Olga Preobrazhenskaya
Directing
Biography
Russian film director, screenwriter, and actress. Olga Ivanovna Preobrazhenskaya (24.07.1881, Moscow – 30.10.1971, ibid.) was a Russian and Soviet stage and film actress, film director, screenwriter and pedagogue; she was one of the first female film directors in the world, and the first female film director in Russia. Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1935). Between 1901 and 1906, Preobrazhenskaya attended the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, after which she worked in provincial theatres. In 1913, she made her film debut in The Keys to Happiness, as Mania Yeltsova. One of her first works as a director was The Peasant Girl (1916); Preobrazhenskaya worked on this film alongside her husband, the director Vladimir Rostislavovich Gardin. After its release, the film received high praise; however, as it was a female director’s debut film, it was met with scepticism, and on posters and in reviews her name was often written with a masculine ending or attributed to other directors. Following the October Revolution (1917), she taught at the First State Film School (now VGIK) for several years, and was one of the founders of its acting school. After graduating from the Moscow Art Theatre School in 1923, she worked as a director at the Goskino film studio (now Mosfilm), and served as assistant director on the films The Landowner and The Locksmith & the Chancellor (1923). From 1925 onwards, she worked exclusively as a director. From 1927 onwards, she collaborated with film director Ivan Pravov, with whom she made several films. Her most significant directorial work during the silent film era is the film ‘Women of Ryazan’. In 1928, she was elected as member of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Cinematographers and a member of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR.
Known For
A travelling circus troupe during the Civil War. A kommissar tries to transfer the wagon into an agit-prop van. The Whites conquer the town. The kommissar hides among the artists.
The Last Attraction
Don Cossack Stepan Razin boyars vowed revenge for his friends tortured torture. As head of the rebellious peasants, he becomes the leader of the whole army. With all the Russian land flock to him humiliated and oskorblennye.Tsar Alexey concerned the growing power Ataman. Church anathematizes Stepan collected in the march on Moscow. Regular king's troops manage to stop rebel forces near the walls Simbirska.Spodvizhniki perish, and the chieftain captured. Severe torture did not break the will of Razin.
Stepan Razin
Little dog Kashtanka is stolen, sold, tossed out into the street and saved by a clown. Young Fedyushka gets lost looking for the dog and ends up a prisoner of the sinister Mazamet who compels him to rove from house to house to make money, while Fedyushka’s father wanders through the streets in search of his lost child.
Kashtanka
The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.
War and Peace
Five-episode adaptation of the eponymous Russian novel, directed by Pyotr Chardynin et al.
Petersburg Slums
Silent feature film by Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Vladimir Gardin based on Pushkin’s story of the same name. Considered lost. Directorial debut of Olga Preobrazhenskaya.
Miss Peasant
Directed by Vladimir Gardin and Yakov Protazanov, this two-part epic was the most expensive Russian film at the time and smashed box office records. It is now considered lost, with only a 4 minute clip surviving.
The Keys to Happiness
Mid-19th century. An elderly landowner, bored with life, organizes balls, hunts, fistfights, and banquets. Among other things, he offers his serfs and serf women to his guests for sale or entertainment. One of them, Vanka Krasnov, dreams of marrying the noblewoman Aksyusha. To do so, he must defeat the village strongman Mitka in a fistfight. But even after a fair victory, the landowner himself tries to take possession of Aksyusha. Vanka must challenge the master himself. Considered lost.
The Landowner
The Government of the fictional country Norland has unleashed a war with the neighboring Galikania and is suffering one defeat after another. A group of conspirators who were dissatisfied with this state of affairs, led by the Social Democrat Frank Frey arrange a coup to overthrew the emperor of Norland. But the working class does not like the new order either. Workers expose Frank Frey's policy of continuing the war and a revolution breaks out in the country. The leader of the socialist revolution becomes a mechanic of the name Franz Stark.
Locksmith and Chancellor
The picture compares the fate of two heroines Anna and her lively and energetic sister-in-law Vasilisa, who openly defies the old way of life.
The Peasant Women of Ryazan
A screen adaptation of excerpts from Jack London's dystopian novel of the same name describing the rise of the Oligarchy (the "Iron Heel") in the United States. The film was meant to be screened during theatre performances performed by the same actors.
The Iron Heel
The first screen adaptation of an epic Russian novel about a village of Cossacks on the Don River, covering the last days of peace on the riverside before the beginning of the First World War.
And Quiet Flows the Don
In a Kazakh village at the beginning of Soviet power, a wealthy kulak (landowner) voluntarily denounces his opposition to the new regime and hands over his large home to be a new school for the children of the villagers. But three people in the village have difficulty believing that their class enemy is now their friend.
Paths of Enemies
About the labor exploits of gold miners, the old partisan Fedor Potanin and his son, the leader Stepan.
Prairie Station
No description available.
The Day Before
Based on the play Miss Julie by August Strindberg.
Plebeian
Partially lost movie. Based on the novella ‘The Red Scarf’ by Mikhail Pavlovich Rogi. The story of a peasant woman who comes to the city to join her husband, a factory worker, and finds it difficult to adjust to her new life. Only the fourth part of the film has survived.
A Bright City
Partially lost adventure film for children based on popular short stories by Sergey Grigoryev.
Anya
Based on the famous novel "Michael" by Heinrich Bang.