Plakhov, Andrey Stepanovich

Andrei Stepanovich Plakhov was born on September 14, 1950 in Starokonstantinov of the Khmelnitsky region of the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine ). He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Lviv University (1972) and the Department of Cinematography at VGIK (1978). In 1982, on the work of Lukino Visconti, he defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Art Criticism on the topic “Historicism and Myth Creativity in the Cinema of the West” (specialty 17.00.03 - Cinema, television and other screen arts) ^[1] .

In 1977-1988 he worked in the culture department of the newspaper Pravda . During the years of perestroika, he was secretary of the board of the Union of Cinematographers and chairman of the Conflict Commission on Creative Issues, which released over 200 films prohibited by Soviet censorship. At the same time, he began to actively cooperate with foreign colleagues within the framework of FIPRESCI . In 1987-1991 and from 1997 to 2005 he was vice-president of this organization, then until 2010 he was president of FIPRESCI, nowadays one of the honorary presidents ^[2] .

He repeatedly served on the jury of international film festivals ( Berlin , Locarno , Tokyo , San Sebastian ). As part of the Moscow Film Festival, he organized his own copyright programs. He is the initiator of seasonal Euphoria minifests held at the Moscow Roland movie theater, where he personally presents to the public the most interesting, in his opinion, pictures of the upcoming rental. As the head of the selection committee, he takes part in organizing several international film screenings. In particular, for many years he has been the program director of the festival "Spirit of Fire" ^[3] . In 2010-2011, he headed the selection committee of the St. Petersburg International Film Forum ^[4] , in 2012 he took a similar position in the organizing committee of the Zerkalo film festival ^[5] .

Since 1972 it has been regularly published, collaborates with many Russian and foreign publications ( “The Art of Cinema” , “ Session ”, Sight & Sound , etc.), and is a regular film reviewer of the newspaper Kommersant . The author of more than ten books about Soviet and modern world cinema, including those dedicated to the works of Aki Kaurismyaki and Catherine Deneuve .

He is married to film expert Elena Plakhova (born 1951), has a son Dmitry (born 1972), a poet, a member of the Writers' Union of Moscow .

In March 2014, he signed a letter “We are with you!” Of “ KinoSoyuz ” in support of Ukraine ^[6] .

Plakhov takes part in polls about the greatest films in history, which are held once every ten years by Sight & Sound magazine. Plakhov’s list, compiled in 2012, has been updated by more than half. The new list did not include the films “ Lady from Shanghai ” (1947, Wells ), “ In the Last Breath ” (1959, Godard ), “ Nosferatu ” (1922, Murnau ), “ Rasemon ” (1950, Kurosawa ) “ Breaking the Waves ” (1996, von Trier ), “ Blue Velvet ” (1986, Lynch ) ^[7] . The four paintings by which the film expert has remained faithful are marked with an asterisk below, and his full selection of 2012 is as follows (in alphabetical order) ^[8] :

• Sunset Boulevard (1950, Wilder )
• Eight and a half (1963, Fellini ) *
• All About My Mother (1999, Almodovar )
• Death of the Gods (1969, Visconti )
• Eclipse (1962, Antonioni ) *
• Mirror (1974, Tarkovsky ) *
• Ash and Diamond (1958, Wajda )
• Rules of the game (1939, Renoir ) *
• Salam, Cinema (1995, Makhmalbaf )
• Whispers and screams (1972, Bergman )

A similar survey on Russian cinema was conducted in 2008 by Session magazine. The list of the ten best films of Russia according to Plakhov was as follows (in alphabetical order) ^[9] :

• Ballad of a soldier (1959, Gregory Chukhrai )
• Cargo 200 (2007, Alexey Balabanov )
• Eclipse Days (1988, Alexander Sokurov )
• The Mirror (1974, Andrey Tarkovsky )
• Ivan the Terrible (1945, Sergey Eisenstein )
• July rain (1966, Marlene Hutsiev )
• Cranes are flying (1957, Mikhail Kalatozov )
• My friend Ivan Lapshin (1984, Alexey German )
• Outskirts (1933, Boris Barnet )
• Outskirts (1998, Peter Lutsik )

Winner of several professional awards, including the Prize of the film press for the best film journalist of the year (for a series of publications in the newspaper Kommersant and the magazine “Art of Cinema”, 1994). Repeated winner of the Prize of the Guild of Film Critics and Film Critics of Russia (1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008) ^[10] . In 2014, he was awarded with the Certificate of Honor of the President of Russia ^[11] , the honorary badge of the Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation ^[12] and the Miron Chernenko Prize for the book “Cinema on the verge of a nervous breakdown” (St. Petersburg: Book Workshops; Session Publishing House, 2014). ^[13]

In 2017, he was awarded the special prize " Nika " "For his contribution to the cinematographic sciences, criticism and education" ^[14] .

• The Struggle of Ideas in Contemporary Western Cinema (1984)
• Western screen: the destruction of personality. Characters and Concepts of Western Art (1985)
• Through the noise of time. Creative portrait of Andrei Tarkovsky (1987)
• Soviet cinema / The Soviet Cinema (1988) (in English)
• Catherine Deneuve. Nine stories from the life of an actress (1989, ISBN 5-210-00457-0 )
• Total 33. Stars of world filmmaking (1999, ISBN 966-95520-9-5 )
• Total 33. Close-up stars (2004, ISBN 966-9775-03-4 )
• Catherine Deneuve. From Cherbourg Umbrellas to 8 Women (2005, ISBN 5-98144-062-7 )
• Under the sign of F. Film festivals (2006, ISBN 5-9900507-1-2 )
• Aki Kaurismäki. The Last Romantic (2006, ISBN 5-86793-479-9 ) (shared with Elena Plakhova)
• The directors of the present. In 2 volumes. Volume 1. Visionaries and megalomaniac (2008, ISBN 978-5-901586-26-6 / ISBN 978-5-367-00756-5 )
• The directors of the present. In 2 volumes. Volume 2. Radicals and minimalists (2008, ISBN 978-5-901586-23-5 / ISBN 978-5-367-00806-7 )
• Directors of the future. Mavericks and station wagons (2009, ISBN 978-5-367-00987-3 / ISBN 978-5-901586-25-9 )
• Cinema on the verge of a nervous breakdown (2014, ISBN 978-5-905669-16-3 / ISBN 978-5-905586-09-5 )

• Official site of Andrei Plakhov
• Publications in the newspaper Kommersant
• Articles by Andrei Plakhov in the magazine "Session"
• Andrey Plakhov in the " Journal Hall "
• Andrey Plakhov in the Encyclopedia of Russian Cinema