He was one of the most eminent directors of the Soviet Union. And their tandem with a beautiful wife, the most recognizable actress of that time, caused delighted exclamations from all sides. Films of Grigory Alexandrov survived their creator: they are popular and loved now. How did the director come to his success?
Childhood
The future popular director of the Country of Soviets first saw the light in a maternity hospital in Yekaterinburg. And this happy event for the Mormonenko family happened (this is exactly the real name of the artist) at the end of January 1903, to be more precise, on the 23rd. Mother Gregory was called Anfisa, father - Vasily. Most of the sources reporting the life of the director Grigory Alexandrov in the early years agree that Vasily was a simple, ordinary hard worker - more precisely, a miner, and the family lived quite modestly. However, there is other information. According to them, the father of the future director was the owner of the hotel, and the childhood of little Grisha passed in luxury. However, most researchers tend to believe the first version.
From the age of twelve, young Grisha began to work to help his family feed. This is another proof that Mormonenko clearly did not swim in luxury and money.
Acquaintance with theatrical life
Grisha's first place of work is a handyman at the opera house of his native city. Obviously, it was then that acquaintance with the theater, backstage and the atmosphere of creativity took place in Grishina’s life. It is possible that it was then, in his teens, that the future Alexandrov fell ill with the theater.
At the Yekaterinburg Opera House, the teenager Grisha worked as a messenger, and as an assistant to the props, and as an assistant to the illuminator, moving from post to post, and sometimes combining them all at once. In parallel, he attended a music school in the violin class, which he did not abandon, despite being busy in the theater. And there everything was more than good - the service, though exhausting the young man, but still moving up the career ladder nonetheless took place. For several years, Gregory made his way from a simple messenger, in other words - an errand boy, to an assistant director. At the same time, Aleksandrov received some kind of education, but nevertheless, he went to directing courses at the Workers 'and Peasants' Theater.
The beginning of creative activity
So, with a backstage Grigory Alexandrov (pictured above) was familiar from a young age firsthand. He knew this "kitchen" well, because he "cooked" in it for many years. Therefore, the possible difficulties of work did not scare him.
After completing the directorial courses, together with his old friend, who also became the director - Ivan Pyryev, Grigory was engaged in amateur art, but was soon accepted into the ranks of the Soviet Army. In service, he spent about a year, giving back his debt to the country in the front theater. And upon his return to freedom, as follows from the biography of Grigory Alexandrov, in his life Moscow happened ...
Moving to the capital
As mentioned above, the difficulties of Gregory did not scare. And they didn’t scare, but only attracted new cities and opportunities. And so, having met with his Moscow colleagues - actors of the art theater, who were on a tour in the Ural city - and impressed with their work to the core, Alexandrov packed his bag and rushed to the capital. Before that, however, I went to the Political Department and asked for a referral for further training.
Moscow met the provincial artist with great ambitions rather friendly. In any case, he immediately went to work at the Moscow first working theater of the Proletkult. There he stayed for three years, met Sergei Eisenstein there, and this meeting was fateful in its own way.
Forward movement
Relations with Sergei Eisenstein Grigory Alexandrov have developed quite warm. So much so that a more experienced master often consulted a newcomer - so, Gregory helped the master with the scripts of his first films - “Battleship Potemkin” and “Strike”. Subsequently, Alexandrov also starred in them.
Gregory helped Eisenstein in other films and performances, was his right hand. He quickly realized that creating a movie was much more interesting than acting in it, and dreamed only of the possibility of self-expression. And while this was not the case, he worked closely with Eisenstein.
Hollywood
Everyone knows that in Soviet times it was not so easy to go abroad. But Sergey Eisenstein succeeded, and Grigory Alexandrov left the country with him. They left the Soviets for three years, and Hollywood was the end point of their journey. Artists traveled to expand their knowledge and gain new experience - to learn about sound cinema (before this, our country knew only the dumb). For three years, Alexandrov and Eisenstein managed to visit not only the United States, they traveled to Europe, and even managed to make the film "Sentimental Romance" in Paris.
The creative tandem returned to Moscow in the thirty-second year of the last century. And then everything changed. Grigory Alexandrov decided to move on.
Free swimming
Having returned from a long trip, having gained a lot of experience and having some ideas about how and what to shoot, Grigory Alexandrov decided that finally the time had come for his independent directorial career. With that he left Eisenstein.
In the same thirty-second, something else happened that could possibly affect the breakdown of the Eisenstein – Alexandrov alliance. Personally, the latter Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin himself ordered a film about himself, a film that would glorify and exalt the head of the Soviets. Aleksandrov made such a film, which probably also contributed to his future “green light” for work, while many other directors often could not get permission to shoot.
Be that as it may, the Internationale saw the light of day. And after that, all in the same thirty-second, Grigory Alexandrov began shooting the picture that made him famous - "Funny Guys."
"Funny boys"
The film, released in the thirty-fourth year, is based on the production of "The Music Store" with the participation of the famous Leonid Utesov. On his own initiative, a feature film was created from the production by the efforts of two prominent playwrights of the Soviet era - Nikolai Erdman and Vladimir Mass.
The goal was to create a genre of musical comedy; such a genre was already in full use in the West, and in our country no one has heard of it. Aleksandrov, who begins his independent voyage along the waves of directing, was entrusted with conveying the idea of a new genre to the viewer. And he coped with his task - the picture was a phenomenal success, and the young director himself, as they say, woke up famous.
Next works
Following the "Cheerful guys" (which, incidentally, "made themselves heard" in America), a number of other equally successful paintings followed: "Circus", "Volga-Volga", "Bright Way", "Spring", "Meeting on the Elbe " and so on. All of them had some success both in the Land of Soviets and abroad. Some even won the prizes of film festivals.
Future life
In the fifties of the last century, Grigory Alexandrov, who became a professor, was the art director at VGIK, at the directing department. In the seventies he released books of memoirs. And shortly before his death, in the eighty-third year, he made a documentary about his wife Lyubov Orlova. The director’s last feature film was released eleven years earlier. After that, Alexandrov did not take off.
A famous filmmaker died in December 1983 from an infection in the kidneys. He was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery of the capital.
Personal life
The director was married three times. Although everyone knows about the connection between Grigory Alexandrov and Lyubov Orlova, few suspect that in addition to the beautiful actress, the director was married twice more.
The first wife of Gregory was a girl named Olga. They married very young, and in this marriage a child was born - the son of Grigory Alexandrov named Douglas. Theatrical parents (Olga also belonged to the world of art) named the boy in honor of one Hollywood actor.
This marriage did not last long. Gregory met Lyubov Orlova and lost his head. Grigory Alexandrov lived with Orlova in a happy marriage until 1975 - until the death of the actress.
The director’s third wife four years later was his ex-daughter-in-law, and at that time he was already the widow of his son (Douglas died of a heart attack in the seventy-eighth year). This marriage lasted until the death of the director. Aleksandrov had a grandson, also Grigory. He graduated from the camera department.
This is the biography of the talented director Grigory Alexandrov.