Lenfilm, Film Studio

Categories / Art/Cinema
LENFILM (10 Kamennoostrovsky Avenue), film studio. Founded in 1918 as the Petrograd Cinema Committee under the People's Commissariat of Education (see also under Cinema). Its first feature film was Integration (Uplotnenie), written by A. V. Lunacharsky and shot in 1918 by directors A. P. Panteleev, A. I. Dolinov, and D. K. Pashkovsky. Throughout the 1920s it was renamed into Kinosev, Sevzapkino, Leningradkino, and Soyuzkino Leningrad Factory, and was given its present name in 1934. A creative team started to be formed in 1920s to unite traditionalist V. K. Viskovsky, V. R. Gardin, Ch. G. Sabinsky, and other directors with young innovators. Youth workshops were established, such as the Factory of Eccentric Artists, the Cinema Experimental Workshop, and I. E. Heifits and A. G. Zarkhi's First Komsomol Director's Team. It was A. I. Piotrovsky, a studio art director in 1928-37, who contributed a lot to the creative development of Lenfilm. It had its heyday in 1930s, shooting films that a part of in the so-called golden age of Soviet cinema, such as Counterplan, directed by F. M. Ermler and S. I. Yutkevich in 1932, Chapaev directed by the Brothers Vasilyev in 1934, the Maxim Trilogy directed by G. M. Kozintsev and L. Z. Trauberg in 1935-39, and Baltic Deputy and Cabinet Minister, both directed by Heifits and Zarkhi in 1937 and 1939, respectively. After the Great Patriotic War began in 1941 Lenfilm was evacuated to Alma-Ata and joined the Central United Film Studio. It returned to Leningrad in 1944. Films produced by the studio in the mid-1950s included Large Family and Rumyantsev Case, both directed by Heifits in 1954 and 1957, respectively, and Soldiers directed by A. G. Ivanov in 1957. The studio saw another rise in the 1970s as a new generation of directors came, including G. A. Panfilov, A. Y. German, I. A. Averbakh, S. D. Aranovich, and S. M. Ovcharov. In 1990 the Lenfilm Cinema Association was founded by a number of creative associations reorganised into independent studios.

Reference: Из истории "Ленфильма" : Ст., воспоминания, док.: В 4 вып. Л., 1968-1975.

V. А. Kuznetsova. Aranovich Semen Davidovich
Averbakh Ilya Alexandrovich
Dolinov Anatoly Ivanovich
Ermler Friedrich Markovich
Gardin Vladimir Rostislavovich
German Alexsey Georgievich (Yurievich)
Heifits Iosif Efimovich
Ivanov Alexander Gavrilovich
Kozintsev Grigory Mikhailovich
Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich
Ovcharov Sergey Mikhailovich
Panfilov Gleb Anatolievich
Panteleev Alexander Petrovich
Pashkovsky Nikolay
Piotrovsky Boris Borisovich
Sabinsky Cheslav Genriсhovich
Trauberg Leonid Zakharovich
Vasilyev Georgy Nikolaevich
Viskovsky Vyacheslav K.
Yutkevich Sergey Iosifovich
Zarkhi Alexander Grigoryevich
Kamennoostrovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 10
Из истории "Ленфильма": Ст., воспоминания, док., 1920-е гг.: В 4 вып. Л., 1968–1975 Factory of Eccentricity
1934
1935
1964