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[ACTING MASTERY] Akter pered kino-apparatom [i.e. Actor in Front of a Camera]

Petrov, E.

Item #2105

Moscow: Teackinopechat’, 1929. 52 pp. 12.9x16.6 cm. In original publisher’s wrappers. Age-toned. Otherwise near fine. Second revised edition. First edition printed in 1926.

This interesting book about acting mastery and the ways of its improvement was compiled by the noted Soviet writer, playwright, and journalist Evgeny Petrov (1902-1942) in 1929.

The edition serves as a kind of manual for actors and offers detailed instructions on how to act in front of a camera. The book consists of three main sections: techniques, actor, and school. The first section of the publication is dedicated to the technical side of cinematography and elaborates upon such topics as the brief history of film, movie stock, film camera, video projector, film editing, etc. In the second section, the author offers numerous recommendations for actors on how to properly act in front of a camera. According to
Petrov, a movie actor needs to have an accurate orientation to the camera, light, footage, etc., and present reality in an organized manner, clearly remembering the boundaries of the frame. Other advices include adhering to the composition of the frame, selecting costumes according to the law of identifying colors, detailed knowledge of favorable lighting of one’s face, etc. The third and final section of the book features information about the ways of improving acting mastery.
After underlying the importance of inner rhythm and actor-director relationship, the author advises actors to pay attention to their physical culture and to improve their acting skills based on such movies as Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris (1923), D. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919), etc.
Evgeny Petrov was a popular author in the 1920s and 1930s Soviet Union. He often worked in collaboration with Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) with whom he wrote Dvenadtsat stulyev [i.e. The Twelve Chairs], released in 1928, and its sequel, Zolotoy telyonok [i.e. The Little Golden Calf], released in 1931. From the late 1920s to 1937, the co-authors wrote several theatrical plays and screenplays, as well as many humorous short stories and satirical articles in the magazines: Chudak, 30 days, Krokodil, Ogoniok, and the newspapers Pravda, Literaturnaya Gazeta, etc. Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Petrov became a war correspondent. He was killed in a plane crash while returning from besieged
Sevastopol.

Worldcat shows one copy of the edition at University of Arizona Libraries.

Price: $450.00