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Ivan Mosjoukine
Actor

Ivan Mosjoukine

26 Sep 1889Born
18 Jan 1939Died
49Age at death
85Credits

Biography

Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin, usually billed using the French transliteration Ivan Mosjoukine, was a Russian silent film actor, writer and director.

Born in Kondol, in the Saratov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Penza Oblast in Russia), Ivan Mozzhukhin was the youngest of four brothers. His mother Rachel Ivanovna Mozzhukhina (née Lastochkina) was the daughter of a Russian Orthodox priest, while his father Ilya Ivanovich Mozzhukhin came from peasants and served as an estate manager for the noble Obolensky family. While all three elder brothers finished seminary, Ivan was sent to the Penza gymnasium for boys and later studied law at the Moscow State University.

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In 1910, he left academic life to join a troupe of traveling actors from Kiev, with which he toured for a year, gaining experience and a reputation for dynamic stage presence. Upon returning to Moscow, he launched his screen career with the 1911 adaptation of Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata. Mosjoukine's most lasting contribution to the theoretical concept of film as image is the legacy of his own face in recurring representation of illusory reactions seen in Lev Kuleshov's psychological montage experiment which demonstrated the Kuleshov Effect. In 1918, the first full year of the Russian Revolution, Kuleshov assembled his revolutionary illustration of the application of the principles of film editing out of footage from one of Mosjoukine's Tsarist-era films which had been left behind when he, along with his entire film production company, departed for the relative safety of Crimea in 1917.

At the end of 1919, Mosjoukine arrived in Paris and quickly established himself as one of the top stars of the French silent cinema, starring in one successful film after another. Handsome, tall, and possessing a powerful screen presence, he won a considerable following as a mysterious and exotic romantic figure.

Mosjoukine's film stardom was assured and during the 1920s, his face with the trademark hypnotic stare appeared on covers of film magazines all over Europe. He wrote the screenplays for most of his starring vehicles and directed two of them, L'Enfant du carnaval (Child of the Carnival), released on 29 August 1921 and Le Brasier ardent (The Blazing Inferno), released on 2 November 1923. The leading lady in both films was the then-"Madame Mosjoukine", Nathalie Lissenko. Brasier, in particular, was highly praised for its innovative and inventive concepts, but ultimately proved too surreal and bizarre to become financially successful. Ivan Mosjoukine died of tuberculosis in a Neuilly-sur-Seine clinic. All available sources give his age as 49 and year of birth as 1889. However, his gravestone at the Russian cemetery in the Parisian suburb of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois is inscribed with the year 1887.

Known for

Filmography

The 80 most recent of 85 credits.

  1. 2024What Is Sex?Film: Mr. Kuleshov
  2. 1979Cinema in RussiaFilm: Film footage
  3. 1936NitchevoFilm
  4. 1934L'enfant du carnavalFilm: Writer
  5. 1934CasanovaFilm
  6. 1933The 1002nd NightFilm: Tahar
  7. 1932Sergeant XFilm: Jean Renault
  8. 1930The White DevilFilm: Hadschi Murat
  9. 1929Manolescu, the Prince of SwindlersFilm: Manolescu
  10. 1929The Adjutant of the CzarFilm: Prince Boris Kurbski
  11. 1928The Secret CourierFilm: Julien Sorel
  12. 1928The PresidentFilm: Chico/Pepe Torre, ein Bauer
  13. 1927Loves of CasanovaFilm: Casanova, Screenplay
  14. 1927SurrenderFilm: Constantine
  15. 1926Michel StrogoffFilm: Michael Strogoff
  16. 1925The Late Mathias PascalFilm: Mathias Pascal
  17. 1924The Lion of the MogulsFilm: le prince Roundghito-Sing
  18. 1924Les Ombres Qui PassentFilm: Louis Barclay
  19. 1924KeanFilm: Edmund Kean, Screenplay
  20. 1923The Burning CrucibleFilm: Zed, le détective, Director, Screenplay
  21. 1923Member Of ParliamentFilm: Lord Chilcote / Loder, writer
  22. 1923The House of MysteryFilm: Julien Villandrit, Writer
  23. 1922Nuit de carnavalFilm: Screenplay
  24. 1922TempêtesFilm: Henri
  25. 1921The Child of the CarnivalFilm: Marquis Octave de Granier, Writer, Director
  26. 1921Justice d'abordFilm: Writer
  27. 1920A Narrow EscapeFilm: Octave de Granier, Screenplay
  28. 1919The Queen's SecretFilm: Paul, lord Verden's son
  29. 1919Kuleshov EffectFilm
  30. 1918Father SergiusFilm: Prince Kasatsky, later Father Sergius
  31. 1918A Knight of the SpiritFilm: Vladek / Stas Marzinkovskiy
  32. 1918Little EllieFilm: Norton, city's mayor
  33. 1917Satan TriumphantFilm: Pastor Talnoks / Pastor's son Sandro
  34. 1917Behind the ScreenFilm: Ivan Mosjoukine
  35. 1917The ProsecutorFilm: Eric Olsen, prosecutor
  36. 1917Dance of DeathFilm: Mark Galich, music composer
  37. 1916The Beggar WomanFilm: Poet
  38. 1916Panna MeriFilm
  39. 1916SinFilm: Lavrov, engineer, Writer
  40. 1916And The Song Remained UnfinishedFilm: Doctor Rakitin
  41. 1916The Dagger WomanFilm: Sakhovskiy, the painter
  42. 1916Life is a Moment, Art is ForeverFilm: Prince Boleslav
  43. 1916The Queen of SpadesFilm: Hermann
  44. 1916In The Wild Blindness Of DesiresFilm: Nikolay
  45. 1916Long Gone are Chrysanthemums in a GardenFilm: Yuriy Galinskiy
  46. 1916А счастье было так возможноFilm
  47. 1915Me And My ConscienceFilm: Gleb Znamenskiy
  48. 1915Nikolay StavroginFilm: Nikolay Stavrogin
  49. 1915Vanyushin's ChildrenFilm: Aleksey
  50. 1915IdolsFilm: Giu Kolman
  51. 1915Natasha RostovaFilm: Anatole Kuragin
  52. 1915Petersburg SlumsFilm
  53. 1914MazepaFilm: Mazepa
  54. 1914The Tale of the Sleeping Princess and the Seven KnightsFilm: Prince Elisei
  55. 1914Do You Remember?..Film: Yaron
  56. 1914In the Hands of Merciless FateFilm: Sergey Nevedov, doctor's son
  57. 1914Wicked NightFilm: Georges Vinogradov, a student
  58. 1914Mysterious SomeoneFilm: Writer
  59. 1914ChrysanthemumsFilm: Vladimir
  60. 1914Glory to Us, Death to the EnemyFilm: Russian officer
  61. 1914Life in DeathFilm: Dr. Renaud
  62. 1914TomboyFilm: Anatoliy, painter
  63. 1914Her Heroic FeatFilm: Robert
  64. 1914Woman of TomorrowFilm: Nikolay, Anna's husband
  65. 1913Khaz-BulatFilm: Prince
  66. 1913The Night Before ChristmasFilm: Devil
  67. 1913BrothersFilm: Aleksey
  68. 1913The Little House in KolomnaFilm: Hussar / Mavrusha
  69. 1913The PrecipiceFilm: Rayskiy
  70. 1913Sorrows of SarahFilm: Isaak
  71. 1913Uncle's ApartmentFilm: Koko
  72. 1913Accession of the Romanov DynastyFilm
  73. 1913A Terrible RevengeFilm: Petro the wizard
  74. 1913Alcoholism and Its ConsequencesFilm: Alcoholic
  75. 1912The Peasants' LotFilm: Pyotr
  76. 1912The ManFilm: Boris, Barkov's son
  77. 1912The Spring's StreamFilm: Albov, the painter
  78. 1912The In-LawFilm: Ivan
  79. 1912Worker's QuartersFilm: Surguchyov, factory's clerk
  80. 1912Scary CorpseFilm

Biography and credits from TMDB. This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.