Masters of Russian Animation (Мастера русской анимации)

film made for Russian tv with support of the ministry of culture of the Russian federation

Studio MIR presents:

Masters of russian animation

Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg A portrait against the background of their time

Valentina Brumberg

- I'm wildly jealous that I'm not there. Behind that door they had laughter, uproar

Oh my God, how nice, how cheerful, What a - completely different life. It makes one laugh

Seeing the tape I had the same feeling, wildly jealous of everyone present there ...

- That's it ... Who could enter there without any causes or occasions

and sit there sipping tea and bawl with Zina.

The Brumberg sisters' room was a center of warmth and wit.

I love their movies. Little Red Riding Hood,

Puss in Boots - in fact,the first musicals ...

I still remember all these tunes. I even have here, I could show you,

cassettes of them. I can't sing. But, Puss in Boots ...:

sings -go, my daughter, for a journey on the river to the river bank ... no, first was. Princess:

- On the maps I wonder something I need ..., then ...

Learn now wish ... who is my dear friend.

They're very well incorporated in the environment, in the atmosphere,

in the action that was typical for the 30's.

From the end of the twenties, to the thirties. They were part of this,

I would even say, polyphonic action.

Valentina and Zinaida Brumberg were born in Moscow, to an educated Jewish family.

Their dad, Simon, was a physician and served in the First World War.

Mom, Cecilia, was a music teacher. The family had four children.

In 1898 - Valentine and Alexander, In 1900- Zinaida

and in 1903, Daniel was born.

At the age of 4 years, all the children could read well.

Their mother taught them drawing, dancing, German, music

The girls did brilliantly in school. And in 1916, finished their Gymnasium diploma as first of the class.

The revolution had begun. Valentina and Zinaida in 1918 went to VHUTEMAS

The higher art technical workshops.

Zinaida S. wrote about this time. "VHUTEMAS, where we followed

workshops led by Mashkov, Konchalovsky, Lentulov, Falk.

Our teachers were far from academic norms. The Sculpture Department had lessons Greek-Roman Wrestling.

Mashkov began his classes with gymnastics.We did not have the right to use the word "can't."

On the wall hung a poster: "Being sick is strictly prohibited."

The play of the young Eisenstein "Even a Wise Man Stumbles"

surprised the young sisters for the free interpretation of the classics. They write:

"It was an exciting performance, but seeing in this eccentric, the future author of the "Battleship Potemkin"

we then could not." The authority of those years was Vsevolod Meyerhold.

This is the layout of the Meyerhold Theater, which was never built. In its place is now the Tchaikovsky hall.

Students did not miss a single premiere. Hutemasovtsev's idol was Mayakovsky.

He even came to Myasnitskaya to see paintings of the Brumberg sisters.

There came a new kind of art-animated films. Zinaida wrote:"Young artists, that is, us,

were invited to come to the SCC -ARMENIAN STATE film college to do this amazing thing.

We went to the Leningrad road, to the premises of the former restaurant Yar.

The founders of the experimental animation workshop,Olga and Nikolai Khodataeva, Yuri Merkulov

and Zenon Komissarenko initiated a feature film: "China in flames."

This film became a kind of school for us.

Movies counted as coursework. We met with the technology of animation at the time:

Out of construction paper, figures were cut; their limbs fastened with wires.

All were painted in black & white. There wasn't a specific cameraman,

everyone took his turn. We all filmed on a hunch.

Later we made with Olga and Nikolai Khodataeva the film "Samoyed boy."

The plot of the film is simple. It's the history of a Nenets-boy.

Northern episodes were styled after Nenets woodcarving, and in the Leningrad graphic style of Dobuzhinskiy.

They were, -how to say it-

like two poles of plus and minus. Opposites. Precisely because of their character differences

they had that spark. When they argued, everything shook. They would squeal arguing with each other.

But when Ivan Ivanov-Vano would come, it was already a polyphonic quarrel near to hystery.

Why, then all their disputes would end with: "Vanya, do not get angry with us please ..."

Together with Ivanov-Vano we did the Tale of Tsar Durandae. The film was graphic, black and white,

based on the figures of Pokrovsky.

The war began, Soyuzmultfilm studio was evacuated to Samarkand.

This cartoon was drawn on the train, at the studio's evacuation.

Here you see the sisters and Lev Atamanov and inside the carriage Ivanov-Vano.

This sister with the actor Gotovtsev, who played the king in The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

The storyboard was scribbled on a map that all studied to get what they should focus on.

In Samarkand,wrote Zinaida Brumberg, at first we were not up to the tales.

But it became clear that we should stick to this genre. The method used on "The tale of Tsar Saltan" was Eclair.

In essence it means that actors play out scenes in front of a camera, often in costume and full makeup.

-On an island lies a city rising high above the sea

A fir grows in front of the palace, it has a crystal squirrel house.

A squirrel lives there ever so playful,

Does it sing songs, and nibbles nuts.

No ordinary nuts, mind you, the shells are gold, the hearts pure emerald ...

- Here is a art of animation making that was created,at that time by the ensemble of these people.

To leave anyone out was impossible, they all contributed,they each created a part ... It was a very integrated art.

Though they worked together Ivan Petrovich was

one kind of artist but Lev Atamanov a completely different one,

The Brumberg sisters, it is peculiar, were very different as artists too.

But their films were a unity because they were all over the working floor.

Zinaida wrote:"It is now clear that the eclair material, can only be the starting point for the imagination of the artist.

But at first, many took the path of just redraw the acted performance.

For the authenticity of the dances in "The Lost Letter" Igor Moiseyev was consulted.

He said:"Let your imagination float, cartoon characters have possibilities unthinkable for the human movement apparatus.

Eclair only reigned briefly. It is now seen as disastrous naturalism,

but it still put a stamp on the film "The Tale of a Soldier" where the leading role was played by Michael Yanshin.

May I beg for a little food?

I'll break it in half and give him the left It doesn't break...I'll give him all!

And then, somehow, I'll manage ...

They hadn't forgotten their past at VHUTEMAS. Generally spoken that's an interesting subject:

someone who follows their development, should be sure to pay attention to that they came

from a very formalistic view on the medium that reigned at VHUTEMAS

"Fyodor Zaitsev" - is a landmark film. It broke the dominance of social realism & eclair.

And it was good in every aspect. A magnificent scenario by Nikolai Erdman and Mikhail Volpin

wonderful music, voiced by Erast Garin and Michael Yanshina, Brilliant art direction by Anatoly Sazonov.

Dot, dot, comma, minus, curve ... stick, stick and egg-shape, ready the little man is

Aesthetic smuggling that's what they were doing.

And they were right being more afraid of the State Committee for Cinematography than fire.

They from the start, that's something I remember discussed this Aesthetic smuggling!

And this little man! I know where he came from. So spoke the editor of the state fund (Goskino).

This is not wine, but only ink that Gavrilo pours out here in the morning.

We will drink the ink in these glasses

in honor of the pure conscience in adults and boys

He even said: "I know your language is like these Aesopian fables -

I's a cloak, you trying to mislead me with I'm already figuring out this Aesopian language..

He warned us all the time. He panicked at this Aesopian language

and most importantly, he was afraid he would miss something.

And, of course: he missed it. Go like the wind, my eight-legged horse, I'm full of hope and anxiety.

I can't believe Zaitsev will trait his friend I believe that children are good

I know that Zaitsev has at least some conscience and honor.

Probably, however, as it goes, our animation art also has its periods and epochs,

when the time comes to an end and it already has,

Fyodor Zaitsev, I'm sure, will be eternal as Michael Angelo's Moses.

My acquaintance with the sisters Brumberg

was in prehistoric times, in 1948. I graduated from the State Institute of Cinematography -

Art Department and had been appointed, at first part-time, at studio Soyuzmultfilm.

Artist/art-director Lana Azarkh