A popular domestic actor, director, screenwriter and playwright - People's Artist of Russia Andrei Sergeyevich Smirnov - is known to the general public for his directorial works "Brest Fortress" and "Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman." The complex creative biography of the talented director during the Soviet era was connected with censorship, which “cut out” all the important episodes marked “ideologically harmful” from his paintings. And in contemporary works, he experiences difficulties of a different order, including those related to the financial aspect.
A native Muscovite and a native of a creative family (father - the famous writer Sergei Smirnov, who wrote the novel "Brest Fortress") - Andrei Smirnov - managed to realize himself as a director and, in difficult times, as “persecution of censorship, ” and as an actor. Behind the shoulders of the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation today there are dozens of directorial productions and acting films that are always distinguished by their topicality and philosophical meaning.
Biography and career of Andrei Sergeevich Smirnov
March 12, 1941 in pre-war Moscow was born the future idol of millions of domestic fans. Despite the creative atmosphere in the family, Andrei grew up in a half-starved environment, when the scorched country was recovering with great difficulty after the Nazi invasion. Therefore, the young man was aimed at getting a working specialty. However, frequent visits to theatrical productions and a passion for cinema played a good service. Therefore, after receiving a certificate of secondary education, he enters VGIK at the directing department in the studio of the famous Mikhail Romm.
In 1962, Andrei Smirnov graduated from high school and began to develop his professional career. While still a student, he made his film debut with episodic roles as an actor and shot two short films “Yurka - a team without a command” (1961) and “Hey, somebody!” (1962). And in 1964, the military drama "Span of the Earth" was released, which was highly appreciated by the cinematic community: spectators and professional critics. Despite the resounding success after such a start, further rapid ascent did not work.
The fact is that all the directorial works of Andrei Smirnov were distinguished by their vitality and topicality, which ideological pathos abhor. And after the censorship of the “purge”, the pictures turned out to be faceless and irrelevant. The breakthrough came after the premiere of the film "Belarusian Railway Station" in 1970, which in 1971 was awarded the main prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
After another “culling” by the Soviet censorship in 1979 of the production film Faith and Truth, Smirnov decides to stop his directorial career and switches to acting films in order to survive in the “eighties”. Currently, his filmography contains several dozens of roles, among which are the films: "Red Arrow" (1986), "Chernov / Chernov" (1990), "Cloak of Casanova" (1993), "Diary of his wife" (2000), “Idiot” (2003), “Moscow Saga” (2004), “Apostle” (2008), “Thaw” (2013), “Optimists” (2017).
The directorial works of the last period include “Freedom in Russian” (2006) and “Once upon a time there was a woman” (2011).
And in the summer of 2017, Andrei Smirnov was disappointed with the failure to shoot the film "Frenchman" (working title) due to lack of funding.
