ALEXANDROV, GRIGORY ALEXANDROVICH

(1903–1983), pseudonym of Grigory A. Mormonenko, Soviet film director.

The leading director of musical comedies in the Stalin era, Alexandrov began his artistic career as a costume and set designer for a provincial opera company. By 1921, he was a member of the Proletkult theater in Moscow, where he met Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. Alexandrov served as assistant director on all of Eisenstein's silent films and took part in an ill-fated trip to Hollywood and Mexico, which lasted from 1929 to 1932 and ended in Eisenstein's disgrace and the entourage's forced return home.

After this debacle, Alexandrov found it prudent to strike out on his own as a film director. By returning to his artistic roots in musical theater, he found a way to work successfully within the strictures of Socialist Realism by adapting the conventions of the Hollywood musical comedy to Soviet realities. His films from this era were The Jolly Fellows (1934), The Circus (1936), Volga, Volga (1938), and The Shining Path (1940), all of which enjoyed great popularity with Soviet audiences at a time when entertainment was sorely needed. Central to the success of these movies were the cheerful songs by composer Isaak Dunaevsky's and the comedic talents of Liubov Orlova, Alexandrov's leading lady and wife.

Alexandrov was a great favorite of Stalin's, and was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1948, the country's highest award for artistic achievement. Although Alexandrov continued to direct feature films until 1960, his most notable post-war venture was the Cold War classic, Meeting on the Elba (1949). This film was quite a departure from his oeuvre of the 1930s. Alexandrov's final two projects were tributes. He honored the mentor of his youth by restoring and reconstructing the fragments of Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! (1979), and he commemorated his wife's life and art in Liubov Orlova (1983).

See also: eisenstein, sergei mikhailovich; motion pictures; orlova, lyubov petrovna; proletkult; socialist realism

bibliography

Kenez, Peter. (2001). Cinema and Soviet Society from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin. London: I.B. Tauris.

Denise J. Youngblood