World War Two
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisi ...
and which received universal acclaim. His work also includes black comedies, children's movies, and period dramas.
Early life
Elem Klimov was born in
Stalingrad
Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...
into a
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
. Nevertheless, his brother German Klimov stated that his name comes from Elam Harnish — a character of the '' Burning Daylight'' novel by
Jack London
John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
, since their mother was a fan of his. During the
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...
, he, his mother and his baby brother were evacuated from their home and crossed the
Volga
The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...
on a makeshift raft. Klimov would later draw on these experiences for his 1985 film '' Come and See''.
Film career
Klimov's first feature film, 1964's '' Welcome, or No Trespassing'' (known in the United Kingdom as ''No Holiday for Inochkin'') was a satire on Soviet bureaucracy in the guise of a children's
summer camp
A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...
adventure story. The film was briefly banned, having been deemed an insult to the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
; however, the ban was rescinded after
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
had a private viewing and authorized its release.
Klimov's second film, '' Adventures of a Dentist'' (1965), was a
dark
Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...
comedy about a dentist who is derided by his colleagues for his natural talent of painlessly pulling out teeth. The implication, that society inevitably ostracizes those that are gifted, horrified the censors who told Klimov to change it. When Klimov refused, the film was given the lowest classification, "category three", which meant that it was shown in only 25–78 movie theatres.
Next, Klimov began making a film about
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian Mysticism, mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II of Russia, Nicholas II, the last Emperor of all the Russias, Emperor of Russia, th ...
called '' Agony''. The road to release took him nine years and many rewrites. Although finished in 1975, the final edit was not released in the USSR until 1985, due to suppressive measures partly because of its orgy scenes and partly because of its relatively nuanced portrait of Emperor Nicholas II. It had been shown in western Europe a few years before. In 1976, Klimov finished a film begun by his teacher
Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Ilyich Romm (; – 1 November 1971) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter and pedagogue. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1950.
Life and career Early life
He was born in Irkutsk into a family of mixed Russian Jewish ...
In 1979, Klimov's wife Larisa Shepitko, who recently won the
Golden Bear
The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...
at the
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
for her 1977 film ''The Ascent'', died in a car accident while directing a film based on a novel by
Valentin Rasputin
Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin (; ; 15 March 193714 March 2015) was a Soviet and Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for ...
called '' Farewell to Matyora''. His wife's death had a profound impact on Klimov, and all his subsequent films were tragedies. A year after her death, Klimov filmed a 25-minute tribute to his wife entitled "Larisa" (1980), and subsequently finished directing the film she had started. Despite being shelved for two years after completion, ''Farewell'' was still released in 1983.
''Come and See''
Klimov's final film, '' Come and See'', was released in 1985 to worldwide acclaim and won the Golden Prize at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival. The film depicts the experiences of a 15-year-old boy joining the resistance in German-occupied Byelorussia in 1943. Speaking of how the film drew on his own childhood experience of the war, Klimov said, "As a young boy, I had been in hell... Had I included everything I knew and shown the whole truth, even I could not have watched it."
Later career
In 1986, fresh from the success of ''Come and See'', and with the changes brought by
perestroika
''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
in the air, Klimov was chosen by his colleagues to be the First Secretary of the Filmmakers' Union following the ''V Congress of the Soviet Filmmakers''. According to some critics and filmmakers, the congress was conducted by
Alexander Yakovlev
Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev (; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a Soviet and Russian politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s ...
, one of the grey cardinals of perestroika who was unofficially presented there, consulting the activists from time to time.
Klimov's leadership saw the belated release of many of the previously banned films and the reinstatement of several directors who had fallen out of political favor. This period is widely considered as the start of decline of Soviet cinema and the rise of the so-called "" (roughly "black stuff"), works of artists and journalists, who, freed by
glasnost
''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...
, exposed Soviet reality in the most pessimistic possible light. Klimov was still frustrated by the obstacles that still remained in his way and gave up his post in 1988 to Andrei Smirnov, saying that he wanted to make films again.
Klimov completed no more films after ''Come and See''. His plans included an adaptation of
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( ; rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright. His novel ''The M ...
's ''
The Master and Margarita
''The Master and Margarita'' () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in ''Moscow (magazine), Moscow'' magazine in ...
'', an adaptation of
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...
's ''
Demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media including
fiction, comics, film, t ...
'', and a film about
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 ...
. However, none came to fruition. He said in 2000 that he had "lost interest in making films. Everything that was possible I felt I had already done."
Personal life
In 1957, Klimov graduated from the Higher Institute of Aviation in Moscow. He considered a career in journalism before settling on cinema. He enrolled at the state film school, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, where he studied under acclaimed director Efim Dzigan. While a student at the institute, Klimov met Larisa Shepitko, whom he would later marry. Their son Anton was born in 1973.
In 1983, he was a member of the jury at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival.
He died on 26 October 2003 from
brain hypoxia
Cerebral hypoxia is a form of hypoxia (reduced supply of oxygen), specifically involving the brain; when the brain is completely deprived of oxygen, it is called ''cerebral anoxia''. There are four categories of cerebral hypoxia; they are, in o ...