Happy Birthday, Mikhail Kalatozov! Born today in 1903 as Mikheil Konstantinovich Kalatozishvili, this Soviet screenwriter and film director of Georgian origin contributed to both Georgian and Russian cinema.
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Kalatozov's family belonged to a noble Amirejibi house that traces its history back to the 13th century.
One of his uncles served as a General in the Imperial Russian Army, another one was among the founders of the Tbilisi State University.
Years later, Kalatozov studied economics and changed many professions before starting his film career as an actor and later — as a cinematographer.
Kalatozov afterwards directed several documentary films. This was alongside pioneering Georgian female film director and writer Nutsa Gogoberidze, who was also the first in her field.
Gogoberidze had previously been an associate Sergei M. Eisenstein ('Strike', 'Battleship Potemkin', 'October: Ten Days That Shook the World', 'Ivan the Terrible: Parts 1 & 2') and Alexander Dovzhenko ('Earth').
Years later, Georgi followed his father's steps and worked as a cinematographer and film director at one of the world's oldest film studios, the Kartuli Pilmi studio (Georgian Film Studio).
Later on, Kalatozov directed the fifty-five-minute 1930 Soviet-Georgian silent black and white documentary film 'Jim Shvante (marili svanets)' ('Salt for Svanetia').
It was a seminal work in early Soviet cinema, noted for its beautiful cinematography, and sensitive look at life in a remote Caucasian village.
Though greatly appreciated today, authorities originally considered it too antagonistic. The second, the fifty-minute 1931 Soviet black and white war/drama film 'Lursmani cheqmashi' 'The Nail in the Boot', was banned for the same reason.
In 1933, Kalatozov enrolled to the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts.
In 1936, he headed the Kartuli Pilmi film studio, then he was suggested a place at the USSR State Committee for Cinematography. In 1939, Kalatozov moved to Leningrad to work at the Lenfilm studio as a film director.
During this time, Gogoberidze's fifty-five-minute 1934 Soviet black and white drama film 'Ujmuri' ('Ill-tempered') was the first Georgian feature film in the Soviet Union to be directed by a woman.
During World War II, Kalatozov directed several propaganda films and worked as a cultural attaché at the Soviet embassy in the United States. In this capacity, he briefly worked in Los Angeles, California as the Soviet cultural representative.
Following the war, Kalatozov became the deputy minister of film production and in 1950 resumed his directing career.
Seven years later, Kalatozov directed the film of which he is best known. This was the 1957 Soviet black and white war/romance film 'Letyat zhuravli'('The Cranes Are Flying').
Set in Moscow June 22, 1941, the film tells of Veronika (Tatyana Samoylova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov), who come together shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight.
However, Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully.
After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of his draft-dodging cousin Mark (Aleksandr Shvorin) with his increasingly forceful advances.
In the film, Kalatozov treats melodrama with a formal complexity worthy of Vincente Minnelli, King Vidor ('The Big Parade', 'The Crowd', 'Stella Dallas'), and Frank Borzage ('The Mortal Storm')—finding, with no fear of excess, potent visual correlatives to emotional states.
'The Cranes Are Flying' was adapted by Russian Soviet dramatist Viktor Rozov from his 1943 play Life Eternal. He had written the film's screenplay as well.
Like the play, the film depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II (known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War).
The following year, 'The Cranes Are Flying' won the Palme d'Or at the 11th Cannes Film Festival in May 1958. Rozov had received the Palme d'Or "for his humanism, his unity and his high artistic quality".
The film was the only Soviet film to win that award, although 'The Turning Point' (1946) was one of eleven films awarded that year's Grand Prix, the predecessor of the Palme d'Or.
'The Cranes Are Flying' is a superbly crafted drama with impassioned performances and viscerally emotional, gravity-defying cinematography by Kalatozov’s regular collaborator: Soviet cinematographer and film director Sergei Urusevsky.
A landmark feature for the virtuosic Kalatozov, was heralded as a revelation in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and the international cinema community alike.
Post the critical success of 'The Cranes Are Flying', much of Kalatozov's output has been mediocre at best.
Afterwards, Kalatozov founded a non-commercial Mikhail Kalatozov Fund named after his grandfather to help with film preservation and with funding of new features.
In the 1960s, Kalatozov directed other notable works, of which are among his most famous.
These include the 1960 Soviet black and white adventure drama/romance film 'Neotpravlennoye pismo' ('Letter Never Sent'), the 1964 Cuban/Soviet Union black and white drama film 'Soy Cuba' ('I Am Cuba') and the 1969 Italian/Soviet Union Technicolor adventure/drama film 'Krasnaya palatka' (Italian: 'La tenda rossa' or 'The Red Tent').
For 'The Red Tent', however, Urusevsky did not serve as cinematographer.
'The Red Tent' was a Soviet-Italian effort and featured an international team of actors.
These included Sean Connery, Peter Finch, Claudia Cardinale, German actor Hardy Krüger, Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union Nikita Mikhalkov, among others.
Three years later, 'The Red Tent' was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film. However, it didn't win. This occurred at the 29th Golden Globe award in early February 1972.
One year later, Kalatozov passed in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR (now Russia) on March 27, 1973. This was after his seventh heart attack. Kalatozov was 69.
During the 1990s, 'I Am Cuba' was discovered by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Both of them had become so impressed with the production that they advocated the restoration and distribution of the feature that was conducted by Milestone Films.
Although Kalatozov's subsequent work has been relatively unexceptional, his films were loved in the USSR as they still are today in Russia and around the world.
In cinematographic circles Kalatozov was often called a “cinematograf” for his admitted genius and wonderful films.
He loved his profession and, having in his youth mastered the twists and turns of practically each and every cinematographic job, did true credit to it.
Kalatozov had been active from 1928–1971.
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