The works of the outstanding playwright and director Iosif Efimovich Kheifits encompassed the entire history of the Soviet period. The master showed himself to be a real artist who preserved on film for posterity the image of a person in a constantly changing history.
Even in the adaptation of the works of the classics, Joseph Kheifits managed to find the features of his contemporaries in their heroes, talking about the current day. He talentedly shifted prose to the language of cinema, and his directorial findings were always successful.
Childhood and youth
In 1905, a boy was born in the family of an employee Efim Kheifits in Minsk. Joseph amazed with extraordinary creative abilities from childhood. Later he became interested in cinema.
In 1924 the young man moved to Leningrad to study at the technical school of screen art. There Joseph met Alexander Zarkhi, his future co-author and friend.
The student successfully managed to combine his studies with writing reviews for the Nedelya newsreel. After completing his studies, Kheifits continues to improve his knowledge and skills at the Institute of Art History at the Faculty of Cinema, at the same time starting work at the Sovkino factory.
Together with Zarkhi, the future master writes scripts for the films Transport of Fire and Moon on the Left. Friends organized a staged Komsomol brigade and began filming films about the youth of the USSR "Wind in the Face" and "Noon". The Kheifits-Zarkhi duo filmed the film "My Homeland" by order of the highest army officials about the events on the Chinese border.
Creative way
The masterpiece created by yesterday's students was admired by experienced craftsmen. However, the picture did not like the authorities and was forgotten. She remained only in the biography.
The reason for the disgrace is the rate of the filmmakers on the individuality of the performers. Although the old typed canon was out of date, the new censorship has not yet been established. That is why modern critics call My Motherland a catalog of unclaimed individuals.
The performers involved in the creation of the tape were and remain for the most part little-known. They later failed to build a film career.
In the film "Hot Days" the masters have already filmed only celebrities. However, the picture turned out to be too simulated and static. But during the filming, Joseph met the charming Yanina Zheimo.
At the center of most of the director's work is the human personality. A vivid confirmation is the picture, which has become a classic, "Deputy of the Baltic".
According to the plot, the image of Polezhaev clearly illustrates the possibility of harmonious interaction between the proletariat and the intelligentsia. The purpose of this project and the films "His name is Sukhe-Bator", "Member of the Government" is the same: to show the personal path to revolution of heroes differing in social status and level of intelligence development.
Stage masterpieces
The film library was replenished by the masters "The Defeat of Japan", "In the Name of Life" and "Precious Grains". Then the creative life took a break. During the upsurge in the fight against cosmopolitanism, Kheifitz stopped filming.
The 1954 adaptation of The Zhurbin Family was named Big Family. The tape is made in the genre of socialist realism and tells about the working dynasty. The relationship of the heroes with their professional activities is not directly related.
The trend continued in the "Rumyantsev Case" and "My Dear Man". One of the main places in creativity is the transfer of classics to the screen.
The most significant were "The Lady with the Dog" by Chekhov, "Asya" by Turgenev, as well as "In the City C" and "Bad Good Man". Meanwhile, the director took part in the creation of the films "The Only One", "Fireworks, Maria!" and First Married.
To the great chagrin of the master, he did not receive permission to film the idea of Y. Tolubeev, shoot the picture "Tevye the Milkman" despite the fact that the script written by L. Traubert was already ready.
From the sixties to the eighties, the concept of the author's movie hero became more complicated. The director emphasizes the unpredictability of individuality, the duality of the human position, the divergence from traditional ideas about the norms of behavior.
As a result, the master received the title of acting director. In his last film "The Wandering Bus", the director presents the viewer in an original form with a person and his existential environment. At the same time, there is no overabundance in the plot in acute situations.
Family matters
Joseph Efimovich was married twice. His first wife was Janina Zheimo, who gave him a son, Julia, later a famous Polish operator.
The second darling of the master, Irina Vladimirovna Svetozarova, struck him with a rare beauty. The couple have two children, sons Vladimir and Dmitry. The first became a film artist, the second - a director.
Kheifits is happy in marriage. Love reigned in their home. The family lived quite modestly. At the same time, the books on the shelf cut out by the master were considered real treasures.
Kheifits loved homemade products. Often in the house there appeared little things made by him. The filmmaker died at the age of ninety.
He was buried at the Memorial Cemetery near St. Petersburg near the village of Komarovo. It is impossible to overestimate the work of the famous director.
His work has been awarded international prizes. The authority was distinguished by an unattainable height in the domestic film industry.
The most eminent actors considered it an honor to work with him, even on episodic roles.
In his personal and professional activities, the director resembled Chekhov's grief with his delicacy and restraint. He avoided pretentiousness. With tender sadness, the master treated people who did not live up to his expectations, not stopping to believe in their transformation.
