Factory of Eccentricity

Categories / Art/Cinema
FACTORY OF ECCENTRICITY (FEKS), the creative association, existed in Petrograd (Leningrad) in 1922-26. The aesthetic programme of the Factory of Eccentricity stood close to the ideas of the Leftist Arts Front and V. E. Meyerhold’s and V. V. Mayakovsky’s quest. At the same time some theories of the Russian formal school obviously influenced the stylistic conceptions and theories of the Factory of Eccentricity, one of the outstanding figures of the formal school, Y. N. Tynyanov was a constant scriptwriter for the Factory of Eccentricity. At the beginning of 1922, founding members F. G. M. Kozintsev, L. Z. Trauberg, G. K. Kryzhitsky and S. I. Yutkevich published the manifesto Eccentricity in which they stressed Eccentricity as the highest form of theatricality and film based on movement, tricks and psychology. The workshop of the Factory of Eccentricity (the Factory of the Eccentric Actor) was opened in July 1922, new methods of education based on the development of physical abilities of the actors were practiced here, they were supplemented with compulsory lessons in acrobatics, dances and juggling. The Factory of Eccentricity publicised "the lowest" art forms: music hall, circus, show, while appealing for the electrification and mechanization of theatrical productions. The Factory of Eccentricity achieved its theoretical principles in the performance Marriage directed by Kozintsev and Trauberg (the subtitle Trick in Three Acts, September 1922), based on the combination of circus turns and pop entrances with couplets. The Factory of Eccentricity turned to the sphere of cinema and started to work as a workshop in the structure of the cinema hall Sevzapkino (today the Leningrad Film) connecting the studies with producing films after the production of Foreign Commerce on the Eiffel Tower in 1923. Kozintsev and Trauberg produced six films with their permanent staff of actors during the time of existence of the Factory of Eccentricity as an independent workshop. Overcoat and SVD were the most important among them. The authors showed innovative methods in screening classics and in treating historical themes in the cinema. The school of the Factory of Eccentricity made a considerable contribution to the development of the theatre art, rearing a vast number of actors. E. A. Kuzmina, S. Z. Magarill, S. A. Gerasimov (later a film director), Y. B. Zheymo, A. A. Kostrichkin, A. Y. Kapler (later becoming a script writer), O. P. Zhakov, P. S. Sobolevsky were among them. The Factory of Eccentricity also made an important contribution to the development of cinematic language. Film directors Kozintsev and Trauberg in constant co-operation with operator A. N. Moskvin and artist E. E. Eney achieved not only stylistic unity with film but also made a number of concrete discoveries in the sphere of cinematographic expressiveness. Discoveries of the Factory of Eccentricity determined, in many respects, the future development of the domestic and world cinema.

References: Недоброво В. В. ФЭКС. Григорий Козинцов, Леонид Трауберг. М.; Л., 1928; Добин Е. С. Козинцев и Трауберг. Л.; М., 1963; Киноведческие записки. М., 1990. № 7: [ФЭКС и эксцентризм: Материалы междунар. конф.]. М., 1990. (Киновед. зап.; № 7).

I. V. Sepman. Eney Evgeny Evgenievich
Gerasimov Sergey Apollinarievich
Kapler Alexey Yakovlevich
Kostrichkin Andrey Andreevich
Kozintsev Grigory Mikhailovich
Kryzhitsky Georgy Konstantinovich
Kuzmina Elena Alexandrovna
Magarill Sofia Zinovyevna
Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich
Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilievich
Moskvin Andrey Nikolaevich
Sobolevsky Peter Stanislavovich
Trauberg Leonid Zakharovich
Tynyanov Yury Nikolaevich
Yutkevich Sergey Iosifovich
Zhakov Oleg Petrovich
Zheymo Yanina Boleslavovna
Недоброво В. В. ФЭКС. Григорий Козинцов, Леонид Трауберг. М.; Л., 1928
Добин Е. С. Козинцев и Трауберг. Л.; М., 1963
[ФЭКС и эксцентризм: Материалы междунар. конф.]. М., 1990 Lenfilm, Film Studio
1922