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Rouben Mamoulian | |
|---|---|
| Ռուբեն Մամուլյան | |
 | |
| Born | Rouben Zachary Mamoulian October 8, 1897 Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia) |
| Died | December 4, 1987 (aged 90) Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Occupation(s) | Film and stage director |
| Years active | 1929–1963 |
| Spouse |
Azadia Newman (m. 1945) |
Rouben Zachary Mamoulian (/ruːˈbɛn mɑːmuːlˈjɑːn/ roo-BEN mah-mool-YAHN; Armenian: Ռուբէն Մամուլեան;[1] October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an American film and theater director.[2]
Mamoulian's oeuvre includes sixteen films (four of which are musicals) and seventeen Broadway productions, six of which are musicals. He was responsible for the acclaimed original stagings of Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945), as well as the first production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935).[3][4]
His output in the early film sound era demonstrated his talent for deploying cinematic innovations that were startling in their day. He restored mobility to the camera, and developed his own signature use of montage, close-ups, split-screens and dissolves.[5][6] Mamoulian's films garnered more in the way of critical acclaim than box office receipts: only six of his films earned a profit at their initial release: City Streets (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Love Me Tonight (1932), Queen Christina (1934), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and Blood and Sand (1941).[7][8]
- ^ Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.
- ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 11: "Born October 8, 1897
- ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 4: "hugely successful" staging of the two musicals.
- ^ Spergel, 1993 p. 3
- ^ Spergel, 1993 p. vii–viii: Foreword by Tom Milne. And: p. 2: Mamoulian "known as a technical innovator..."
- ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 4: "Mamoulian's work can be seen as its own genre."
- ^ Jensen, 2024 p. 5: "Mamoulian's reputation rests on his first six films."
- ^ Spergel, 1993 pp. 88–89: "Mamoulian had his longest and artistically most successful tenure at Paramount Pictures...The Mamoulian style and sophistication appealed to the aspirations of the Paramount studio bosses."