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Bio-Filmography : Mark Zakharov + Introduction
Topic Started: Apr 13 2014, 06:07 AM (1,067 Views)
javierquintero
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
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Mark Zakharov
References from imdb/letterboxd/kinomusorka

He was born in was born on October 13, 1933, in Moscow, USSR (now Russia).


Films as a Director

1988 Kill the Dragon (Ubit drakona)
1984 Formula of Love (Formula lyubvi, TV Movie)
1983 Yunona i Avos (TV Movie)
1982 The House That Swift Built (Dom, kotoryy postroil Svift, TV Movie)
1979 That Same Münchhausen (Tot samyy Myunkhgauzen, TV Movie)
1978 An Ordinary Miracle (Obyknovennoye chudo, TV Movie)
1977 12 Chairs (12 stulev, TV Mini-Series)
1974 Prosnis i poy (TV Movie)



In 1955 he graduated from the acting department GITIS. He began his career as an actor and director at the Perm City Theatre, then at the amateur student theatre of Moscow State University in the 1950's-1960's. He played bit parts in many classical and contemporary plays and developed an astute vision of the workings and interplay within an ensemble of actors. In 1965 he was invited to direct plays at the Moscow Theatre of Satire. There he became famous after his successful direction of "Dokhodnoe Mesto", a play by Aleksandr Ostrovskiy starring Andrey Mironov. He soon directed another innovative production of "Razgrom", a play by Aleksandr Fadeyev. The play was almost banned, but a powerful ideologist Mikhail Suslov was invited and liked the play very much. Zakharov was saved. He was the author of the narration for the film "White Sun of the Desert" (1969).

Since 1973 Zakharov has been working as the Artistic Director of the Moscow Lenkom Theatre. There he directed a dazzling array of popular stage plays including "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov and "Til" by Grigori Gorin. He was also a film and television script writer of the TV movies, “Spring 29th” (1975), "Parking train two minutes" (1972), and co-writer of the movie "The Sannikov Land" (1972).

His biggest stage work was the muscle "Yunona i Avos" (Juno and Avos, 1980) by Andrei Voznesensky on the music of Aleksey Rybnikov. It was the first rock-opera in the Soviet Union, starring Nikolai Karachentsov and Aleksandr Abdulov. It had a run of over a thousand stage performances and was made into a video. Another acclaimed production directed by Zakharov was "Pominalnaya molitva" based on the famous story of Tevie the Milkman by Sholom Aleichem. The title role in this play was the last stage work of the brilliant actor Evgeny Leonov. Now the title role is played by Vladimir Steklov.

As a film director, he made such works as '12 stulev' (1977), 'Obyknovennoe chudo' (1978), 'Tot samy Munkhgausen' (1979), Dom, kotoryy postroil Svift (1982), Yunona i Avos (1983), Formula lyubvi (Formula of Love, 1984) and 'Ubit drakona' (To Kill a Dragon, 1988). Along his films, he created a harmonious ensemble of film stars including Aleksandr Abdulov, Nikolai Karachentsov, Andrey Mironov, Evgeny Leonov, Oleg Yankovsky, Irina Kupchenko, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Aleksandr Zbruev, as well as many other distinguished Russian actors.

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Lubov Polyshchuk and Andrei Mironov in "12 chairs" (1977)

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Aleksandr Abdulov in "An Ordinary Miracle" (1978)

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Oleg Yankovsky in "That Same Münchhausen" (1979)

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Aleksandra Zakharova in "The House That Swift Built" (1982)

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Nodar Mgaloblishvili in "Love Formula" (1984)

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Evgeny Leonov in "Kill the Dragon" (1988)




Mark Zakharov: Utopia and Freedoms
by Javier Quintero

In Zakharov’s films we find dreamers who must face both, educations and dictatorial figures that threaten to eradicate any semblance of autonomy and respect for diversity of thought. Through humor, dance, music and conventions related to narrative misunderstandings, the director shows us specific rules underlying a Status Quo, while annihilating the ability of a character to dream about changing his own reality, as well as the real possibilities he might have to actually put it into practice. So, confronting such taboos, customs, habits, laws, regimes of power, the characters seem to have no choice but to obey to the apparently fixed , eternal and unquestionable logics that dictate their fates. Precisely located in the context of fantasy and fairy tales, where magic and fantastic events seem to take place, there is also the presence of dynamics and processes sought to impose reason and homogenizer-conservative thought to stop and curb those who have a vision contrary to the hegemonic positions. Two of his films: “An Ordinary Miracle” and “Kill the Dragon”, adapt the dramatic plays by author Evgeny Shvarts. We can see they are subtly related through a mysterious painting at the Magician's house in "An Ordinary Miracle" along with references to hunting, collective beliefs and taboos, bringing somehow a conceptual continuity between Shvarts and Zakharov’s works, which could be even settled suspiciously in the same town or community. The two works share also their three main stars, Oleg Yankovsky, Aleksandr Abdulov and Evgeny Leonov, in relatively similar roles.


Visual Forms
Zakharov creates poetic images from the contradictions between reason and fantasy, of course, trying to challenge some spatiotemporal continuity favoring his main characters’ perception of reality as a dream or as a malleable-and-constantly-shape-switching hallucination. In fact, people like Munchhausen, Cagliostro (Love Formula), the dragon (Kill the Dragon) or the wizard (An Ordinary Miracle), by themselves already have amazing skills or powers that seek to alter, as liberators or oppressors, the perception that those around them have on reality, logic and physical laws. His is a cinema of three basic elements:

1. The transformation, as nature's own logic, reflected in the processes of the creatures it has set.
2. Those who transform reality as part of their nature, and alter or create new orders, which necessarily lead to liberation or oppression (magicians, playwrights, warlocks, dictators with magic powers or ordinary people with unusual points of view).
3. Those submitted to changes they never chose or chose indirectly, such as the hapless heroes who relapse on spells (An Ordinary Miracle), are unlucky in love (Love Formula), or are oppressed by conservative institutions (That Very Same Munchhausen ), or by an unquestionable destiny by coming from a lineage of heroes or a family of subordinates (Kill the Dragon).


Spaces
Because of his theatrical experience, Zakharov sets the mise-in-scène inside some spatial boxes of his own to explore it in a theatrical stage way where musical acts, choreography, exhibitions and even monologues occur. Although we have access to the characters’ homes, rarely have access to their private spaces (bedrooms, bathrooms, restrooms). This, particularly makes us realize the importance of the interior public spaces, such as hallways, living-rooms and courtyards, all of them destined for visitors. In a film like "An Ordinary Miracle" spaces come to be abstract, in the manner of certain theatrical scenarios, where within a single place we can find several temporalities, climates and different levels of reality simultaneously.
In "That Same Munchhausen", "Love Formula" and "Kill the Dragon" he explores spaces destined to communities and neighborhoods in small towns where many characters interact with one that somehow has the power to change their lives. In these three films there is a democratization of spaces where we can get in and out of houses/stages where the characters play different social roles that impact the whole community.

Music
The main characters and their most intense attitudes have a musical correspondence in Zakharov’s films. Music helps to reinforce personalities in dynamic contexts that surely develop an evolve into a climax with frenzy before our very eyes. When we see the Baron Münchhausen or the Wizard from "An Ordinary Miracle" is not too clear if they rush music or if, instead, it becomes a companion that must run after them to catch and keep up the speed they move with. Similarly, the villagers seem to live constantly rehearsing and making music for the Dragon character in "Kill the Dragon". The characters often sing and even dance individually or in group choreographies.

Zakharovian heroes
The main characters in Zakharov’s films have, from the beginning of each story, a skill that distinguishes them, with which they are capable of transforming reality around them. This of course, makes them too "dangerous" in some way. Because of their power, they have to deal with the consequences for breaking a so-far-supposedly intransgressible law.
A magician who transforms animals or written ideas into humans in "An Ordinary Miracle"; or a powerful Cagliostro, able to invent the most amazing potions, including of course, the one for love; a restless Baron Münchausen, who doesn’t allow a single day to pass without making some wonderful feats and exploits that challenge the so-called "impossible"; and finally, a descendant of legendary knight, Lancelot, with the transcendental mission of eliminating the metamorphic dictator that governs an imaginary country, equally possessor of supernatural powers in "To Kill a Dragon".
Edited by javierquintero, Oct 11 2017, 04:06 AM.
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Nice work Javier. Can we have this on mubi as well, as an intro thread?
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Edges and Ridges
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Thanks javier, I'd love to post an article of this level someday;) And judging from the positive feedback on Letterboxd, "An Ordinary Miracle" will surely be a wonderful surprise for me!
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rischka
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nazi trumps fuck off!!
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yes thanks for this info, i hadn't heard of this director before the cup tho i knew of this munchausen film and have long wanted to see it. i should do something like this for barnet. or perhaps edges should; he's much more thorough than me ;) i adoooored an ordinary miracle and can't wait to see more!
Edited by rischka, Apr 14 2014, 12:23 AM.
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javierquintero
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
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Thanks Edges, and Rischka for the enthusiasm. His films are indeed so refreshing and somehow, prophetic in terms of the struggle between authoritarianism and personal freedom.

@Rohit: precisely because of the previous sentence, I have decided to keep this intro in our SCFZ site only.
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Well...we are all participating in the DC aren't we? It is to make sure that your "previous sentence" does not get violated that we continue to run the event on mubi against all odds. Anyway, do whatever you feel comfortable doing.
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javierquintero
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
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Yes, I'll continue voting on mubi, but I prefer to post contents here, at least while they define the final design and its politics of inclusion for personalized contents.
Edited by javierquintero, Jan 28 2015, 04:16 PM.
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