Nikolai Rozantsev

Nikolai Rozantsev was a Russian film director and writer based at the Lenfilm Studios in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. He was born Nikolai Vasilevich Rozantsev on 29 March 1922, in Russia. During the Second World War, he served in the front-lines fighting against the invading Nazi armies and was decorated for his courage. He was wounded in the war and remained permanently disabled. After an honorary discharge, Nikolai Rozantsev dedicated his life and career to film business.

From 1945 to 1948 he studied film directing at Moscow State Film Institute (VGIK) under Sergey Gerasimov, graduating with honors as director.

He assisted Sergey Gerasimov on several projects, starting with The Young Guard (1948).

From 1948 to 1954 he was staff director at Gorky Film Studios in Moscow.

From 1955 to 1980, Rozantsev was staff director at Lenfilm Studios in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia.

There he made his directorial debut with social drama Krutye gorki (1956).

During the 60s and 70s he directed several popular films, such as Gosudarstvennyy prestupnik (1964) co-written with his friend Aleksandr Galich, Zagovor Poslov, and Razvyazka (1969) starring some of the best Russian actors of the time. While his movies had popularity and success at the box office, Rozantsev suffered after several attacks from the Soviet authorities.

Release of Razvyazka in 1968 was stopped and aborted because screenings of the first version were unfortunately attended by the Soviet law enforcement rank and staff. At that time, the Soviet leadership was nervous with the Prague Spring revolution that was crashed with the invasion of Soviet tanks and uniformed Soviet officers. Rozantsev's film had a few hints that made Soviet censors mad. Nikolai Rozantsev suffered from the Soviet censorship for the rest of his career.

Rozantsev's battle against the Soviet censorship culminated with the film Razvyazka (1969) which he co-wrote and directed in 1968. The original script for that movie was written by Anatoli Romov and was initially titled "Hidden Enemy" - playing on the fact that the western spy Sotnikov, played by Pyotr Shelokhonov, was shown infiltrating the Soviet rank and file while he wore a Soviet uniform. This version of the film was banned as anti-Soviet. Then the working title was changed to "Amnistii ne podlezhit" ("Not eligible for amnesty") but it was banned as well.

Rozantsev and the filmmakers of Razvyazka (1969) were accused of "False representation of Soviet law enforcement. " A special government order with harsh condemnation of the film was issued by the powerful Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, Nikolai Shchelokov, a crony of Leonid Brezhnev. Upon the Soviet government orders Rozantsev and the filmmakers were under tight supervision from censors. As a result of the Soviet censorship the script was changed and the film was completely remade, because the spy in the movie, played by Pyotr Shelokhonov, was ordered to wear a distinctive white shirt to make him look different from the plain-clothed Soviet KGB. This was done according to official view of the Soviet propaganda.

But even the butchered movie was a box office success with the attendance of 26 million during the year 1969.

During the 1970s, Rozantsev made a sweet and delicate drama Kholodno - goryacho (1971) starring Elena Odintsova, a young actress from the Moscow Art Theatre. The movie was a success, but the leading actress suddenly died and Rozantsev had to abandon his plans of filming her in another movie. Soon he suffered another blow when his friend, popular writer Aleksandr Galich, was expelled from the Soviet Union and then was killed under mysterious circumstances in Paris, France. Rozantsev was among those artists who suffered at the time when Leonid Brezhnev and Soviet hard-liners restored a Stalin-style dictatorship in the Soviet Union.