Leonid Gaidai
Encyclopedia
Leonid Iovich Gaidai was one of the most popular Soviet comedy directors, enjoying immense popularity and broad public recognition in the former USSR & modern Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. His movies broke theatre attendance records and are still some of the top-selling DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

s in Russia.

Early life and first success

Gaidai was born on January 30, 1923 in Svobodny, Amur Oblast, where he is commemorated by a statue. After serving in the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 during the Second World War (where he was seriously wounded by a landmine), Leonid Gaidai attended the Moscow Institute of Cinematography. He married the actress, Nina Grebeshkova, who played minor roles in his future films. His first success came 6 years after graduation, with a segment of the short film
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 collection "Sovershenno seryozno" (1961), which instantly became highly popular. In this movie Gaidai first introduces a comic trio of crooks - Yury Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin
Georgy Vitsin
Georgy Mikhailovich Vitsin was a Soviet and Russian actor.- Biography :Born in St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, in 1918 , Vitsin enjoyed a long acting career and continued performing until close to the end of his life...

, and Evgeny Morgunov who later appear in several of his other films. After his characters and directing style won the public's love, his name gained massive selling power in USSR's movie theatres.

Genre brilliance

Between 1961 and 1975, Gaidai directed a number of top-selling movies, each one a huge financial success and becoming wildly popular in the Soviet Union. During these years, he filmed new adventures of the mischievous trio in The Bootleggers
Bootleggers (film)
Bootleggers or Moonshiners is a 1961 Soviet short film directed by Leonid Gaidai.- Plot summary :The trio of Fool, Coward, and Experienced decides to get rich with the help of their samogon-making apparatus. The making of samogon goes well, and towards the end of their "work shift", they decide to...

(1961), a film adaptation of O. Henry
O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...

's short story "Makes The Whole World Kin
Makes The Whole World Kin
"Makes the Whole World Kin" is a short story written by O. Henry , allegedly at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City.-Plot:...

", Business People (1962), Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures is a 1965 Soviet slapstick comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Seleznyova, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin and Yevgeny Morgunov. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" , "Déjà vu" and "Operation Y"...

(1965), and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
A she-prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures , also known as Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is a Soviet comedy film dealing with the theme of bride kidnapping....

(1966). Following his break with Morgunov
Yevgeny Morgunov
Yevgeny Alexandrovich Morgunov was a Soviet and Russian actor, film director, and script writer, Meritorious Artist of Russian SFSR .-Early life:...

, Gaidai disbanded the trio, while casting Nikulin
Yuri Nikulin
Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was a well-known Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films.He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990...

 in what was to become the most popular Soviet comedy ever made, The Diamond Arm
The Diamond Arm
The Diamond Arm is a 1968 Soviet comedy film filmed by Mosfilm and first released in 1968. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova and Svetlana Svetlichnaya. The...

(1968).

In the 1970s, Gaidai worked primarily with the comedians from his own studio group, which included Vitsin, Leonid Kuravlev, Mikhail Pugovkin
Mikhail Pugovkin
Mikhail Ivanovich Pugovkin was a Soviet/Russian comic actor named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1988.He studied in the Moscow Art Theatre school under Ivan Moskvin, took part in World War II and, following demobilisation, was featured in the 1944 all-star cast adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The...

, Savely Kramarov, Natalya Seleznyova
Natalya Seleznyova
Natalya Igorevna Seleznyova is a Soviet and Russian actress.She first took the stage at the age of 6, participating in the Red Army Theatre plays....

, Natalya Krachkovskaya
Natalya Krachkovskaya
Natalia Leonidovna Belogortseva is a Soviet and Russian actress, Meritorious Artist .Belogortseva was born in Moscow, Soviet Union. In 1948, Natalia Belogortseva was married to Vladimir Krachkovskii...

, and his wife Nina Grebeshkova. All this cast was featured in his film adaptation of Mikhail Zoshchenko
Mikhail Zoshchenko
-Biography:Zoshchenko was born in 1895, in Poltava, but spent most of his life in St. Petersburg / Leningrad. His Ukrainian father was a mosaicist responsible for the exterior decoration of the Suvorov Museum in Saint Petersburg. The future writer attended the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg...

's short stories, Impossible! (1975). He also filmed a play by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...

, Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future
Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future
Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession is a Soviet comedy film produced by Mosfilm in 1973. In the United States the film has sometimes been sold under the title Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future....

(1973), Ilf and Petrov
Ilf and Petrov
Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...

's The Twelve Chairs (1971), Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...

's The Government Inspector (1970), and Borrowing Matchsticks (1980), a story by the Finnish author Maiju Lassila.

Business success

Gaidai's top-grossing movie The Diamond Arm sold 76,700,000 tickets in the Soviet Union alone. At $8 per ticket (regular fare in an American movie theatre in 2005), it would have generated revenue comparable to the US box office champion Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...

. At least five of Gaidai's movies had more than 50 million ticket sales.

Due to the state-controlled nature of USSR movie industry, all revenue from movie sales went back into the state coffers. However, Gaidai personally received a small percentage of ticket sales as a government incentive. This didn't last long, though, since it soon became apparent that even with the tiny royalty offered he would quickly become a legal Soviet multimillionaire.

Later years

After 1975, Gaidai went into a period of significant decline; his only other notable work was a joint Soviet-Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 film Borrowing Matchsticks , completed in 1980. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he directed only two more movies, capitalizing on the early Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

 business activities and starring Dmitry Kharatyan
Dmitry Kharatyan
Dmitry Kharatyan is a Russian actor of Armenian descent.He was born in Olmaliq, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union . His debut was in Vladimir Menshov's The Prank in 1977.-External links:*...

. Gaidai has a cameo in the final one, There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, where he plays an old gambler who tries to beat the one-armed bandit. In real life, Gaidai was addicted to gambling. These proved the most popular of his works filmed after 1975 but lacked the success of his earlier work. Gaidai was made a People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...

 several months before the Union's demise and died in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 on Friday November 19, 1993.

Assessment

Gaidai remains most famous for the outstanding string of comedies he directed between 1961 and 1975, when 9 of the 10 movies he made became Russian classics, selling between 20 and 76 million movie tickets each, and becoming box office champions for several years in a row. Gaidai was a master of fast-paced comedy, his style and rhythm somewhat similar to Stanley Kramer
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer. Kramer was responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies...

's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers...

. He is virtually unknown outside of the former Soviet Union, due to the specific nature of his comedies, intrinsically tied to Soviet culture and lifestyle - unlike the motives of the characters of Kramer's "Mad World" being easily understood by the Russian public, living in the highly materialistic world of late Soviet Union. Gaidai's only international recognition was a nomination for best short film at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival
1961 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jean Giono *Sergei Yutkevich *Pedro Armendáriz *Luigi Chiarini *Claude Mauriac *Edouard Molinaro *Jean Paulhan *Raoul Ploquin...

 for "Medor, le chien qui rapporte bien".

Filmography

Director
  • A Weary Road (Долгий путь) (1956)
  • A Groom from the Right Society (Жених с того света) (1958)
  • Thrice Resurrected (Трижды воскресший) (1960)
  • Absolutely Seriously (Совершенно серьёзно) (1961), segments:
    • "Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross" (Пёс Барбос и необычный кросс)
    • "Bootleggers
      Bootleggers (film)
      Bootleggers or Moonshiners is a 1961 Soviet short film directed by Leonid Gaidai.- Plot summary :The trio of Fool, Coward, and Experienced decides to get rich with the help of their samogon-making apparatus. The making of samogon goes well, and towards the end of their "work shift", they decide to...

      "
  • Business People (Деловые люди) (1962)
  • Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
    Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
    Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures is a 1965 Soviet slapstick comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Seleznyova, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin and Yevgeny Morgunov. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" , "Déjà vu" and "Operation Y"...

    (1965)
  • Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
    Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
    A she-prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures , also known as Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is a Soviet comedy film dealing with the theme of bride kidnapping....

    (1967)
  • The Diamond Arm
    The Diamond Arm
    The Diamond Arm is a 1968 Soviet comedy film filmed by Mosfilm and first released in 1968. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova and Svetlana Svetlichnaya. The...

    (1968)
  • The Twelve Chairs (1971)
  • Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future
    Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future
    Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession is a Soviet comedy film produced by Mosfilm in 1973. In the United States the film has sometimes been sold under the title Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future....

    (1973)
  • It Can't Be! (Не может быть!) (1975)
  • Incognito from St. Petersburg (Инкогнито из Петербурга) (1977)
  • Borrowing Matchsticks (За спичками) (1980)
  • Sportloto-82
    Sportloto-82
    Sportloto-82 is a comedy film, directed by Leonid Gaidai and released in 1982. The film stars Algis Arlauskas, Svetlana Amanova, Mikhail Pugovkin, Mikhail Kokshenov and Nina Grebeshkova. It was filmed in Soviet Union...

    (Спортлото-82) (1982)
  • Dangerous for Your Life! (Опасно для жизни!) (1985)
  • Private Detective, or Operation Cooperation (Частный детектив, или Операция „Кооперация“) (1990)
  • Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach (1992)

External links

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