Abstract

Legendary filmmaker MARLEN KHUTSIEV will discuss his career, from his student years at the All-Union Film Institute in the directing class of Ihor Savchenko, through the Thaw classics—’Spring on Zarechnaia Street’ (1957), ‘I am Twenty’ (1964) and ‘July Rain’ (1966)—to his current work-in-progress, ‘Nevecherniaia’ (‘Not Yet Evening’), a film loosely based on accounts of meetings and correspondence between Chekhov and Tolstoy. The presentation will include short extracts from ‘Not Yet Evening’. Mr Khutsiev will speak in Russian with consecutive English translation. This talk is free and open to the public.

Marlen Martynovich Khutsiev was born in Tbilisi in 1925, began his filmmaking career in Odessa and has lived in the same Moscow apartment for the last 26 years. His early work was shaped by Soviet filmmakers’ discovery of Italian neorealism in the 1950s; his great 1960s films have more in common with the work of Antonioni and Godard. Frequently subject to politically motivated attacks by Soviet authorities, his films are few in number, but each an aesthetic and historical landmark. He recently retired from his post as Head of the Directing Faculty at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography. At age 88 he is still active as a filmmaker and president of the Russian Federation’s Guild of Film Directors. He is also a lively raconteur with many stories to tell about his own films, as well as his work with filmmakers Ihor Savchenko, Sergei Parajanov, Andrei Tarkovskii and others.

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