Alexander Tatarsky - Russian director, screenwriter. His work has opened a whole new page in domestic animation. His work is still admired by young viewers.
Childhood and youth
Alexander Mikhailovich Tatarsky was born on December 11, 1950 in Kiev. His father composed reprisals for circus clowns. He knew Yuri Nikulin, Oleg Popov and other great people who worked in this genre. As a child, Alexander spent a lot of time in the circus and even worked in it on school holidays. He wanted to become a clown, but changed his mind, as he realized that this is a very difficult profession, requiring specific skills, and not everyone has the talent to make people laugh. The father of the future director also wrote scripts for animated films. This area really captivated young Alexander.
Tatarsky decided to connect his life with the cinema. In 1974, he received a diploma from the Kiev State Institute of Theater and Cinema named after Karpenko-Kary and became a certified film expert-editor. In 1979, he graduated from specialized courses of animated artists of the Goskino of the Ukrainian SSR.
Career
Alexander Tatarsky from 18 years old worked at the Kievnauchfilm. He began with the simplest working professions, moonlighting while studying at a university. After receiving his diploma, he took an active part in creating cartoons as an assistant director.
In 1980, Tatarsky was noticed and invited to work in Moscow at the Ekran studio as a film director. This opened up new opportunities for the talented young man. Already in Moscow, he began to attend the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters, coming to classes as a free listener.
A year after starting work at the Ekran studio, Tatarsky made his first animated film Plasticine Crow. This work has been awarded many prestigious awards. After the cartoon was released, the name of Alexander Mikhailovich became recognizable. A year later, Tatar created a screen saver for the program, "Good night, kids." In a slightly modified form, it still goes on air. The screensaver was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
The subsequent works of Tatar became cartoons:
- "Last year's snow fell";
- "The Other Side of the Moon" (cartoon for adults);
- "The investigation is conducted by Koloboks."
All these works were dizzying success. They are still watched with pleasure and loved by both adults and children. Tatar worked in his own style. He was not the first to use plasticine figures to create cartoons. But before him, no one had such vivid pictures. One of the secrets was the constant metamorphosis of the characters. All the characters are constantly reincarnating and the audience can watch how funny animals or objects are made from raw plasticine.
If you pay attention to the plots, there is a persistent association with the clowning. All the work of the director is imbued with sparkling humor. This is not surprising, since in childhood the director spent a lot of time in the circus and was close to this environment.
In 1988, Alexander Mikhailovich created his own studio "Pilot". This was the first non-state film studio in the history of Russia. In difficult times for the country, it was necessary to survive, and Tatar wrote scripts for his team, promoted Pilot projects, and shot cartoons. At the same time, he found time to pass on his experience by lecturing in directorial courses.
Studio "Pilot" carried out foreign orders. But Tatarsky was badly hurt when his colleagues went abroad. Pilot, to some extent, has become a supplier of high-quality frames for Western animation. The director himself has repeatedly spoken about the need to show Russian cartoons to Russian children so that the "generation of Americans" does not grow up in Russia.
In the 90s of the last century, Tatar was engaged mainly in organizational work, but managed to remove several paintings:
- "Gone With the Wind";
- "The Red Gate of Rasemon";
- "Arrival of the train."
The full-length project “Arrival of the train” was never completed as it was intended. Some of the materials were destroyed due to the flood. The director’s later work turned out to be somewhat gloomy and not similar to what he created earlier.
"Mountain of gems" is the latest Tatar project. It consists of 71 cartoon series. The duration of each series is 13 minutes. The project contains fairy tales from different nations. And when creating this cycle, the director wanted to show the small audience the diversity of cultures and the richness of a great country. Tatar planned to create more than 100 episodes, but did not manage to do this.
Tatar was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Art of the Russian Federation in 1996. His works were awarded a large number of awards not only in Russia but also abroad, which was rare for time.
