Sometimes a person does not make a conscious choice of profession right away - this is what happened with the director Pavel Lungin.
He was born in 1949 in the family of screenwriter Semyon Lungin and translator Lillianna Lungina. His father was a famous screenwriter (the films "Prank", "Attention, Turtle!" And others), and his mother translated books by Astrid Lindgren, Henrik Ibsen and August Strinberg for Russian readers.
Pavel was immersed in the world of intelligent and well-read people, this had an impact on him - he entered the philological faculty of Moscow State University. He was supposed to become a linguist, and became a social worker, but in his spare time he wrote articles and then scripts. So, in 1976, he wrote the script for the film "It's All About My Brother", and it was directed by Vladimir Gorlov.
How to become a director?
Lungin did not yet know the answer to this question, because he went to courses with Georgy Danelia in order to become a screenwriter. And he became - he wrote good scripts, according to which such films as "The End of the Taiga Emperor" (1978), "Invincible" (1983) and others were shot. In the period preceding his directorial career, about ten scripts were written, but this work did not bring much pleasure. He was already about 40 years old, and he seemed to have not found his place in life yet.
It was then that he decided to make his own film as a director. This happened in 1990, when Lungin's film Taxi Blues was released. It was made with great sincerity and dedication - after all, Pavel himself wrote the script for it. This story of two dissimilar people won the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Director.
After that, Pavel Semyonovich left for France to shoot films, but the main theme of his work remained Russian reality and Russian life. His films "Luna Park" (1992), "The Wedding" (1999) received prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, he also shot many films that caused a huge resonance in society. In his creative piggy bank, the beloved film "The Island", which has won a number of awards at prestigious festivals.
Pavel Lungin rarely takes vacations, works a lot, and all 15 years spent in France, and after that he constantly removes. His portfolio includes biographical and historical dramas, paintings of different genres. The most recent to date is The Queen of Spades (2016), where Lungin tried to combine opera with a mystical thriller.
Personal life
Paul's first marriage can be called "student marriage" because both spouses were students. In 1971, their son Sasha was born. As a rule, such marriages are not durable; in the case of the Lungins, this rule was confirmed. Son Alexander is now shooting and producing films, as well as writing scripts for them.
At the age of 26, Pavel met his current wife, Elena, they had a son, Ivan. This family already lived with him in France, it was very difficult to get used to it. And as the spouses say, they never became French. After his parents returned to Russia, Ivan also decided to return. He is an artist and has been successfully exhibiting both in Russia and in France.
The Lungins family lives either in a capital apartment, or in a house in Montenegro, where they are very good together.
