Lev Oskarovich Arnshtam (russian: Лео Оскарович Арншта́м; 15 January 1905 – 26 December 1979) was a Soviet

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 ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. He directed nine films between 1936 and 1967. Arnshtam was named People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1969.

Biography

Arnshtam was initially interested in music. He studied piano at

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...

, graduating in 1923, and began a career as a professional pianist. He worked as the chief musical consultant for Vsevolod Meyerhold’s theater in 1924–1927, before turning to cinema, where he became an expert in sound engineering. From 1929 to 1931, Arnshtam helped develop a sound track for Sergei Yutkevich’s ''Golden Mountains'', which originally had been conceived as a silent picture; he also contributed to its screenplay. Arnshtam was one of the screenwriters of Yutkevich’s and Fridrikh Ermler’s Film ''

Counterplan A counterplan is a component of debate theory commonly employed in the activity of parliamentary and policy debate. While some conceptions of debate theory require the negative position in a debate to defend the status quo against an affirmative ...

'' (1932). Arnshtam’s first independently directed picture was ''Girlfriends'' (1936), a film about the events in St. Petersburg following the 1917 revolution. The picture turned out to be a success. The film’s three heroines grow from poor orphans to Bolshevik fighters who participate in the historical turmoil and defend St. Petersburg against the attacking White Army. ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...

'' (1938) portrayed Communist

Sergei Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and membe ...

and his political struggle in the Northern Caucasus. Drama film '' Zoya'' (1944) about partisan martyr

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya ( rus, Зо́я Анато́льевна Космодемья́нская, p=ˈzojə kəsmədʲɪˈmʲjanskəjə; September 13, 1923 – November 29, 1941) was a Soviet partisan. She was executed after acts of s ...

won Arnshtam a Stalin Prize in 1946 and a prize for Best Screenplay at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. The score for ''Zoya'', as for almost all of Arnshtam’s films, was written by

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

, his former fellow student at the conservatory. With ''

The Great Glinka ''The Great Glinka'' (russian: Глинка) is a 1946 Soviet biopic film directed by Lev Arnshtam. The film is about Mikhail Glinka, a Russian composer of the 19th century. The film was awarded the Stalin Prize of II degree (1947) and it was e ...

'' (1947), Arnshtam turned to the founder of Russian opera; the film won its director another Stalin Prize. The Soviet-Bulgarian coproduction ''

A Lesson in History ''A Lesson in History'' (russian: link=no, Урок истории, bg, Урокът на историята) is a 1957 joint Soviet– Bulgarian historical drama film directed by Lev Arnshtam and Hristo Piskov about Georgi Dimitrov and the Lei ...

'' (1957) was about the events surrounding the burning of the German Reichstag in 1933 and the subsequent Leipzig trial against Bulgarian Communist leader

Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; bg, Гео̀рги Димитро̀в Миха̀йлов), also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (russian: Гео́ргий Миха́йлович Дими́тров; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian ...

. '' Five Days, Five Nights'' (1960), coproduced with East Germany, tells about the dramatic rescue of artwork from the Dresden Gallery by Soviet soldiers in 1945. Arnshtam’s final picture was the biopic '' Sofiya Perovskaya'', about the woman who was behind the assassination of Tsar Aleksandr II.

Filmography

* '' Girl Friends (Подруги)'' (1936) * ''

(Друзья)'' (1938) * '' Boyevoy kinosbornik 2'' (1941) * '' Zoya (Зоя)'' (1944) * ''

(Глинка)'' (1946) * ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

(Ромео и Джульетта)'' (1955) * ''

(Урок истории)'' (1957) * '' Five Days, Five Nights (Пять дней, пять ночей)'' (1960) * '' Sofiya Perovskaya (Софья Перовская)'' (1967)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnshtam, Lev 1905 births 1979 deaths Film people from Dnipro People from Yekaterinoslavsky Uyezd Soviet film directors Soviet screenwriters Male screenwriters German-language film directors 20th-century screenwriters Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery