Kira Muratova | |
|---|---|
| Кіра Муратова | |
 Muratova in 2006 | |
| Born | Kira Gueórguievna Korotkova (1934-11-05)5 November 1934 |
| Died | 6 June 2018(2018-06-06) (aged 83) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director Screenwriter Actress |
| Years active | 1961–2018 |
| Spouses |
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Kira Georgievna Muratova (Romanian:Kira Gheórghievna Muratova; Russian:Кира Георгиевна Муратова;Ukrainian:Кіра Георгіївна Мура́това;néeKorotkova, 5 November 1934 – 6 June 2018[1][2]) was aUkrainian[3][4][5][6] award-winning film director, screenwriter and actress, known for her unusual directorial style.[7]
Muratova's films underwent a great deal ofcensorship in theSoviet Union,[8] yet still Muratova managed to emerge as one of the leading figures in contemporaryCinema of Ukraine andRussian cinema and was able to build a very successful film career from 1960s onwards.[9] She isPeople's Artist of Ukraine (1989);Academician ofNational Academy of Arts of Ukraine (1997).[10]Laureate of theShevchenko National Prize (1993) (inList of laureates at 1993 - No. 12);Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize (2002). Muratova spent much of her artistic career inOdesa, creating most of her films atOdesa Film Studios.[11]
Her work has been described as possibly 'one of the most distinctive and singular oeuvres of cinematic world-making.'[12]
Kira Korotkova was born in 1934 inSoroca,Romania (present-dayMoldova) to a Russian father[13] and a Jewish mother.[14][15][16] Her parents were both active communists and members of theCommunist Party. Her father,Romanian:Gheorghe Corotcov, Russian:Юрий Коротков (1907–1941), participated in theanti-fascist guerilla movement in World War II, was arrested by Romanian forces and shot after interrogation. After the war, Kira lived inBucharest with her mother,Romanian:Natalia Corotcov-Scurtu, was born Reznic, (1906–1981), agynaecologist, who then pursued a government career inSocialist Romania.
In 1959, Kira graduated from theGerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, specializing in directing.[17] Upon graduation Korotkova received a director position with theOdesa Film Studio in Odesa, a port city at theBlack Sea near to her nativeBessarabia. She directed her first professional film in 1961 and worked with the studio until a professional conflict made her to move toLeningrad in 1978. There she made one film withLenfilm Studio, but returned to Odesa afterwards. Muratova's films came under constant criticism of the Soviet officials due to her idiosyncratic film language that did not comply with the norms ofsocialist realism. Film scholar Isa Willinger has compared Muratova's cinematographic form to the Soviet Avant-garde, especially to Eisenstein's montage of attractions.[18] Several times Muratova was banned from working as a director for a number of years each time.
Kira married her fellow Odesa studio director Oleksandr Muratov in the early 1960s and co-created several films with him. The couple had a daughter, Marianna, but soon divorced and Muratov moved to Kyiv where he started work withDovzhenko Film Studios. Kira Muratova kept her ex-husband's surname despite her later marriage to Leningrad painter and production designer Evgeny Golubenko.
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In the 1990s, an extremely productive period began for Muratova, during which she shot a feature film every two or three years, often working with the same actors and crew.[11] Her workThe Asthenic Syndrome (1989) was described as 'an absurdist masterpiece' and was the only film to be banned (due to male and female nudity) during the Soviet Unionperestroika.[19] Her other films released in this period includeThe Sentimental Policeman (1992),Passions (1994),Three Stories (1997) and a short filmLetter to America (1999).[20]
Two actresses Muratova has repeatedly cast areRenata Litvinova andNataliya Buzko. Muratova's films were usually productions of Ukraine or co-productions between Ukraine and Russia, always in the Russian language, although Muratova could speakUkrainian and did not object to theUkrainianization ofUkrainian cinema.[21] Muratova supported theEuromaidan protesters and the following2014 Ukrainian revolution.[21]
Muratova's films were premiered at International Film Festivals in Berlin (1990, 1997),[22][23] Cannes,[24] Moscow,[25] Rome, Venice and others.
Next toAleksandr Sokurov, Muratova was considered the most idiosyncratic contemporary Russian-language film director.[12] Her works can be seen as postmodern, employingeclecticism, parody, discontinuous editing, disrupted narration and intense visual and sound stimuli,[18] and her 'bitter humour reflecting a violent, loveless, morally empty society.[17] In her filmThree Stories, she explores how 'evil is hidden in a beautiful... innocent shell, and corpses form part of the décor.'[11][26] She was an admirer ofSergei Parajanov and her focus on 'ornamentalism' has been likened to his and was also anti-realist, with 'repetition giving shape to all possibility', with her last film,Eternal Homecoming effectively about cinema itself being unfinished, it is almost as if the 'spool of cinema keeps threading and tangling, threading and tangling'.[12]
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It was only duringPerestroyka that Muratova received wide public recognition and first awards. In 1988, theInternational Women's Film Festival Créteil (France) showed a first retrospective of her works. Her filmAmong Grey Stones was screened in theUn Certain Regard section at the1988 Cannes Film Festival.[24]
In 1990, her filmAsthenic Syndrome won the Silver BearJury Grand Prix at theBerlinale.[22][17] In 1994, she was awarded theLeopard of Honour for her life oeuvre at TheLocarno International Film Festival (Switzerland) and in 2000, she was given the Andrzej Wajda Freedom Award.[18] In 1997, her filmThree Stories was entered into the47th Berlin International Film Festival.[23]
Her 2002 filmChekhov's Motifs was entered into the24th Moscow International Film Festival.[25] Her filmThe Tuner was shown at theVenice Film Festival in 2004. Her films received the Russian"Nika" prize in 1991, 1995, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2013. In 2005, a retrospective was shown at theLincoln Center in New York City.[17] In 2013, a full retrospective of her films was shown at theInternational Film Festival Rotterdam.[27][17]
| Year | Title (Original) | Title (English) | Director | Writer | Actress | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | У Крутого Яра | By the Steep Ravine | Yes | Yes | With Aleksandr Muratov | |
| 1964 | Наш честный хлеб | Our Honest Bread | Yes | as Agapa | With Aleksandr Muratov | |
| 1967 | Короткие встречи | Brief Encounters | Yes | Yes | as Valentina Ivanovna | |
| 1971 | Долгие проводы | The Long Farewell | Yes | |||
| 1972 | Россия | Russia | Documentary; with Theodore Holcomb | |||
| 1978 | Познавая белый свет | Getting to Know the Big, Wide World | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1983 | Среди серых камней | Among Grey Stones | Yes | Renounced by Muratova after major political censorship (credited to "Ivan Sidorov" ) | ||
| 1987 | Перемена участи | Change of Fate | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1989 | Астенический синдром | The Asthenic Syndrome | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1992 | Чувствительный милиционер | The Sentimental Policeman | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1994 | Увлеченья | Passions | Yes | |||
| 1997 | Три истории | Three Stories | Yes | |||
| 1999 | Письмо в Америку | Letter to America | Yes | Short | ||
| 2001 | Второстепенные люди | Minor People | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2002 | Чеховские мотивы | Chekhov's Motifs | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2004 | Настройщик | The Tuner | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2005 | Справка | Certification | Yes | Short | ||
| 2006 | Кукла | Dummy | Yes | Short | ||
| 2007 | Два в одном | Two in One | Yes | |||
| 2009 | Мелодия для шарманки | Melody for a Street-organ | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2012 | Вечное возвращение | Eternal Return | Yes | Yes |
Upon an initiative of the arts patronYuri Komelkov, Atlant UMC has published an album on Kira Muratova's work. In this album, the author of the photos, Konstantin Donin, confined himself to the film set frames, acting as a screen reporter of the filmTwo-in-one.[28]
In 2005, a study on the life and work of Muratova was published byI.B. Tauris in the KINOfiles Filmmakers' Companion series.[29]
Media related toKira Muratova at Wikimedia Commons
