Andrei Nikolaevich Moskvin

Born Feb. 1 (14), 1901, in Tsarskoe Selo, present-day Pushkin; died Feb. 28, 1961, in Leningrad. Soviet cameraman. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1935).

Moskvin was an outstanding representative of the Soviet school of cameramen. He worked extensively with the directors G. M. Kozintsev and L. Z. Trauberg. At first, their common purpose amounted merely to a search for original forms of representation ( The Devil’s Wheel, 1926; The Cloak, 1926,with E. S. Mikhailov). However, Moskvin subsequently returned to the basic principles of realistic filming; this approach first appeared in his films S. V. D. (1927) and The New Babylon (1929).

Moskvin’s crowning achievement was the Maksim trilogy (The Youth of Maksim, 1935; The Return of Maksim, 1937; The Vyborg Side, 1939,with G. N. Filatov). The three films are marked by compositionally expressive sequences, subtle values, and imaginative rendering of the background.

Moskvin’s interest in truthful dramatic representation developed further in Ivan the Terrible (part 1, 1945;part 2, 1958,with E. K. Tisse), which was directed by S. M. Eisenstein. The color sequence in part 2 of Ivan the Terrible marked the beginning of the use of color photography for artistic purposes in films. Color was an important dramatic element in other films shot by Moskvin, including Dawn Over the Neman (1953), The Featherhead (1955),and Don Quixote (1957;with A. I. Dudko, I. A. Gritsius, and E. A. Rozovskii).

A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and 1948, Moskvin was also awarded two orders.