Yan Borisovich Frid (; 1908–2003) was a Soviet

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

Life and career

Yan Borisovich Frid was born on May 31 in 1908 in

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

. In 1932 he graduated from the directing department of the Leningrad Theatrical Institute (workshop of Vladimir Solovyov), and in 1938, from the

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 his mentor was

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

. Since 1938, the director started working at

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 ...

, where he made his debut with a short film based on Anton Chekhov's short story "Surgery." Then he made the children's adventure film "Patriot". Starting from October 1941 he participated in 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 ...

. Between January 1944 and May 1945 he was head of the Army House of the Red Army of the 15th Air Army. He fought on the Leningrad and 2nd Baltic fronts. Participated in the defense and lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, the liberation of the Baltic states. He exited the war with the rank of a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. Member of the

CPSU 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 ...

(b) since 1939. In the early 1950s, Yan Frid filmed documentaries. In 1953 he directed the film-play '' Lyubov Yarovaya'', and in 1955 he adapted ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola an ...

'' by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

for screen. Later, the director made pictures of various genres, but from the beginning of the 1970s he specialized in the genre of

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

, making the film '' Farewell to St. Petersburg'' about the stay of

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...

in Russia. Yan Frid received all-union recognition after ''

Dog in the Manger The story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, the metaphor is now used to speak of one who spitefully prevents o ...

'' hit the television screens, which was based on the play of

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...

, with

Mikhail Boyarsky Mikhail Sergeyevich Boyarsky (; born 26 December 1949) is a Russian actor and singer. He is best known for playing swashbucklers in historical adventure films; the role of d'Artagnan in the 1978 Soviet adaptation of Alexander Dumas' ''Thre ...

Margarita Terekhova Margarita Borisovna Terekhova (; born August 25, 1942, in Turinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian SFSR) is a Soviet and Russian film and theatre actress. She was awarded the title People's Artist of Russia in 1996. Biography Margarita Terekhova was ...

in the lead roles. Great success awaited Yan Frid with films ''

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ...

'' (based on the operetta of

) with

Yuri Yuri may refer to: People Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...

and

Vitaly Solomin Vitaly Mefodievich Solomin (; 12 December 194127 May 2002) was a Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter, best remembered for playing Dr. Watson in a series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations for Soviet television. He was the younger b ...

Lyudmila Maksakova Lyudmila Vasilyevna Maksakova (; born 26 September 1940) is a Soviet Russian stage and film actress who appeared in 24 films between 1965 and 1998. Honoured with the People's Artist of Russia title in 1980, she is also a laureate of the State Pr ...

; "Silva" (based on Emmerich Kálmán's operetta) with Ivar Kalninsh; "Pious Marta" (Tirso de Molina) with Margarita Terekhova and Emmanuel Vitorgan; "Don Cesar de Bazan" with Anna Samokhina, Mikhail Boyarsky and Yuri Bogatyrev. In addition to the above, the director has directed the films "The Road of Truth", "Another's Trouble", ''

The Green Carriage ''The Green Carriage'' () is a 1967 Soviet biographical drama film directed by Yan Frid and starring Natalya Tenyakova, Vladimir Chestnokov and Igor Dmitriev. It portrays the life of the nineteenth century stage actress Varvara Asenkova. Plot The ...

'', "Free Wind", "Tartuffe". In 1932-1962 Frid taught at the Leningrad Ostrovsky Theatre Institute; since 1970 he was a professor at the

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

. In the mid-1990s, Yan Frid, along with his wife Victoria Gorshenina (who was an actress at the Satyricon Theater for many years) moved to permanent residence in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, Germany. He died on December 19, 2003, in

Selected filmography

* ''

Surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...

'' (1939) * '' Lyubov Yarovaya'' (1953) * ''

'' (1955) * ''

'' (1967) * '' Farewell to St. Petersburg'' (1972) * ''

The Dog in the Manger The story and metaphor of The Dog in the Manger derives from an old Greek fable which has been transmitted in several different versions. Interpreted variously over the centuries, the metaphor is now used to speak of one who spite (sentiment), spi ...

'' (1978) * ''

'' (1979)

Awards

* Honored Art Worker of the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1951) *

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 ...

(1945, 1985) *

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

(1944) *

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...

(2003)Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 22 ноября 2003 года № 1379 «О награждении государственными наградами Российской Федерации»
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References

Bibliography

* Klossner, Michael. ''The Europe of 1500-1815 on Film and Television: A Worldwide Filmography of Over 2550 Works, 1895 Through 2000''. McFarland & Company, 2002.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frid, Yan 1908 births 2003 deaths Writers from Krasnoyarsk Soviet screenwriters Soviet male screenwriters Soviet film directors Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography alumni Communist Party of the Soviet Union members