Alexander Tatarsky, 1950-2007
One of the great masters of Russian animation died in his sleep on July 22. Alexander Tatarsky, 56, was a teacher for hundreds and an inspiration to the millions who grew up watching his animated films.
His films, which appeared in the perestroika era, were distinguished by their grotesque yet charismatic characters. Chaotic storylines and humorous dialog reflected the absurd atmosphere of survival in the Soviet Union during the 1980s and 1990s. His films are never condescending, trading wisdom in for laughs, preferring instead to offer “inside jokes,” ones the whole country is in on. This took farce to the level of tragicomedy, turning it into a social commentary. For instance, at the end of Last Year’s Snow was Falling, (Padal Proshlogodny Sneg, 1983), which documents the hapless travels of a comical muzhik, sent by his authoritarian wife into the woods for a Christmas tree, the joke ends when the muzhik sighs, pulls out a hidden and unexpected flute and plays a sad melody to the falling snowflakes. That song was played at Tatarsky’s funeral.
Alexander Tatarsky was born in Kiev in 1950 and began working in animation in a Kiev studio at the age of 18. He made his first film with a camera rescued from the studio junkyard. The work got him noticed in Moscow, and in 1980 he was invited there to work. His 1981 film, The Plasticine Crow (Plastelinovaya Vorona) was Russia’s first claymation film, set to the poem by author Eduard Uspensky. A sidenote: Soviet clay came only in ghastly colors, so some 800 kilograms of it had to be painted over to fit the needs of the film.
Tatarsky’s second great creation was the pilot for what became Good Night, Little Ones (Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi), one of the world’s longest-running television programs.
In 1985, Ted Turner came to the USSR and watched about 100 animation films. He picked out three of them, and asked to be introduced to the three directors. But it turned out that all three movies were made by Tatarsky. Turner’s idea of a studio partnership fell through, but Tatarsky nonetheless became the first Soviet animator to work on a U.S. contract, creating a pilot video for several football teams (without any previous understanding of American football).
After many other successful projects, Tatarsky created Moscow’s Pilot studio. There, he proved to be a brilliant teacher to generations of animators, many of whom ended up working outside of Russia. Pilot was Russia’s first independent film studio, and it persevered despite a severe lack of funding. In the past few years, Pilot has been working on a multi-series project based on folk tales, The Mountain of Gems (Gora Samotsvetov), which remains unfinished due to frozen funding.
“Although there are still gems in there, the top of our mountain drifted away,” animator Eduard Nazarov told Ekho Moskvy radio.
“[Tatarsky] was an extraordinary person, always thirsty for life,” wrote Yuri Norshtein in Izbrannoe newspaper. “He gave all of himself to the Pilot studio, and many of his heart problems resulted from his work... Tatarsky was always stressed out by the lack of money. If people tell you now how much they were helping him, don’t believe them.”
Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.
Russian Life 73 Main Street, Suite 402 Montpelier VT 05602
802-223-4955
[email protected]
