Aleksei Yuryevich German ( rus, Алексей Юрьевич Герман, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲermən; 20 July 193821 February 2013) was a Russian film director and screenwriter. In a career spanning five decades of filmmaking, German completed six feature films, noted for his stark

pessimism Pessimism is a mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "Is the glass half empty or half ...

, long, serpentine sequence shots, black and white cinematography, overbearing

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating auditory elements of media. It involves specifying, acquiring and creating audio using production techniques and equipment or software. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking ...

and acute observations of Stalinist Russia.

Biography

German was born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

(now St. Petersburg, Russia) in 1938; his father was the writer Yuri German. He studied under

Grigori Kozintsev Grigori Mikhailovich Kozintsev (11 May 1973, born Grigori Moiseyevich Kozintsov) was a Soviet theatre and film director, screenwriter and pedagogue. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1964. In 1965 he was a member of the jury at the ...

until 1960, and then moved on to working in theatre before joining the

Lenfilm Lenfilm (, acronym of Leningrad Films) is a Russian production and distribution company with its own film studio located in Saint Petersburg (the city was called Leningrad from 1924 to 1991, thus the name). It is a corporation with its stakes s ...

studio as an

assistant director The role of an assistant director (AD) on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have ...

. He made his directing debut with '' Sedmoy Sputnik'', co-directed with

Grigori Aronov Grigori (Geliy) Lazarevich Aronov (Григо́рий (Ге́лий) Ла́заревич Аро́нов, born 1 January 1923 in Pochep; died 1 July 1984 in Pochep) was a Soviet Union, Soviet film director, actor, and screenwriter. He co-directed ' ...

in 1967. Over the course of his career, many of his projects met with production difficulties or official opposition; in 50 years, he managed to complete just six feature films, his final film being the science fiction film '' Hard to Be a God'', completed by his son, Alexei German after his death, debuted at the

Rome Film Festival International Rome Film Fest is a film festival that takes place in Rome during the month of October. The name in Italian is Festa del Cinema di Roma. From 2022, the festival was officially recognized as a competitive festival by the Internation ...

in 2013. '' Trial on the Road'' (1971) is the film that made Alexei German famous. It was banned for fifteen years and was shelved by the Ministry of Culture of the Soviet Union until its release (1986) during the Gorbachev era. In 1987, at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands), Alexei German, as a director, received a KNF Award for his three films, ''Trial on the Road'', ''Twenty Days Without War'', and ''My Friend Ivan Lapshin''. German was married to the screenwriter Svetlana Karmalita; they had a son,

Aleksei Alekseivich German Aleksei Alekseivich German Jr. (, born 4 September 1976) is a Russian film director. His last name is pronounced with a hard "g" and in English is sometimes spelled Guerman or Gherman to avoid confusion. Biography Aleksei German is a son of Ru ...

, who is also a film director. German died of heart failure 21 February 2013.

Style

Most of German's films are set during the

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

era and the Second World War, and they depict the time period in a critical light. His films, shot mostly in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

or very muted color, have a distinctive "murky" look and are often described as looking "aged." He was known for his obstinacy as a director, for featuring protagonists who could be categorized neither as heroes nor antiheroes, and for casting actors against type. Dolin, Anton (March/April 2012
No Surrender
filmcomment.com

Filmography

*1967 – ''

The Seventh Companion ''The Seventh Companion'' () is a 1967 Soviet Union, Soviet drama film set in Petrograd in the years following the Russian Revolution (1917), Russian Revolution. The film marked the directorial debut of Russian director Aleksei Yuryevich German, A ...

'' *1976 – '' Twenty Days Without War'' *1984 – '' My Friend Ivan Lapshin'' *1986 – '' Trial on the Road'' (produced in 1971) *1998 – ''

Khrustalyov, My Car! ''Khrustalyov, My Car!'' () is a 1998 Russian comedy-drama film directed by Aleksei German and written by German and Svetlana Karmalita. It was produced by Canal+, CNC, Goskino, Lenfilm and VGTRK. Plot On the first day of the cold spring o ...

'' *2013 – '' Hard to Be a God'' (original title ''History of the Arkanar Massacre'')

References

External links

*
War and Remembrance: The Films of Aleksei Guerman
*
The Strange Case of Russian Maverick Aleksei German
by Anton Dolin *
"Time Unfrozen: The Films of Aleksei German,"
New Left Review 7, Jan.-Feb. 2001. by Tony Wood *
Exorcism: Aleksei German Among the Long Shadows
by

J. Hoberman James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at ''The Village Voice'' in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic f ...

*
Shooting Down Pictures article
{{DEFAULTSORT:German 1938 births 2013 deaths Mass media people from Saint Petersburg Russian film directors Soviet film directors Recipients of the USSR State Prize Recipients of the Nika Award Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery 20th-century Russian screenwriters Russian male screenwriters 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet screenwriters Soviet male screenwriters