Biography of Karen Shakhnazarov
Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov is the head of Mosfilm, director, People's Artist, multiple laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation and winner of about fifty film awards at international and domestic film forums. His works represented the country at Cannes (“The Kingslayer,” “City Zero”) and were nominated for an Oscar (“Ward No. 6,” “The White Tiger”).
Director Karen Shakhnazarov
The general public is familiar with his name from the films “We are from Jazz”, “Courier”, “Winter Evening in Gagra”, “American Daughter”, “Full Moon Day”, “Vanished Empire”, “Love in the USSR”, “White Tiger”.
Adhering to “leftist” beliefs, he repeatedly publicly spoke out in defense of Stalin and Lenin. At the same time, he also did not hide the fact that he was never completely frank, believing that every person “must maneuver somewhere and, if you want, preserve himself.”
Family and children of Karen Shakhnazarov
The family and children of Karen Shakhnazarov are a source of special pride for our hero. The filmmaker actively tells a lot about them, trying not to hide anything.
The man has ancient Armenian roots. His family was very ancient. It dates back to the Middle Ages. The director’s father said, as Karen Georgievich said in one of his interviews, that already in antiquity there is a trace of his ancestors. They actively developed Armenia in the 5th century AD.
The popular film director tried to start a family three times. But all attempts failed. Karen Georgievich blames his significant capacity for work, which became an obstacle to a strong and happy union.
Our hero calls his three children his family, with whom he communicates quite often. The daughter lives in America, and the sons live in Russia.
The father was Armenian. He did everything to make the family happy. The man worked during the years of Brezhny, Andropov and Gorbachev. He did a lot for the economic development of the Soviet Union. At the beginning of the new millennium, Georgiy Khosroevich passed away. He is buried in one of the capital's cemeteries.
The director's mother took care of the house. She supported her husband in everything. The woman currently lives with her son. She never misses the premiere of any of his films. He considers “We are from Jazz” to be his favorite movie.
Childhood
The future film director was born on July 8, 1952 in the south of the Russian Federation in Krasnodar. His relatives lived in Moscow, where his Armenian father came from Baku to study at graduate school and his mother moved from the Nizhny Novgorod region, huddled in a barracks. The father sent his wife to the capital of Kuban, to his half-sister, before giving birth due to difficult relations with relatives associated with the young family’s lack of their own housing and the mother’s (Russian nationality) refusal to accept her foreign son-in-law.
Childhood photo of Karen Shakhnazarov
Upon their return, they lived with her in a barracks for about 5 years, until her father managed to get a room in a communal apartment. In those years, according to Karen Georgievich, he was absolutely poor, despite belonging to the noble family of the Melik-Shakhnazaryan princes.
Karen Shakhnazarov with his father, Georgiy Khosroevich
Subsequently, Karen's father worked a lot, became a high-ranking official, lawyer, doctor of science, political scientist who worked with Andropov and Gorbachev, and a writer. The future director’s mother was a graduate of GITIS, but never worked in her specialty, and devoted her whole life to her family and raising her son.
After graduating from school No. 4 in 1970, the young man, whose path, it would seem, lay straight to the elite MGIMO, contrary to stereotypes, entered the directing department of VGIK. At the age of 12, he watched the film "Workers' Village", which made an indelible impression on him, after which the guy firmly decided that he would work in cinema. In addition, an artistic atmosphere always reigned in their family - the parents often visited theaters, exhibitions, and galleries with their son. On weekends, guests such as Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuri Lyubimov and Lyudmila Tselikovskaya visited their house.
Biography
Karen Shakhnazarov belongs to the guild of cult directors of Soviet and Russian cinema.
His films are always popular with viewers and add to the list of classic works of Russian cinema. At the same time, Karen Georgievich himself also monitors the development of Mosfilm, being the head of this film company.
Karen was born in Krasnodar, although none of his parents had anything to do with the capital of the region of the same name. Karen Shakhnazarov is Armenian by nationality, his father worked as a lawyer, and his mother worked at a vegetable warehouse.
Later, Georgy Shakhnazarov will become one of the prominent political figures, and his mother, Anna Shakhnazarova, will receive a diploma from GITIS. However, at the time of the birth of their son, the Shakhnazarov couple did not have their own living space in the capital . The mother-in-law was not too fond of her son-in-law and did not even want to see him in her apartment.
Even before the birth of the future director, his father, Georgy Shakhnazarov, sent his wife to his sister in Krasnodar. The biography of Karen Georievich begins with this city.
Despite his place of birth, the boy spent his childhood in Moscow. The parents managed to get an apartment in which famous guests from the world of politics and representatives of creative professions often gathered. Karen first wanted to become an artist, but when the time came to choose a future profession, he turned his attention to creating “living paintings.”
After school, Karen Shakhnazarov becomes a student in the directing department at VGIK. In Igor Talankin’s course, he comes to the fore, and soon the meter takes the student as his assistant for the filming of the film “Selecting a Target.”
After graduating from university, Karen Shakhnazarov devoted himself to writing scripts and filming films. In 1998, he headed the most famous film studio in the country, promising to return Mosfilm to its former greatness.
Director's career
At the institute, the young man studied in the directing and acting workshop of Igor Talankin. In his last year, he participated in the filming of a dramatic two-part film by his teacher, “Choosing a Goal.” The plot was based on the study of moral aspects during the creation of the first atomic bomb. The cast of this project - Sergei Bondarchuk, Georgy Zhzhenov, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Irina Skobtseva, Alla Demidova, Oleg Basilashvili - was impressive with the presence of a large number of outstanding representatives of Russian cinema.
Young Karen Shakhnazarov
During those years, the aspiring director also had the opportunity to meet a world-class star, Stanley Kramer. The American director, a guest of the Moscow Film Festival, at the request of Karen’s mother, wrote him the word “patience” along with an autograph as a creative parting word. Later, Shakhnazarov repeatedly recognized the accuracy of the master’s remarks and the importance of this quality in his work.
In 1975, he received his diploma and, not without the help of his father, joined the staff of Mosfilm as an assistant director. In subsequent interviews, he did not hide the fact that at the beginning of his creative biography, his father’s position more than once helped to overcome some barriers, although it did not protect him from censorship. He served a year in the army, where, according to him, he realized that a person who has a weapon a priori feels superior to other people.
The young director’s first independent full-length project was the comedy “Good People,” filmed in 1979 based on the work of the same name by Leonid Zorin. The film told the story of a swindler who managed to take advantage of the kindness of his colleagues and make a dizzying rise through the ranks. The key character in it was played by Georgy Burkov. The film received a prize at the Mosfilm Festival of Young Cinematographers, but did not gain much success. Karen Georgievich even admitted that he experienced this failure very painfully and even cried from resentment.
Karen Shakhnazarov (right) and Alexander Safronov on the set of “Dobryakov”
The widest recognition and fame came to the film director after the release of the musical comedy “We are from Jazz” on the big screen in 1983, where in addition to directing, he (together with Alexander Borodyansky) wrote a script filled with nostalgia from the times of the birth of the Soviet stage. The roles in the film, named the best film of the year, were performed by Igor Sklyar, Leonid Kuravlev, Alexander Pankratov-Cherny and Evgeny Evstigneev.
Still from “We are from Jazz” by Shakhnazarov
The director’s next work was the film “Winter Evening in Gagra” (1985), a drama about a virtuoso tap dancer. The prototype of the key character was the famous tap dancer Alexey Bystrov in the 1950s, played by Evgeny Evstigneev, who took tap lessons for a long time especially for this role. For the creation of the two paintings mentioned above, Karen Georgievich was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize and several international awards. Karen Shakhnazarov. The Fate of a Man with Boris Korchevnikov Critics also consider the film “Courier” (1986), a film adaptation by the director of his own story of the same name, to be a notable phenomenon in Russian cinema. For its creation, he received the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize and the second prize at the Moscow Festival in 1987 (the first was awarded to Federico Fellini, whom Shakhnazarov, in his own words, idolized).
“Courier” is one of the best films by Karen Shakhnazarov
In 1988, the creative treasury of the recognized screen master was replenished with the phantasmagoria “City Zero” (with Leonid Filatov and Vladimir Menshov), in 1991 with the drama “The Regicide” (with Malcolm McDowell and Oleg Yankovsky), in 1993 with the comedy film “Dreams” (with Amalia Mordvinova, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan).
Director Shakhnazarov at work
Among his significant works, one cannot fail to mention the films “American Daughter”, “Full Moon Day”, “A Rider Called Death”, “Vanished Empire”, “The White Tiger”. "Surrounded." Short film by K. Shakhnazarov (2012)
Movies
Vanya first came to the set at the age of 13, when Karen Shakhnazarov was filming the film “A Horseman Named Death.” The father also filmed his son in episodic roles in the films “Love in the USSR” and “The Vanished Empire.” In his 1st year, the guy started working as a props technician. This made it possible to understand how important this profession is, which is hardly noticeable to the film crew.
Ivan Shakhnazarov / Facebook
In 2020, the aspiring director, who had already directed several short films and participated in the creation of the series “Pawn Shop Chronicles,” unexpectedly made his film debut as an actor playing the leading role. Ivan was invited to star in the adventure comedy “The Elusive” as the swindler Artem.
In addition, the sequel to the movie “The Elusive: The Last Hero” was being filmed at the same time, and Ivan did not have any acting skills. According to him, the acting course taken while studying at VGIK was not enough for the proper level of professionalism. The young man had to study right on the set, carefully observing the work of his colleagues.
Marina Vasilyeva and Ivan Shakhnazarov (still from the film “Not a Honeymoon”)
The following year, Ivan was again offered to star in the leading role in Dmitry Izmestiev’s film “Not a Honeymoon.” This experience also turned out to be difficult: the film became a modern reimagining of The Taming of the Shrew, and Shakhnazarov had to play a rock musician, although he himself does not own a single musical instrument.
In 2020, Ivan’s acting filmography included two more sequels to “The Elusive...”, and in 2017 he finally made his debut as a feature film director. Shakhnazarov Jr. directed the film “Rock”, the plot of which is as ambiguous as the title - the road movie talks about both music and fate. By the way, the film became a kind of “ideological” continuation of Ivan’s thesis work - a short film with the same name.
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Director Ivan Shakhnazarov
The three main characters, rock musicians from the provinces, go to the capital to perform on Moscow radio. The path to their dream turns out to be difficult: the musicians meet a variety of people along the way, and some adventures become truly dangerous. The road and a chain of accidents gradually change both the characters and their outlook on life. The film was favorably received by the public and on the popular Russian website Kinopoisk it has a fairly high rating for modern Russian cinema.
In 2020, a film with another acting work by Ivan Shakhnazarov, “Decision to Liquidate,” was released. The military thriller about the capture of terrorist Shamil Bazgaev is based on real events, but does not pretend to actually correspond to history and is, rather, an artistic fantasy on the topic.
Facets of creativity
The high productivity of Shakhnazarov’s creative activity is evidenced by the fact that, in addition to the direct creation of films, he became the artistic director of the Start association (which received the status of a Courier studio in 1990), at the age of 46 he headed Mosfilm and managed to turn it into leading European corporation.
Now Karen Shakhnazarov is the head of the Mosfilm film concern.
At the same time, he was the screenwriter of a large number of his own films (often in collaboration with Borodyansky), producer, writer (“Courier”, “Young Airships”), hosted the program “The 20th Century in the Screens and Behind the Scenes” on RTV, taught in the feature film directing workshop at VGIK. Great interview with Karen Shakhnakharov Among the public services of the cinema master are membership in the board of the Union of Cinematographers, the European and Russian Film Academy, the board of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and the Public Chamber under the head of state.
Childhood and youth
Ivan Karenovich Shakhnazarov was born in Moscow on January 25, 1993. Vanya’s family, on both the paternal and maternal sides, was directly connected with cinema. Father Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov is a titled Soviet and Russian director, mother Daria Mayorova is not only an actress and TV presenter, but also the granddaughter of Vladimir Pronin, a two-time nominee for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
At first, Vanya himself did not think about cinema and directing, and in his youth he seriously intended to enroll in the law or economics faculties of Moscow State University. In addition, the boy was seriously interested in painting - unlike at school. The future actor studied poorly, by his own admission, but he enjoyed participating in amateur productions.
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The creative atmosphere of the family, however, ultimately influenced the young man’s biography. If in childhood Vanya only imagined that he could connect his fate with art, then by the time he graduated from school, Shakhnazarov Jr. was finally convinced that his profession was cinema. This was Ivan’s own decision - his parents not only did not put pressure on their son, but also explained to him how difficult work in the field of art is.
Having chosen his path, Vanya entered VGIK, the directing department. Vladimir Khotinenko and Vladimir Fenchenko became mentors for a recent school graduate. The director remembers his years of study at the university with warmth and says that the teachers became his second parents, and his classmates were truly talented guys.
Personal life of Karen Shakhnazarov
The famous film director is divorced multiple times.
The first time he tied himself with the knot of Hymen, he had barely finished filming his first film. His chosen one was a young and beautiful graduate of the history department, whose name, alas, was not preserved in history. Their life together lasted only six months. After the divorce, she became the wife of a successful businessman. He met his next wife, Elena Setunskaya, at the age of 31. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and worked as a TV presenter. They got married very quickly, 2 months after they met. After 2 years, the couple had a daughter, Anyuta, who was named in honor of Karen Georgievich’s mother.
In the photo: Karen Shakhnazarov’s second wife Elena Setunskaya
In 1989, upon returning from the Cannes Film Festival, an unpleasant surprise awaited him at home - a note about the departure of his wife and daughter to the USA. Alena’s action outraged him, but later he admitted that the reason for his ex-wife’s behavior could have been his constant infidelities. She later married a Hollywood producer and changed her last name to Zander.
In 1994, Karen Georgievich worked and lived in San Francisco for 3 months, had the opportunity to find his daughter, but decided not to stir up the past. But in 2009, when he was in New York (with the film “Ward No. 6”), Anyuta herself called him, they met and now sometimes communicate. Based on the escape of his ex-wife, the director subsequently made the film “American Daughter” (1995).
The director met his third chosen one, actress and TV presenter Daria Mayorova, who is 20 years younger than him, on the set of the film “The Regicide.” An amazingly attractive girl played one of the emperor’s daughters and won the director’s heart at first sight.
Karen Shakhnazarova and Daria Mayorova
The couple lived together for 10 years (8 of them were legally married) and gave the world two children: Vanya (born 1993) and Vasya (born 1996). In 2001, they filed for divorce.
Karen Shakhnazarov with sons
The director calls cinema his only and all-consuming passion. In his spare time, he likes to play computer games, try new dishes in restaurants, and read books. He has long dreamed of making a fairy tale film.
Instagram and Wikipedia Karen Shakhnazarov
Instagram and Wikipedia of Karen Shakhnazarov are actively updated. They promptly incorporate changes that have occurred in the life of the filmmaker.
Wikipedia tells in sufficient detail about the master’s father and mother. Here you can find out what films Karen Georgievich directed and how he was rated for his work. The page contains information about the ups and downs of a man’s personal life. Here you can find out how people met and why they broke up.
Shakhnazarov is very active on social networks. He often posts pictures on Instagram, allowing fans of the director to learn about his ex-wives and children. On the page there are a lot of photographs of Karen Georgievich himself on the set and in everyday life. Subscribers actively comment on the photo and ask questions, which are answered in detail by the film master.
Karen Shakhnazarov now
In 2020, the head of Mosfilm was busy with the film adaptation of Anna Karenina. At that time, more than thirty films had already been made based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel; the last domestic version from Sergei Solovyov was released in 2009. In Shakhnazarov's version, viewers were treated to non-standard interpretations of events, impressive scenery, entertainment and passion of the main characters performed by Elizaveta Boyarskaya and Maxim Matveev.
Still from the film “Anna Karenina”
The film director was a trusted representative of United Russia in the elections to the State Duma of the 7th convocation held in September 2020. In December, at a joint meeting of the Councils under the President of the Russian Federation (on Russian language and culture and art), he made a proposal to limit the school to studying only six Russian writers and poets - Pushkin, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Chekhov, Gogol and Dostoevsky. In his opinion, the “reading” civilization has already been replaced by the “looking” stage of social development.
