Not only Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears: Soviet and Russian films that won an Oscar
'01.05.2021'
Source: Culture.rf
The oldest film award in the history of the world "Oscar" was first presented in 1929. The first laureate was the American director Lewis Milestone, a native of the Russian Empire. Soviet and then Russian filmmakers got the statuette six times. Many people know that one of the winners was the film “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears” - the story of this “Oscar” awarding was told more than once by director Vladimir Menshov. But not everyone knows which other films have won the award. Culture.rf recalls Oscar-winning Russian paintings.
"The defeat of German troops near Moscow"
The first recognition of colleagues from around the world was received by Soviet documentary filmmakers. It was in 1943: "Oscar" was awarded the documentary "The rout of German troops near Moscow." In November 1941, by decree of Stalin, 15 front-line operators began filming a chronicle of the battles for the Soviet capital. The basement of the studio turned into a barracks, where the crew lived, headed by directors Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin. On February 23, 1942, the film was released, and a year later the film won an Oscar in the Best Documentary category. Today it is primarily a priceless historical document of the Great Patriotic War.
“At night we discussed with the operators the task for the next day, and in the morning the vehicles took the operators to the front to return in the evening with the footage. The shooting was very difficult, it was 30-degree frost. The mechanism of the movie camera froze and clogged with snow, the numb hands refused to act. There were cases when the body of a deceased comrade and broken equipment lay in a car returning from the front, ”said director Ilya Kopalin.
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"War and Peace"
This epic is one of the highest-budget films in the history of world cinema of the twentieth century. Director Sergei Bondarchuk has been working on the film for six years. Large-scale battle scenes required an innovative approach: the Battle of Borodino was filmed with a camera mounted on a 120-meter cable car. To create the atmosphere of Natasha Rostova's first ball, cameraman Anatoly Petritsky stood on the rollers with a camera. The picture was a resounding success, but the director did not come to the Oscars - he was working on a new film. Lyudmila Savelyeva received the statuette for "The Best Foreign Film in a Foreign Language".
“I found out that Bondarchuk is starting to film the adaptation of War and Peace, and was amazed at the scope of his energy, was amazed at his creative courage, because this is an insanely difficult and incredibly responsible job - to film a novel, beloved by many generations,” the actor Vyacheslav admitted at one time Tikhonov.
Dersu Uzala
The Soviet-Japanese film adaptation of the works of the scientist, researcher of the Far East and writer Vladimir Arsenyev also became Oscar-winning. The international film crew had a difficult time due to the language barrier and cultural differences. The pedantic director Akira Kurosawa could make him remake a fake hut because of twisted logs or hang leaves that have fallen overnight on the trees for a picture.
For Kurosawa, this was the first film in a foreign language, and the 1976 Oscar, the picture received in this category. Filmmakers from Finland, Italy, Spain, France, and Peru noted their work prizes.
"Moscow does not believe in tears"
In 1980, nearly 90 million viewers watched the history of the conquest of the capital by Katerina Tikhomirova and her friends. The film became the leader of the distribution, although the director Vladimir Menshov at first wanted to refuse from filming. The sound of an alarm clock became turning, which divided the life of the main character into two halves, and the picture into two series. The course in the storyline became for Menshov the main factor in starting shooting.
The director did not go for the Oscars. Moreover, I learned about the award of a prestigious award from the program "Time". Menshov received his statuette for "The Best Film in a Foreign Language" only in 1999.
"Burnt by the Sun"
This is a Russian-French retrodrama. The story of a single family against the backdrop of a summer cottage landscape and historical upheavals. Screenwriter, director, performer of the main role - Nikita Mikhalkov. The leading female performer is Ingeborga Dapkunaite. The actress, having learned about the filming of the picture, offered herself to the role of Marusya. The film about the events of 1936 to the sounds of nostalgic tango impressed the British playwright Peter Flannery so much that he wrote a play of the same name for the Royal National Theater in London.
The picture was awarded the Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival jury in 1994, and a year later - and the Oscar as the best foreign film.
"The Old Man and the Sea"
An animated film based on the story of Ernest Hemingway. The scriptwriter and director Alexander Petrov took two years to create the picture. The laborious technique of "glass painting" was invented in Canada. It was there that the film was created in collaboration with the cameraman Sergei Reshetnikov. "The Old Man and the Sea" is the third attempt by Alexander Petrov to receive an Oscar.
The artist has already submitted his films - "Cow" and "Mermaid" to the American Film Academy, and on the third attempt the animator still managed to bypass competitors from Canada, Great Britain, Norway and the Netherlands - he received a statuette in the nomination "Best Animated Short Film".
Nominees in the category “Best Foreign Language Film”:
- “The Brothers Karamazov,” directed by Ivan Pyryev (1969);
- “Tchaikovsky”, directed by Igor Talankin (1971);
- "... And the dawns here are quiet," directed by Stanislav Rostotsky (1972);
- "White Bim Black Ear", directed by Stanislav Rostotsky (1978);
- “Private Life”, directed by Julius Raizman (1982);
- “A field novel”, directed by Pyotr Todorovsky (1984);
- “Urga - the territory of love”, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov (1992);
- "Prisoner of the Caucasus", directed by Sergei Bodrov Sr. (1996);
- “The Thief”, directed by Pavel Chukhrai (1998);
- "12", directed by Nikita Mikhalkov (2007);
- “Leviathan”, directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev (2014).
