Ivan Mosjoukine

Birthday: 1889-09-26
Deathday: 1939-01-18
Birthplace: Kondol, Saratov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Russia]
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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. 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.

Credits

Year Title Character
2024-06-29 What Is Sex? Mr. Kuleshov
1979-08-27 Cinema in Russia Film footage
1936-12-18 Nitchevo
1934-04-26 L'enfant du carnaval
1934-04-13 Casanova
1933-05-19 The 1002nd Night Tahar
1932-03-25 Sergeant X Jean Renault
1930-01-28 The White Devil Hadschi Murat
1929-04-30 Manolescu, the Prince of Adventures Manolescu
1929-02-12 The Adjutant of the Czar Prince Boris Kurbski
1928-10-25 The Secret Courier Julien Sorel
1928-03-20 The President Chico/Pepe Torre, ein Bauer
1927-10-08 Loves of Casanova Casanova
1927-01-02 Surrender Constantine
1926-06-30 Michel Strogoff Michael Strogoff
1925-07-02 The Late Mathias Pascal Mathias Pascal
1924-12-12 The Lion of the Moguls le prince Roundghito-Sing
1924-07-20 Les Ombres Qui Passent Louis Barclay
1924-02-14 Kean Edmund Kean
1923-08-04 The Burning Crucible Zed, le détective
1923-01-07 Member Of Parliament Lord Chilcote / Loder, writer
1923-01-02 The House of Mystery Julien Villandrit
1922-06-09 Tempêtes Henri
1921-07-29 The Child of the Carnival Marquis Octave de Granier
1921-01-02 Justice d'abord
1920-11-19 A Narrow Escape Octave de Granier
1919-11-05 The Queen's Secret Paul, lord Verden's son
1919-01-01 Kuleshov Effect
1918-05-14 Father Sergius Prince Kasatsky, later Father Sergius
1918-03-25 Knight's Spirit Vladek / Stas Marzinkovskiy
1918-01-19 Little Ellie Norton, city's mayor
1917-10-21 Satan Triumphant Pastor Talnoks / Pastor's son Sandro
1917-07-28 Behind the Screen Ivan Mosjoukine
1917-02-20 The Prosecutor Eric Olsen, prosecutor
1917-01-03 Dance of Death Mark Galich, music composer
1916-10-11 Beggar Woman Poet
1916-10-04 Panna Meri
1916-09-20 Sin Lavrov, engineer
1916-06-14 And The Song Remained Unfinished Doctor Rakitin
1916-05-31 The Dagger Woman Sakhovskiy, the painter
1916-05-03 Life is a Moment, Art is Forever Prince Boleslav
1916-04-19 The Queen of Spades Hermann
1916-01-19 In The Wild Blindness Of Desires Nikolay
1915-10-06 Me And My Conscience Gleb Znamenskiy
1915-09-01 Nikolay Stavrogin Nikolay Stavrogin
1915-04-07 Vanyushin's Children Aleksey
1915-03-21 Idols Giu Kolman
1915-01-02 Petersburg Slums
1914-12-30 Mazepa Mazepa
1914-12-29 The Tale of the Sleeping Princess and the Seven Knights Prince Elisei
1914-12-25 Do You Remember?.. Yaron
1914-12-11 In the Hands of Merciless Fate Sergey Nevedov, doctor's son
1914-11-18 Wicked Night Georges Vinogradov, a student
1914-11-09 Mysterious Someone Writer
1914-11-03 Chrysanthemums Vladimir
1914-11-01 Glory to Us, Death to the Enemy Russian officer
1914-10-24 Life in Death Dr. Renaud
1914-10-18 Tomboy Anatoliy, painter
1914-09-29 Her Heroic Feat Robert
1914-04-27 Woman of Tomorrow Nikolay, Anna's husband
1913-12-27 Khaz-Bulat Prince
1913-12-26 The Night Before Christmas Devil
1913-11-19 Brothers Aleksey
1913-10-09 The Little House in Kolomna Hussar / Mavrusha
1913-09-17 The Precipice Rayskiy
1913-09-09 Sorrows of Sarah Isaak
1913-05-07 Uncle's Apartment Koko
1913-03-01 Accession of the Romanov Dynasty
1913-01-01 A Terrible Revenge Petro the wizard
1913-01-01 Alcoholism and Its Consequences Alcoholic
1912-11-26 The Peasants' Lot Pyotr
1912-10-16 The Man Boris, Barkov's son
1912-09-04 The Spring's Stream Albov, the painter
1912-08-19 The In-Law Ivan
1912-04-07 Worker's Quarters Surguchyov, factory's clerk
1912-01-01 Scary Corpse
1911-12-22 Defence of Sevastopol Kornilov / associate of the envoy of the Menshkov retinue
1911-11-22 In A Lively Place The coachman
1911-01-02 The Kreutzer Sonata Trukhachevskiy
1911-01-01 The Brigand Brothers Younger brother
1910-02-12 At Midnight in the Graveyard