Director Stanislav Rostotsky: biography, filmography and personal life. Rostotsky Stanislav Iosifovich - Soviet Russian film director

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Stanislav Rostotsky is a film director, teacher, actor, People's Artist of the USSR, Lenin Prize Laureate, but above all he is a man with a capital letter - incredibly sensitive and understanding, compassionate to the experiences and problems of other people. He is a man with great willpower and love for life, who, despite all his problems and difficulties, has not ceased to be surprised at the world around him, enjoy every day and notice the beauty around him.

Biography

Rostotsky Stanislav Iosifovich was born in the spring of 1922 in the Yaroslavl region, in the family of Joseph Boleslavovich and Lydia Karlovna. The boy was the only child in the family, and he received plenty of attention, parental care, and love. The mother of the future director was a housewife, dad was a doctor.

Childhood of Rostotsky is inextricably linked with the village. As a boy, he spent a lot of time there. Love for truly Russian values - work, nature, land - was laid down in my youth. Stanislav experienced a lot of that time - unsettledlife; cards for products that could be used to buy bread; clothing inherited from older comrades or father. But Rostotsky liked all this - the village people, their life, their hard daily work.

Life in a city communal apartment is another element of the future director's biography. The common residence of many families in one apartment is a special time that did not go unnoticed through the heart and soul of Stanislav Iosifovich. All these living conditions, circumstances piece by piece formed into a big picture, laid down and shaped the character of Rostotsky.

Dreams and plans for the future

The dream of becoming a great director haunted Stanislav Iosifovich from an early age. Being a five-year-old tomboy, he saw Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. The picture impressed the boy so much that he decided to connect his life with cinema by all means.

Later, Sergei Eisenstein became Rostotsky's friend, teacher, even more - a mentor in life, a person who laid the foundation for shaping the personality of the future director, his moral and ethical principles, the main character traits.

The fact is that, by the will of fate, the future actor Stanislav Rostotsky got to screen tests in the film "Bezhin Meadow" by Sergei Eisenstein, where he met the great director.

At the age of sixteen, young Rostotsky turned to Eisenstein for help - the young man asked the venerable director to teach him the basics of the profession. In return for this, Rostislav was ready to fulfill anyunsightly work - housekeeping, cleaning shoes, etc. Sergei Eisenstein took such an ardent proposal of a young man with humor, and for a start recommended the young man to seriously engage in self-education - to study world art, music, literature. The great director was firmly convinced that without knowledge there is no directing.

War years

After graduating from school, Stanislav entered the Institute of Philosophy and Literature. Communication with Eisenstein did not go unnoticed. The young man was firmly convinced that in the future he would enter the Institute of Cinematography. However, the war soon began, which confused all the cards for Rostotsky. VGIK was evacuated, and now it was possible to forget about studies.

Rostotsky was drafted into the army in 1942. I must say that in peacetime, the future director had he alth problems and was considered non-combatant. However, the military situation corrected this fact. In 1943, the young man went to the front, where he experienced all the horrors of the war, and faced death nose to nose. He, a boy who grew up in love and harmony, with a fine mental organization, was painfully aware of the whole nightmare of what was happening around. This difficult life experience did not go unnoticed. It was reflected first in the director's memoirs with the simple title "Autobiography", and later in his films, which left an indelible mark on the hearts of the Soviet people for many years - "The Dawns Here Are Quiet", "May Stars", "On the Seven Winds".

The war is over. What's left?

In February 1944, Stanislav Rostotsky was seriously wounded on the territory of Ukraine. Hishospitalized first in Rivne, then in Moscow. The young man was operated on several times, but the doctors did not save his leg - it had to be amputated.

In August 1944, Rostotsky received a disability and returned to Moscow. He did not give up, did not begin to feel sorry for himself, after all he had experienced, he did not break down, did not give up, did not stop believing in his own strength. Stanislav, ignoring the hardships of life, decided to fulfill his childhood dream at all costs. He entered the Institute of Cinematography on the course of Grigory Kozintsev. The man went headlong into his studies, which brought incredible joy and pleasure, tried to absorb every little thing, without missing anything, tried to learn everything possible, tried to use every chance.

From that moment a new stage began in the life of the young Rostotsky. Studying at VGIK gave the future director a fateful meeting with his wife. Stanislav Rostotsky and Nina Menshikova, who studied under Sergei Gerasimov, met while studying at the institute.

The Rostotsky family

The girl Nina immediately "lay her eye" on the handsome Rostotsky. However, she did not seriously count on winning the heart of a man. Rostotsky has always been surrounded by numerous admirers. Family happiness and the fate of the young beauty Menshikova were decided by the case that life provided. Nina, as the wife of a Decembrist, went after Rostotsky on a long-distance creative business trip, where the future director went with comrade Vladimir Krasilshchikov. Jointlife brought young people together, Stanislav fell in love.

In his memoirs, however, Rostotsky admitted that Nina's initiative to go to no one knows where with two unfamiliar men surprised him and did not even like him. However, he later changed his mind. After some time, the young people got married.

Nina Menshikova has played about sixty roles in films. Some of them were directed by Stanislav Rostotsky. The viewer will always remember the role of the teacher of Russian language and literature performed by the actress in the film "We'll Live Until Monday", the role of Vera Timofeevna Kruglova in the comedy "Girls".

In the marriage of Stanislav Iosifovich and Nina Evgenievna, a son Andrei was born, who later became a famous actor. Apparently, the heredity of two creative talented people was passed on to the child.

The beginning of the creative path

In parallel with his studies at the institute, Rostotsky helped Kozintsev at the Lenfilm film studio, thanks to which he received not only invaluable experience, but also a good recommendation as a ready-made independent film director after graduating from a higher educational institution.

Since 1952, Stanislav Iosifovich worked at the Gorky Studio. That period of time is characterized by the "Khrushchev thaw", which did not bypass the cinema - instructions to shoot as many films on an agricultural theme as possible scattered throughout the country. Of course, this fact was immediately reflected in the work of the maestro. Over the next five years, two paintings saw the light - "Earth and People" and "It was in Penkovo",directed by Stanislav Rostotsky.

The film "Earth and People", before appearing before the audience, lay on the shelf for some time. The fact is that a movie was made based on the story of Gavriil Troepolsky "Prokhor the seventeenth and others." The manuscript was banned from printing, as it denounced the unenviable state of the country's agriculture at that time. The film suffered the same fate - the artistic council banned it from showing, and the director Rostotsky was labeled a counter-revolutionary.

However, the situation soon changed - the film was banned from showing, its premiere took place the day after the XX Party Congress.

The film "It was in Penkovo" also had a difficult path to the viewer, but later it was a resounding success.

Let's live until Monday

Stanislav Rostotsky, whose films resonate in the hearts of many viewers, created another masterpiece, incredibly kind, and so truly sincere - "We'll Live Until Monday." She became not only his hallmark, but also opened a new direction in the cinema of the USSR - youth cinema.

The events of the film unfold in a school - a place where there is constant interaction between two generations - the older and the younger. And teachers do not always teach the life of their students. School brethren often present life lessons to their mentors. Rostotsky tried to break in his picture the stereotypes of pedagogy that existed at that time, and offered an alternative to standard school education.

The film was shot in an incredibly short time frame. The shooting of the picture lasted only three months. This saved him from censorship, which, apparently, would have put the tape on the shelf. However, the ban simply did not have time to overtake the picture.

The delegates of the All-Union Congress of Teachers were the first to see the film. Officials expected that the participants in the congress would ridicule the picture. But everything turned out exactly the opposite.

Subsequently, in 1962, the film was awarded the State Prize of the USSR and the Grand Prix at the fourth Moscow International Film Festival.

Military theme and more

In 1972, Rostotsky shot another of his masterpieces - the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" based on a story by Boris Vasiliev. The picture, which showed the face of war in the fate of young girls who were just starting their lives, their heroism and immortal feat, echoed with pain in the hearts of many people.

In general, Rostotsky Stanislav Iosifovich in his films always depicted the feelings and emotions of the characters in the center of events, brought to the fore precisely the best human qualities. All his paintings are alive, they wake up the soul, make it worry and worry.

The Dawns Here Are Quiet, a laureate of international film festivals, was nominated for an Oscar. This film about the war is a dedication, a tribute to all those who fought for the Motherland, who survived, and those who died.

Stanislav Rostotsky, whose filmography includes more than a dozen amazing paintings, would not have revealed anything to the world if Anya had not met on his wayChegunov. The director owes his life to this man. Anna Chegunova is an ordinary woman who voluntarily fought at the front until May 1945. Nature rewarded her not only with beauty, courage, but also with a compassionate heart. She pulled Rostotsky out of the fight in the truest sense of the word in her arms. After the war, she got married and had children. But the war did not let her go. Memories, difficult experiences did not pass without a trace - the woman was diagnosed with brain cancer. By the time the film was edited, she was already blind, but Rostotsky brought her to the studio and commented on everything that happened on the screen. Stanislav Iosifovich was an incredibly sensitive person.

We owe another touching film to director Rostotsky. The film "White Bim Black Ear" was awarded the Lenin Prize. She also took the Grand Prix of the Karlovy Vary Festival.

Rostotsky. Who is he?

In the early 1990s, the director retired from cinema. He and his wife led a quiet and unhurried life with the savings collected during their life and the pension of a disabled war invalid, enjoying every given day.

Stanislav Rostotsky, whose biography, like a film, has many positive and negative spots, managed to remain sincere, real, sincere. He left the cinema many years ago, but even years later his colleagues in the workshop warmly remember this incredible person, noting not only his professionalism, but also his spiritual qualities. For example, Svetlana Druzhinina, who starred with Stanislav Iosifovich in the film “It was in Penkovo,” speaks of Rostotsky asabout a man with an infinitely feeling soul, amazing intuition and creative flair. She says that she learned from him many directorial working techniques, as well as the ability to make bold decisions, the ability not to hesitate, but to take risks.

Boris Vasiliev, according to whose story Rostotsky shot the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” says that the film was shot very simply - with the heart, and there was no falsehood in it, it did not cause disgust. The writer says that with Rostotsky he had the happiest job in cinema, because no one respected copyright as much as he did.

In August 2001, Stanislav Rostotsky died of a heart attack on his way to Vyborg for the Window on Europe film festival.

A year after the death of his father, Rostotsky's son Andrei died. The tragedy occurred on the set of a film in Krasnaya Polyana, a man fell off the mountain.

Nina Menshikova lived another five years and also left this world. This amazing, full of love family left abruptly and very unexpectedly. Stanislav Rostotsky, Nina Menshikova and Andrei Rostotsky are buried in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery.