Popular Russian film star and entertainer who brought a light touch to the Soviet era
After Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's "cult of personality" at the 20th party congress in February 1956, political and cultural life in the Soviet Union underwent many changes. One of the first films to benefit from "the thaw" was Eldar Ryazanov's musical-comedy Carnival Night (1956), starring Lyudmila Gurchenko, who has died of cardiac arrest aged 75.
The 21-year-old Gurchenko herself attracted a cult of personality with her sparkling performance as an enthusiastic member of a Soviet youth group (Komsomol) who is planning a fun-filled New Year's Eve celebration at the "house of culture". She is pitted against a pompous middle-aged bureaucrat who wants to make the occasion serious and educational by inserting communist slogans into the show. Tired of socialist realist films, which were required to glorify the revolution and the power of the collective, audiences...
After Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's "cult of personality" at the 20th party congress in February 1956, political and cultural life in the Soviet Union underwent many changes. One of the first films to benefit from "the thaw" was Eldar Ryazanov's musical-comedy Carnival Night (1956), starring Lyudmila Gurchenko, who has died of cardiac arrest aged 75.
The 21-year-old Gurchenko herself attracted a cult of personality with her sparkling performance as an enthusiastic member of a Soviet youth group (Komsomol) who is planning a fun-filled New Year's Eve celebration at the "house of culture". She is pitted against a pompous middle-aged bureaucrat who wants to make the occasion serious and educational by inserting communist slogans into the show. Tired of socialist realist films, which were required to glorify the revolution and the power of the collective, audiences...
- 4/3/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Itar-tass is reporting that the renowned Soviet and Russian actress Lyudmila Gurchenko has died in Moscow at the age of 75: "She played her best roles in Alexei German's Twenty Days Without War, Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky's Sibiriada, Nikita Mikhalkov's Five Evenings, Eldar Ryazanov's The Railway Station for Two, Pyotr Todorovsky's Mechanic Gavrilov's Beloved Woman, and Roman Balayan's Flights in Dreams and Reality."
As her Wikipedia entry has it, she "achieved overnight fame and celebrity status at 21 after she starred in young Eldar Ryazanov's 1956 directorial debut, musical Carnival Night. The film was enormously popular and made Lyudmila famous overnight. Throughout the next two years she toured the entire country with her Carnival Night-inspired musical numbers, attracting crowds of fans. The Soviet cultural establishment, however, deemed her style too western and too out of line with Soviet standards." But she made a roaring comeback, eventually receiving the...
As her Wikipedia entry has it, she "achieved overnight fame and celebrity status at 21 after she starred in young Eldar Ryazanov's 1956 directorial debut, musical Carnival Night. The film was enormously popular and made Lyudmila famous overnight. Throughout the next two years she toured the entire country with her Carnival Night-inspired musical numbers, attracting crowds of fans. The Soviet cultural establishment, however, deemed her style too western and too out of line with Soviet standards." But she made a roaring comeback, eventually receiving the...
- 4/3/2011
- MUBI
Russian Actress Gurchenko Dead At 75
Russian actress Lyudmila Gurchenko has died at her home in Moscow after battling a serious illness.
The 75 year old passed away on Wednesday.
In a statement, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev called her death "an irreplaceable loss for national culture".
The 75 year old passed away on Wednesday.
In a statement, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev called her death "an irreplaceable loss for national culture".
- 3/31/2011
- WENN
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