Александр Алексеев: Суретші, режиссер және иллюстратор өмірі мен шығармашылығы

Russian Empire born artist, filmmaker and illustrator

Alexandre Alexandrovitch Alexeieff (Russian: Александр Александрович Алексеев; 18 April 1901 – 9 August 1982) was a Russian Empire born artist, filmmaker and illustrator who lived and worked mainly in Paris. He and his second wife Claire Parker (1906–1981) are credited with inventing the pinscreen as well as the animation technique totalization. In all Alexeieff produced 6 films on the pinscreen, 41 advertising films and illustrated 41 books.

Alexeieff was born in the town of Kazan in Russia. He spent his early childhood in Istanbul where his father, Alexei Alexeieff, was a military attaché. Alexeieff had two older brothers, Vladimir and Nikolai. Vladimir caught syphilis from a Moscow actress with whom he had an affair. His mother forced him to remain in his room and not touch his brothers. The pressure of this was such that Vladimir shot himself. Before he died, he wrote a note to Alexandre saying, "You are very talented. You must keep on drawing". His second brother, Nikolai, disappeared in Georgia, Russia, during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was never heard from again; the family suspected that he died of typhus. In his unpublished memoir Oublis ou Regrets, Alexeieff wrote that he rarely saw his father due to the fact that he was often away on missions. He took a daily walk with his mother when he was forced to speak in French instead of Russian. The rest of the time he was under the care of a nanny. Alexieff's father died mysteriously in Baden Baden, Germany on an official trip at the age of 37. He was shot by a Turk, probably because he knew too much about the Middle East.

In 1923, he married Alexandra Alexandrovna Grinevskya (1899–1976), who had been sent to Paris in her childhood because she was the illegitimate daughter of a St. Petersburg dignitary. In order to save the name of his aristocratic family, Alexandra's father had not married the mother of his child. Instead, the baby was taken away from her mother at the age of two and adopted by her father's sister Katia who kept a musical salon in Paris. Her mother was given a ticket back to Poland, her native country. When she grew up, Grinevskaya left her aunt to become one of the main actresses in the avant garde Pitoeff Theater. When Konstantin Stanislavski came to Paris and saw her acting, he offered to have her go back to Russia but Alexandra refused, remaining by Alexeieff's side. Their daughter Svetlana was born in 1923. Alexeieff became well known in this period shortly after illustrating his first rare books. However, he lost one of his lungs while using nitric acid to do his aquatints and was forced to spend two years in a sanatorium. During that time Grinevsky Alexeieff took his tools and taught herself how to engrave and became the bread winner for the family. While the invention of the pinscreen is often credited to Claire Parker and Alexeieff, Grinevsky Alexeieff was the first to help Alexeieff build the pinscreen, with the help of her eight year old daughter.

Claire Parker (1910–1981), a well to do American art student and graduate of MIT came to France in 1931 to study art. She saw Alexieff's work in a bookshop window and got the name of the artist as well as his address from the owner of the bookstore. She was so impressed she arranged to meet him and came to Vaux le Penail where the Alexeieffs lived. She recalled later, "I figured I would meet an old, dignified man with a white beard but [instead] I saw this tall, brown, handsome, aristocratic 30 year old guy. Our first lesson ended on the banks of the Seine, hand in hand; and there was never a second one.". Alexeieff and his wife agreed to take Claire as a boarder and as a student. After a few months, Claire became Alexeieff's lover. Grinevsky accepted the situation with difficulty. They moved to Paris and rented several artist studios on The Left Bank. They collaborated on various projects. When they started to make films, Claire became the camera person and Grinevsky built and painted the props and sets for the films. However, after the first large pin screen was built, Parker and Alexeieff worked on it alone. Alexeieff, Parker and Grinevskaya made about 25 stop motion animated commercials to sustain themselves financially, though they reportedly did not see much difference between their "artistic" and "commercial" films. At times, when making traditional animated films and commercials they also had a fourth partner, animator Etienne Raik. This technique gave their advertisements a unique look. Alexeieff and Parker also continued to make films using the pin screen. In 1962, they used it to make the prologue to Orson Welles' film adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. This marks the only mainstream, widely distributed film that Alexeieff and Parker were involved with. The pin screen was not animated for this sequence. Instead still shots were filmed while Orson Welles read Kafka's parable "Before the Law" over it. The Nose, based on Nikolai Gogol's satirical short story was released in 1963 and marks the first narrative film made on the pinscreen. The film tells the story of a Russian official who loses his nose and the adventures of the nose itself as well as the barber who finds the nose. On 7 August 1972, Alexeieff and Parker were invited back to Canada in order to demonstrate the pinscreen to a group of animators at the National Film Board of Canada. This demonstration was filmed, and released by the NFB as Pin Screen. This film appears on disk 7 of Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition, along with Pinscreen Tests (1961). In the same year, they also released another film again, based on Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. This film used two pinscreens. In front of the main pinscreen, they installed a second, smaller one. This second pinscreen could be rotated thus giving more of an illusion of three dimensionality. The first prototype of the pinscreen was made by Alexandra Grinevsky with the help of her daughter Svetlana. It consisted of a canvas perforated with a grid into which pins were inserted. Later on Claire Parker and Alexeieff built the first large pinscreen which was used to film Night on Bald Mountain. The Parker family paid for the construction of it. Alexeieff never made sketches before he created the images on the screen. He conceived each of the stages on the positive side of the screen while Claire worked on the back side of it. Small man made tools were used to produce various patterns on the board. Such everyday instruments as forks, spoons, knives, brushes, cups, prisms and rolling pins were used. Each of the frames was created one at a time. This painstaking technique demands a lot of attention and ingenuity. The only follower of Alexeieff, Jacques Drouin of the National Film Board of Canada, has made several films using this technique, most notably Mindscape (Le Paysagiste).

Svetlana Rockwell (née Alexeieff) is an artist who uses pastels and acrylics. She has written her memoirs which describe accurately her family's background. Her son, Alexandre Rockwell is an independent film maker in the United States. Alexandre acknowledged the influence his grandfather had on his work, writing in his contribution to Itineraire d’un Maitre that "I can safely say there has been no greater influence in my life, and in that I know I am not alone." Itineraire d’un Maitre consists of essays by Yuri Norstein, Nikolay Izvolov, Oleg Kovalov, Georges Nivat, Claudine Eizykman, Guy Fihman, Dominique Willoughby, Svetlana Alexeieff Rockwell as well as Alexandre Rockwell.

Year Film Client Technique1934La Belle au bois DormantSleeping Beauty Vins Nicolas (vineyard) dolls, drawing 1935 Les deux armiesThe Two ArmiesCreme Simon (cosmetics) object animationParade des ChapeauxParade of HatsSools (Hats)object animationLa trône de FranceThe Throne of FranceLevitan (furniture)object animation 1936AromaFranck Aroma (coffee)object animationTiré à quatre épinglesPulling Four NeedlesSigrand (Menswear)object animationDavros RondeDavros (cigarettes)object animationJeu de cartesCard GameCreme Simon (cosmetics)object animationDe l'orAbout GoldHuilor (Cooking oil)object animationOpta empfängtRadio Löweobject animationLa naissance de VenusCreme Simon (cosmetics)object animationCenraCenra (Wrapping Paper)object animationLingner WerkeLingner (Toilet Paper)object animation 1937Etoiles nouvellesNew StarsDavros (cigarettes)object animation Palette d'artisteThe Artist's paletteBalatum (linoleum)object animationEvianEvian (mineral water)object animationLe Rayon vertThe Grean Ray objekt animation 1938Grands feuxGreat FiresNestor Martin (foundry)object animationEtude sur l'harmonie des LignesStudy on the Harmony of LinesGaine Roussel (lingerie)object animation 1939JaffaJaffa Orangesobject animationGulfstream (unfinished)Gulfstream (water heater)1943–1944Animated LogoUS Office of War, Film Departmentpinscreen1952FuméesSmokedVan der Elst (tobacco) pinscreen1953MasquesMasksVan der Elst (tobacco)object animation, totalization1954NocturneUltra Therma (blankets)object animationRimesRhymesBrun (pastries)object animationPure beautéPure beautyMonsavon (soap)object animation1955Le Buisson ardentThe Burning BushEsso (petroleum products)object animationLa Sève de la terreThe Sap of the EarthEsso (petroleum products)object animation, totalization1956Bain d'XMr. X's BathBendix (Washing Machine)object animation, totalizationOsram arbeOsram treeOsram (lighting)object animationOsram cageOsram (lighting)object animationOsram oeufsOsram eggsOsram (lighting)object animationOsram lustreOsram lightsOsram (lighting)totalizationQuatre tempsFour seasonsBlizzandobject animation, pinscreen1957CocinorCocinor (film distributors)totalization100%Nescafé (instant coffee)object animation, totalization1958AutomationRenault (automobiles)object animation, location shootingAnonymAnonymousL'Oreal (cosmetics)object animationDivertissementRegie des Tabacs (cigarettes)totalizationConstanceL'Oreal (cosmetics)totalization1961L'eauWaterL'Oreal (cosmetics)drawing, totalization