Herbert Rappaport (1908–1983), known in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

as Gerbert Moritsevich Rappaport, was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

screenwriter and film director. Rappaport was born in 1908 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, to Jewish parents from

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

(now

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...

, Ukraine).Directed by Rappaport A Soviet filmmaker from Vienna
/ref> From 1927 to 1929 he studied law at

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...

. Rappaport worked as screenwriter, music editor, and assistant director in Austria, Germany, and the United States from 1928 onward. During the early 1930s he worked as an assistant to

Georg Wilhelm Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

. In 1936 he was officially invited to the Soviet Union to internationalize the

Soviet Cinema The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. M ...

which he accepted and spent the following 40 years working as a filmmaker there. Among Rappaport's best known films is an adaptation of Dmitri Shostakovich's ''Cheryomushki'' ("Cherry Town") (1963). In 2008 the first worksho

was initiated outside Russia by the Austrian Filmmuseum and SYNEMA-Gesellschaft für Film und Medien, showing about half of his films.

Filmography

* ''Professor Mamlok (Профессор Мамлок) / Professor Mamlock (1938 film), Professor Mamlock'' (1938); with Adolf Minkin * ''Gost (Гость) / A Guest'' (1939); with Adolf Minkin * ''Muzykalnaya istoriya (Музыкальная история) /

Musical Story Musical Story (russian: Музыкальная история, Muzykalnaja istorija) is a 1940 Soviet musical comedy film directed by Aleksandr Ivanovsky and Gerbert Rappaport. Plot The film tells about the taxi driver Petya Govorkov, who rehea ...

'' (1940); with Aleksandr Ivanovsky * ''Vozdushnyy izvozchik (Воздушный извозчик) /

Taxi to Heaven Taxi to Heaven, (russian: Воздушный извозчик) is a 1943 Soviet comedy film directed by Gerbert Rappaport. Plot A lonely pilot Baranov falls in love with a high-profile singer Natasha Kulikova, whose parents are categorically ag ...

'' (1943) * ''Elu tsitadellis / Life in the Citadel'' (1947) * ''Aleksandr Popov (Александр Попов) / Alexander Popov'' (1949); with Viktor Eisymont * ''Valgus Koordis / Light in Koordi'' (1951) * ''Mastera russkogo baleta (Мастера русского балета) /

Stars of the Russian Ballet ''Stars of the Russian Ballet'' (russian: Мастера русского балета, Mastera russkogo baleta) is a 1953 Soviet ballet film trilogy, featuring abridged versions of ''Swan Lake'', ''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' and ''Flames o ...

'' (1953) * ''Andruse õnn / Andrus' Happiness'' (1955) * ''Poddubenskiye chastushki (Поддубенские частушки)'' (1957) * ''Vihmas ja päikeses / Rain or Shine'' (1960) * ''Cheryomushki (Черемушки) / Cherry Town'' (1962) * ''Dva bileta na dnevnoy seans (Два билета на дневной сеанс) / Two Tickets for a Daytime Picture Show'' (1967) * ''Chyornye sukhari (Черные сухари) / Black Dried Crust'' (1972) * ''Krug (Круг) / Circle'' (1972) * ''Serzhant militsii (Сержант милиции) / Sergeant of Militia'' (1974) * ''Menya eto ne kasaetsya (Меня это не касается) / It's Not My Business'' (1976)

References

External links

* 1908 births 1983 deaths Austrian emigrants to the Soviet Union Austrian screenwriters Austrian Jews Film people from Vienna Soviet film directors Soviet screenwriters Stalin Prize winners Austrian male screenwriters {{USSR-film-director-stub