Lenfilm

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Kinostudiya LenFilm

Type	Corporation
Founded	1896
Headquarters	St. Petersburg, Russia
Industry	Motion pictures
Products	Motion pictures Television programs
Website	http://www.lenfilm.ru/

Kinostudiya "Lenfilm" (in Russian, Киностудия Ленфи́льм) was a production unit of the Soviet film industry, with its own film studio, located in Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R..

1 History
2 Selected films
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The territory of Lenfilm was originally in the private ownership of the Aquarium garden, which belonged to the merchant Georgy Alexandrov, who operated a restaurant, a public garden and a theatre. The composer Peter Tchaikovsky came to what was then the Aquarium theatre (and is now Stage # 4 of Lenfilm) as a guest to the performance of the overture to his Nutcracker ballet. Famous Russian bass singer Feodor Chaliapin and the star of the Soviet stage Leonid Utyosov sang here. The Leningrad film studio facilities was established in 1918 and had a different name. From 1934 named Lenfilm.

During the World War II the film studio was evacuated to Alma-Ata (1942) and merged with other Soviet film studios into the Central United Film Studio (TsOKS). The Lenfilm returned to Leningrad at 1944.

Today in the Aquarium Theater there is a stage where many famous Lenfilm pictures had been shot and many film stars played their roles. George Cukor in 1975 made a film here called The Blue Bird. Elizabeth Taylor was here, she played Queen of light in this film. Jane Fonda, Ava Gardner – they worked here, at Stage # 4, the prior Aquarium Theatre. Orlando was partly filmed here with Tilda Swinton. Afghan Breakdown was shot here by Vladimir Bortko, with Michele Placido, who plays a Russian Colonel. In the beginning of the 1990s there were about a dozen famous American scriptwriters, the winners of Oscars, here.

By the end of the Soviet Union, Lenfilm had produced about 1,500 films. Many film classics were shot at Lenfilm throughout its history and some of these were granted international awards at various film festivals.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it became a quasi-private film production company of Russia, retaining its name in spite of renaming of the city of Leningrad to St. Petersburg.

Lenfilm is a place that is tightly connected with the world celebrities, such as those mentioned and Jane Fonda, Maximilian Schell, Marina Vlady, Julia Ormond, Michael Caine, William Hurt, Sophie Marceau, Sandrine Bonnaire, Gérard Philipe, and with many great Russians: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Veniamin Kaverin, Sergey Kuryokhin, Daniil Granin etc.