Georgy Yungwald-Khilkevich on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Georgi Emilyevich Yungvald-Khilkevich (russian: Георгий Эмильевич Юнгвальд-Хилькевич; 22 October 1934 – 11 November 2015) was a Soviet and Russian
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
, screenwriter, producer, actor,
theatre director and set designer.
Most famous for his musicals and
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
adaptations. He directed 22 motion pictures and TV films between 1966 and 2009. Honored Artist of the
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
(1990) and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
(1995).
. He joined
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
in 1917. Georgi's father Emil Iosifovich Yungvald-Khilkevich was an acclaimed theater director and one of the founders of the
Uzbek National Theater of Opera and Ballet (later Navoi Theater). His paternal grandfather came from Polish
szlachta
The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...
and owned railroads in Western Ukraine, while his wife Elena Cavalieri was an
Italian; she was said to be the sister of the famous opera singer
Lina Cavalieri
Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri (25 December 1874 – 7 February 1944) was an Italian operatic dramatic soprano, actress, and monologist.
Biography
Lina Cavalieri was born on Christmas Day at Viterbo, some north of Rome. She lost her parents at the a ...
who was very popular in the Russian Empire and regularly visited
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
with concerts.
Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich graduated from the
Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatrical Institute in 1963. He worked as a set designer at Tashkent theaters and film studios. In 1966 he finished directing and screenwriting
Mosfilm courses and started working at the
Odessa Film Studio
Odesa Film Studio ( uk, Одеська кіностудія художніх фільмів) is the Ukrainian, formerly Soviet film studio in Odesa, one of the first in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. It is partially owned by a government ...
, where he later directed most of his movies.
His first major breakthrough happened in 1969 with the musical film ''
Dangerous Tour
The Dangerous World Tour was the second world concert tour by American singer Michael Jackson to promote his eighth studio album ''Dangerous.'' The tour was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. All profits were donated to various charities including Jacks ...
'' loosely based on the memoirs of
Alexandra Kollontai. The screenplay was written with
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky ( rus, links=no, Владимир Семёнович Высоцкий, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr sʲɪˈmʲɵnəvʲɪtɕ vɨˈsotskʲɪj; 25 January 1938 – 25 July 1980), was a Soviet singer-songwriter, poet, and actor ...
in mind, who eventually played the main part, wrote all the songs and did some uncredited contribution to the final draft. His partners were
Nikolai Grinko
Nikolai Grigoryevich Grinko or Mykola Hryhorovych Hrynko ( uk, Микола Григорович Гринько; russian: Никола́й Григо́рьевич Гринько́; 22 May 1920, Kherson – 10 April 1989, Kyiv was a Soviet ...
,
Yefim Kopelyan,
Ivan Pereverzev
Ivan Fyodorovich Pereverzev (russian: Ива́н Фёдорович Переве́рзев; 3 September 1914 – 23 April 1978) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1975).
Filmography
* '' The Convey ...
and
Georgi Yumatov
Georgi Aleksandrovich Yumatov ( rus, Гeopгий Алeксандpoвич Юматов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj jʊˈmatəf; 11 March 1926 – 6 October 1997) was a Soviet and Russian film actor. He appeared in 72 films between 1946 and 1994. He ...
. The film became one of the leaders of the Soviet box office in 1970 (9th place).
In 1978 Khilkevich turned to
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
who happened to be one of his favourite writers since childhood. His 3-part made-for-TV adventure musical ''
D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers'' was an ultimate success, with many songs and catchphrases becoming part of the popular culture. It was followed by three sequels in
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
,
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
and
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
. In 1988 he made another Dumas adaptation –
The Prisoner of Château d'If
''The Prisoner of Château d'If'' or (russian: Узник замка Иф, Uznik zamka If) is a 1988 Soviet drama film directed by Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich based on the novel '' The Count of Monte Cristo'' by Alexandre Dumas.
Plot
The film is s ...
based on
The Count of Monte Cristo
''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (french: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) is an adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas (''père'') completed in 1844. It is one of the author's more popular works, along with ''The Three Musketeers''. Li ...
novel. The screenplay was co-written by
Mark Zakharov, while all the songs were written and performed by
Alexander Gradsky
Alexander Borisovich Gradsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Гра́дский; born Alexander Borisovich Fradkin, 3 November 1949 – 28 November 2021) was a Russian rock singer, bard, multi-instrumentalist and composer. H ...
.
Among his other notable works was another musical
Ah, Vaudeville, Vaudeville... and a comedy
The Art of Living in Odessa based on
The Odessa Tales by
Isaac Babel. He rarely turned to cinema during the
post-Soviet years. In 1997 he joined
Yuri Kuklachev at the National Cats Theater in Moscow as a stage director and scriptwriter. He also worked as a set designer in various theaters.
His last film in the Musketeer series directed in 2007 and screened in 2009 was met with harsh critique and became a box office bomb.
Yungvald-Khilkevich died from the heart failure at the age of 81. He was buried at the
Troyekurovskoye Cemetery
The Troyekurovo Cemetery (russian: Троекуровское кладбище, Troyekurovskoye kladbishche), alternatively known as ''Novo-Kuntsevo Cemetery'' (russian: Ново-Кунцевское кладбище, Novo-Kuntsevskoye kladbishch ...
in Moscow. He was survived by his third wife, an actress Nadira Mirzaeva (born 1969), and two daughters — Natalia (born 1960) and Nina (born 1997).
За кадром
/ref>
Selected filmography
Bibliography
Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich, Natalia Yungvald-Khilkevich. ''За кадром ('' eng. ''Behind the Screen)''. Moscow: Цетрополиграф, 2000 (Autobiography).
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yungvald-Khilkevich, Georgi
1934 births
2015 deaths
Soviet film directors
Soviet screenwriters
Male screenwriters
Mass media people from Tashkent
Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery
Russian film directors
20th-century Russian screenwriters
20th-century Russian male writers