They say that truly brilliant works over the years do not lose their relevance. This applies to a lot: paintings, books, songs and even films. Almost eighty years have passed since the great Soviet storyteller Row Alexander Arturovich shot his first motion picture. And although for all this time several generations of viewers have grown up, they all continue to love the good fairy-tale films made by him.
Director's Parents
As paradoxical as it sounds, the parents of the great Soviet director who managed to revive the old Slavic tales on the screen were foreigners. The storyteller's father was an Irish engineer sent to work in the Russian Empire, Arthur Howard Rowe. Here he met a beautiful Greek woman from the local diaspora, and soon the lovers got married. From this marriage in the spring of 1906 a son was born - Row Alexander Arturovich.
The family of the future director, unfortunately, turned out to be weak. When the boy barely managed to turn eight years old (according to other sources, ten), the father left his wife and son and returned to Ireland. Since then, the care of his mother, whose health did not allow her to work, fell on the shoulders of his young Sasha.
Alexander Rowe: The Early Years
To feed himself and his mother, young Rowe undertook any work. At first he was an assistant clergyman, later he began to trade in every little thing, from greenery to ridges and needles. However, Sashaâs mother, seeing the mind and assertiveness of her son, understood that he was capable of more. Therefore, she made every effort to ensure that after seven years Roe entered the local technical school.
Some biographers claim that Alexandra Rowe was attracted to the career of a clergyman. Others believe that he planned to go to work in the specialty obtained in his trade and economic college. Despite these disagreements, the biographers agree on one thing: Row turned over all the plans for the Blue Blouse agitation theater, where the guy got a job while studying.
Once in the world of theater, Row Alexander Arturovich was literally bewitched to him. So the future director immediately took his documents from the technical school and transferred to the school for cinematographers named after Boris Tchaikovsky.
In the film school, the future director studied until 1930. The next four years, he continued to receive education at the Drama College named after Ermolova.
The first work in the cinema
In parallel with his studies at the Drama College, Rowe began working as an assistant director, Yakov Protazanov, at the Mezhrabpomfilm film studio (now the Gorky film studio). Since 1937, he himself begins to work as a director at the same film studio. And in a year she takes off her first picture - the fairy tale âBy the Pike Commandmentâ.
Making a similar film, Row Alexander Arturovich was very risky, because before him nothing like this had been done. It used to be a movie adaptation of fairy tales using animation. However, his first-born - the movie "By the Pike Commandment" - absolutely everyone liked. Both children and adults with pleasure went several times to watch a wonderful film.
Meanwhile, the director was already ordered a new film, which was supposed to tell the audience about the eternal struggle between evil and good and love for their native land. So the idea of ââa new movie title âVasilisa the Beautifulâ appeared, which was released in 1939 and again became a kind of hit of that time. Since then, Rowe began to specialize in fabulous themes in the cinema.
Row Alexander Arturovich: filmography selected
Over the years, Alexander Rowe shot as many as sixteen films. The seventeenth - âFinist - Clear Falconâ - was removed after his death in the script of his composition.
The most famous works of the director named Row Alexander Arturovich are the films Kashchei the Immortal, Mary the Artisan, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, The Kingdom of Curved Mirrors, Fire, Water and ... Copper Tubes, Varvara- beauty, a long braid "and, of course, the most famous film of Rowe, loved not only in the USSR, but throughout the world -" Morozko ".
A little-known fact, but among the directorial works of Alexander Arturovich there are documentaries (Artek and Crimea), as well as a ballet film, shot together with Rostislav Zakharov, âCrystal shoeâ.
Relations of Rowe and his actors
The relationship between the great storyteller and his "apprentices" deserve special attention. As many actors recall , director Rowe did not like strangers on the set. Therefore, he preferred to work with his team. He shot many actors in almost every movie of his.
Rowe's favorite actor and friend was Georgy Millar, whom the director met while filming his debut motion picture. After that, Millar became almost the directorâs calling card. He played with him and Babu Yaga, and Koshchei, and the devil, and other evil spirits.
Row himself discovered some of his stars. For example, Alexei Katyshev, the performer of the role of Vasenka (âFire, water and ... copper pipesâ), and Andrei, the fishing son (âBarbarian beauty, a long braidâ). Once, the director saw a young assistant sound engineer with amazing eyes and a kind smile. After that, he approved him for the main role in his new movie story, despite the fact that the guy had neither the appropriate education, nor experience in the movie.
During the filming, Alexander Rowe never ordered the actors how to play. He simply set a task for them: play one or the other. And how to do it and by what tricks, it was left to the discretion of the actors themselves.
The death of the great storyteller
In the last days of the outgoing 1973, a great meter of Soviet cinema was gone. He died, and did not have time to finish work on the film "Finist - Clear Falcon." There was only a scenario left, according to which Row's student - Gennady Vasiliev - was shot a film dedicated to the memory of his great teacher.
Row Alexander Arturovich: personal life
The first wife of Row was actress Elena Savitskaya. However, the family life with such a bright and restless woman in the director did not work out. Since the two talents could not build something in common.
But life did not stand still, and a little later Alexander Rowe met his fiancĂŠe. She became the second wife of the director - this is Elena Georgievna Rowe. This courageous woman was for him a real fighting friend, who devoted all her time and energy to her beloved husband. I went to the shooting with him, made sure that he ate on time and did not get sick. Friends and actors recall that the Row couple were very hospitable people.
Almost all his life, Rowe has been filming movie tales for the younger generation. Unfortunately, he did not have his own children. Sometimes he liked to joke Row Alexander Arturovich: his wife, children are actors. And indeed, he treated his subordinates in this way: he loved them and cared for them. And the artists themselves treated the storyteller as a father. For his sake, they performed dangerous stunts on the set, risked their health, broke their legs - and all just to make a film the way their director saw it.
A man of difficult fate was Row Alexander Arturovich. The biography of this wonderful person and an incredible professional is worthy of imitation. Despite all the problems that he had to deal with, he was able to preserve the children's purity of his soul, which he later invested in his films. And although for many years this talented director has not been among the living, his films have remained and will please many more generations.