Olga Zhizneva - an aristocrat from the Soviet cinema

In Soviet cinema, there were as many actresses who represented a "departing nature". Their face, manners, and speech were suitable for the embodiment of heroines from high society, the countesses and queens. Yes, and a Soviet woman on the screen sometimes would not be prevented by a restrained plaque of aristocracy. Such an artist was Olga Zhizneva. She was ideally suited for the image of an intelligent mother of a positive protagonist. Although at the beginning of the film career, she also had more frivolous roles.

Born the year before the new century

She was born in the spring of 1899 in St. Petersburg. Her mother Maria Mihailovna Zhizneva died during childbirth. His father was a German - Andreas Neumann, and Olga was brought up in a strict spirit by a grandmother who did not speak Russian very much. The name was taken by Olga in memory of her mother. Graduation of the school, choice of profession, education in the theater school, the beginning of the acting career in the theater fell at a difficult time. But no obstacles prevented the girl in her striving to become an actress.

She came to Moscow in 1919 and easily entered the Drama School at the State Exponential Theater, but this study was short-lived and superficial. Therefore, Olga Zhizneva studied in the theater school at the famous theater A. Korsha in Moscow and then joined his troupe. In the theater, in the role of a treacherous temptress, she saw a film director, who became famous before the revolution - Yakov Protazanov. He invited her to the studio "Mezhrabpomfilm" in his new project.

The star of the NEP era screen

For five years of working in a silent movie, Olga Zhizneva starred in eight films. The roles that she got, demanded from the actress spectacular close-ups, expressive poses and the ability to wear beautiful dresses - they were female vamp. Despite her youth, Zhizneva was quite an experienced professional, and work on the set did not cause her any special problems.

The film of 1925 "His Call" by Yakov Protazanov is considered the first film response to Lenin's death, although his plot has adventurous detective features. Olga Zhizneva in her first of 36 films plays a character named Lulu - a girl from the emigre circle of the main villain.

After the following films - the comedy "Cutter from Torzhok" (1925), "The Trial of Three Million" (1926), - hits and the leaders of the rental, Zhizneva becomes a real star.

Meeting for life

Starting her career in the theater, Zhizneva gradually became only a movie actress. She managed to easily overcome that stage of transition to sound cinema, which became a problem for many actors and even turned into a popular plot move. Her voice, so beautiful and expressive, was considered by many to be its most important virtue.

A film about the revolutionary struggle of miners in one of the countries of South America ("The cast that does not return"), filmed in 1929, was special for the actress. For the first time she changed roles, and the main things in her image were human feelings, not dresses and décolleté.

The screen version of the novel by Henri Barbusse was called by both critics and spectators one of the best Soviet films created at the turn of the decade. Filmed as a dumb, he after a while was voiced. But not only because of it forever remembered Olga Zhizneva. The personal life of the actress after this film was determined for many years: she was first shot with her future husband - director Abram Matveyevich Rooma. By the time of their meeting, Zhizneva managed to become widowed, and Room - to divorce. They were destined to live together for more than forty years. The actress had no children, but she always treated herself as her own daughter to stepdaughter Elena.

"Strict Youth" (1934)

This film, shot under the script of Yuri Olesha, was originally strange and not quite Soviet. The heroes of the then reality were transferred to a strange, ideal, similar to the ancient world. Other dreams, other ideals, and other morals were relevant in him. The heroine of Life was like a living statue of a goddess, but not a Soviet woman.

The film was banned, labels and directors hanging on to the director and actors hampered them further work in the cinema. Olga returned to the theater, where she played several bright roles, the most notable being Anna Karenina. She easily managed the transition to age roles.

She was lucky for the directors

Olga Zhizneva, whose films have always been included in the gold fund of the national cinema, almost all her life was a very demanded actress. She worked with the most famous Soviet filmmakers: V. Pudovkin ("The Assassins Go to the Road", 1942, although this film was not allowed on the screen as "Strict Youth"), by Mikhail Romm (Admiral Ushakov, 1953), L. Lukov ("Different Fates", 1956), S. Rostotsky ("We'll Live To Monday", 1968) and many others.

It worked during the war, in evacuation (in Alma-Ata), and after, during the "little map". The last film, released shortly before the departure of Geneva from life in 1972, was "The property of the republic", where she again appeared as a Russian aristocrat, only in the image of "a man not from here".

Her husband, Abram Room, appreciated her talent, trying to shoot her in every film, said: "She is the astral Zhizneva. Olga is an actress, who even I could not solve ... ".