Childhood and youth
Kira Muratova was born into a difficult family living in the town of Soroki in Bessarabia (Romania). Father Yuri Aleksandrovich Korotkov worked as secretary of the underground regional committee of the Communist Party of Romania before the war with the Germans, and in 1941 he died as part of a partisan detachment.
Director Kira Muratova
Mother Natalya Isaakovna, Jewish by nationality, was a member of the Romanian Communist Party since 1928. After the war, the woman took the chair of the Minister of Culture of the republic, which became part of the USSR.
In an interview, Kira Georgievna recalled that she often visited her mother at work. The ministry had a separate room for watching foreign films, and I especially remember the special pass that the girl received from her parent.
Kira Muratova in her youth
The piece of paper opened the doors of any cinema in Bucharest, and little Kira often ran to shows after school. At that time, during breaks in the foyers of cinemas, the audience was entertained by magicians and singers. One day the girl saw a “live” celebrity, Petro Leshchenko, and was impressed for a long time.
After graduating from school, young Kira went to the capital of Russia, where she entered the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University. After some time, she realized that cinema attracted her, and decided to try her luck at VGIK. The girl entered the director's department, falling under the wing of the famous cinema masters Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova.
The brilliant Kira Muratova: “Horror. What if I don’t come up with anything?”
Born in Bessarabia on November 5, 1934, Muratova was half-Romanian and once lived with her parents in Bucharest, where her mother was a cultural director. And then Kira went to Moscow, entered VGIK, in the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov. She was assigned to the Odessa Film Studio and lived only a little in Leningrad. Alexey German Sr. joked that Odessa would someday be renamed Muratovka.
When asked what motivates her when searching for stories, she answered: “Horror. What if I don’t come up with anything, and it will be boring.” - “How do you find money for paintings?” - “It’s very difficult. There's no point in talking about it. I despair." She believed that “there is nothing to do in directing without delusions of grandeur,” and “art is the golden pills we need, eager to sweeten everything.”
She owns the phrase “I give this planet a zero”...
Film director Ali Khamraev: “Kira said: I came to help you, not to earn money!”
“Terrible news: Kira Muratova has passed away. I'm sorting through the photos. Who have I filmed with! But I don’t have a single photograph with Kira... We saw Kira at various conferences, seminars, plenums of filmmakers, she worked in Odessa, I in Tashkent. I admired the talent of this amazingly modest woman, often at various plenums, premieres, seminars, and during visits to Odessa, I told her jokingly: hello, short meetings - long farewells!..
With Vladimir Vysotsky. Still from the film “Brief Encounters”.
In 1978, I had troubles with the delivery of the film “Triptych” - standard accusations of pessimism, denigration of Soviet life, and so on. I begged Kira to fly to Tashkent. What amazing days and nights they were in the editing rooms!.. The tireless Kira and I twisted, cut, shredded kilometers of celluloid, watched the folded scene in the middle of the night, argued, Kira got angry, then laughed, drank coffee and sat down at the editing table again. And she also wrote wonderful monologues for the film about the dignity of an Eastern woman.
When we completed the installation of the “Triptych”, our administrator approached the guest from Odessa with an expenditure order and money:
- Kira Georgievna, please receive it and sign here...
- What is this?.. Money?.. Take it away immediately!..
“Kira, you earned them,” I say through clenched teeth, but firmly.
- I won’t take it! - Her voice broke. “You fed me pilaf, took me around the mountains, showed me Samarkand!.. I came to help you, not to earn money!”
I took the money from the administrator’s hands, walked up to the ballot box and said:
-Won't you take it? Then I'll tear them up and throw them in the trash!
- Are you crazy!..
Kira snatched the pack from me, and then we drank champagne all evening at the hotel together with the artist Zhenya Golubenko, Kira’s faithful life partner...
Recently they have said and written that Kira Muratova is many years old, that she does not want to make films anymore. I didn't believe it. And so the great Kira Muratova, not broken by a fierce life in cinema, was defeated by the disease and left us. How bitter and sad!
I have photographs of me with Kurosawa and Fellini, with Antonioni and Tarkovsky, with Parajanov and German... But I don’t have a single photograph with Kira Muratova. Kira is simply forever in my heart. Goodbye, dear..."
In Uzbekistan. 1970s Photo: Ali Khamraev
Yuri Klimenko: “Like a knife goes into butter, that’s how we met”
Kira Muratova worked with cameraman Yuri Klimenko on the film “Exploring the White World,” and now in Sochi, at Kinotavr, we remember what this unique woman was like.
— Kira was older than me, and I was a young cameraman who came to the Odessa studio. We didn't have any difficulties in communication. Like a knife going into butter, that’s how we met. Everything was simple, as with all people. We lived nearby, in the same yard. We went to one job - to the film studio across the street. We exchanged impressions about films and life. The time was different, people treated each other differently - more humanely, more attentively. The last time we saw each other was four years ago. I shot a picture in Odessa and visited her twice. Then I came with Stanislav Govorukhin when he brought the film we shot in Odessa. Kira came to the screening and said how she knew how to do it: “Slava, why are you being sentimental? Cut out this prayer. Who needs it? There was a scene where a girl prayed before she died. Slava cut it out, although the picture was already ready. He respected her. Kira was a genius. There could be five to eight of these throughout the country. She's the last one. No more. And she understood this. Otherwise I wouldn't have fought. And she always fought. The fate of our painting “Experiencing the White Light” is complex. The material came from the laboratory first to the editor-in-chief, and then only to the group. Kira was endlessly told that this couldn’t be done, something had to be cut out. She was strong.
I didn’t understand what she was doing on set that was so special. But then I saw something magical on the screen. I did not observe any gestures of genius during the work itself. I still don’t know her creative method, although I stood next to her and photographed her actors.
I don’t think Kira took all the strange statements addressed to her to heart. She was a seasoned fighter. Before my eyes, she suffered through everything at the Odessa film studio. She and I were going to shoot the film “Princess Mary”. Kira wrote a wonderful script. The actors were good. We went on an expedition, and on the first day of filming we were closed. A letter arrived from Kyiv, from the Ministry of Culture: to close the film and write off the expenses as studio losses. It was like a ban on the profession. After all, she later worked as a librarian and was listed as a developer. The studio director helped as much as he could. But as a director she could not work for a long time. Then we managed to go to Lenfilm, where we filmed “Exploring the White World.”
Sergei Chliyants: “With her departure, there is nothing metropolitan left in Odessa”
While we were talking with film director and producer Sergei Chliyants, who, as a producer, made two films with Kira Muratova - “The Adjuster” and “Certificate”, he constantly called her husband, artist Evgeniy Golubenko. The phone didn't answer.
— In 2004, we made the film “The Adjuster.” Before that they were friends. I worked as her assistant and was once saved by her. I was making my directorial debut, and my film was closed by the artistic council of the Odessa film studio with the wording “creative failure.” Kira never swore, but she could say it in such a way that everything was clear, and she said in her characteristic manner: “Who are you? Why did you take upon yourself the right to shut someone down?” And they let me finish the picture. It was the time of cooperative cinema, and I consulted with her on what material to take and what to do. She, oddly enough, listened to the opinions of some of us about her paintings. It seemed strange to us that she was filming non-professional artists. I told her: “They’re lying to you.” “No,” she answered. “You, Sergei, are lying.” Since then we have a joke. To any of my words she answered: “You’re lying again.” The last time I visited her was last fall. She asked: “Tell me something.” I decided to talk about the sea and heard: “You’re lying again.” She wasn't joking, although she could have been. I told her about my idea for a film about the war in Donbass. She did not support me, she said that I would have to choose someone's side, and this should not be done now. Time needs to pass.
Before “The Adjuster,” Kira twice asked to help her finish the films that she started with other Russian producers, but the money kept running out. When she decided to make The Adjuster, she called and said that it would be an unusual film for her - short, only 90 minutes, and commercial. And when Kira collected it, it turned out that it was more than four hours old. She told me: “I’m not Buslov or Veledinsky. Do you want to help me? She wanted to star Oleg Menshikov in the leading role. But one day she brought a portrait of Georgiy Deliev, with whom I studied in architecture, and said that he would be a hero. Again I began to say that non-professional actors should be filmed carefully. And she replied: “Give up your tricks.” So Kira pulled people out - it’s unclear why. She was looking for vitality, not conformity, but essence. Several times, as an acting assistant, I tried to suggest her someone from interesting people, and I could never guess. Kira knew something about the actors’ way of existence and had no doubts. She didn't hesitate when choosing them.
It's hard to describe her. It's a pity that this happened. As a seventh generation Odessa resident, I will tell you that just as there is no snow in Africa, there is no medicine in Odessa. I know that Kira did not receive qualified help there. Probably, it was possible to go somewhere, but it would not be Muratova.
The last time we met, I asked what she was going to do. “There are flightless birds, but I am a non-filming director. You won't give me the opportunity to film for two hours a day, will you? And it’s already hard for me,” she replied. I called her Kira. This was acceptable for those who had been with her since ancient times. And it was easier that way on the set. Don’t yell on the set: “Kira Georgievna!”
Over the years of her stay in professional oblivion, she has developed several attachments in relation to people. She did not divide them into hostile or friendly. Her intonation simply changed. That's why some were afraid of her. Sometimes it felt like you were going to get hit in the eye. One day I came to her with tea, cookies, marmalade. And she says: “I cooked beans. Are you not going to eat my beans? And I realized that it was better to agree. And she knew how to cook. It was not customary to ask her questions. The answers were harsh, implying the words: “Are you an idiot?” Only she didn’t say that, it was enough: “What?” She is from that breed for whom cinema is like air, and if you don’t make it, then life becomes bad. I teach students to divide directors into dog breeds. There are decorative ones, and there are fighting and hunting ones. You need to clearly understand what kind of director you are facing and how dangerous it is. Kira is from a rare breed of people for whom filming means living. She is a large and strong breed of dog. Such people are rarely fighters, but Kira combined the incompatible. With her departure, there was nothing metropolitan left in Odessa.
Movies
In 1961, Kira Muratova, as a director, joined her colleagues at the Odessa Film Studio. At first, she worked in tandem with her husband Alexander Muratov, with whom she joined forces back in her institute days. The couple showed the world the films “At the Steep Yar” (1962) and “Our Honest Bread” (1964).
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “Brief Encounters”
The aspiring director made her solo debut in 1967. The viewer received a brilliant work that leaves no one indifferent - “Brief Encounters”. The touching melodrama about a love triangle is notable for several aspects.
Muratova herself starred in the film, the main male role was played by the legendary Vladimir Vysotsky, and the second main female role was played by Nina Ruslanova, appearing on Soviet screens for the first time. The film was released in a limited edition; a full-fledged screening happened only 20 years later – then more than four million Russians appreciated the director’s solo work.
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “The Long Farewell”
The next film, “The Long Farewell” (1971), turned out to be completely unhappy. The management of the studio did not appreciate the master’s creativity, coordinating the work for two whole years, and as a result, the show was postponed until perestroika. Kira Muratova, removed from directing, could not stand the oppression and left Odessa.
The woman settled in Leningrad, where at the Lenfilm film studio she began creating the film “Exploring the White World,” which delighted viewers in 1978. A heartfelt, beautiful story brought together Nina Ruslanova, Alexey Zharkov, and Lyudmila Gurchenko on the set. After watching, it becomes clear where Renata Litvinova, a loyal fan of Kira, drew inspiration for her first steps in directing.
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “Among the White Stones”
Censorship was hot on Muratova's heels. The film “Among the White Stones” (1983) turned out to be scandalous, from which unwanted things were mercilessly cut out. So much so that Kira Georgievna refused to indicate her name in the credits.
Only towards the end of the Soviet Union did the director breathe a sigh of relief, having the opportunity to create as her heart dictated. With her light hand, “Change of Fate” and a two-part drama with a sharp social overtone “Asthenic Syndrome” appeared on the screens.
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “Asthenic Syndrome”
The last film created a sensation among critics and viewers - both in its content, composition, and special presentation techniques (one part was shot on black and white film, the other on color). In addition, for the first time in Russian cinema, the director allowed obscene language to be heard from the screen. However, the attacks at home passed in the background, because the main thing that Muratova achieved was recognition abroad: the work received a special jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “The Adjuster”
The next notable work was born at the height of perestroika. In 1994, Kira Muratova first directed the shocking Renata Litvinova in “Hobbies,” who became the director’s muse. Moreover, there was no role for her in the script initially; Kira later came up with the character on purpose. Muratova spoke about her first impression of the actress:
“We met at the Arsenal festival in Riga. It immediately seemed to me that she should be filmed, she has wonderful appearance and manner of speaking.”
This picture is calm, bright, but ambiguous, oh. Kira will star as an actress with blond hair several more times in the future: Renata shines in the thriller “Three Stories,” which was nominated for the Berlin Golden Bear, in the drama-comedy “The Tuner,” the tragicomedy “Two in One,” and the social drama about minors street children "Melody for a barrel organ." All films won one or another award.
Still from Kira Muratova’s film “Eternal Return”
In 2012, Kira Muratova presented fans with the comedy “Eternal Return,” in which Oleg Tabakov, Alla Demidova, and Sergei Makovetsky starred along with Litvinova. With this work, Kira Georgievna put an end to her directorial career, publicly announcing her retirement.
Kira Muratova also worked as an actress with other directors. The woman appeared in the role of a revolutionary in the film “Dangerous Tours” directed by Georgy Yungvald-Khilkevich. In 1986, she was invited to the drama “Garden of Desires” by Ali Khamraev, where Kira reincarnated as a witch.
Biography
Kira Muratova was born in the Bessarabian city of Soroki, in the family of the secretary of the Soroki underground district committee of the Communist Party of Romania[1] Yuri Aleksandrovich Korotkov (Rum. Gheorghe Corotcov, January 15, 1907, Osovice - 1941)[2], who disappeared presumably in the fall of 1941 near Odessa[3][4][5]. Her mother, Natalia Isaakovna Korotkova-Scurtu (Rum. Natalia Corotcov-Scurtu, October 18, 1906 - July 28, 1981) - of Jewish origin, originally from Soroki[6][7]; member of the Romanian Communist Party since 1928[8]. In 1934 she was arrested in Chernivtsi[9]. Free Romania) based in Ufa under the auspices of the Comintern
)[10]. Subsequently, she worked in the Ministry of Culture of the SRR, as a doctor at the Polizu maternity hospital[11][12] and, finally, as Deputy Minister of Health of the SRR[13][14]. She has written several manuals on caring for newborns[15]. Kira, her father and mother settled in Bucharest before the war, where her parents were working illegally[16].
She studied philology at Moscow State University, and in 1959 she graduated from the directing department of VGIK, where she studied in the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova.
In 1961, Kira Muratova became a director at the Odessa Film Studio. Muratova made her debut as a screenwriter and director in 1962, together with her future husband Alexander Igorevich Muratov, directing the short film “At the Steep Yar”, and two years later, with him, making the full-length film “Our Honest Bread”. Already with her first independent films, “Brief Encounters” (1967) and “Long Farewell” (1971), the director declared her interest in modern moral issues and ambiguous human characters (the films were “ put on the shelf
"before perestroika).
After scandals with the management of the Odessa film studio, she had to leave Odessa for Leningrad, where the film “Exploring the White World” (1978) appeared on Lenfilm. Then she met the artist Evgeny Golubenko, who became her second husband and co-author of the scripts. Among her most notable works are “Change of Fate” (1987) and “Asthenic Syndrome” (1989), films that attracted significant attention from critics and society. The last film was awarded the Special Jury Prize “Silver Bear” at the 40th Berlin Film Festival (1990) and the Nika Film Award for best feature film (1991).
After the premiere of the film “Eternal Return,” she announced that she was leaving cinema.[17]
Kira Muratova's films starred Vladimir Vysotsky, Georgy Deliev, Oleg Tabakov, Zinaida Sharko, Nina Ruslanova, Renata Litvinova, Alla Demidova, Natalya Buzko.
She collaborated with composers Oleg Karavaichuk and Valentin Silvestrov.
Personal life
Kira Georgievna was married twice. She met her first husband, director and screenwriter Alexander Muratov, during her student years, but in the 70s the marriage broke up. The couple raised a daughter, Marianna, who died tragically. The director's couple divorced after Kira's debut film.
Kira Muratova and her husband Evgeny Golubenko
The second husband, with whom Muratova lived until her last days, is also from a creative environment - St. Petersburg artist and screenwriter Evgeny Golubenko.
Uncompromising and unbearable on the set, Kira Georgievna in life was a calm, balanced person, able to get along with anyone. The woman loved to eat deliciously, but she chose simple food. Over the years, Muratova began to look towards vegetarianism, but she never decided to join the ranks of vegans.
The life and work of Kira Muratova
Kira Muratova (before Korotkova's marriage) was born in the city of Soroca in Romania on November 5, 1934. Five years later, the family moved to Bucharest, and in 1940 to Chisinau.
Muratova studied at Moscow State University as a philologist, as well as at the directing department at VGIK, which she graduated in 1959. Two years later, in 1961, Kira Muratova became a director at the Odessa Film Studio.
She made her first film together with her future husband Alexander Muratov - it was a short film “At the Steep Yar”. Two years later, Muratova shot the full-length film “Our Honest Bread” with him.
She began making films on her own in 1967; her first “personal” film was “Brief Encounters.” This was one of the first films in which Vladimir Vysotsky starred, and at first Muratova, according to her husband, did not want to make it.
Muratova’s film “The Long Farewell,” filmed in 1971, was banned in the USSR and was not released for more than 15 years.
At that time, Muratova divorced, and her ex-husband moved to Kyiv, while she herself remained in Odessa.
In the 70s, Muratova had a conflict with the management of the Odessa film studio, and the director moved to Leningrad, starting to work at Lenfilm. There, in 1978, she made the film “Exploring the White Light.” In Leningrad, Kira Muratova met her second husband, artist Evgeny Golubenko.
Muratova later returned to Odessa, where she filmed the film “Asthenic Syndrome.” This film received the Silver Bear special jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990, as well as the Nika film award in 1991.
After the film “Eternal Return,” which was released in 2012, Kira Muratova said that this was her last directorial work.
Kira Muratova's films starred such stars as Vladimir Vysotsky, Oleg Tabakov, Zinaida Sharko, Nina Ruslanova, Renata Litvinova, Alla Demidova. Kira Muratova herself wrote scripts for many films.
From her first marriage, Kira Muratova had a daughter, Marianna, who died tragically. She had no more children.
Death
In recent years, Kira Georgievna lived in Odessa and almost never went out into the world.
“I’ve been to a lot of places, and now I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to fly by plane, or by train either,” she admitted.
Journalists who visited the director note that her apartment is amazing - it resembles a museum in which the studio of her artist husband was found. Muratova rarely agreed to interviews; the woman also refused to write memoirs.
Kira Muratova in 2018
In the summer of 2021, the news spread around the cinema world that Kira Georgievna became a member of the American Film Academy, which received the right to choose who is worthy of the prestigious Oscar 2018 award.
On June 6, 2021, Kira Muratova passed away. Producer Yuri Minzyanov announced this on social networks.
Kira Muratova, the director of “cinema not for everyone,” has died
At the age of 84, Kira Muratova passed away.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
On June 6, we suffered a great loss - Kira Muratova passed away at the age of 84. The last few years ago, after announcing the end of her work in cinema, she lived in Odessa with her husband, artist and screenwriter Evgeniy Golubenko, practically in seclusion. “In retirement” at first actively followed what was happening between Russia and Ukraine, speaking critically about the actions of politicians, but then lost interest in this. I was sick a lot, as happens to many people in old age who are left without a job to which they have been devoted all their lives. And in the end she died.
Kira Muratova died
On June 6, at the age of 84, Kira Muratova, film director, screenwriter and actress, passed away.
She, of course, had a huge impact on Russian cinema, and on us, the audience. The word “special” probably suited her best. Kira Georgievna did not make simple films, but seemed to make diagnoses for our society. And she showed special characters - eccentric, unsettled, often downright ridiculous, revealing human nature through other people's characteristics. Once in Berlin, after the premiere of her Hobbies, an elderly couple attacked her, reproaching her for not loving people. Loved it. She just had her own truth. “I’m not a cat to love people in general,” she said. And her films are not meant to be loved “in general” and watched with the family on the big screen after Malakhov and before the news.
Her creative radicalism was accepted with great difficulty by society.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
Kira Georgievna was born in Romania, in the city of Soroca. After school I went to Moscow to enroll in the philological department of Moscow State University, but eventually ended up at VGIK, in the workshop of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova. She got married for the first time and became Muratova (her daughter Marianna was born in the marriage, but died tragically).
In 1961, Kira Muratova became a director at the Odessa Film Studio.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
One of her first works was the film “Brief Encounters,” where the main roles, in addition to Kira herself, were played by Nina Ruslanova and Vladimir Vysotsky. Her creative radicalism (at that time her paintings were understandable, perhaps, only to her colleagues at VGIK) was accepted with great difficulty by society.
Watch the video
Brief Encounters (dir. Kira Muratova, 1967)
Brief Encounters (dir. Kira Muratova, 1967)
Fragment
The film “Long Farewell” generally lay on the shelf for 16 years, accused of “petty-bourgeoisism”, “distorting the face of Soviet people, presenting them as degenerates”... She was fired twice from the Odessa film studio, deprived of the director’s chair, calling her “unfit for the profession.” But, after each disgrace, the director was reborn from the ashes.
“I’m not a cat to love people in general,” said Kira Muratova
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
Renata Litvinova became a great success for Muratova - in this case it is not even clear who became the muse for whom. Muratova said: “Renata often appears savingly in my biography, appearing with her script and her role.” Renata became an actress, one might say, precisely because of Muratova, who helped her say goodbye to fantasies that her face was not photogenic. Her first acting job - the role of nurse Lilia in Kira Muratova's Hobbies - became a real sensation of auteur cinema in the mid-90s. Then there were “Three Stories”, “The Tuner”, “Two in One”, “Melody for a Organ-Gurdy”, where she had, as always, bright roles. With her otherness, Renata ideally embodied Muratova’s heroines, who seemed to speak to the world through her. Litvinova found “her own” films, where she revealed herself as an actress.
Watch the video
Customizer - trailer
Customizer - trailer
Kira Georgievna’s last work was the film “Eternal Return,” released in 2012, with her beloved Renata, Oleg Tabakov, Alla Demidova and Sergei Makovetsky. In her own words, she had nothing more to say either to herself or to the world, and physically it was very difficult. Director Roman Balayan once said: “Everyone films as best they can. Muratova - as she wants.” Apparently she didn't want it anymore.
Filmography
- 1967 — “Brief Encounters”
- 1971 — “Long farewell”
- 1979 — “Exploring the White Light”
- 1983 — “Among the Gray Stones”
- 1987 — “Change of fate”
- 1989 — “Asthenic syndrome”
- 1992 — “Sensitive Policeman”
- 1994 — “Hobbies”
- 1997 — “Three Stories”
- 2001 — “Minor People”
- 2002 — “Chekhov’s motives”
- 2004 — “The Adjuster”
- 2007 — “Two in One”
- 2009 — “Melody for a barrel organ”
- 2012 — “Eternal Return”
Links
1970s Long farewell (1971) • Experiencing the white light (1978) 1980s Among the gray stones (1983) • Change of fate (1987) • Asthenic syndrome (1989) 1990s The Sensitive Policeman (1992) • Hobbies (1994) • Three Stories (1997) • Letter to America (1999) 2000s Minor People (2001) • Chekhov's Motifs (2002) • The Tuner (2004) • Help (2004) • Two in One (2006) • The Doll (2007) • Melody for the Organ (2009) 2010s Eternal Return (2012)
