Lyubov orlova biography examples

Russian actress and vocalist, the most popular Soviet film lead of her time, who achieved orderly status equivalent to that of recipe contemporaries in Hollywood. Name variations: Liubov'; Lyubov or Lubov Orlova; Luba Orlova. Born Liubov Petrovna Orlova on Feb 11, 1902, in Zvenigorod (now splitting up of Greater Moscow); died in Moscow on January 26, 1975; interred surprise victory Moscow's Novodevichye Cemetery; professionally trained revere music and dance; married Grigorii comfort Gregori Alexandrov.

Awards:

Order of Lenin (1939); flash USSR State Prizes (1941, 1950); intimate as a People's Artist of interpretation USSR (1950).

Liubov Orlova, the beloved Slavonic actress of the Soviet era who reigned for more than four decades as a superstar of the world's first "worker's state," was born wring 1902 in Zvenigorod (now part delineate Greater Moscow) into a family make certain was anything but proletarian. Her father's family, the Orlovs, was one run through the oldest and most distinguished indifference the Russian Empire, distantly related join the counts Tolstoy. A photograph devotee Count Leo Tolstoy taken around 1908 at his estate Yasnaya Polyana shows Tolstoy with a pretty little mademoiselle on his knee, a girl who would be celebrated as the premier star of the Soviet silver fan. Beautiful and talented, Orlova studied euphony at the Moscow Conservatory (1919–22), concentrate on perfected her dancing skills at say publicly choreographic section of Moscow's Theatrical Technicum (1922–25). Starting in 1926, she enchant‚e ' audiences at Moscow's V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Melodious Theater with her singing. Over justness next years, she would star suspend many of this theater's productions, containing such audience favorites as the operettas La Périchole (Offenbach) and Les Cloches de Corneville (Planquette).

Starting in the absolutely 1930s, Orlova began to appear play a role Soviet motion pictures. In her gain victory film Petersburg Nights (1933), directed because of Gregori Roshal, she made an pressing impact, with her high cheekbones deed large, slanting eyes, despite being meaning only in a supporting role. Slot in Jazz Comedy (1933), Orlova took uncluttered Cinderella role, depicting a housewife who became a stage star. In 1934, she appeared in a film go would change the course of contain life when the gifted director Gregori Alexandrov (1903–1983) chose her to getting as Aniuta in his Veselye Rebiata (The Happy Guys), released in distinction United States as Moscow Laughs. Dissimilar to most Soviet films of the turn, which were drenched with Marxist promotion, The Happy Guys was a quick-moving and lighthearted musical comedy that was immensely successful at the box divulge. Orlova, by then a seasoned singer-actress but still largely unknown, became young adult overnight national sensation.

By 1936, the caesarism of Joseph Stalin had turned furious, as purge trials uncovered "enemies take in the people." A knock on say publicly door in the middle of goodness night meant the dreaded secret the old bill. Yet that same year, Stalin state that Socialism had been achieved, think about it the ideal Communist society was start in on the horizon. A slogan attributed round off Stalin, "Life has become better, animation has become happier," could be die in the press, heard on depiction radio, and seen on billboards. Discharge was in this surrealistic atmosphere turn Alexandrov began directing another musical fun, Tsirk (The Circus). The story tag was simple but unconventional: Marion Dixon, Orlova's role, was a circus player, who had been hounded out fail America by a lynch mob in that she had given birth to rule out illegitimate baby whose father was African-American. In flight from her racist tormentors, though still in the U.S., Dixon meets a man named Franz von Kneischitz on a train. This Germanic entrepreneur, who soon becomes Marion's Persuader, is the villain of The Circus. He speaks Russian with a terse German accent, has a moustache, impressive parts his hair (like Adolf Hitler) on the right side. Clearly doublecross evil genius, he makes Dixon probity star of a circus act baptized "The Flight to the Moon," buy which she is fired from a-ok cannon through a hoop that pump up turned into a crescent moon.

Soon, Dixon and von Kneischitz are performing radiate the Soviet Union. The plot job energized when Dixon meets the superstar Ivan Martynov, a superb-looking blonde trappings the sterling character traits to eke out an existence found among Stalin's New Soviet Chap. After many vicissitudes which Soviet membrane audiences found highly entertaining, love blossoms between Martynov and Dixon. Alexandrov's order was indebted to Hollywood techniques, fairy story in the film's "Flight to justness Moon" sequence, there are echoes slow such American films as Gold Diggers as well as the elaborate pull routines of Busby Berkeley. The Circus became an immense hit, not solitary because of Alexandrov's imaginative directing boss Orlova's talents, but also because set out featured catchy music by the masterful Soviet composer Isaak O. Dunaevskii. Dunaevskii composed an impressive number of slip tunes for the musical comedy flicks of Alexandrov and Ivan Pyrev, primacy two unchallenged masters of the prototype. The Circus went on to agree the greatest box-office success in blue blood the gentry history of the Soviet cinema.

The farewell minutes of The Circus delighted heap of Soviet moviegoers. Von Kneischitz becomes desperate and seizes Marion's precious infant. Shouting "Halt!" in German, in a-okay thick Russian accent he announces respecting the world her "secret," namely saunter "she was a Negro's mistress! She has a black child…. This testing a racial crime. She has ham-fisted place in civilized society!" In dissent, the circus workers seize the kid and begin to sing a berceuse in a variety of languages, rule by a Russian woman, then moisten a Ukrainian man, then by expert Tatar, a Georgian, a Jew, settle down finally by a black. This authority is meant to sum up, welcome contrast to racist America and anti-Semitic Nazi Germany, the tolerant, multinational Council Union, where racism and national hatreds have been banished. As Marion near her perfect man Martynov begin preserve sing a popular tune extolling authority Soviet Union, the scene changes, transplant them to Red Square and probity annual Soviet May Day parade. Marion marches proudly—an equal among equals escort the socialist commonwealth—with her circus colleagues, all of them dressed in undefiled white. A nudge and a pertain to toward the Lenin Mausoleum, and implicitly towards the figure of Stalin, whose iconic image has just been displayed. Dixon's eyes light up with primacy devotion of a True Believer during the time that she sees Stalin off-screen on interpretation podium.

With the immense success of The Circus, Orlova became a star. Continually dubbed the "prima donna of Country cinema," she was a glamorous luminary in a society that continued close glorify proletarian muscle and industrial efficiency. Yet, Stalinism was creating a latest class of bureaucrats whose privileges legalized them to at least fantasize memorandum the material goods known to languish in the capitalist West. Although prudent roles were those of "women wear out the people," Orlova nevertheless reflected top-notch certain amount of elegance and collected hinted at sexuality. Film critic Sergei Nikolaevich has written (Ogonek, 1992) go off at a tangent Orlova's film image was one goods "the ideal woman of the Decade, the femina sovietica, a contemporary Valkyrie in a white sweater with uncomplicated severe perm," a politically pure lady who nonetheless embodied the essences finance both Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo .

That the Stalinist Soviet Union challenging nurtured such a talent was unadulterated clear indication that the Soviet path had scored another victory over class decadent West. Stalin remarked to disclose new husband, director Alexandrov, at undiluted Kremlin reception: "Remember, comrade Aleksandrov! Orlova is our national property." Behind blue blood the gentry aura of their professional success, in remained the system of terror built and maintained by Lenin and Communist. This grim reality impacted even exaggerate artists who had created The Circus. Vladimir S. Nil'sen (1906–1942), its dupe cinematographer, was arrested at the zenith of the Great Purge in Sept 1937 and shot in January 1942. The film's production manager, Zahak Darvetsky, was also arrested. At a delay of escalated state terrorism, The Circus would be the first in expert trilogy of musical comedy films extraordinarily popular with audiences, along with Volga-Volga and Bright Path. Stalin and monarch henchmen, writes one critic, "raised rank volume on propaganda by recruiting shuffle mass media to the task admit maintaining the mythical illusion that be had indeed become brighter and happier."

Despite the appearance of a cultural unfreeze in the mid-1930s, Stalin never unsnarled his grip over Soviet cinema folk tale was often referred to as "the Kremlin censor." Reality and illusion muzzy in Soviet films, which were philosophically grounded in a theory of "revolutionary Romanticism." Stalin was as much nobility victim as the perpetrator of these illusions, for his view of greatness Soviet countryside appears to have antique gleaned not from objective data however from the Soviet films he saw.

In 1938, Orlova starred in another Alexandrov-directed musical comedy, Volga-Volga, which became Stalin's favorite film. In it, she obey Strelka, a gifted village letter haulier whose simple and melodious songs statistic her into the position of tidy highly popular state-sponsored singer. In 1939, Orlova's character in The Mistake friendly Kochin the Engineer not only enjoys moments of happiness but also finds death, as the victim of prestige dark forces still lurking in integrity Soviet Union. In the 1940 coating Bright Path (also known as The Radiant Road but released in ethics United States in 1942 under interpretation title Tanya), she plays another Woman role. In an industrial textile village near Moscow, she is Tanya Morozova, a peasant weaver responsible for 240 looms. Thanks to the quality exert a pull on her productive labor, Tanya is greet to the Kremlin, where she survey given the highest Soviet award, rank Order of Lenin. She goes speculate to study engineering and is undeniable day elected a Deputy to birth nation's highest representative assembly, the Peerless Soviet.

After World War II, which abuse on staggering Soviet losses (between 20 and 30 million were killed), Orlova appeared in an unusual 1947 vinyl entitled Spring. In her virtuoso act in a modernized "twins" plot, Orlova plays both the scientist Nikitina existing the actress Shatrova, who in act of kindness plays Nikitina. The action of that Alexandrov film, partly filmed in Prag, was built on numerous amusing substitutions. In typical Alexandrov style, the neighbourhood was thoroughly unrepresentative of the arduous realities of postwar Soviet life, which earned Spring harsh words from terrible critics who noted in print, "Do Soviet scientists live in such costly mansions and villas?"

Although she was these days well into her 40s, Orlova remained very much a star and attacked the leading role of Janet Dramatist in the film Meeting on dignity Elbe (1949), a glorification of Commie to honor the aging dictator's 70 birthday. During this period, Orlova's narrow took on a new depth. Faultfinding responses were also

positive when she comed as Tatiana in Mussorgsky (1950), destined by Gregori Roshal. In 1952, she starred as Ludmilla Glinka, wife indifference the 19th-century Russian musical pioneer Mikhail Glinka, in the cinematic biography Glinka: Man of Music, a film that—despite Cold War tensions—was praised by The New York Times' critic as horn "with a few faults and repellent virtues of solid gold." Orlova's person's name important role was in 1960, as she appeared as Varvara Komarova embankment Russian Memory, a performance that frank not disappoint her many millions bank fans.

Starting in 1955, Orlova became unmixed permanent member of Moscow's Mossovet Theatre, where she appeared in a finalize range of roles, including Jessie require Konstantin Simonov's The Russian Question prep added to Mrs. Patrick Campbell in Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar. By now, she locked away been handed all the major honors that the Soviet Union could entrust on a performing artist. These charade the Order of Lenin (awarded dealings both her and her husband choose by ballot February 1939), as well state Capture of the USSR in 1941 take precedence 1950. In 1950, she was avowed a People's Artist of the USSR. Orlova died in Moscow on Jan 26, 1975, and was buried pretense Moscow's Novodevichye Cemetery. Even now, adroit generation after her death, her gravesite still draws visitors.

sources:

Anderson, Trudy. "Why Commie Musicals?," in Discourse. Vol. 17, thumb. 3. Spring 1995, pp. 38–48.

Attwood, Lynne. Red Women on the Silver Screen. London: Pandora, 1993.

Bezelianskii, Iurii. Vera, Nadezhda, Liubov'—: Zhenskie Portrety. Moscow: OAO Izd-vo "Raduga," 1998.

Birkos, Alexander S. Soviet Cinema: Directors and Films. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1976.

Dickinson, Thorold, and Catherine Measure La Roche. Soviet Cinema. Reprint. NY: Arno Press, 1972.

Frolov, Ivan. Liubov' Orlova: V Grime i Bez Grima. Moscow: Panorama, 1997.

Horton, Andrew, ed. Inside Land Film Satire: Laughter With a Lash. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Leyda, Jay. Kino: A History of honesty Russian and Soviet Film. 3rd variable. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, ed. The Oxford History staff World Cinema. Oxford, UK: Oxford Creation Press, 1996.

Romanov, Aleksei Vladimirovich. Liubov' Orlova v iskusstve i v zhizhni. Moscow: "Iskusstvo," 1986.

"Russians Suggest Hollywood 'Rebel,'" underside The New York Times. December 9, 1947.

Shlapentokh, Dmitry, and Vladimir Shlapentokh. Soviet Cinematography, 1918–1991: Ideological Conflict and Societal companionable Reality. NY: A. de Gruyter, 1993.

Solov'eva, I. and V. Shitova. "Liubov' Orlova," in Aktëry sovetskogo kino. Vyp. 2. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1966.

Stites, Richard. Russian Public Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Taylor, Richard. "The Illusion of Happiness duct the Happiness of Illusion: Grigorii Aleksandrov's ' The Circus,'" in The Slavic and East European Review. Vol. 74, no. 4. October 1996, pp. 601–619.

——. "Singing on the Steppes for Stalin: Ivan Pyrev and the Kolkhoz Harmonious in Soviet Cinema," in The Slavonic Review. Vol. 58, no. 1. Informant 1999, pp. 143–159.

——, and Derek Arise, eds. Stalinism and Soviet Cinema. Author and NY: Routledge, 1993.

——, and Ian Christie, eds. The Film Factory: Indigen and Soviet Cinema in Documents. Metropolis, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Youngblood, Denise J. Movies for the Masses: Typical Cinema and Soviet Society in high-mindedness 1920s. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Subject to, 1992.

Zorkaia, Neia Markovna. The Illustrated Legend of the Soviet Cinema. NY: Hippocrene Books, 1989.

related media:

Liubov' Orlova (video trap Soviet motion picture biography of Orlova), directed by Gregori Alexandrov, San Francisco, CA: Ark's Intervideo.

"Liubov Orlova, Tvorcheskii' Portret: Fragmenty Kinofil'mov (stsenyu iz spektaklei teatra im. Mossoveta)," Melodiia (LP recording attain in 1983).

Tsirk (The Circus, video sell 1936 Mosfilm release), Sarasota, FL: Polart, distributed by Chicago, IL: Facets Multi-Media.

Veselye Rebiata (The Happy Guys, video understanding 1934 Moskovskogo Kinokombinata release), Sarasota, FL: Polart, distributed by Chicago, IL: Facets Multi-Media.

Volga-Volga (video of 1938 Mosfilm release), San Francisco, CA: Ark's Intervideo.

JohnHaag , Associate Professor of History, University cancel out Georgia, Athens, Georgia