Mikhail Mikhailovich Zechanovsky

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Mikhail Mikhailovich Zechanowski ( Russian Михаил Михайлович Цехановский ; born May 25 . Jul / 6. June  1889 greg. In Khmelnitsky , Russian Empire ; † 22. June 1965 in Moscow ) was an on animated films specialized Soviet director , screenwriter and artistic director .

Life and accomplishments

Michail Zechanowski attended the First Gymnasium in St. Petersburg , where he was already making attempts at drawing. From 1908 to 1910 he worked in a sculpture workshop in Paris and then studied at the law faculty in St. Petersburg, but left it in 1914 without a degree. Then Zechanowski received a study place at the Imperial Academy of Arts , then switched to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and finished it in 1918. He then joined the Red Army and stayed here until 1923. During his military service, Zechanowski was able to do his artistic work Further deepening his work, he also held the post of deputy envoy for art affairs in the Belarusian SSR and was head of the University of the Red Army in Smolensk from 1919 to 1922 . He eventually returned to Petrograd to continue his studies and at the same time work as an instructor at the State Technical College for Industrial Art . He also drew advertising film posters.

In 1926 he got a job at the Raduga publishing house , where he worked alongside Vladimir Lebedev . At the same time, Zechanowski was active in the youth book department of the Lengis publishing house and developed into a representative of constructivism . He illustrated works by Samuil Marschak , Ilja Ionowitsch Ionow and Boris Stepanowitsch Schitkow, his specialty were books on technology and inventions.

After Zechanowski had already expressed interest in the medium of "film" in his personal notes at the beginning of 1926, he turned to the animation film genre professionally from the end of the 1920s. In 1929 he wrote his first work Почта ( Potschta ) for the Sowfilm studio , from which Lenfilm would later emerge . This was based on Zechanowski's drawings for the book of the same name by Samuil Marschak, who also wrote the script for the film published in 1930. Почта was the first animated sound film from the Soviet Union, as well as the first Soviet animated film, which found a wide audience and was also shown abroad. In the period that followed, Zechanowski concentrated on basing his films on musical works and converting the sound into graphics. His third film, Пасифик 231 ( Pasifik 231 , 1931), was based on plays by Arthur Honegger .

For Сказка о попе и его работнике Балде ( Skaska o pope i jego rabotnike Balde , 1933/36), the adaptation of a story by Alexander Pushkin and at the same time Zechanowski's first full-length film, Dmitri Shostakovich was able to be engaged as a composer. The film was designed as an animated opera. Shostakovich withdrew from the project as a result of the criticism of his work that began in the mid-1930s. The director's style was also seen as unsuitable for Pushkin's work. The negative of the film ended up unpublished in the studio's archive, where it was largely destroyed during the bombing of Leningrad . Only a few minutes long fragment known as Базар ( bazaar ) has survived. Zechanowski described the loss of his work as a "catastrophe".

After the realization of Сказка о попе и его работнике Балде in 1936, Zechanowski did not work for Lenfilm for two years , after his return he first wrote Сказка о глупом мышонке ( Skaska he, together with the screenplay of March 1940) wrote. Due to conflicts regarding the artistic realization of the film, its completion was delayed and Marschak had a name deleted from the credits . The following year Zechanowski was part of a directing collective on the concert film Киноконцерт 1941 года ( cinema concert 1941 goda ), his only work outside of the animation film genre . From the Christmas film Ёлка (новогодняя сказка) ( Jolka (novogodnjaja skaska) , 1942) he worked for Soyuzmultfilm until the end of his life .

With Telefon ( telephone , 1944), Zechanowski realized a story by Kornei Tschukowski ; Ivan Ivanov-Wano was also involved in the graphic design . Цветик-семицветик ( Zwetik-semizwetik , 1948) was realized by him based on a script by Valentin Katayev . During this time, a change in style began in his work and he turned away from the earlier, constructivist style. With Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке ( Skaska o rybake i rybke , 1950) Zechanowski dared to do another Pushkin adaptation, in Царевна-лягушка ( Tsarewna-lajguschka , 1954) he realized the popular Wassilissa motif . The wild swans (1962) based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen is his only film for which a German-language dubbed version was produced. Shortly before his death, he shot a new version of Почта ( Potschta , 1964), in 1966 Иван Иваныч заболел ( Iwan Iwanytsch sabolel ) appeared posthumously based on the motifs of Sergei Michalkov , who also wrote the screenplay. Zechanowski had already adapted a work by Michalkow with Заяц во хмелю ( Sajaz wo chmelju ) in 1946, but the project was discontinued before it was completed. Towards the end of his life he dared to return to the style of his early years in film.

Zechanowski died around two weeks after his 76th birthday in Moscow.

Honors

Michail Zechanowski was named Honored Artist of the RSFSR on June 12, 1964 .

Some of his films have also received awards:

As early as 1973 Wera and Eduard Kuznetsov dedicated an illustrated book to him.

Yevgeni Steiner praised Zechanowski in his work Stories for Little Comrades: Revolutionary Artists in the Early Soviet Children's Book (1999) as “one of the most interesting artists and film animators of the 1920s”. His work was also mentioned in the book Наши мультфильмы ( Naschi multfilmy , 2006), in which he was referred to as one of the “greatest masters of domestic animation” (“один из крупнейших мастеров отечественльц имуственльц имуственной).

In connection with his debut film , Zechanowski was compared to Sergei Eisenstein , but he himself saw René Clair as his role model .

Personal and personality

Mikhail Zechanovsky lost his mother Sinaida Grigoryevna in 1899. He had an older brother named Nikolai who died at the age of 13.

Zechanowski was married to Antonina Vissarionovna Kitajewa for the first time. In the mid-1920s he began an affair with Vera Vseslavowna Schengelidze (1902–1977), who was then taking part in animation courses. After the divorce from his first wife, they married in 1926. Kolja, Zechanowski's eldest son, died at the age of only about one year.

For years he kept a very intensive diary, his notes are now kept in the Russian State Archives of the Arts and were edited in part by Vera Zechanovskaya after his death. The edition later experienced a more extensive re-release.

Zechanowski had the reputation of being a closed and, in relation to his work, very ambitious and disciplined, but also easily irritable and plagued by fear of failure.

Filmography

Director (selection)

  • 1929: Почта (Potschta)
  • 1948: Цветик-семицветик (Zwetik-semizwetik)
  • 1936: Сказка о попе и его работнике Балде (Skaska o pope i jego rabotnike Balde)
  • 1940: Сказка о глупом мышонке (Skaska o glupom myschonke)
  • 1944: Telefon (phone)
  • 1950: Сказка о рыбаке и рыбке (Skaska o rybake i rybke)
  • 1954: Царевна-лягушка (Tsarevna-ljaguschka)
  • 1956: Девочка в джунглях (Dewotschka w jungljach) (with Vera Vseslavowna Zechanowska)
  • 1962: The Wild Swans (Dikije lebedi) (with Wera Wseslawowna Zechanowska)
  • 1964: Почта (Potschta) (with Vera Vseslavowna Zechanowska)
  • 1966: Иван Иваныч заболел (Iwan Iwanytsch sabolel) (with Vera Vseslavowna Zechanowska)

Screenwriter

  • 1940: Сказка о попе и его работнике Балде (Skaska o pope i jego rabotnike Balde) (with Wera Wseslawowna Zechanowska)
  • 1940: Сказка о глупом мышонке (Skaska o glupom myschonke) (with Samuil Marschak )
  • 1964: Почта (Potschta) (with Samuil Marschak and Wera Vseslavowna Zechanowska)

Artistic Director

  • 1929: Почта (Potschta) (with Iwan Michailowitsch Druzhinin)
  • 1944: Telefon (phone) (with Vera Vseslavowna Zechanowska and Iwan Iwanow-Wano )
  • 1964: Почта (Potschta) (with Boris Dmitrijewitsch Kornejew)

Web links

Commons : Films by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Biography of Michail Zechanowski at kino-teatr.ru (Russian), accessed on July 22, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c d biographical summary and excerpts from Zechanowski's diaries on kinozapiski.ru (Russian), accessed on July 22, 2020
  3. ↑ a b Mikhail Zechanowski's profile on animator.ru (Russian), accessed on July 21, 2020
  4. ↑ Film data for Почта (1929) on kino-teatr.ru (Russian), accessed on July 21, 2020
  5. ↑ a b Article by Nikolai Iswolow on Zechanowski in Наши мультфильмы ( Naschi multfilmy ), Interros , 2006, ISBN 5-91105-007-2 on books.interros.ru (Russian), accessed on July 22, 2020
  6. ↑ a b c Analysis of Zechanowski's works on kinozapiski.ru (Russian), accessed on July 22, 2020
  7. ↑ a b Analysis of the work of Почта by Nikolai Iswolow on kultpro.ru (Russian), accessed on July 22, 2020
  8. ^ Yevgeny Steiner: Stories for Little Comrades: Revolutionary Artists in the Early Soviet Children's Book . University of Washington Press, 1999, ISBN 0-295-97791-4 , pp. 193 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Wera Zechanowskaja's biography at kino-teatr.ru (Russian), accessed on July 21, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Zechanowski, Michail Michailowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Цехановский, Михаил Михайлович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet director
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Khmelnytskyi
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1965
Place of death Moscow