Viktor Tourjansky

Biography

Viktor Tourjansky was a Russian film director who emigrated after the communist revolution of 1917, and worked in France, Germany, USA, UK, and Italy. He was born Viacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhanski on March 4, 1891, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine). Studied painting and art history. In 1911 he moved to Moscow and studied acting under Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. In 1912-1914, Tourjansky worked for Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. He made his film debut as an actor in 'Tragedia pereproizvodstva' (1912), and co-starred in 'Brothers' (1913) by director Pyotr Chardynin, and in several other silent films. From 1914-1919 he worked in Yalta for Joseph N. Ermolieff, owner of one of the most successful Russian silent-film companies. At that time Tourjansky directed over twenty silent films in Russia. Tourjansky suffered terribly from the loss of his property after the Communist Revolution of 1917. However, he continued working in Yalta with Ermolieff until the end of 1919. But when the Red Army advanced in Crimea and reached Yalta, he joined the White Russians and fled the communist Russia at the end of the Civil War. Tourjansky managed to save a few rolls of his silent films, which he took aboard the Greek steamer "Pantera" in February of 1920. He left Russia together with his film partners from the Ermolieff film company, actors Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nicolas Koline and Nicolas Rimsky, actress Nathalie Lissenko, his wife Nathalie Kovanko, cinematographer Nikolai Toporkoff and producer Joseph N. Ermolieff. They emigrated together to Paris, France, and started a Russian-French film company. In Paris, Tourjansky changed his first name to Viktor (Victor) and continued his collaboration with Russian producers Alexandre Kamenka and Joseph N. Ermolieff. During 1920s and 1930s he also collaborated with producer Gregor Rabinovitch and directed films for various French, British, and German studios. Tourjansky often filmed his wife, Russian actress Nathalie Kovanko. She starred in fourteen of his films made in Russia and Europe. Eventually Tourjansky separated from Nathalie Kovanko, and later she returned to the Soviet Union. Bethween WWI and WWII, Tourjansky directed over thirty French, British, American, and Franco-German films. He collaborated with director Abel Gance on the innovative film Napoleon (1927). In 1927 Tourjansky came to Hollywood. There, from 1927 - 1930, he worked at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios where he re-united with his former teacher, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who visited from Russia. Tourjansky was co-director of the Academy Award-winning film Tempest (1928), albeit he was uncredited. In Hollywood Tourjansky was hired to direct After Midnight (1927), but he questioned the talent of Norma Shearer, mentioning that the "Queen of MGM" had a cross-eyed stare, without knowing that she was about to marry Irving Thalberg, the powerful MGM producer. Tourjansky was fired from the project, and was sent to co-direct a western, The Adventurer (1927), on location in the inhospitable Mohave Desert. After he suffered for several weeks working in the sandy, windy, and hot desert, and dealing with nerve-wrecking logistical problems, Tourjansky did not achieve the result he wanted for the film. He became disillusioned and dissatisfied, and never wanted to direct another Hollywood film. Back in Paris, Tourjansky opened his own office and re-established himself among the French-Russian film community. He was tirelessly wooing investors for his new projects, networking among intellectuals and businessmen of all backgrounds, including famous Russian émigrés in Paris, such as Aleksandr Kuprin and Yevgeni Zamyatin, as well as French, German, and British producers. Eventually his persistence and determination produced successful results. In 1931, Tourjansky spotted then unknown 21-year-old Simone Simon on the terrace of the Café de la Paix. He made her a famous actress after their first film together, The Unknown Singer (1931) (The Unknown Singer 1931). Tourjansky and Simon worked together again in Les yeux noirs (1935). In 1936 he was hired by UFA-Film and moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg, then to Munich, Bavaria. There he worked for the rest of his life as film director and producer. Tourjansky made success with The Blue Fox (1938) (The Blue Fox 1938), a comedy starring Swedish actress Zarah Leander, who was rumoured to be a Soviet-controlled agent and a mistress of Adolf Hitler. Tourjansky himself had several personal meetings with the Reichskanzler during the late 1930s, and was summoned to make several propaganda films, such as Enemies (1940). As a consequence his reputation among the cosmopolitan film community had suffered. After the Second World War, he lived in Munich, and worked for various film studios with various results. His last film made in the Nazi Germany, a criminal drama Orient-Express (1944), was released after the war. In 1950, he directed Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte (1950) (The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice 1950), a film starring the famous Russian émigré actress Olga Tschechowa. Later Tourjansky directed period epic films, such as Herod the Great (1959), Prisoner of the Volga (1959), The Cossacks (1960), and The Pharaohs' Woman (1960), some of which were considered among his better works. During the 1950s and 1960s he was wintering in Italy and worked there as producer and writer under the artistic name Arnaldo Genoino. Viktor Tourjansky died on August 13, 1976, in Munich, Germany.