Marlen Khutsiyev
Birthday: 1925-10-04
Place of Birth: Tiflis, Georgian SSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, USSR [now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia]
Synopsis
Marlen Martynovich Khutsiev (Russian: Марле́н Марты́нович Хуци́ев; 4 October 1925 – 19 March 2019) was a Georgian-born Soviet and Russian filmmaker best known for his cult films from the 1960s, which include I Am Twenty and July Rain. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1986.
Khutsiev studied film in the directing department at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), graduating in 1952. He worked as a director at the Odessa film studio from 1952 to 1958, and worked full-time as a director at Mosfilm from 1965 onward.
Khutsiev's first feature film, Spring on Zarechnaya Street (1956), encapsulated the mood of the Khrushchev Thaw and went on to become one of the top box-office draws of the 1950s. Three years later, Khutsiev launched Vasily Shukshin "as a new kind of popular hero" by starring him in Two Fyodors. His two masterpieces of the 1960s, however, were panned by the authorities, forcing Khutsiev into something of an artistic silence. In 1978, Khutsiev began teaching film directing master classes at the VGIK.)
His 1991 film Infinitas won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.
Acting
Into_nation of Big Odessa
as Himself / Narrator
In the world, there is a city-port Odessa, which was specially created as a refuge for people of different nationalities and religions. Humor is a special language that helps people from Odessa to communicate and get along with each other. Legends are spreading about Odessa's humor and accent. But - a paradox - people are constantly leaving it. It is loved, but it is left as a child leaves his mother. On the example of this city and its inhabitants, we wanted to understand - why people flee from their cities. We tried to find the answer taking pictures of Odessa citizens in Germany, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Austria, France and other places. Michael Zhvanetskij, Roman Kartsev, Leonid Barats and Rostislav Khait Victor Loshak, Oksana Fandera, Valerij Todotovskij, Mikhail and Anatoly Kontush and many others are telling their stories and giving their opinions on what is the phenomenon of the city by the Black Sea.
Shine, Shine, My Star
as Third 'cuckoo' player (prince)
This late 60s Russian films is set in 1920, just 3 years after the October revolution. Folks had the choice between red and white, revolution and contra revolution. In that torn-apart-time, one man, the comedian Volodya, tries to mediate, not between different ideologies, but social life and art. While others just want to wash away their gloom, he reflects on the everyday sorrows and the role of art in that time of changes.
