Tamara Nikolaevna Lisitsian (, ; 3 March 1923 – 29 November 2009) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter, who received the Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1985.

Biography

Lisitsian was born on 3 March 1923 in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

(now Tbilisi) to Marfa Ivanovna and Nikolai Pavlovich Lisitsian. On her father's side, she was a cousin of the opera singer Paval Lisitsian. Lisitsian's father died when she was nine years old, leaving her mother to raise her daughter on her own. In 1939, Lisitsian attended the acting department of the Tbilisi Theatre University, and in 1941, she was moved to the Moscow City Theatre School, where she completed her studies from 1944 to 1946. When the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

broke out in 1941, Listisian requested to Аlexander Shelepin at the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol to be sent to the front. She was then assigned to a special-purpose reconnaissance and sabotage unit on the Western Front, sent behind enemy lines, and was captured. She managed to escape the concentration camp in Ukraine and joined a partisan group, taking part in combat operations. During one such operation, Lisitsian received a concussion and was hospitalised. After the end of the war, Lisitsian married Luigi Longo, the son and namesake of one of the leaders in the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

whom she met in Georgia in 1938. They lived in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

for several years, with Lisitsian working as the head of the editing department at the representative office of Sovexportfilm. In 1952, Lisitsian returned to the USSR with her husband and son Sandro, studied at the directing department of

GITIS The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) () is the largest and oldest independent theatrical arts school in Russia. Located in Moscow, the school was founded on 22 September 1878 as the Shostakovsky Music School. It became the School of Mu ...

, and in 1954, under

Vsevolod Pudovkin Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin ( rus, Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, p=ˈfsʲevələt ɪl(ː)ərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn; 28 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter and acto ...

's advice, she moved to

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 ...

's directing workshop at

VGIK The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, officially the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian University of Cinematography (, meaning ''All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov''), a.k.a. VGIK, is a film school in Moscow, ...

, where she graduated there in 1959. As her diploma work, in 1959, Lisitsian directed her first full-length film based on

Sergey Mikhalkov Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov (; 27 August 2009) was a Soviet and Russian author of children's books and satirical fables. He wrote the lyrics for the State Anthem of the Soviet Union, Soviet and National anthem of Russia, Russian national anthe ...

's children's story ''Sombrero'' (). During her internship at Мosfilm, Lisitsian met her second husband, camera operator Viktor Listopadov. After receiving a distribution to Mosfilm, Lisitsian began to dub foreign films, and restoring old films such as ''Peter the Great'', ''Peasants'' (), ''Pepo'', ''Тractor Drivers'', and ''

Encounter at the Elbe ''Encounter at the Elbe'' (in ) is a Soviet war film released in 1949 from Mosfilm, describing the conflict, spying, and collaboration between the Soviet Army advancing from the east and the United States Army, U.S. Army advancing from the west. ...

''. She was initially selected to direct the 1964 film '' Tale About the Lost Time'', only to be dropped by the studio's management in favor of Аleksandr Ptushko. During the 1970s and 1980s, Lisitian directed several more feature films in the USSR, as well as writing stories in issues of ''Almanac of Film Travels'' (). In 1997 in Italy, and in 2002 and 2005 in Russia, Lisitsian published her autobiographical book ''War Broke Us...'' (). She was a member of the

Communist Party of the USSR 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 ...

from around 1958, while also part of the Association of Filmmakers of the USSR in Moscow''.'' Lisitsian died on 29 November 2009 in Moscow, and was buried at

Vagankovo Cemetery Vagankovo Cemetery () is located in the Presnensky District of Moscow, Russia. It was established in 1771, in an effort to curb 1770–1772 Russian plague, an outbreak of bubonic plague in Central Russia. The cemetery was one of those created ou ...

Filmography

* 1959 — ' * 1961 — '' Cosmonaut No…'' ''(short)'' * 1963 — ''USSR through the eyes of Italians / New in the East'' ''(collaborated with

Romolo Marcellini Romolo Marcellini (6 October 1910 – 3 June 1999) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 22 films between 1937 and 1969. Selected filmography * ''Stadium (film), Stadium'' (1934) * ''Sentinels of Bronze'' (1937) * ''Spe ...

and

Leonardo Cortese Leonardo Cortese (24 May 1916 – 31 October 1984) was an Italian film actor and film director, director. He appeared in more than 30 films between 1938 and 1962. He also directed eight films between 1952 and 1967. He was born and died in Ro ...

)'' * 1969 — '' (stereoscopic)'' * 1973 — ''Chipollino'' * 1977 — ' * 1981 — ' * 1983 — ' * 1987 — ' * 1991 — '' Meeting with the Doukhobors of Canada'' ; Works written for ''

Fitil ''Fitil'' ( rus, Фитиль, p=fʲɪˈtʲilʲ, ''Fuse'') is a popular Soviet short film and television anthology series which ran for 608 episodes. Some of the episodes were aimed at children, and were called , ''Little Fuse''. Each issue contain ...

'' * 1965 — "Treachery and Love" (; № 42) * 1968 — "Cleaned Out" (; № 72)

Bibliography

Awards

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

(6 April 1985) * Medal "For Courage" (6 May 1994) * (1985)

References

External links