Films of Karen Shakhnazarov: full filmography

Karen Shakhnazarov is a person known not only in Russia, but also abroad. A film director, scriptwriter, producer and just an exceptional personality - it's always interesting with him.

Famous people, revealing the formula of their success, among the components always mention hard work, faith in themselves and a small fraction of luck. All this is typical for the life of Karen Georgievich, however, the family has greatly influenced the emergence of him as a person and the shaping of his life's path .

Shakhnazarov - descendant of the princely family

The parents of the future film director, although not directly related to art, but always were people enthusiastic and versatile, surrounded by creative theatrical representatives. In their house were Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuri Lyubimov. The young Karen had the opportunity to constantly attend numerous theatrical productions, pleasure scarce and inaccessible in those days for the majority of those who wished. And this did not pass without a trace, and in many respects influenced the formation of the personality of the film director, his views and role in art, left an imprint on the mental organization. It should be added that, among other things, Karen Georgievich is a descendant of an ancient Armenian princely family, whose history dates back to the Middle Ages, in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Karen Shakhnazarov came to the cinema, driven by vanity, and, as he himself confesses, initially wrongly put emphasis, giving an appreciation to the director's work, because as everyone in youth sees it differently ... He believes that in reality the world of cinema is a cruel world where it is difficult To break through, and to whom it succeeds - we keep heaven. Karen Shakhnazarov graduated from VGIK. His debut picture is the film "Dobriaki", although in 1975-1977. Light saw two short films: "Wider step, maestro!" (Diploma work) and "On a slippery road". In 1980, the screens released a lyrical comedy "Ladies Invite Cavaliers", in which Shakhnazarov acted as a screenwriter.

How it all began

Karen Shakhnazarov's films are very different. In total, there are 15 paintings in the director's record: some brought him fame, others, Shakhnazarov himself believes, turned out to be less successful. Among the early films of Karen Georgievich, we can distinguish the paintings "We are from Jazz" (1983), "The Winter Evening in Gagra" (1985), the lyrical comedy "Courier" (1986).

One of the director's films is compared to the film "Cheerful Guys". This is a film, even more a musical comedy, with a sonorous title "We are from jazz." The action of the tape occurs in the 20s of the 20th century, during the NEP - a period historically ambiguous. The protagonist of the film loves music and wants to "carry it to the masses", but it's not so simple. Jazz is music, for which they can be expelled from the educational institution, and arrange difficulties in life. The film about friendship, youth, love so fell in the soul of the viewer that he was dismantled for quotes. The picture was included in the number of film-leaders at the box office in the Soviet film distribution in 1983.

Difference from other directors

In 1988, the screenshots of Shakhnazarov's painting "Zero City" - a very peculiar mixture of human realities and strange incomprehensible events bordering on the absurd. The film tells how the protagonist, heading for work in the city of N, falls into a certain space, in which inexplicable and incomprehensible to the logic of the Soviet man things are happening. Time then stops, then races madly. All exactly, as in the era of the publication of the picture in the light - a person is difficult to understand and comprehend, to take everything that happens in troubled times. But he is a being that adapts, and what seemed to be inconceivable at first is to resign later, does not cause a storm of negative emotions later ...

It should be said that all the films of Karen Georgievich are not like the tape of colleagues in the shop. Filmed as mystical manifestations in an imaginary space (such as, for example, the mystical City of Zero), they are endowed with unreasoned heroes and facts. And this is due, first of all, to Shakhnazarov's opinion that any director bears his own point of view and vision of something to the masses, therefore he must confirm all his words and messages with real knowledge, real life.

The films that saw the light in the perestroika period include:

• "The Tzarebiytsa" (1991);
• "Dreams" (1993);
• "American daughter" (1995);
• "Full Moon Day" (1998).

Early 2000's. Was also marked by the presentation of several Shakhnazarov's paintings, among them: Poisons, or the World History of Poisoning (2001), The Horseman named Death (2003), The Disappeared Empire (2008).

They make the viewer think

Love, dreams, hopes and expectations are feelings that everyone knows. In the life of any person, sooner or later there comes a time when you have to make a choice, sacrifice something in the name of someone or something. In the film by Karen Shakhnazarov, "The Vanished Empire" is interwoven into one knot of the fate of several people. Characters - two friends who have feelings for one girl - a classic love triangle. Their friendship and personal relationships develop against the background of political events in the country, which in the near future will disappear from the face of the Earth, it will not be on maps, the descendants will soon forget about it. What will remain? How will the fates of the children develop after many years? The film causes contradictory feelings among film fans, leaving feedback on various Internet resources. Someone criticizes Shakhnazarov for the improbability of the created images, scenery and the whole atmosphere of the Soviet Union. Others, on the contrary, express interest, sympathy for the film and words of gratitude to the director for those forgotten nostalgic memories, dear to the heart, about a country that has not existed for a long time, about childhood, about the youth that has passed away ... In fact, it is not so important who is more right, Who is less. The main thing - the film makes you think, argue, which means that it causes real human emotions, not allowing people to remain indifferent. By the way, in 2012 Shakhnazarov took a remake of his painting, though under a different name - "Love in the USSR."

Based on the novel of the same name by Anton Chekhov in 2009, the picture "Chamber No. 6" was withdrawn. The film, like the story in classical literature, tells about a doctor of a psychiatric hospital in a single county town, who, after talking with a mentally ill patient, soon loses his mind. Everything, as in prose, but events are happening nowadays. And again there is a certain isolated space (hospital ward No. 6), in which unreasonable events with unreasoned heroes take place. Feelings, experiences, thoughts - everything is real. The director interweaves in the picture the realities of life and ephemeral fiction.

Karen Shakhnazarov's films about the war

For a long time Karen Georgievich did not work on military paintings (only as a producer in the film "Star" in 2002). According to Shakhnazarov, it is too responsible to make films about the war, it is not easy and "costly" from the position of moral bestowal. In 2012, the screen came out with a film, the theme of which was ignored by Karen Shakhnazarov for years. "The White Tiger" is a military painting that stands apart from the other works of the master, because the decision to shoot the film was made at a time when Shakhnazarov, as he himself confesses, realized that there is nowhere to be delayed. The film can be called the first-born director, a tribute to his veteran front-line soldier. An interesting fact during the filming of the picture was that the people participating in the mass scenes were carefully selected for casting. The director was looking for faces, types, characteristic of the military era, out-of-date. In the film, the viewer can see a huge number of tanks, and all of them are the property of the material and technical base of Mosfilm, the subject of Shakhnazarov's pride. The main idea of the director reflected in the picture is a reflection on what war is and whether it can be called a natural phenomenon. Does the war have in principle a logical conclusion or will it periodically arise in the history of mankind? The rhetorical question, to which there is no answer ...

In addition to working in film as a director, Karen Georgievich has repeatedly acted in documentaries about Russian film actors - Natalia Gundareva, Leonid Kuravlev, Oleg Yankovsky, and others.

About Shakhnazarov

Karen Shakhnazarov is a man with a core. And for many things he has an absolutely unexpected point of view. For example, when talking about cinema, he notes that he always keeps his hand on the pulse - if necessary, at any time he is ready to leave the profession (once such has almost happened), because cinema is a young affair. The director believes that he has kept afloat for too long. Comparing himself with his colleagues in the shop who try to logically calculate everything, he says that he always acts according to the heart's will, as he feels, because of his character.

Shakhnazarov is an outstanding personality. In addition to directing, he directs the huge film studio Mosfilm and believes that it has no equal in the world, because only here it is possible to perform a full production shooting cycle. Managing is not an easy task, and, looking back, Karen Georgievich frankly admits that today he would not undertake this. There were people who supported him in difficult times, but there were those who turned away from Shakhnazarov, watching his progress indifferently.

The main thing in life for a master is a movement, he believes that if something is constantly being done, something to strive for, then it will necessarily result in something.

Reflections on the future

Speaking about the future, director Karen Shakhnazarov notes that the fate of the cinema is rather ambiguous, due to the development of "figures", many professions will go down in history, and the "kitchen" of the shooting process will change beyond recognition. After all, today, technology allows you to do something that even earlier seemed incredible fiction. At the same time, the master emphasizes that it is difficult to make films that will be watched by subsequent generations, and it is impossible to guess which picture will find a response in the heart of the viewer. In addition, the film is a creation of not one person with whom you can be associated with descendants, but an entire industry in which a huge number of specialists from various fields are involved.

Shakhnazarov is a man of doubt. He always thinks a lot, weighs, and that's normal, it must be inherent in a sane person. One can definitely say that Karen Shakhnazarov's films are for everyone, he tries to make films without sharing people on moral, religious or political grounds. He likes to read - a lot and everything, likes to swim and drive a car, can not stand foul language, dreams of making a film-fairy tale.

Prizes and awards

Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov - People's Artist and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, he was awarded the Order of Honor and the Order "For Services to the Fatherland" for his contribution to the development of art. In his biography there is a place for numerous regalia, among them the Lenin Komsomol Prize, numerous Golden Eagle awards, diplomas of international film festivals in London and Chicago, and the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art. But Shakhnazarov considers the most important for himself the award of the Moscow Film Festival, which was awarded the film "Courier" in 1987. At the film festival, the director was able to communicate with his idol - Fellini. The Italian took part in the event.

Shakhnazarov is an amazing person. I would like to wish him creative and physical longevity, inexhaustible inspiration, an inordinate thirst to recognize, create, amaze and marvel at himself, long stay afloat in the stormy world of cinematography. And Karen Shakhnazarov's films, even for many more years, leave a mark not only in the history of world cinema, but also in the hearts of numerous fans.