Antonina Maksimova

Acting

Antonina Maksimova

Born 1916-10-25 · Tula, Russian Empire [now Russia]

Antonina Mikhailovna Maksimova (25.10.1916, Tula — 7.10.1986, Moscow); her mother was a housewife and her father worked at the Tula Arms Factory. She had two brothers, both of whom went on to become engineers. From a young age, she dreamed of a career in acting; she performed in amateur productions and was an excellent singer, dancer, and reciter. After finishing school, she was accepted into drama school at first attempt. In 1938, she graduated from the State Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS). Whilst studying at GITIS, she made her film debut and, in the latter half of the 1930s, she rose to widespread fame following leading roles in the films Dawns of Paris, in which she played the French revolutionary Catherine Millard, and The Sailors, where she portrayed Senior Lieutenant Galina Zorina, commander of a seaplane squadron. From 1938, she was an actress at the Moscow Comedy Theatre. From 1940, she worked at the Saratov Drama Theatre named after Karl Marx; her roles included Katya in The Barbarians; Katerina in In the Steppes of Ukraine; and Smelskaya in Talents and Admirers. Between 1941 and 1943, she served in the Great Patriotic War as a radio operator. She was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class (1985). From 1943 to 1946, she was an actress with the 1st Front Theatre of the All-Russian Theatre Society (VTO); her roles included Liza in Wait for Me; Varya in Frol Skobelev; Maria in The Taming of the Tamer. In 1946, she performed with the drama collective of the Central House of Culture for Railway Workers (Tsentral'nyy Dom Kul'tury Zheleznodorozhnikov), playing Polina in the production of The Stepmother and Nina Alexandrovna in the play Mashenka. From 1947 to 1986, she was an actress at the Film Actors’ Studio Theatre; her roles included: Pamela in The Island of Peace, Alena Dmitrievna in Three Soldiers, Anna in Sofya Kovalevskaya, Klavdiya in Vanyushin’s Children, Feny in The Director, Marfa Petrovna in Russian People, Kabanikha in The Storm. She also acted at the Mosfilm film studio. Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1969). After the war, she mainly played supporting roles on screen. In 1955, she played Iago’s wife Emilia in the film adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, directed by Sergei Yutkevich.

Acting credits

Ballad of a Soldier poster
8.0

During World War II, earnest young Russian soldier Alyosha Skvortsov is rewarded with a short leave of absence for performing a heroic deed on the battlefield. Feeling homesick, he decides to visit his mother. Due to his kindhearted nature, however, Alyosha is repeatedly sidetracked by his efforts to help those he encounters, including a lovely girl named Shura. In his tour of a country devastated by war, he struggles to keep hope alive.

Ballad of a Soldier

1959

Early on Sunday, I Dug a Potion poster
NR

Based on the novel by Olha Kobylyanska.

Early on Sunday, I Dug a Potion

1968

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

We Didn't Learn This poster
6.3

The heroes of the film are students of a pedagogical university, those who, after a year or two, have to carry knowledge to schoolchildren, "to sow the rational, good, eternal." In the meantime, student practice. True, the practice is not quite ordinary, because for the first time students leave far from the walls of their own university, for the first time they meet with students in the classroom not in the presence of their teachers, those with whom life encounters them daily at the institute, but with those who have been working for more than a year at school.

We Didn't Learn This

1976

Everything Could Have Been Otherwise poster
7.0

Growing up in an orphanage, Florin is trying to find his mother Dorina, whom he has not seen for 15 years. His beloved Liza is very jealous of Florin's plans. Having met his mother, an already adult son is trying to understand the person who gave him life and abandoned him. But can a son forgive his mother, who deprived him of a happy childhood?

Everything Could Have Been Otherwise

1982

Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia poster
7.3

In Italy, a dying woman tells her granddaughter that she hid her treasure many years ago in Russia, in the city of Leningrad. As more people learn about it, they head to Leningrad to find the lion where it is rumoured to be buried.

Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia

1974

Beware of the Car! poster
7.5

An insurance agent who moonlights as a car thief steals cars various crooks and never from the common people. He sells the stolen cars and gives the money to charity. His best friend, a cop, is assigned to bring in this modern Robin Hood.

Beware of the Car!

1966

Yelena's Bay poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Yelena's Bay

1964

Red Sun poster
NR

Young Venka investigates the cause of death of a fellow villager during the Great Patriotic War - in the process uncovering a traitor who has been murdering witnesses to his own inglorious past.

Red Sun

1972

Othello poster
5.3

Othello, a celebrated Moorish general, secretly marries Desdemona, angering her noble father and inciting the envious Iago’s hatred. Sent to Cyprus, Othello’s victories are overshadowed by Iago’s manipulations: he frames Desdemona as unfaithful with Othello’s lieutenant Cassio. Consumed by jealousy, Othello murders his wife. Discovering Iago’s treachery too late, Othello kills himself as Cyprus learns the bitter truth.

Othello

1955

The Steamroller and the Violin poster
7.1

Seven year old Sasha practices violin every day to satisfy the ambition of his parents. Already withdrawn as a result of his routines, Sasha quickly regains confidence when he accidentally meets and befriends worker Sergei, who works on a steamroller in their upscale Moscow neighborhood.

The Steamroller and the Violin

1961

The Paris Commune poster
8.0

"Paris Commune," 1870-1871. Poor working class in Paris rises up against their oppressors as France is defeated by Germany in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.

The Paris Commune

1936

Leon Garros Is Looking for His Friend poster
9.5

During World War II, the Frenchman Léon Garros and Boris Vaganov escape from the Nazi concentration camp. After 15 years, Léon, who became a journalist, and his friends came to the USSR to make a report and find Boris in the meantime. In Moscow he doesn't found, and for the sake of meeting with a friend, Garros has to travel around the country by car... The foreigners are accompanied by Nikolai, the translator, who, in turn, is looking for his brother's runaway bride, Natasha.

Leon Garros Is Looking for His Friend

1961

Adventures of a Dentist poster
6.4

Young dentist Chesnokov has a knack for painless tooth removal, much to the dismay of others, who fear unemployment and start to challenge Chesnokov.

Adventures of a Dentist

1967

Boys poster
NR

Zhenya Prokhorov, a pupil of an orphanage, draws the attention of the director of the capital's choir school. The professor strongly advises Zhenya to study. Having become a soloist in the boys' choir, Zhenya does not refuse from "left" concerts organized by the enterprising Victor Victorovich - and one day tears his voice. The young hero bears the first loss with dignity, and after graduating from the school enters the conservatory at the faculty of composition.

Boys

1972

Lenin in Paris poster
4.4

1911. Lenin organizes the first Bolshevik party school near Paris, in the small town of Longjumeau. Through a chain of historical parallels and associations, this time is intertwined with the events of the Paris Commune, the October Revolution and the political struggles of the post-revolutionary years.

Lenin in Paris

1981

Lyubushka poster
7.5

Bandits took away a beautiful horse from peasant Nikita Lykov and left him a nag instead. The peasant began to nurse the horse, which turned out to be a famous Oryol trotter named Lyubushka.

Lyubushka

1961

The Secret of Two Oceans poster
5.4

The enemy agents from an unknown nation have secret automated facilities set up in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for the purposes of sinking ships. The super submarine "Pioneer" and it's intrepid crew is dispatched to find the source of these mysterious sinking's...Unknown to the captain, his chief engineer is working for the bad guys, intent on stopping their efforts, at any cost...It seems the real chief had a twin brother who was a circus acrobat who murdered and replaced him.

The Secret of Two Oceans

1957

Farewell, Doves poster
6.3

Genka Sakhnenko, a seventeen-year-old boy, has been passionate about pigeon breeding since childhood. But he begins to make a living, falls in love with the girl Tanya and realizes that it is time to leave his childhood hobbies.

Farewell, Doves

1960

How the Steel Was Tempered poster
4.2

The path of a young revolutionary during the formation of Soviet power during the Bolshevik coup.

How the Steel Was Tempered

1973

Reserve Officer poster
NR

About the concerns of the reserve officer, and now the secretary of the district committee Kirill Buzhor.

Reserve Officer

1972

Concerto for Two Violins poster
NR

The main characters are two graduates of a music school, gifted violinists. Andrei is ambitious, able-bodied, absorbed in the desire to achieve recognition. The other is Ladya Bragin, simple and reckless. On the day of the exam at the conservatory, he meets a girl who works as a clown, and immediately decides to stay in the circus. The creative successes of the heroes do not immediately and not simply take shape. Their will, their conviction of a calling, are severely tested. And yet both come to understand what happiness music can give and how much it demands from a musician...

Concerto for Two Violins

1975

Court of Honor poster
7.5

The movie tells about the life of Soviet scientists. Professor Dobrotvorsky, together with his colleague Losev, is on his way to completing a scientific work of great importance in medicine. Professor Dobrotvorsky's friend Academician Vereisky learns from a foreign journal that important data about this work has fallen into the hands of American businessmen.

Court of Honor

1949

The Mire poster
5.7

The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War. Peasant Matryona Bystrova loses her husband at the front, then her eldest son goes missing. Matryona decides to save the youngest son at all costs and shelters him from being drafted into the army in the attic of the house until the end of the war. But it turns out that saving her son, she condemns him to spiritual death, and herself to torment of conscience. A private story about the mother of a deserter grows to epic proportions...

The Mire

1978