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Abram Room

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
1

Gender
Male

Birthday
June 28, 1894 (132 years old)

Place of Birth
Vilna, Russian Empire [now Vilnius, Lithuania]

Abram Room

Biography

Abram Matveyevich Room (Russian: Абрам Матвеевич Роом; real name Abram Mordkhelevich Rom, Russian: Абрам Мордхелевич Ром; 28 June 1894, Vilna – 26 July 1976, Moscow) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter.

In 1914-1917 he studied at the St. Petersburg Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute, between 1917 and 1922 at the medical faculty of Saratov State University. From 1917 he worked in Saratov in the arts department as professor and rector of the Higher theatrical art workshops. Since 1923 he was the director of Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Theatre of the Revolution in Moscow, director and teacher of the Higher Pedagogical School of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Kremlin. Since 1924 he was the director at the studios Goskino, Sovkino, Soyuzkino. Since 1936 he was director at the studio Mosfilm. In 1925-1934 he taught at VGIK as a senior lecturer.

Room's best known film is Bed and Sofa (1927) after a screenplay by Lev Kuleshov and Viktor Shklovsky. In the film, a woman who is married to a construction worker has an affair with their lodger. The film tracks the evolution of a housewife into a strong liberated woman, which was very unusual for its time. Another notable title is The Ghost That Never Returns (1929)

The first movie he directed was The Vodka Chase in 1924. He directed the first talking picture in the Soviet Union, the 1930 documentary The Plan for Great Works. The other films he directed were Traitor (1926), Ruts (1928), Criminals (1933), Squadron No. 5 (1939), Invasion (1945), In the Mountains of Yugoslavia (1946), School for Scandal (1952), The Garnet Bracelet (1964), Late Flowers (1969), and A Man Before His Time (1971).

Cited in the German book Texte zur Theorie des Films (Albersmeier 1998, p.304) [texts about theory of film]: "A. Room, declared opponent of the concept of Sergei Eisenstein, postulated in his essay Moi kinoubezhdeniya (My beliefs of film) in: Soviet screen, 1926, m. 8, p. 5: Prior importance in film must be the living human... [in german: Vorrangige Bedeutung kommt im Film dem lebendigen Menschen zu...], exactly that what Eisenstein declined."

Known For

Writing

1978Enemies...Writer
1973A Man Before His Time...Writer
1970Belated Flowers...Writer
1965The Garnet Bracelet...Screenplay
1930Plan for Great Works...Writer
1928Potholes...Writer
1927Bed and Sofa...Writer
1927Jews on the Land...Writer
1926The Wind...Screenplay

Directing

1973A Man Before His Time...Director
1970Belated Flowers...Director
1965The Garnet Bracelet...Director
1956Heart Beats Again...Director
1953Silvery Dust...Director
1952The School of Scandal...Director
1949Court of Honor...Director
1946In the Mountains of Yugoslavia...Director
1945The Invasion...Director
1942Our Girls...Director
1940Wind from East...Director
1939Squadron No. 5...Director
1935A Severe Young Man...Director
1930The Ghost That Never Returns...Director
1930Sound Team Program No. 1...Director
1930Plan for Great Works...Director
1928Potholes...Director
1927Bed and Sofa...Director
1927Jews on the Land...Director
1926The Traitor...Director
1926The Bay of Death...Director
1924The Race for Moonshine...Director

Sound

1970Belated Flowers...Music Score Producer

Production

1958On the Count's Ruins...Producer
1956The Mystery of the Eternal Night...Producer

Acting

1927A Kiss from Mary Pickfordas