Rouben Mamoulian

MINI BIO:

The innovative Rouben Mamoulian was fond of orchestrating effects likely to make 'knowing' audiences burst into applause. 'My aim,' he once said, 'was always rhythm and poetic stylization.'  Any number of five-minute sequences from Mamoulian films could be (and hopefully are) shown to film students as living examples of the largely lost art of cinema. These would certainly include the entire opening sequence of Applause (sights and sounds of the city apparently organized to the beat of a metronome), City Streets (the camera discreetly observing Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney), Becky Sharp (the remarkably intelligent use of color), The Mark of Zorro (the duel between Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone in a confined space), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the transformation scene), and Love Me Tonight (the big, densely populated musical set-pieces).

One of Mamoulian's most enjoyable films is his last, Silk Stockings, a musical remake of Ninotchka, which Mamoulian packs with color and humor, and in which he brings winning performances by each of his stars.

Mamoulian had come to America at the age of 25, still very much a director of traditional Russian theater. His experience in opera led him to the stage version of Porgy and Bess, and the formulation of the Mamoulian style, which held early sound audiences in thrall.  Mamoulian was certainly among the liberators of the cinema -- blending sound, visuals and camera movement with montage effects to capture the atmosphere of his setting and create the rhythm of his film, a world beyond the reach of most of his contemporaries.