Olga Zhizneva - an aristocrat from Soviet cinema

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

In the Soviet cinema there were many actresses who personified the "outgoing nature". Their face, mannerisms, speech were suitable for the embodiment of heroines from high society, countesses and queens. Yes, and sometimes a discreet touch of aristocracy would not hurt a Soviet woman on the screen.

Olga Zhizneva was such an artist. She was ideally suited for the image of an intelligent mother of a positive protagonist. Although at the beginning of her film career she had more frivolous roles.

Born a year before the new century

She was born in the spring of 1899 in St. Petersburg. Her mother, Maria Mikhailovna Zhizneva, died in childbirth. The father was a German - Andreas Neumann, and Olga was brought up in a strict spirit by her grandmother, who hardly speaks Russian. The surname was taken by Olga in memory of her mother. Finishing school, choosing a profession, studying at a theater school, starting an acting career in the theater came at a difficult time. But no obstacles stopped the girl in her quest to become an actress.

She came to Moscow in 1919 and easily entered the Drama School at the State Demonstrative Theatre, but this study turned out to be both short-lived and superficial. Therefore, Olga Zhizneva studied at the theaterschool at the famous A. Korsh Theater in Moscow and then joined his troupe. In the theater, in the role of an insidious seductress, she was seen by a film director who became famous even before the revolution - Yakov Protazanov. He invited her to the Mezhrabpomfilm studio in his new project.

Star of the screen of the NEP times

During five years of work in silent films, Olga Zhizneva starred in eight films. The roles that she got required spectacular close-ups, expressive poses and the ability to wear beautiful dresses from the actress - these were vamp women. Despite her youth, Zhizneva was a fairly experienced professional, and working on the set did not cause her any particular problems.

The 1925 film “His Appeal” by Yakov Protazanov is considered the first film response to Lenin's death, although its plot has adventurous-detective features. Olga Zhizneva, in her first of 36 film roles, plays a character named Lulu, a girl from the emigrant environment of the main villain.

After the following films - the comedies The Cutter from Torzhok (1925), The Trial of Three Millions (1926), - hits and box office leaders, Zhizneva becomes a real star.

Meeting of a lifetime

Starting her career in the theater, Zhizneva gradually became only a film actress. She managed to easily overcome that stage of transition to sound cinema, which became a problem for many actors and even turned into a popular plot device. Her voice, magical in beauty and expressiveness, was considered by many to be her main advantage.

A film about the revolutionary struggle of minersin one of the countries of South America (“Ghost that does not return”), filmed in 1929, was special for the actress. For the first time, she changed her role, and human feelings became the main thing in her image, and not dresses and cleavage.

The adaptation of the short story by Henri Barbusse was named by critics and viewers as one of the best Soviet films made at the turn of the decade. Filmed as a mute, it was dubbed some time later. But not only because of this, Olga Zhizneva forever remembered him. The personal life of the actress after this film was determined for many years: she first starred with her future husband, director Abram Matveyevich Room. By the time they met, Zhizneva had become a widow, and Room had divorced. They were destined to live together for more than forty years. The actress had no children, but always treated her stepdaughter Elena as her own daughter.

"The Strict Youth" (1934)

This film, based on the script by Yuri Olesha, was initially strange and not entirely Soviet. Heroes from the then reality were transferred to a strange, ideal, similar to the ancient world. Other dreams, other ideals, other morality were actual in it. The heroine of Life looked like an animated statue of a goddess, but not a Soviet woman.

The film was banned, the director and actors were labeled, making it difficult for them to continue working in the cinema. Olga returned to the theater, where she played several prominent roles, the most notable being Anna Karenina. She easily succeeded in the transition to age roles.

She was lucky to be directors

Olga Zhizneva, filmswhich has always been included in the golden fund of domestic cinema, has been a very popular actress for almost all her life. She worked with the most famous Soviet filmmakers: V. Pudovkin (“The Killers Take to the Road”, 1942, however, this film, like “The Strict Youth”, was not allowed on the screen), Mikhail Romm (“Admiral Ushakov”, 1953), L. Lukov ("Different Fates", 1956), S. Rostotsky ("We'll Live Until Monday", 1968) and many others.

She worked both during the war, in the evacuation (in Alma-Ata), and after, during the period of "low picture". The last film, released shortly before Geneva's death in 1972, was "Property of the Republic", where she again appeared as a Russian aristocrat, only in the form of "a person not from here."

Her husband, Abram Room, who appreciated her talent, tried to shoot her in each of his films, said: “She is the astral Life. Olga is an actress that even I could not figure out…”.