1941) and merged with other Soviet production units into the Central United Film Studio (TsOKS). The Mosfilm personnel returned to Moscow at the end of 1943.

The famous Mosfilm logo, representing the monument "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" by Vera Mukhina and Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, was introduced in 1947 in the musical comedy, Spring directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and starring Lyubov Orlova and Nikolai Cherkasov.

By the time the Soviet Union was no more, Mosfilm had produced more than 3,000 films. Many film classics were shot at Mosfilm throughout its history and some of these were granted international awards at various film festivals.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Mosfilm continued operations as a quasi-private production company, led by film director Karen Shakhnazarov. As of 2005, the company embraced ten independent studios, located within 13 sound stages occupying an area of 13,000 sq. meters. Tours through this "Russian Hollywood" become increasingly popular, as they allow to view Mosfilm's enormous depot with 170 tanks and 50 vintage cars. The biggest sound stage is leased annually to hold the Golden Eagle Awards.

Sources, References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked In, Indie Wire, Film Making Stuff, Hiive, Film Daily, New York Film Academy, The Balance, The Numbers, Film Maker, TV Guide Magazine, Media Match, Quora, Creative Skill Set, Investopedia, Variety, No Film School, Daily Variety, The Film Agency, Best Sample Resume, How Stuff Works, Career Trend, Producer's Code of Credits, Producers Guild of America, Film Connection, Entertainment Careers, Adhere Creative, In Deed, Glass Door, Pay Scale, Merriam-Webster, Job Monkey, Studio Binder, The Collective, Production Hub, The Producer's Business Handbook by John J. Lee Jr., Andrew Grant, Thought Company, Phalke Factory,

The Guardian, Mosfilm, https://www.mosfilm.ru

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