Elena Maksimova

Acting

Elena Maksimova

Born 1905-11-23 · Moscow, Russian Empire

Elena Alexandrovna Maksimova (23.11.1905—23.09.1986) was born in Moscow to a grocer father (he sold non-perishable goods) and a housewife mother, who was often ill. Apart from her, there were two other daughters in the family. Following her father's death in 1920, her mother was forced by poverty to send all three daughters to Orphanage No. 55, located in the Sokolniki district. Shortly after, in 1922, her mother also passed. Thus, at the age of 17, she was left completely orphaned. From an early age, Elena Maximova had dreamed of becoming an actress. When she finished schooling in 1925, she immediately went to the film studio attached to ‘Moskprofobor’ (Москпрофобр) to sit her entrance exams. There was only one free place available, and it went to Elena – as the most talented of all the applicants. From 1925 to 1927, she trained under the guidance of renowned film masters Vladimir Gardin and Konstantin Eggert. Alongside her studies at the film studio, Elena Maksimova had to work as a press operator at a button factory. She worked in film since 1927, appearing in productions by various film studios in Moscow and Leningrad. Between 1940 and 1964, she was an actress at the Soyuzdetfilm studio (now the Gorky Film Studio). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (30 September 1958). The characters she portrayed were distinguished by their realism and attention to everyday detail. Her heroines were most often active, energetic and impetuous, yet she was equally at home with gentle, lyrical roles. She served Soviet cinema for nearly fifty years, and her work was modest and selfless — rarely in supporting roles, but more often in small cameos.

Acting credits

Earth poster
6.7

During the agrarian collectivization process in the Soviet Union, Vasyl, a peasant member of the youth division of the Communist Party, gets a tractor with the help of a local party organization and plows private boundaries on kulak fields. However, this enthusiasm will cost him dearly.

Earth

1930

Stepan Razin poster
4.5

Don Cossack Stepan Razin vowed to take revenge on the boyars for his tortured friends. Having led the rebellious peasants, he becomes the leader of an entire army. Humiliated and insulted people flock to him from all over the Russian land.

Stepan Razin

1939

Null kolm poster
7.5

Olga is a doctor of an ambulance crew - she is a sincere, straightforward and warm-hearted woman who has firm views on human relationships, medical duties, friendship and love. When Olga falls in love with doctor Aleksandr Tennov, she expects him to share the same views with her.

Null kolm

1965

The Grasshopper poster
5.2

Osip Dymov, the titular counselor and the doctor of thirty one years, serves in two hospitals at the same time: intern and anatomist. From nine o'clock in the morning and in the forenoon accepts patients, then goes to open corpses. But its income is hardly enough for a covering of expenses of the wife mad about talents and celebrities in the art and artistic environment whom it daily accepts in the house.

The Grasshopper

1955

Black Business poster
8.5

An experienced intelligence officer arrives in the USSR as a tourist. The staff of the State Security Committee manages to find out the real reason for Miss Luster's visit, to reveal all her numerous connections with agents of foreign intelligence, to expose and eliminate the criminals.

Black Business

1965

Yevdokiya poster
6.4

On the outskirts of the provincial town, Yevdokim and Yevdokiya live, raising foster children. Yevdokim works at a factory, Yevdokiya is a housewife. The family seems to be safe and happy: the only trouble is that Yevdokiya cannot forget the love of her youth. This Yevdokim cannot stand and offers Yevdokiya freedom, while he will remain with the children. But all these contradictions are drowned in mutual love for children and for each other.

Yevdokiya

1961

No artwork available
8.0

Based on the story of the same name by Anatoly Ivanov. A sad and dramatic love story of a village girl Alka Uralova for a man older than her, worthy of love, but not free - Sergei Khoprov has a wife, he has children. Love gives Alka the strength to live life to the fullest and enjoy it. But she tells her the only right decision - not to ruin the happiness of Sergei and his family, to be left alone with her love.

Alkin songs

1973

The Stars of the Day poster
10.0

A female poet and author faces the harsh realities of a besieged Leningrad. Based on Olga Berggolts' memoir of the same name.

The Stars of the Day

1966

Duration of the Day poster
NR

About the life of Stefan Barda, who joined the struggle for the liberation of Bessarabia, occupied by the troops of Royal Romania, in the 1920s.

Duration of the Day

1974

Ranks and People poster
5.6

From his early silent works, the great Russian film director, Herr Yakov Protazanov, made literary adaptations from equally great Russian writers, as is the case with "Chiny I Lyudi" ( Ranks And People ) (1929) in which three short stories by Chekhov, "Anna On The Neck", "Death Of A Petty Official" and "Chameleon" were assembled for the silent screen.

Ranks and People

1929

Admiral Ushakov poster
6.1

Historical epic about the legendary Russian naval commander of the 18th century, admiral Fyodor Ushakov, and his fight for Crimea during the Russo-Turkish War.

Admiral Ushakov

1953

Они не пройдут poster
9.0

1934. After the suppression of the uprising of the Schutzbund workers, engineer Hans Müller leaves Austria and emigrates to the USSR. In Russia Hans finds his love. His relationship with Galina is not simple. Her son Sanka agonizes over the arrival of a stranger in the house. But, in the end, Hans wins the boy's trust. When in Spain begins the Frankist rebellion, Hans voluntarily goes to fight in the ranks of the interbrigade. And after the liberation of Vienna, he returns to his homeland.

Они не пройдут

1965

Quiet Flows the Don poster
6.3

Based on the novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov, about the fate of people broken by the First World War, the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922), about the collapse of the foundations and ideals of the Don Cossacks of Russia at the beginning of the XX century, about the personal tragedy of the protagonist — Grigoriy Melekhov.

Quiet Flows the Don

1957

Aerograd poster
5.0

A Russian outpost in Eastern Siberia comes under threat of attack by the Japanese. Aerograd is a new town with a strategically located airfield of vital interest to the government. Work on the new outpost is complicated when tensions develop between workers and a religious sect. Relations between the two countries are further strained in the days before World War II, dating back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

Aerograd

1935

No artwork available
8.0

Killing to Live is a 1931 Soviet documentary directed by Vladimir Korolevitch.

Killing to Live

1931

Father of a Soldier poster
7.1

When peasant Georgy Makharashvili hears that his soldier son is lying wounded in a hospital, he sets out to visit him. However, unknown to him, his son has been sent back to the front. Reluctant to return home and in a vain attempt to locate his boy, Georgy joins the Red Army in it's unrelenting push to the west.

Father of a Soldier

1965

A Personal Matter poster
NR

Fifth-grade students, misbehaving during an air-raid drill, smash a cabinet in the physics lab. Lev Prokushev, one of the perpetrators, takes a microscope eyepiece, which is soon discovered in Arkady Zubov's school bag. Arkady categorically denies any involvement in the mischief but refuses to name the culprit.

A Personal Matter

1940

A Small Favor poster
6.5

Once a famous singer Valentin Ozernikov, returning from another tour, thinks about his fast flowing life and tried to formulate his criteria for figs further existence.

A Small Favor

1984

Miraculous One poster
8.0

Rodka Gulyaev is a pupil of the Gumniskii rural secondary school. One day on the bank of the river he digs out the darkened old icon. Unfortunately for him his grandmother Avdotya, an overbearing and cunning old woman, spreads a rumor that the icon is miraculous, and her grandson is a saint.

Miraculous One

1960

The Gypsy poster
8.0

Based on the story of the same name by Anatoliy Kalinin. A young village woman, Klavdiya Pukhlyakova, the mother of a newborn girl, finds a gypsy boy at the crushed kibitka under the tanks. Having pity on the child, she takes him home and raises him as her own son. 17 years pass. Once in the village appears a lonely gypsy Budulai, who has experienced a lot. He very quickly gained the sympathy of Pukhlyakova's adoptive son. Suspecting that Budulai is the father of her gypsy boy, Klavdiya fears that the peace of the family will be disturbed...

The Gypsy

1967

Meeting at the Crossing poster
8.0

The war is over. Demobilized soldier Chepurnov goes to his fiancée Vara Karpova, whom he knows by correspondence. On the way on the ferry Chepurnov gets acquainted with the carrier Klavdia. The young woman knows his fiancée and knows that Valentina wrote not only to Chepurnov. But she keeps silent about it - she likes the thoughtful soldier, and she does not want to upset him. And the soldier likes Klavdia, and he already knows everything about her and knows that she is raising her son alone. But he goes to Valentina because he promised. Chepurnov won't stay there long.

Meeting at the Crossing

1964

We'll Be Waiting, Come Back poster
10.0

The story of a girl who recently graduated from school and works as a projectionist. Her ideas about life are taken from films starring Greta Garbo, romantic literature, and advice from her practical friend. This "explosive mixture" prevents her from hearing herself and causes her to act rashly.

We'll Be Waiting, Come Back

1981

King of Diamonds poster
NR

Sasha and Katya love each other. The wedding has already been scheduled, Sasha is just about to go on a business trip...

King of Diamonds

1959

The Red Snowball Tree poster
7.1

A thief named Egor, having served a term in prison, goes to the country to meet his pen-friend Lyuba, a kind genial village woman. Egor comes to love Lyuba sincerely. Now he has friends, work and a beloved woman, he decides to break with his criminal past and start a new life. However, his former criminal associates interfere brutally.

The Red Snowball Tree

1974