Garri Bardin


Garri Yakovlevich Bardin is a Soviet and Russian animation director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his experimental musical and stop motion films. He was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or for the Fioritures cartoon and the Order of Honour in 2011.

Early life and education

Garri Bardin was born in 1941 as Garri Yakovlevich Bardenstein in Chkalov where his pregnant mother Rozalia Abramovna Bardenshtein had been evacuated from Kyiv with the start of the Great Patriotic War. The family was Jewish. His father Yakov Lvovich Bardenshtein was a naval officer who joined marines in 1941 and took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. After World War II, the family moved to Liepāja, Latvian SSR where his father served at the Baltic Fleet.
Bardin spent three years in the Soviet Army, and in 1968, he finished the Actor's Faculty at the Moscow Art Theatre School.

Career

Bardenstein joined the N. V. Gogol Moscow Drama Theatre where he served till 1973. The director asked him to shorten his surname which was too long for theatre posters, and he adapted the Bardin stage name. Upon leaving the theatre he spent some time writing stories, plays and TV screenplays. He had been also voicing cartoons since 1967.
Around the same time, he sent a screenplay to Soyuzmultfilm and was suggested to direct the cartoon himself despite his lack of formal training. From then on, he worked as an animation director. Among his first shorts was A Tincan segment from the Happy Merry-Go-Round No. 8 anthology series. In 1979, he directed The [Flying Ship (animated film)|The Flying Ship], a traditionally animated musical film loosely based on the old Russian fairy tale The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. The film and the songs by Yuri Entin in particular gained popularity. Bardin then worked on several other hand-drawn films along with Entin.
In 1983, he directed his first experimental stop motion cartoon for adults — Conflict, a Cold War allegory where two groups of matches enter a conflict which leads to a war. It was followed by several claymation comedy films, including Break!, a parody on a boxing match for which Bardin received a Golden Dove award at the 1986 Dok Leipzig. In 1987, he released two films: Marriage made of ropes and Fioritures made of aluminium wire for which he was awarded the 1988 Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1990, he directed his last Soyuzmultiflm cartoon — Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, a claymation musical film that satirized last days of the USSR. It was awarded a number of awards, including Grand Prix for the best short film at the 1991 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the 1992 Nika Award for the best animated film. After that, Bardin founded and headed the Stayer animation studio where he continued directing claymation and stop motion films, as well as TV commercials. After six years in production, he finally released his first feature animated musical The Ugly Duckling loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same name, with a heavy influence of George Orwell's Animal Farm. It received mixed reviews from critics and failed at the box office, while central Russian TV channels refused to show it according to Bardin. At the same time, it gained a number of awards, including the 2011 Nika Award.
After The Ugly Duckling, Bardin used Planeta.ru to help crowdfund six more animated shorts, with a seventh on the way.

Personal life

Bardin was married three times. The son from his third marriage is a Russian film director.

Filmography

Animation

Director

Touch the Sky ; also screenwriterHappy Merry-Go-Round ; episode 8, segment "A Tincan", also screenwriterBrave Inspector Mamochkin ; also co-screenwriterThe Adventures of a Hamster The Flying Ship Bang! Bang! Oh-oh-oh! Road Tale ; also screenwriterWe Used To Be Birds ; also co-screenwriterConflict ; also screenwriterWham and Bam, House Painters! ; also screenwriterBanquet ; also screenwriterFrills ; also screenwriterMarriage ; also screenwriterGrey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood ; also screenwriterPuss in Boots Chucha ; also screenwriter and producerAdagio ; also screenwriter and producerChucha-2 ; also screenwriter and producerChucha-3 ; also screenwriter and producerThe Ugly Duckling ; also screenwriterThree Melodies ; also screenwriter and producerListening to Beethoven ; also screenwriter and producerBolero 2017 ; also screenwriter and producerSandbox ; also screenwriter and producerAve Maria ; also screenwriter and producerEverlasting Lament ; also screenwriter and producer

Voice acting

The Flying Ship as TsarBaba Yaga is against! as Koshchei the Deathless In the Blue Sea, in the White Foam as Sea TsarVykrutasy as Wire ManThe Ugly Duckling as Narrator

Live action

The Adventures of Buratino as Spiders in Malvina's pantry Practical Joke as French teacherMoscow Does Not [Believe in Tears] as chemical plant chief engineer

Awards and honors