September 25 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor Sergei Bondarchuk. His films Destiny of a Man, War and Peace, Waterloo, They Fought for Their Country have entered the “golden fund” of national cinema. Photo: Sergei Bondarchuk in the role of Andrei Sokolov at the filming of Destiny of a Man.
September 25 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor Sergei Bondarchuk. His films Destiny of a Man, War and Peace, Waterloo, They Fought for Their Country have entered the “golden fund” of national cinema. Photo: Sergei Bondarchuk in the role of Andrei Sokolov at the filming of Destiny of a Man.
Sergei Bondarchuk got interested in acting in his childhood. While studying in Yeisk he took drama lessons and starred in his first play on a professional stage -The People’s Son, in Yeisk theatre in 1937. Photo: Irina Miroshnichenko and Sergei Bondarchuk in Uncle Vanya. 1970.
In 1941-1942, Sergei Bondarchuk served as an actor in the Red Army’s theatre in Grozny, Chechnya. In 1942, he was conscripted into the Red Army. He participated in a defensive operation in North Caucasus and after the war he served in a Moscow garrison for another year. In 1952 he played a leading role in the film Taras Shevchenko (photo) which won him the People's Artist of the USSR award.
Sergei Bondarchuk played the leading role in Othello directed by Sergei Yutkevich, which brought him fame not only in the Soviet Union but also abroad.
Bondarchuk’s debut as a film director was in 1959 in Destiny of a Man, based on a novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, where Bondarchuk played the main role.
Sergei Bondarchuk became famous all over the world after directing a film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, which became one of the most important works in his life. Photo: director Sergei Bondarchuk at the shooting of War and Peace. 1963.
Actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov played the role of Andrei Bolkonsky and Sergei Bondarchuk played the role of Pierre Bezukhov.
In 1968, the film won Oscar in the nomination of Best Foreign Language Film.
After the successful release of War and Peace, Bondarchuk received an offer from an Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis to become the director of Waterloo, which was shot in 1970. Photo: Italian actress and jury member Gina Lollobrigida and Soviet actor, film director and jury member Sergei Bondarchuk at the opening ceremony of the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. 1973.
In April 1985, a Soviet drama film Boris Godunov based on Alexander Pushkin’s tragedy came out (together with Czechoslovakia, West Berlin and Poland).
In 1975, Bondarchuk shot a film They Fought for Their Country based on a novel by Mikhail Sholokhov. Vyacheslav Tikhonov again starred in this film in the role of Streltsov and Bondarchuk played the role of Zvyagintsev.
Besides filming, Bondarchuk was also a talented teacher. Since 1971 he led the actor and director’s studio in the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). Photo: Sergei Bondarchuk in the role of Father Sergius at the shooting of the eponymous film by director Igor Talankin. 1978.
Bondarchuk directed seven films and his eighth film Quietly Flows the Don based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov remained unfinished. By April 1993 the film director shot all the material and was about to start a rough cut, but he did not complete the work. His son Fyodor Bondarchuk completed the editing.
