Boris Barnet

Born: 1902-06-18

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Boris Vasilyevich Barnet was a Soviet film director, actor and screenwriter of British origin. He directed 27 films between 1927 and 1963. Boris Barnet was born in Moscow. His grandfather Thomas Barnet was a printer who moved to the Russian Empire from Great Britain back in the 19th century. A student of the Moscow Art School, he joined the Red Army at age 16 and was then professionally involved in boxing. In 1927 he shot his first feature, a comedy film, The Girl with a Hatbox, starring Anna Sten. His 1928 melodramatic film The House on Trubnaya, starring Vera Maretskaya, was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and now ranks as one of the classic Russian silent films. Encouraged in his early efforts by Yakov Protazanov, Barnet emerged in the 1930s as one of the country's leading film-makers. Amongst Barnet's masterpieces, we find Outskirts (1933), a pacifist story acclaimed at the first Venice Film Festival. Barnet's postwar work is exemplified by Secret Agent, the first Soviet spy film. The Stalin Prize-winning film was also years ahead of its time in exhibiting Hitchcockian influence and tricks and helped cement Barnet's reputation abroad. It was Barnet's gift of artistic invention that made him stand out from the crowd of Soviet colleagues. In a Barnet film, a photograph in the newspaper would unexpectedly come alive, and scenes would often end with a detail introducing the next scene. He would begin a scene with a close up, "so that the space is progressively discovered by changing the axis or by camera movement". Among Russian filmmakers professing their admiration for Barnet was Andrei Tarkovsky. After some years of artistic silence Boris Barnet committed suicide in Riga, Latvian SSR. His body was found hanging from a fishing line. He was survived by wife Alla Kazanskaya and daughter Olga Barnet.


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By the Bluest of Seas

as uncredited
Released: 1936-04-20

Two men shipwrecked on an island in the Caspian Sea are saved by members of a collective farm,...

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Storm Over Asia

as English soldier, pipe smoker
Released: 1928-11-10

In 1918 a young and simple Mongol herdsman and trapper is cheated out of a valuable fox fur by a...

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks

as Jeddy - The Cowboy
Released: 1924-04-26

An ignorant and prejudiced American’s visit of Soviet Russia goes off the rails after his...

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Outskirts

as uncredited
Released: 1933-03-25

In a remote Russian village during World War I, colourful and nuanced characters experience...

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Chess Fever

as (uncredited)
Released: 1925-12-21

A young Soviet woman struggles to cope in a society obsessed with chess.

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Dark Is the Night

as uncredited
Released: 1945-05-01

A girl, working in a German commandant's office, saves two wounded Russian pilots sacrificing...

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The House on Trubnaya

as passerby (uncredited)
Released: 1928-08-30

Life is short and full of oppression, but that doesn't mean Parasha can't find love and laughter...

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Miss Mend

as Barnet - Reporter
Released: 1926-10-01

Three reporters and an office girl are trying to stop a bacteriological strike by some powerful...

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Secret Agent

as Gen. von Kühn
Released: 1947-06-26

Soviet agent Fedotov is air-dropped into Nazi occupied land. He changes over into Mr. Ekhert, a...

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Moscow in October

as uncredited
Released: 1927-10-30

October reflects a general attempt in Russia to sustain the frenzy and dynamism of revolutionary...

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A Night in September

as uncredited
Released: 1939-09-21

Film deals with Stakhanovite movement. Old miners try to sabotage young man's plan to renew...

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Sinegoriya

as Arseniy Petrovich Gay
Released: 1946-08-26

A story about the boys and their life during the WWII. Based on Lev Kassil book.

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