Film production in Russia
Film production in Russia appeared almost immediately after the invention of cinema (the first films of the Lumiere brothers appeared on the screen in Paris in 1895, while Russia got acquainted with cinema already in 1896, and the first Russian film was shot in the same year). Cinematography, as cinema was then called, was very much liked by Tsar Nicholas II, and thanks to his patronage, the novelty gained rapid distribution in Russia.
Already in the first decades of the 20th century, several film studios were operating in Russia, among which the most famous were the studios of Alexander Khanzhonkov and Iosif Yermoliev.

“The development of my own production of paintings absorbed all my attention, all thoughts, dreams and thoughts. I bought a piece of land on Zhitnaya Street, with old houses that could only be regarded as building material. I transferred the studio from Krylatskoye to this site in order to work from now on all year round. The work began in the spring, was carried out at an accelerated pace, and was already completed in June 1912, ”Khanzhonkov recalled the beginning of his work. It was his studio on Zhitnaya (with an area of ​​​​only 400 square meters) that later became the basis of the future Mosfilm.

After the revolution, the government of Soviet Russia quickly appreciated the role of cinema as a powerful propaganda tool, and in 1919 nationalized all existing film studios by a special decree. In 1923, after nationalization and overhaul, Khanzhonkov's film studio became the First Goskino Factory. Another, the factory - the Third, was located in the former studio of Yermolev in Bryansky lane, not far from the Kyiv railway station. Their unification in 1923 laid the foundation for the future Mosfilm. In November 1923, work at the new enterprise began with the filming of the film directed by Boris Mikhin "On Wings Up". The film was released in January 1924. Since that time, the studio began to work as an established creative team and it is this date that is considered today the birthday of the studio.

“I came there in 1924,” recalled famous director Mosfilm Abram Matveyevich Room. - Everything was just coming together. It was a wooden building, very naive, very old - not in the museum sense, but simply old. It was cramped, not always comfortable, but cozy. Without invitations, without pay, Babel and Shklovsky came to work. Aseev, Brik, took on everything, helped to make inscriptions, shared ideas, criticized shamelessly. This was our house on Zhitnaya; the names changed every two years, and we all just called him Zhitnaya, and long years then they remembered this unique aroma of the beginning, the youth of art. We were young. And the very art of cinema was young, to which everyone on Zhitnaya devoted themselves entirely, not caring about time. The equipment was barely breathing, there was no transport, but it was there, on Zhitnaya, that the films that served as the basis for our cinema were made. We were all very friendly. They swore, argued, even quarreled, but they were friends. The small screening room was divided into two parts by a chintz curtain, in one half I mounted the Bay of Death, Eisenstein worked behind the curtain. From time to time we threw back the curtain and looked at each other, what happens. Disputes thus began unimaginable.

Mechanics and laboratory assistants took an ardent part in all this. We came to a cramped laboratory, the developer took out a frame with a wet film from the water, worrying no less than us. Everything was handicraft, everything was done by hand, and maybe that's why I still feel the warmth of those hands in old paintings.

Ideas were born unplanned, they came from life, perhaps because the small studio was not an isolated island in this life. The currents of time pierced her like X-rays, and in response to the questions that time asked, films came ... ".

In the mid-20s, along with the famous “Battleship Potemkin” by Sergei Eisenstein, the names of the directors of the Goskino Factory, who soon became widely known, were first heard - Lev Kuleshov, Abram Room, Vsevolod Pudovkin.

Cinema has become the most effective confirmation of the new life of Soviet Russia. But making films became increasingly difficult. “The tiny studio on Zhitnaya Street, with its glass sides with purple curtains, looked more like an old photo studio,” Eisenstein recalled. At the same time, many work on the release of the film was carried out in other places - film printing, tailoring of costumes, and more - were carried out in different parts of Moscow.

New horizons demanded a new scope

And then it was decided to build not just a new studio, but a fundamentally new film city, where all stages of film production would be collected, so that all the necessary work could be done without loss of time, where all services should be conveniently, compactly and expediently located, and it would be possible to prepare Everything you need for filming - staging the film, carrying out editing and toning work, developing and printing the film, up to the release of the film for distribution. This Europe has not yet known. In a sense, Hollywood was an analogue of such a movie city, which the young directors Eisenstein, Alexandrov and cameraman Tisse met during a trip to the USA in the 1920s.

The undeniable advantage of this principle made the Mosfilm development project a model for architectural projects other film studios of the USSR. The same principle distinguishes Mosfilm so far - the introduction latest developments along all the inseparable technological chain, our studio is firmly holding the place of the leading enterprise of the Russian film industry.
On November 20, 1927, on the Lenin Hills (near the village of Potylikh), a solemn laying of a new film factory took place. On the invitation card, it was described in detail how to drive and get to the place where, a few years later, the buildings of the Mosfilm film studio would rise. There the city ended and the rural Moscow region began - with small wooden houses, gardens and orchards. There was still a summer pavilion on Sparrow Hills, where Muscovites came to relax on weekends and drink tea from a samovar, admiring the village outskirts of Luzhniki, behind which electric lights lit up in the blue evening haze from gate to gate...

By the end of January 1931, the relocation of the First and Third film factories "Soyuzkino" began to the far from completely rebuilt building. February 9, 1931 Grand opening new film factory. Already in March, it was merged with the Moscow Sound Factory on Lesnaya Street and was named the Moscow United Factory "Soyuzkino" named after the Decade of October.

Despite the fact that the factory at that time was only one-third built and two-thirds under construction, in which, it seemed, there could be no question of any kind of filming, work here began immediately.

However, the film industry had to deal with unexpected problem- cinema was becoming sound, but the project on which Mosfilm was built was developed back in the 20s, when films were still silent. Therefore, the constructed pavilions were not adapted for filming synchronously with sound, and the production of sound pictures in these conditions cost the studio workers a lot of work. Serious work on acoustic finishing and soundproofing of the first four film studios was carried out only after the war.

Already in the first decades, films were made that we enjoy watching to this day. Following the "Merry Fellows" Grigory Alexandrov released such wonderful comedies as "Circus", "Volga-Volga", in which the popularly beloved actress Lyubov Orlova shone. In the same years, Ivan Pyryev filmed the comedies "Tractor Drivers" and "Pig and Shepherd", in which another star of the Soviet screen of the 30s, Marina Ladynina, played the main roles. In Konstantin Yudin's film "A Girl with Character", the audience was captivated by Valentina Serova, and we still admire the brilliant role of Faina Ranevskaya in Tatyana Lukashevich's film "The Foundling".
Everything changed the war
In September 1941, when the Germans were advancing towards Moscow, all film studios were evacuated east to Alma-Ata by government decision. 950 employees of Mosfilm, refusing the armor, left as volunteers in the division militia and in the Special 3rd Moscow Communist Rifle Division. 685 employees of the studio were awarded orders and medals, 146 Mosfilm workers did not return from the front ...

In the buildings on Sparrow Hills, only one special-purpose workshop remained in operation, in which a group of craftsmen, engineers and a hundred teenagers carried out military orders - they made parts for rockets and landing boats.

At the end of 1941 on the basis of the local Alma-Ata studio feature films and the evacuated "Mosfilm" and "Lenfilm" - the Central United Film Studio of Feature Films (TsOKS) arose. In difficult conditions, film production was quickly established - instead of pavilions, a circus "big top" was used, under its huge dome large models and backgrounds were placed, films were shot in poorly adapted premises, with an acute shortage of actors, technical workers, in conditions of a severe shortage of film, equipment and etc.

During this period, the question arose of what to do with unfinished films that had been started in peacetime - such as "The Pig and the Shepherd". Director Ivan Pyryev recalled: “I decided that there was no point in continuing to shoot our purely peaceful film. Many members of our film crew applied to join the army, and I received a summons to appear at the military registration and enlistment office. Having informed the director of the studio about this, I was already at the assembly point the next morning. However, when we, the “reserves”, were examined, registered and lined up to be taken to the barracks, a passenger car studios ... I was immediately “extracted” from the ranks, put in a car and taken back. It turns out that an instruction was received to continue filming "Pig Farm" by all means, and to book me for the duration of the filming. For four months, during the period of enemy raids on Moscow, we were filming our film ... On October 12, we handed over "Pig Farm" to the leadership of the Committee, and on the 14th, together with the studio, we were forced to urgently evacuate to Kazakhstan.

In the most difficult front-line conditions, people needed rest much more than in peacetime. That is why during the war, film production was equated with military production - in spite of everything, sparkling comedies or films that supported the general fighting spirit continued to be shot during these years, and many popular actors went to the front as part of special front-line brigades.

Already at the end of 1942, as soon as it became possible, it was decided to restore the Mosfilm film studio. It was necessary to resume the work of all production, technical and auxiliary shops, and people began to return from Alma-Ata creative workers and engineering staff. Old workers demobilized from the army after being wounded were sent to the studio. In addition, a small arts and crafts school was organized at Mosfilm to train new personnel. And by the end of 1943, all the main workshops of the studio were working at full capacity. In total, during the war years, Mosfilm created about twenty full-length films, including famous paintings"Ivan the Terrible" by Sergei Eisenstein, "Invasion" by Abram Room, etc.

On the central square of Mosfilm in front of the Main Building, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Victory, an obelisk was opened in memory of the dead studio workers. From here they went to defend Moscow and 146 people gave their lives for the freedom of the motherland. In May days, solemn rallies are held here every year, where veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Nearby is a monument - specially made for the filming of the film "Optimistic Tragedy", he forever remained standing on the square as a symbol of indestructible courage.

Despite the difficult years of the war, film production continued to develop, and in 1944 one of the first color films, Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor (directed by I. Savchenko), was shot on equipment specially created at the studio. And already in 1946, the film directed by Alexander Ptushko "The Stone Flower" received the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for the best use of color.

At that time, such masters as Alexander Dovzhenko, Ivan Pyryev, Yuli Raizman, Sergey Yutkevich, Boris Barnet, Leo Arnshtam, Alexander Ptushko, Alexander Zarkhi, Mikhail Kalatozov and others worked at the studio. Despite the fact that in the first post-war decade, as well as during the war, Mosfilm, like the entire Soviet cinema, did not have an influx of young directors, the situation changed dramatically in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, which became the era of the discovery of new talents. During these years, Grigory Chukhrai captivated the audience with the films "Forty-First" and "The Ballad of a Soldier", Sergei Bondarchuk received an award for the film "The Fate of a Man" at the first Moscow Film Festival, "The Cranes Are Flying" by Mikhail Kalatozov were awarded the Golden Palm Branch at the XI International Film Festival in Kanne, Eldar Ryazanov became popular after the films "Carnival Night" and "Beware of the Car", Georgy Danelia and Igor Talankin released their first film "Seryozha".

The 60s brought even more new director names: Tarkovsky directed Ivan's Childhood and took a fresh look at Russian history in Andrei Rublev, Andron Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky turned to internal problems Russian village in "Asin's happiness", Elem Klimov released a brilliant picture "Welcome, or Outsiders entrance forbidden”, Marlen Khutsiev filmed the textbook “July Rain”, Vladimir Motyl practically created a new genre of domestic “Eastern” with the film “ White sun desert”, Leonid Gaidai captivated millions of viewers with the famous comedies “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Operation Y”, and Sergey Bondarchuk - with the epic “War and Peace”, one of the most difficult films in terms of staging in world cinema. During these years, Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, Larisa Shepitko, Vladimir Basov, Yuri Ozerov, Alexander Mitta, Rolan Bykov and many others worked at the studio. Simultaneously with the young directors, the masters of the older generation continued to work successfully - Mikhail Romm shot "Nine Days of One Year", Alexander Zarkhi - "Height".
In the 1960s, the first television association in the country was created at Mosfilm, where serial films that became popular appeared. It was here that in the 1960s and 1980s many famous television films were filmed, such as “Calling Fire on Ourselves” and “Operation Trust” by director Sergei Kolosov, “His Excellency’s Adjutant” by Yevgeny Tashkov, “Little Tragedies” by Mikhail Schweitzer, “Mikhailo Lomonosov” Alexander Proshkin.

In the 70s, Mosfilm was glorified by the films "The Irony of Fate or With light steam!" and " Love affair at work" Eldar Ryazanov, "Kalina Krasnaya" by Vasily Shukshin, "One Hundred Days After Childhood" by Sergei Solovyov, "Running" by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov, "Among Strangers, A Stranger Among Us" by Nikita Mikhalkov and many others.

Each subsequent decade, new ones appeared at the studio. wonderful pictures- “The Train Stopped” by Vadim Abdrashitov, “Come and See” by Elem Klimov, “We are from Jazz” and “Courier” by Karen Shakhnazarov, “Scarecrow” by Rolan Bykov, “Autumn Marathon” and “Kin-dza-dza!” George Danelia, "Moscow does not believe in tears" by Vladimir Menshov. In difficult perestroika times, the studio was able to survive the chaos and general devastation, they still continued to shoot films here, the most significant of which are Svetlana Druzhinina's "Midshipmen", Vladimir Menshov's "Shirley-Myrli", Nikolai Lebedev's "Star" and others.

For many years on technical base the studio carried out major research and experimental production work, as a result of which new technologies and samples of new equipment were introduced into the domestic film industry, the studio has a large number of registered patents for serious inventions. The successes achieved by the film studio contributed to the fact that the novelties were also widely introduced at other studios in our country. Today, the Mosfilm Cinema Concern, after a major modernization, as always, is open for creative cooperation firmly holding the position of the leading film company in Russia.

On the territory of Mosfilm there are several interesting monuments: to the operator with a movie camera, V.M. Shukshin, "Girl with a cracker", a crocodile lurked in the grass in a small square, the Frog Princess is nearby, and a lizard is warming on a boulder.

Initially, I planned to talk about these sculptures separately, in any case - about the monuments to Shukshin, the cameraman and the girl. But I could not find almost any information about them! No date of creation, no authors, not to mention their stories. I really hope someone can advise.

Therefore, here I indicate the exact coordinates of the sculptures, give their photos and tell a few words about Mosfilm itself.
Monument to V.M. Shukshin - 55°43.384N, 37°31.891E;
"Girl with a clapperboard" - 55°43.422N, 37°31.893E;
Cinematographer - 55°43.356N, 37°32.028E.

Mosfilm's birthday is January 24, 1924 - on this day the premiere of B. Mikhin's film "On Wings Up" took place. This was the first film shot on the basis of the Khanzhonkov and Yermoliev film studios, the result of which was the combination of Mosfilm.

The name "Mosfilm" appeared only in 1936, and before that the film studio was repeatedly renamed - "Sovkino", "Soyuzkino", "Rosfilm", "Soyuzfilm" and even "Moskinokombinat".

During the Great Patriotic War, the studio was evacuated to Alma-Ata. Of the thousands of studio workers who went to the front, 146 did not return.

The well-known symbol of Mosfilm - Mukhina's sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" - first appeared as a screensaver in the film "Spring" in 1947. In this case, not the original sculpture was used, but a copy, only one meter in size.

In total, more than 1,700 films have been shot at Mosfilm over more than 90 years, that is, approximately every 6th film of domestic production.

In addition to domestic ones, many foreign directors shot their films at Mosfilm over the years - for example, Giuseppe De Santis, Vittorio De Sica, Akira Kurosawa.

Of the four domestic films that won the Oscar, three were shot at Mosfilm: "War and Peace", "Dersu Uzala", "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears". Also, two of our films were created there, which received the "Golden Bear" at the Berlin Film Festival: "Ascent" and "Theme". The only Soviet film awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes, The Cranes Are Flying, was also filmed here. In addition, the first of the four domestic winners of the Venice Film Festival - "Ivan's Childhood" - was also made at Mosfilm.

By the way...

The film studio occupies a fairly large area - 34.5 hectares, being one of the major film studios Europe. A whole "retro-city" has been built here, in which various historical films have been and are being filmed.

You can get to the territory of Mosfilm only by pre-registering for an excursion, which includes an overview of film studios and pavilions, a museum of car actors, a visit to the dressing room and a tour of various exhibits. The territory of Mosfilm also includes a large park where sculptures and monuments are located.