Boris Vasilyevich Barnet (russian: Бори́с Васи́льевич Ба́рнет; 18 June 1902 – 8 January 1965) was a Soviet film director, actor and
screenwriter of British heritage. He directed 27 films between 1927 and 1963. Barnet was awarded the title Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 1935, and Merited Artist of the Ukrainian SSR in 1951.
Early years
Boris Barnet was born in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
. His grandfather Thomas Barnet was a
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
who moved to the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
from the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in the 19th century. A student of the
Moscow Art School
The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...
, he volunteered to join the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
at age 18 and was then professionally involved in
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
.
In 1923, Barnet graduated from the Central Military School for Physical Education and worked as a sports teacher. At the same time he studied in Lev Kuleshov’s film workshop. Barnet was cast as Cowboy Jeddy in the slapstick ''
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks'' (1924) by Kuleshov. Its popularity encouraged him to begin a professional film career; Barnet learned filmmaking technique from scratch, with colleagues and friends such as Vsevolod Pudovkin, Sergei Komarov, Porfirii Podobed, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Sergei Galadzhev, and Leonid Obolenskii.
His directorial debut, the comedic thriller ''
Miss Mend'' (1926, based on a 1923 novel by Marietta Shaginian, codirected with Fedor Otsep), featured car chases and complicated stuntwork, all of which made the film a box-office hit for its production company, Mezhrabpomfilm Studio.
In 1927 he shot his first solo feature, a comedy film, ''
The Girl with a Hatbox'', starring
Anna Sten. His 1928 melodramatic film ''
The House on Trubnaya'', starring
Vera Maretskaya
Vera Petrovna Maretskaya ( Russian: Вера Петровна Марецкая) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress. People's Artist of the USSR (1949) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1976).
Early years
Vera Petrovna Maretskaya was bo ...
, was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and now ranks as one of the classic Russian silent films.
Encouraged in his early efforts by
Yakov Protazanov
Yakov Alexandrovich Protazanov (russian: Яков Александрович Протазанов; 4 February ( O.S. 23 January ) 1881 – 8 August 1945) was a Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter, and one of the founding fathers of ...
, Barnet emerged in the 1930s as one of the country's leading film-makers, working with the likes of
Serafima Birman and
Nikolai Erdman. ''
Outskirts'' (1933), a
pacifist story acclaimed at the first
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
, is considered one of Barnet's masterpieces. Set in tsarist Russia during World War I, it portrays a group of provincial townsfolk: a shoemaker, his daughter who falls in love with a German POW, and two brothers volunteering for the front.
Later years and work
Barnet's postwar work is exemplified by ''
Secret Agent
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
'', the first Soviet
spy film
The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films) ...
. The
Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to:
* The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...
-winning film was also years ahead of its time in exhibiting
Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
ian influence and tricks and helped cement Barnet's reputation abroad.
[Richard Taylor, Ian Christie. ''Inside the Film Factory: New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema''. Routledge, 1991. Page 158.]
It was Barnet's gift of artistic invention that made him stand out from the crowd of Soviet colleagues. In a Barnet film, a photograph in the newspaper would unexpectedly come alive, and scenes would often end with a detail introducing the next scene. He would begin a scene with a close up, "so that the space is progressively discovered by changing the axis or by camera movement".
Among Russian filmmakers professing their admiration for Barnet was
Andrei Tarkovsky. French film historian Georges Sadoul once called him “the best Soviet comedy director.”
In 1965, after some years of artistic silence, Barnet committed suicide in
Riga,
Latvian SSR by hanging himself in a hotel room. He was survived by wife
Alla Kazanskaya (1920–2008) and daughter
Olga Barnet (1951–2021).
Filmography
;As director
* ''
Miss Mend (Мисс Менд)'' (1926)
* ''
The Girl with a Hatbox (Девушка с коробкой)''(1927)
* ''
Moscow in October
, italic_title =
, name = Moscow in October
, image = Moscow in October (1927).jpg
, caption = ''Film poster (1927)''
, director = Boris Barnet
, producer =
, writer = Oleg Leonidov
, narrator =
, starring =
* Anna Sten
* Boris Barne ...
(Москва в Октябре)'' (1927)
* ''
The House on Trubnaya (Дом на Трубной)'' (1928)
* ''Living Things (Живые дела)'' (1930)
* ''The Ghost (Привидения)'' (1931)
* ''
The Thaw (Ледолом)'' (1931)
* ''
Outskirts (Окраина)'' (1933)
* ''
By the Bluest of Seas (У самого синего моря)'' (1936)
* ''A Night in September (Ночь в сентябре)'' (1939)
* ''The Old Horseman (Старый наездник)'' (1940) output to the screen in 1959
* ''
A Good Lad (Славный малый)'' (1942)
* ''
Dark Is the Night (Однажды ночью)'' (1945)
* ''
Secret Agent
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
(Подвиг разведчика)'' (1947)
* ''Pages of Life (Страницы жизни)'' (1948)
* ''
Bountiful Summer (Щедрое лето)'' (1950)
* ''
Lyana (Ляна)'' (1955)
* ''
The Poet (Поэт)'' (1956)
* ''The Wrestler and the Clown (Борец и клоун)'' (1957)
* ''
Annushka (Аннушка)'' (1959)
* ''
Alyonka (Алёнка)'' (1961)
* ''
Whistle Stop (Полустанок)'' (1963)
;As actor
* ''
The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks'' (1924)
* ''
Miss Mend'' (1926)
* ''
Storm Over Asia'' (1928)
* ''
The Living Corpse
''The Living Corpse'' (russian: Живой труп, italic=yes, link=no) is a Russian play by Leo Tolstoy. Although written around 1900, it was only published shortly after his death—Tolstoy had never considered the work finished. An immediate ...
'' (1929)
* ''
Secret Agent
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
(Подвиг разведчика)'' (1947)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnet, Boris
1902 births
1965 deaths
1965 suicides
20th-century Russian male actors
Russian male film actors
Russian male silent film actors
Russian film directors
Male screenwriters
Russian male writers
Soviet film directors
Soviet male film actors
Soviet screenwriters
Silent film directors
Soviet people of British descent
Russian people of English descent
Soviet male silent film actors
Suicides by hanging in the Soviet Union
Male actors from Moscow
Writers from Moscow
Suicides by hanging in Latvia
20th-century Russian screenwriters
20th-century Russian male writers