Leonid Zakharovich Trauberg

Trauberg, Leonid Zakharovich 

Born Jan. 4 (17), 1902, in Odessa. Soviet motion-picture director, screenwriter, and teacher. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1967).

Trauberg studied at the Comic Opera Studio in Petrograd. In 1921, together with G. M. Kozintsev and S. I. Iutkevich, he organized a group of actors and directors called the Factory of the Eccentric Actor (FEKS). He worked in films with Kozintsev from 1924 to 1946. Their first films, made with actors from FEKS, included The Adventures of Oktiabrina (1924), Mishka Versus Iudenich (1925), The Devil’s Wheel (1926), Little Brother (1926), The Overcoat (1926, after Gogol), and S. V. D. (1927). The films were marked by a search for a new cinematic form and occasional formal experimentation. Their subsequent films, New Babylon (1929) and especially Alone (1931), were a transition to realistic art. An outstanding work of Soviet film-making was the Maksim trilogy: The Youth of Maksim (1935), The Return of Maksim (1937), and The Vyborg Side (1939). Trauberg also staged the films The Actress (1943), The Soldiers Marched By (1959), and Free Wind (1961).

Trauberg is the author of a number of scripts for films that were produced by other directors. A teacher since 1922, he has taught at FEKS and at the Leningrad Institute of Stage Arts. He was head of the Advanced Directing Courses of the Cinematog-raphers’ Union of the USSR from 1962 to 1968.

Trauberg has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1941), the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and a medal.

REFERENCES

Nedobrovo, V. V. FEKS: G. Kozintsev, L. Trauberg. Moscow-Leningrad, 1928.
Dobin, E. S. Kozintsev i Trauberg. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.