Vsevolod Pudovkin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Vsevolod Pudovkin
Pudovkin in Italy in 1951
Born	Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (1893-02-16)16 February 1893 Penza, Russian Empire
Died	30 June 1953(1953-06-30) (aged 60) Jūrmala, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, actor
Years active	1919–1953

Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (born February 16, 1893 – died June 30, 1953) was an important Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter, and actor. He created special ideas about how to put film scenes together, called montage.

Pudovkin's best films are often compared to those of his friend and fellow director, Sergei Eisenstein. While Eisenstein used montage to show the power of large groups of people, Pudovkin liked to focus on the bravery and strength of single individuals. He was given the special title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1948, which is a very high honor for artists in the Soviet Union.

About Vsevolod Pudovkin

Vsevolod Pudovkin was born in Penza, Russia. He was the third of six children in his family. His father, Illarion Pudovkin, came from a farming background and worked as a manager and salesman. His mother, Elizaveta Pudovkina, was a housewife.

Pudovkin studied engineering at Moscow State University. During World War I, he served in the army and was captured by the Germans. While he was a prisoner, he spent his time learning foreign languages and drawing pictures for books. After the war, he decided to leave engineering and join the world of movies. He started as a writer, actor, and art director, and then became an assistant director to Lev Kuleshov, another famous filmmaker.

In 1924, he married Anna Zemtsova. Pudovkin often said that his wife encouraged him to become a filmmaker.

Early Films and Montage Ideas

Pudovkin's first important film was a short comedy called Chess Fever (1925), which he directed with Nikolai Shpikovsky. Even the famous chess player José Raúl Capablanca had a small part in it!

In 1926, Pudovkin directed one of the most famous silent movies ever: Mother. In this film, he developed many of his ideas about montage. Montage is a filmmaking technique where you put different shots or scenes together in a special way to create a certain feeling or idea. Both Chess Fever and Mother featured Pudovkin's wife, Anna Zemtsova, in supporting roles. She later stopped acting in movies.

After Mother, he directed The End of St. Petersburg (1927) and Storm Over Asia (also known as The Heir of Genghis Khan). These three films together formed a group that supported the ideas of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Sound in Movies

In 1928, when movies started to have sound, Pudovkin, Sergei Eisenstein, and Grigori Aleksandrov signed a special paper called the Manifest of Sound. In this paper, they discussed how sound could be used in films. They believed that sound and images didn't always have to match perfectly. This idea was used in his next films, A Simple Case (1932) and The Deserter (1933).

Pudovkin faced some challenges with his experimental sound film A Simple Case. He was told that his film was too "formal," meaning it was too focused on style rather than clear messages. He was even forced to release it without its sound! In 1935, he received the Order of Lenin, a high award.

Later Historical and War Films

After taking a break due to health issues, Pudovkin returned to making movies. This time, he focused on big historical films. These included Victory (1938), Minin and Pozharsky (1939), and Suvorov (1941). The last two films were often praised as some of the best movies about Russian history, much like the works of Sergei Eisenstein. Pudovkin won a Stalin Prize for both of them in 1941.

During World War II, he moved to Kazakhstan and directed several patriotic films about the war. He also had a small acting role in the film Ivan the Terrible, playing a character called "God's fool." After the war, he went back to Moscow and continued making biographical films (about real people's lives) and war movies at the Mosfilm studio.

In 1947, he won another Stalin Prize for his work on Admiral Nakhimov. In 1950, he received his second Order of Lenin and a third Stalin Prize for Zhukovsky. His very last film was The Return of Vasili Bortnikov (1953).

Beyond Directing

Besides directing, writing, and acting, Pudovkin was also a teacher and a journalist. He wrote several books about film theory and was a professor at VGIK, a famous film school. He was also involved with the Soviet Peace Committee.

Vsevolod Pudovkin passed away on June 30, 1953, in Jūrmala, near Riga. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. There is even a street in Moscow named after him!

Filmography

Published Works

• Film Technique and Film Acting Grove Press. 1958.

See also

In Spanish: Vsévolod Pudovkin para niños