Stepantsev, Boris Pavlovich

Boris Stepantsev (Stepantsov by birth) was born and raised in Moscow. Even before the war, he became addicted to cartoons, which he watched in the cinema on Strastnoy Boulevard , and decided to connect his life with comedy animation ^[4] .

In 1946 he graduated from the Moscow Art School and courses of animators at the Soyuzmultfilm movie studio ^{[2] [4]} . During his studies, he watched many trophy films, including Disney cartoons, which had a great influence on him ^[5] . From 1947 to 1949 he worked as a cartoon artist. After five years of service as a sailor in the Navy of the USSR, he returned to the studio, and in parallel entered the Moscow Polygraphic Institute ^[4] . Member of the CPSU since 1954 ^[3] .

In 1954 he made his debut as a director, staging one of the first post-war puppet cartoons, " The villain with a sticker " ^[2] . Then he became interested in hand-drawn cinema. From 1956 to 1962 he shot a number of comedy tapes together with director Evgeny Raikovsky and production designer Anatoly Savchenko , his regular partner not only in most films, but also filmstrips and book illustrations ^[6] .

Stepantsev liked the genre of a modern fairy tale, in which, in particular, Petya and Little Red Riding Hood was performed (1958), awarded the Laurel Wreath at the VII International Festival of Animated Films in Annecy ^{[2] [4]} . The peculiar sequel “ Not Just Now ” (1962), also shot based on the “post-modern” tale of Vladimir Suteev about Pete Ivanov, became one of the early Soviet experiments to combine a live actor and hand-drawn animation ^[4] .

In 1960, Stepantsev and Raikovsky staged Murzilka on the Satellite , the first widescreen cartoon in the USSR. For him, they received the 1st prize at the 12th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ^[4] . Subsequently, Stepantsev worked alone. In the period from 1965 to 1970 he shot three of his most famous paintings: " Vovka in the Far Far Away " (another modern fairy tale), "The Kid and Carlson " and " Carlson Returned ". In this dilogy, Stepantsev first used electrography technology in Soviet cinema ^[2] . However, according to the director, "gnawing" began to bore him ^[4] .

From 1966 to 1973, he directed a number of dramatic cartoons based on Russian classical music. He was inspired by Sergei Prokofiev 's The Fleet on the painting The Window . Stepantsev later wrote that Prokofiev’s music “itself depicts what should happen on the screen, defining the character’s game to the smallest gesture ... its drama was more logical, or rather many far-fetched plot moves. It only remained to follow it ” ^[5] .

" Song of the Falcon " was the transcription of the eponymous work by Maxim Gorky to the music of Alexander Scriabin , as well as the first wide-screen Soviet film in the style of glass painting (celluloid) ^[4] . In the film adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ’s ballet The Nutcracker , the characters do not utter a word in 27 minutes. Also in the cartoon were combined shooting and effects that were not repeated by anyone in the Soviet animation ^[7] .

From 1980 until the end of his life, Stepantsev was the artistic director of the Multitefilm studio of the Ekran creative association ^[2] . He also shot his latest project, the full-length animated-game film Assol (1982) based on the story Scarlet Sails . . In it, Stepantsev applied solarization and photographic technologies to transform images of living actors into paintings and combine them with artistic scenery ^{[5] [8]} . According to Joseph Boyarsky , the film was difficult for him, the delivery to the leadership of the State Radio and Television was painful, and this undermined the director’s health ^[9] .

In the last years of his life, he was also interested in computer graphics and even then called it the future of animation ^[5] .

Boris Stepantsev died on May 21, 1983 at the age of 53 years. As Rolan Bykov wrote in his diaries, “did exercise and fell - a stroke” ^[10] .

According to the artist Anatoly Savchenko , who worked with the director, the specialization of Stepantsev was children's cinema. However, being extremely talented, he was very "scattered". He was fascinated by the combined shootings , non-standard camera techniques, puppet animation . Because of this, in particular, the dilogy about Malysh and Carlson , which could become a wonderful animated series ^[11] , was not continued.

The director Rolan Bykov , who knew Stepantsev from his joint work on “ Song of the Falcon ” (there, Bykov voiced Uzh), wrote after his death ^[10] :

He really wanted to be healthy, he showed enviable will and even zeal for this. I suspected some secret torment in him, but it never occurred to him that he could die, and even so young. I treated him well, as, in general, to everyone who didn’t make me very big nasty things, but always saw in him hidden, cunning, unkind things. His manner of speaking about me in superlatives and praising me for some reason afflicted him; he always blew “back thoughts” from him. But I feel sorry for him. Very sorry for him and his Nadia.

Joseph Boyarsky told how he “lured” Stepantsev to the puppet association of Soyuzmultfilm studio for the adaptation of the poem Dead Souls ^[9] :

The persuasions were lengthy, in addition to slowness in resolving issues that are characteristic of his character, there was a fear of parting with hand-drawn animation, where he worked for many years, he was also embarrassed by the difficulty of filming a great poem and the lack of an interesting production designer worthy of this venture ... The first film was called "Manilov." Yu. V. Yakovlev superbly voiced Manilov. The second film - "Nozdryov" - was voiced less successfully. V. Basov , who had planned to sound Nozdryov, was ill, and Stepantsev invited A. Popov . His voice did not have the fusion with the doll that Basov had, and the dolls made according to the sketches of G. Novozhilov were very expressive. Further work on the film stopped ... Seeing him on his last journey, we realized even more clearly how much he contributed to the development of Soviet animation - a man of great culture and talent.

The writer Leonid Sergeyev spoke so much about the director ^[12] :

All Stepantsev’s acquaintances were divided into two categories: those who did not understand when the maestro worked, because they constantly saw him in a cafe and walking along Gorky Street , and those who believed that he did not leave the desktop, and when you did not call him, meets monosyllables and evil. Truth seemed to be in the middle. And then, a creative person works not only at a table, but also in a cafe and on a walk, often during conversations with friends, and even in a dream. “After all, the main thing is thought, ideas, blanks, blanks,” as Stepantsev said, “and the implementation of all this is a matter of technology.” I repeated his words like a prayer.

Book Illustrations

• Leo Arkadyev "Penguin". Moscow: Children's World, 1963.

Filmstrip Illustrations

He was one of the first to draw Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena for the film "Crocodile Gene and His Friends" before the release of the cartoon ^[13] . Subsequently, during a lawsuit with Leonid Schwartzman, the writer Eduard Uspensky cited the example of Cheburashka Stepantsev “with big ears and eyes,” claiming that the character performed by Schwartzman was depicted “one to one” ^{[14] [15]} .

Since 1972, starting with the film “How the Cockerel Came to the Roof,” the illustrations were drawn together with Anatoly Savchenko .

Director

Screenwriter

Production Designer

• 1954 - On the forest stage
• 1954 - Dangerous Prank

Animation Artist

•  

  Dilogy about Baby and Carlson. 1968, 1970 Russia, 2012 ( CFA (ITC) # 1654; Mi # 1886) .

•  

  "Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom." 1965 Russia, 2012 ( CFA (ITC) # 1655; Mi # 1887) .

• 1959 - “ Petya and Little Red Riding Hood ” - 2nd prize in the section of the m / f VKF in Kiev, ^[16]
• 1960 - “Petya and Little Red Riding Hood” - “Laurel Wreath” for the best children's film at the 7th IFF animated films in Annecy ( France ), ^[16]
• 1960 - “ Murzilka on the satellite ” - 1st prize for the best children's film at the XXIII International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary ( Czechoslovakia ), ^[16]
• 1966 - “ Window ” - “Silver Pelican” Prize of the 1st International Film Festival in Mamaia ( Romania ), ^[16]
• 1970 - “The Kid and Carlson ” - First Prize in the section of the film IVF All-Union Film Festival in Minsk, ^[16]
• 1972 - “ Heart ” - VI International Film Festival of Socialist Countries for Health in Niš ( Yugoslavia ),
• 1973 - “Heart” - V International Film Festival dedicated to the work of the Red Cross, in Varna ( Bulgaria ), ^[17]
• 1974 - “ The Nutcracker ” - First MF Prize for Children and Youth Films in Gijon ( Spain ). ^[sixteen]

• Stepantsev B. “Understanding the Laws of Harmony” - Article in a collection book: Asenin S. Wisdom of fiction. Masters of animation about themselves and their art. M. Art, 1983, 207 pp., Circulation of 25,000 copies.
• Asenin S. V. Ways of the Soviet animation "Cartoon World".

• Boris Stepantsev (1929–1983 ) on the Internet Movie Database
• Boris Stepantsev - Encyclopedia of Russian cinema (inaccessible link)
• Filmography on the site Animator.ru
• Filmstrips of Boris Stepantsev at the National Electronic Children's Library
• Filmstrip "Little Baba Yaga" , artists Boris Stepantsev and Anatoly Savchenko
• L. Arkadyev . The book "Penguin" with illustrations by B. Stepantsev
• "Our cartoons . " - The publishing program "Interros", 2006. - S. Boris Stepantsev. - 352 p. - ISBN 5-91105-007-2 . (inaccessible link)