Grigory Chukhrai: biography, filmography, personal life, photo

Grigory Chukhrai is a Soviet film director, honored artist, screenwriter with a destiny worthy of becoming an example for the modern generation. Three times wounded in the war, he managed to survive, to bring through the television screen his unique creativity to the viewer.

Grigory Chukhrai: biography of the Soviet film director

Gregory was born in Melitopol (Ukraine, Zaporozhye region) on May 23, 1921. His father, Naum Zinovievich Rubanov, was a soldier. Mom - Claudia Petrovna Chukhray after the divorce with her husband in 1924 met a man who became his stepfather Grigory. It was Pavel Antonovich Litvinenko, who worked as chairman of the kolkhoz and laid the best human traits in the boy's upbringing.

At the end of 1939, Gregory Chukhrai was drafted into the army. Service began to carry as a cadet regimental school battalion 134 th Infantry Division in the city of Mariupol. In the Great Patriotic War he submitted a report on enrollment in the airborne troops, which was satisfied with the command. So, as a paratrooper, Grigory Chukhrai participated in battles of different fronts, in the defense of Stalingrad, often jumped into the rear of the enemy with a parachute, several times was wounded. In August 1944 he became a member of the CPSU (B.), And in December 1945, while in the rank of a senior lieutenant, was dismissed from the wound in the reserve. For the passed front way Gregory Chukhrai received many awards, among them - the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War, medals "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For Victory over Germany".

The first steps in the cinema

Upon his return in 1946 from the front, the future director Gregory Chukhray, whose filmography shakes with truthfulness and inner strength of films, entered the VGIK, the director's faculty. Working as an assistant to the director, he was practicing in M. Romm's film "Admiral Ushakov". After graduation, in 1953, Grigory was invited to stay at Mosfilm, but a promising young man decided to return to Ukraine, where he settled for the Kiev studio of feature films first as an assistant and then as a second director.

Military Forty-First

In 1955, at the request of M. Romm and A. Pyriev, Grigory Chukhrai (pictured in the article) was transferred to Mosfilm. There the author proceeded to create the first independent motion picture "Forty-first" (1956), based on the story of B. Lavrenev. The work was positively appreciated by the viewer and won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957. This picture of the doomed love of two people caught on opposite sides of class barricades, of sincere, profound feelings of a man and a woman, which was permeated by Izold Izvitskaya and Oleg Strizhenov, who became symbols of the 1950s era. This picture, in which everything is really strong, sincere and aching, makes you not only believe what is happening on the screen, but also empathize with all your heart. Although there are no deaths before the camera lenses and there are no enemy soldiers, director Grigory Chukhrai managed to make the viewer deeply imbued with wartime, showing that even in the most acute, terrible historical moments life continues and people love each other, no matter what.

Triumphal "Ballad of a Soldier"

The next painting by Chukhrai "The Ballad of a Soldier" (1959) was successful, also triumphantly walked the world screens, won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival, striking contemporaries with a deep penetration into the psychology of the individual, inner harmony and artistic integrity. The idea of this film by Grigory Chukhrai arose in the days of the students. He, a front-line soldier, was very anxious to tell about his comrades-in-arms, many of whom did not live up to peacetime. The young scriptwriter was helped to help the young screenwriter Valentin Yezhov, who also went through the war and wished to speak truthfully, honestly, without loud phrases, in simple human words about a peer, a hero soldier who gave his life for his Motherland. The main character of the painting, Alyosha Skvortsov, brilliantly played by Vladimir Ivashov, became a bright symbol of the Russian soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

"Clear Skies" by Gregory Chukhrai

The film "Clear Sky" (1961) was devoted to the comprehension in the history of the country of the Stalin period. This is the story of the "Stalin Falcon", the fearless Soviet pilot who survived the German captivity, the expulsion from the party, the deprivation of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but the blindly believing communist. The film featured a brilliant cast of actors: Nina Drobysheva, Eugene Urbansky, Oleg Tabakov.

In 1964, the screens went 2-serial drama film "Once upon a time there was an old man with an old woman", telling about the life of people from the Russian remote places, namely the old Husakovs. At the end of their life they fell into hard trials: the fire destroyed the housing, which forced the elderly couple to go to their daughter Nina in the Arctic, whose life did not develop. The film tells about the human race for happiness, and the name of the picture sends the viewer to Pushkin's fairy tale about a goldfish.

About the Deserter's Mother

Next work - "Quagmire" appeared on the screens in 1977. This is a film about the mother of a deserter - Matryona Bystrova (Nona Mordyukova), who lost her husband first on the front, then her eldest son. Trying to save the younger child, the quiet, shy Dmitry (Andrei Nikolaev), from the war , she decided to hide him in the attic. Saving her son, her mother condemned himself to the torture of conscience, and her child - to spiritual death. Every day Dmitry turns into a beheaded and evil animal, whose life consists of eating, whining, accusations of all the mother's troubles and constant fear. The private history of the mother of the deserter grows in the context of the film to epic proportions, making this work the most significant work about wartime. First, Gregory Chukhrai wanted to name the painting "Atypical story", because the mother is forced to hide the child not from enemies, but from its own.

"Life is beautiful" in a fictional country

The joint Soviet-Italian work "Life is Beautiful" (1980) with the participation of Ornella Muti, the Italian film star, tells of a certain fictional country in which the military junta rules and brutally suppresses any free-thinking. The taxi driver Antonio Murillo is involved in the political struggle of the underground against the dictatorship. Dreaming about the profession of the pilot and his own plane, he becomes a victim of denunciation, is in prison, where he is tortured. Thanks to the resourcefulness shown, he managed to organize an escape from prison and even from the country.

In 1985, co-authored with M. Volodsky and Yu. Shvyrev, Grigory Chukhrai, whose filmography is mostly devoted to wartime, made a documentary film "I'll teach you to dream" (1985). The work is dedicated to the memory of the teacher and the great director Mark Donskoy.

Director Gregory Chukhrai: personal life

The personal life of director Grigory Chukhrai is similar to his works - real, piercing, sincere. Iraida Penkovu, his future wife, the director met in 1942 in Essentuki, where he was sent as part of the landing troops. Together with her friends, a 21-year-old student of the local pedagogical institute dug antitank ditches, and in the evenings went to dances. There, and met two halves of one whole. When Germans entered the city, the young man was transferred to other positions, and Iraida stayed in the city. For two years Grigory Chukhrai, whose personal life had no meaning without Iraida, was looking for his love, but without success. Then he wrote to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, and a miracle happened: the girl read this message and responded. In 1944, Grigory Chukhrai returned to the city liberated from the German invaders, and on May 9 the couple was married. From the bridegroom Iraida received as a gift a huge bouquet of lilac. A year later, in 1945, along with the anniversary of the wedding, the young family celebrated the Great Victory. Since then, May 9 has become a double holiday for spouses, and lilacs are the most favorite flowers. Together, Gregory and Iraida lived more than half a century. The children of the director are Pavel's son, who repeated his father's way and became a film director, and daughter Elena, who graduated from the VGIK's film science faculty.

Social activities Чухрая

In addition to filming, the Soviet director was actively engaged in public, teaching and administrative activities, in 1965-1975 he was the artistic director of the Experimental Art Association at Mosfilm, in 1966-1971 he worked as a teacher in the VGIK directing studio. Since 1965, he was secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, and in 1964-1991. - Member of the Collegium of the State Committee of the USSR.

The last years of his life, Grigory Chukhrai was very seriously ill, suffered several heart attacks, and did not move well. There was no great director on October 29, 2001, he was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

To date, the Soviet film director is the owner of the largest number of international awards - 101! And this despite the fact that for his creative life Grigory Chukhrai was shot only 8 films. Each of them he shot in his own script, not imagining how you can work with other people's material. Years after the death of the director, his films still participate in film festivals, receiving various awards.