Ook: film screenwriter

* 25.9.1920, Belozersk, Ukraine - † 20.10.1994, Moscow

Education:     Rostov Theatrical College, Rostov-on-Don; VGIK, Moscow

Leading post-WWII actor who later turned to directing with epic results. While studying under Sergei Gerasimov, Bondarchuk was cast with other students in the director's YOUNG GUARD (1948) and later took lead roles in such noted Soviet films as TARAS SHEVCHENKO (1951) and OTHELLO (1955), excelling at tragic, heroic parts.

He made his directing debut with the audacious DESTINY OF A MAN (1959), in which he stars as an ordinary, unheroic soldier struggling to survive in a German POW camp. Bondarchuk's compelling performance helped the film win the top prize at that year's Moscow Film Festival and earned international acclaim for the director.

After being cast as a Russian POW who escapes from a German camp in Roberto Rossellini's ERA NOTTE A ROMA (1960), Bondarchuk took on the job of directing the Soviet Union's grandest film production, and the world's most expensive (estimated at $100,000,000)—Tolstoy's War and Peace.

The eight-hour-long resulting film was originally released in three parts, one part per year from 1965 to 1967. Shot in 70mm widescreen and color, it is a truly epic achievement, with Bondarchuk starring as Pierre and creating a brilliant visual correlative to Tolstoy's prose. WAR AND PEACE earned the 1968 Academy Award for best foreign film and is considered one of the finest literary adaptations in cinema history.

In 1970 Bondarchuk began teaching drama at VGIK while continuing to direct and act. His subsequent films, including the epics WATERLOO (1971) and BORIS GODUNOV (1986), have not lived up to his earlier achievements, though they bear the stamp of a mature, accomplished artist. Bondarchuk was married to Irina Skobtseva, who starred opposite him in OTHELLO, and father of Natalia Bondarchuk, who starred in Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS (1972).

MOSKOU. 21 OKT 1994

De Russische cineast en acteur Sergej Bondartsjoek is donderdag op 74-jarige leeftijd in Moskou overleden. Dat meldt het persbureau Itar-Tass.

De in 1920 geboren Bondartsjoek regisseerde de monumentale verfilming van Tolstojs epos Oorlog en Vrede (1965-1967) die bekroond werd met een Oscar. Als Pierre Bezoechov speelde hij daarin zelf een hoofdrol. Bekende andere films van Bondartsjoek zijn Het lot van een man (1959), waarin hij ook de hoofdrol speelt, en Waterloo (1970). Andere belangrijke rollen die Bondartsjoek vertolkte waren Othello en Dr. Astrov in een verfilming van Tsjechovs toneelstuk Oom Wanja. Vanwege zijn strikte navolging van de boeken die hij verfilmde en de geringe artistieke vrijheid die hij zich permitteerde werd de regisseur nogal gekritiseerd.

Filmografie

1948   MICHURIN     

1948   POVEST O NASTOYASHCHEM CHELOVEKE 

1948   YOUNG GUARD/MOLODAYA GVARDIYA      

1949   THE PATH OF GLORY

1950   CAVALIER OF THE GOLDEN STAR/KAVALER ZULOTOI ZVEZDI               DREAM OF A COSSACK       

1951   TARAS SHEVCHENKO

1953   ADMIRAL USHAKOV  

1953   THE SHIPS FROM THE BASTION/KORABLI SHTURMUYUT BASTIONY     

1954   THIS MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN/OB ETOM ZABYVAT NELZYA   

1955   NEOKONCHENNAYA POVEST

1955   POPRIGUNYA 

1956   IVAN FRANKO

1956   OTHELLO      

1957   TWO FROM THE HOUSING BLOCK/DVOE IZ ODNOVO KVARTALA 

1958   PAGES FROM A STORY/STRANITSI IZ RASSKUZU 

1959   DESTINY OF A MAN/SUDBA CHELOVEKA/FATE OF A MAN                    tevens regisseur

1959   THE SOLDIERS MARCHED ON/SHLI SOLDATI       

1960   ERA NOTTE A ROMA 

1960   OTHELLO      

1960   A SUMMER TO REMEMBER/SERIOZHA       

1968   WAR AND PEACE/VOINA I MIR        producer, director, screenwriter,

1971   THE BATTLE OF NERETVA/BITKA NA NERETVI     

1971   UNCLE VANYA/DYADYA VANYA      

1971   WATERLOO                                director, screenwriter

1975   ONI SRAJALIS ZA RODINOU  director, screenwriter en acteur

1976   VRHOVI ZELENGORE 

1978   FATHER SERGE/OTIETZ SERGII     

1978   THE STEPPE                               director, screenwriter en acteur

1983   RED BELLS: I'VE SEEN THE BIRTH OF THE NEW WORLD                      director, screenwriter

1986   BORIS GODUNOV                         director, screenwriter,