Elem Klimov is a Soviet film director, author of several textbook films

Klimov Alem Germanovich - a famous film director of the Soviet period. People's Artist of the Russian Federation since 1997, during the period from 1986 to 1988 was the secretary of the presidium of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR.

Elem Klimov, biography

Born in 1933, on July 9 in Volgograd (the former Stalingrad), in the family of Herman Stepanovich Klimov, a member of the Party Control Committee of the CPSU Central Committee. Since 1956, he led the rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist repression. I personally collected more than seventy volumes of cases on innocent convicts. There were several hundred people repressed, and Herman Stepanovich hoped to fully understand the situation, but brought health - it was necessary to transfer the affairs to younger enthusiasts.

Mother - Klimova Kaleria Georgievna. Brother - Klimov Herman Germanovich, screenwriter. Wife - Shepitko Larissa, famous film director. There is a son - Klimov Anton, PR-director. The family lived amicably, although at one table it was rare.

Elem Klimov graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1957 and began to work as a design engineer at a Moscow plant. Collaborated with the editorial staff of the Central Television. In 1962 he joined the CPSU. In 1964 he graduated from VGIK for directing specialty and came to work at the film studio Mosfilm.

Carier start

Elem Klimov, whose films are classics of Soviet cinema, his first full-length film was shot in 1964. It was the comedy "Welcome, or No Trespassing." In the main role - Evgeny Evstigneev. The film made a sensation and alerted the party leadership of the country. The next picture by Klimov entitled "The Adventures of the Dentist" was banned and for many years "put on the shelf." On the screen the film came out after twenty years, in 1987.

The director's blue dream was to create a full-length film based on Bulgakov's master and Margarita. Klimov even wrote the script together with his brother Herman, but the money for the production was not given for ideological reasons, and the project remained on paper.

In the early nineties a meeting of Russian cinematographers with representatives of business took place. Someone raised the issue of the problems of financing new film projects. The speaker pointed to Elem Klimov and said that the director can not fulfill his dream and film the masterpiece of Bulgakov. Present millionaires of the new wave expressed their desire to help with money, but Klimov refused, explaining his position by the fact that he does not understand the sources of this money.

Larisa Shepitko

With his future wife, Elem Klimov met at the institute. Larissa studied at the directing department and was considered the first beauty VGIK. She did a lot of acting in movies, as a student, and one day she met with an undergraduate named Elem, handsome, tall and talented. Soon the young people got married.

Larissa and Elem were the most beautiful conjugal duet of Soviet cinema, they created together and helped each other in everything. At some point, Shepitko came forward, she received a prestigious award at the Berlin Film Festival for her film entitled "Climbing."

Elem, on the contrary, experienced his next failure, his painting "Agony" was banned (she lay in the archive for ten whole years).

Nevertheless, life continued, son grew up, scripts were written, new projects were opened. The shooting was planned according to the scenario of Valentin Rasputin "Farewell to the Mother". Shepitko was supposed to shoot the picture.

However, there was a tragedy, Larissa got into a car accident. Together with her, the whole crew died. Elm Klimov has already started the film.

Home work

And it was only after this maddening tragedy that the director found the strength and shot his main picture called "Go and See." The picture was created on the verge of reality, with pain and scream. It turned out to be a real masterpiece, deeply psychological, on a naked nerve, unlike other Soviet movies.

The film was shot on a monstrous material - the facts were based on the genocide of the Belarusian people, the destruction of villages by Hitler's punitive forces. Some episodes, shot by Klimov, went beyond the normal human concept. There were no tears, no compassion, no sympathy, no pity. Only horror, inevitable and chilling blood. Scary film.

In total the director has removed twelve films, he for years waited for the chance, but it is ineffectual. He lived as he should, was indifferent to the world around him, felt disgust at the new values that came to replace the Soviet system. Elem Klimov died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 2003, on October 26. The director was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery.

Director's work

As mentioned, all Elem Klimov shot 12 motion pictures, of which only six came to the big screen:

• "Go and See" (1985);
• "Farewell" (1981);
• "The Agony" (1981);
• "Larissa" (1980);
• "Evening of memories" (1972);
• "Sport, Sports, Sports" (1970);
• "Single Fathers" (1968);
• "Welcome, or No Trespassing" (1964);
• "Look, the sky!" (1962);
• "The Living" (1960);
• "The Adventures of the Dentist" (1965);
• "Caution: vulgarity" (1959).