Victor Tourjansky


Victor Tourjansky, born Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhansky, was a Russian actor, screenwriter and film director who emigrated after the Russian Revolution of 1917. He worked in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States.

Biography

Born into a family of artists in Kiev, Tourjansky moved to Moscow in 1911, where he spent a year studying under Konstantin Stanislavski. He became involved with silent film and, two years later, made his first productions as a screenwriter and director on the eve of World War I. When the October Revolution broke out, he left and stayed in Yalta, which had not yet been taken by the Bolsheviks.
When the laws for the nationalisation of the cinema industry were applied to Crimea, he left with the Ermoliev film company and its actors for France, via Constantinople, in February 1920. He was accompanied by his wife, the actress Nathalie Kovanko. On arriving in Paris, he changed his birth name Viatcheslav, to Victor, which was more easily pronounceable for the French. He was the assistant to Abel Gance for the filming of his Napoléon. He later worked for Universum Film AG in Germany, where he arrived during the 1930s and directed twelve films, of which several were officially honored by the Nazis.

Selected filmography

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  • Les Contes des mille et une nuits
  • Le Quinzième prélude de Chopin
  • Nuit de carnaval
  • La Riposte
  • Calvaire d'amour
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  • That Scoundrel Morin
  • The Masked Woman
  • Prince Charming
  • Michel Strogoff
  • Tempest, uncredited
  • The Adventurer
  • Volga Volga
  • Manolescu
  • The Eaglet
  • * The Duke of Reichstadt
  • The Unknown Singer
  • Student's Hotel
  • The Orderly
  • Volga in Flames
  • Dark Eyes
  • The World's in Love
  • La Peur
  • City of Anatol
  • * Wells in Flames
  • The Lie of Nina Petrovna
  • The Postmaster's Daughter
  • Faded Melody
  • Secret Code LB 17
  • The Blue Fox
  • The Governor
  • A Woman Like You
  • Enemies
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  • Liebesgeschichten
  • Tonelli
  • Orient Express
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  • The Blue Straw Hat
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  • The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice
  • Chased by the Devil
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  • Marriage for One Night
  • Salto Mortale
  • Arlette Conquers Paris
  • Daybreak
  • Island of the Dead
  • The Royal Waltz
  • The Goddess of Love
  • Heart Without Mercy
  • Herod the Great
  • Prisoner of the Volga
  • The Cossacks
  • The Pharaohs' Woman
  • The Triumph of Michael Strogoff
  • ''A Queen for Caesar''