About

Known credits:
28
Birthday:
1894-06-28
Place of birth:
Vilna, Russian Empire [now Vilnius, Lithuania]
Website:
N/A

Abram Room

Overview

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

Directing
2019 A Severe Young Man Directing Director 58
Average
1973 A Man Before His Time Directing Director 59
Average
1970 Belated Flowers Directing Director 58
Average
1965 The Garnet Bracelet Directing Director 59
Average
1956 Heart Beats Again Directing Director 59
Average
1956 The Mystery of the Eternal Night Directing Director 58
Average
1953 Silver Dust Directing Director 58
Average
1952 The School of Scandal Directing Director N/A
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1949 Sud chesti Directing Director 59
Average
1946 In the Mountains of Yugoslavia Directing Director 58
Average
1945 The Invasion Directing Director 59
Average
1942 Our Girls Directing Director N/A
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1940 Wind from East Directing Director N/A
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1939 Squadron No. 5 Directing Director N/A
N/A
1930 The Ghost That Never Returns Directing Director 58
Average
1930 Sound Team Program No. 1 Directing Director 59
Average
1930 Plan for Great Works Directing Director N/A
N/A
1927 Bed and Sofa Directing Director 59
Average
1927 Jews on the Land Directing Director 59
Average
1926 The Bay of Death Directing Director 58
Average
1926 The Traitor Directing Director 58
Average

Writing
1978 Enemies Writing Writer N/A
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1973 A Man Before His Time Writing Writer 59
Average
1970 Belated Flowers Writing Writer 58
Average
1965 The Garnet Bracelet Writing Screenplay 59
Average
1930 Plan for Great Works Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1927 Bed and Sofa Writing Writer 59
Average
1926 The Wind Writing Screenplay N/A
N/A