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Tod Browning (1882-1962) runs away from Home at the age of 16. He is an acrobat and a clown in a traveling circus, comedian in vaudeville; in 1915 he acts for Griffith, then works as his assistant (intoierance ) and writes screenplays, and in 1917 he directs his first film. He became famous as a director of horror films. His favorite actor was lon Chaney, who created a gallery of grotesque roles in the silent films and often played two controversia! roles in one film, Chaney died before the shooting started for Dracula, which is one of the classics of expressionisticfilm. Chaney was replaced by Bela Lugosi. However, Browning's most controversia! and most creepy film is definitely the film Freaks. Handicapped people were brought from ail over the world: midgets, armless and legless people, sword swallowers, bearded women: the creepiest and the most grotesque images ¡n the history of motion pieture. On thè prescreening one woman ran out of thè auditorium screaming.The director and thè film were under the fire of accusations: excess melodrama, exploitative and sensationalist film. For that reason thè producer shortens thè film drasticaily and at thè end wlthdraws it from distribution. It was banned in many countries (In Great Britain the film was banned for 30 years). The film is also known under thè titles Forbidden Lave, Nature's Mistakes and Monster Show. Sunday, September 30 20:00 THE CIRCUS Directed by: Grigori Aleksandrov, i. Simkov Screenplay: Grigori Aleksandrov Cast: Lyubov Orlova, Yevgeniya Melnikova, Vladimir Volodln Production: SSSR,GUKF Duration: 93 minutes, black and white, 1936 Aleksandrov and Orlova, husband and wife, are two extraordinary personalices in Russian dnematography, but there is not enough space ¡n here fortheir complete biographies.Their musicals and comedies were joy in the grayness of everyday life of the Soviet Russia. Among the most popular were: ShepherdKostya, Circus, Volga, Volga... The screenplay for Circus was based on thè comedy Under the Circus Tent by llya Petrov and V. Katajev, but Aleksandrov added so many melodramatic elements that the critics wrote that it was a propaganda, but a talented one. Grigori Vasilyevih Marmonenko (Aleksandrov, 1903-1983) worked as an assistant to thè wardrobe attendant in the Opera, electrician and stage hand, then he worked in theTheatre of Workers and Peasants and was an actor in the ProletkultTheatre in Moscow. He acted ¡n Eisenstein's theatre and film productions, and then worked with him as an assistant director, co-writer of screenplays and co-directorfor many years (among others: Sír/ke, The Battleship Potemkin, October, Viva Mexico). He traveled with him to Europe and America. Aleksandrov worked as a film director (15 feature films), editor, actor, and cameraman). In 1933 Stalin ordered him to make a comedy for Soviet people. Shepherd Kostya was banned by the censors because it lacked propaganda ideas, but Gorky succeeded in having it seen by Stalin and Politbüro. Stalin liked the film and the ban was lifted. It was rated number one by the number of viewers, won thè award in Venice, and Dunayevski's music was played everywhere. Aleksandrov continued to make his "propaganda" films under Stalin's watchfui eye. He made two documentaries, one about Lenin, the other about his wife Orlova. ideas are far more powerful than guns. We dorít allow our enemies to have guns, why shouid we ailow them tohave ideas? Joseph Stalin Aleksandrov's second wife and the foremost star of Soviet film, Ljubov Orlova (1902-1975) carne from a famlly of dukes, Orlovs. Her cousin was count Lav Tolstoi, to whom she sang together with Shalyapin. She worked with Vladimir Nemirovich Dancenko ¡n the theatre of Stanislavski. It was Aleksandrov who brought into film. He became her second husband. She was a regular guest on Stalin's night libations, and she succumbed to alcohol, but her husband managed to help her stop drinking. Stalin controlled Soviet cinematography. He gave Orlova the State Stalin's award. However, a few years later One Family was banned: not enough propaganda of the struggle of Soviet people against the Nazi aggressors. Then, from the film Encounter on Elba, one scene was removed in which half-naked girls dance to American jazz music. The audience watched thè film without that scene, and Stalin, who liked thè scene, used to show it to his guests. American press wrote: Stalin's face was used by fümmakers as a means to get their films through, so you can just peel that away as an ugly wrapping. Special thanks to Lars Hedenstedt, Svenska Institutet