Copernicus Films has released the new documentary film “Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre.” The UK’s Stanislavski Centre cooperated with the filmmaker to complete the film about the life and work of the Russian theatre director.
The premiere launch was in the Barn Theatre, at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. It has now been released on DVD.
The Stanislavski Centre allowed the use of their extensive archive of material to complete the film, which explores the main precepts of Stanislavsky’s theories.
Two of the foremost authorities in the field of Stanislavsky studies, Jean Benedetti and Anatoly Smeliansky of The Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) feature in interviews.
The film “Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre” highlights Stanislavsky’s humanism, arising from his background. It looks into how his views were formed by the social context into which he was born, and his subsequent difficulties in developing his system during a time when the avant-garde tendencies of theatre and the avant-garde itself appeared to devalue the human in culture.
Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre paints a memorable and informative picture of one of the world’s most influential dramatists.
British filmmaker Michael Craig travelled to Moscow in 1995 to make films and write. He has lived and worked ever since. Prior to moving to Russia, Craig worked for ten years in the film and television industry in the UK.
Craig’s first documentary film in the series, completed in 1999, was “Alexander Rodchenko and the Russian Avant-garde.” This film premiered at the Milan International Film Festival (MIFF) and was shown on British Television. After that, Craig completed a series of films about the Russian Avant-garde of the 1920s and 30s.
See the studio website www.copernicusfilms.com for more detailed information on “Stanislavsky and the Russian Theatre.”