David Blok

Birth : 1888-12-12, Taganrog, oblast voyska Donskogo, Russian Empire

Death : 1948-10-04

History

Soviet composer, sound engineer and conductor. Organizer (1941) and first head of the State Orchestra of the USSR Ministry of Cinematography. Honored Artist of the Tajik SSR (1940). He began his creative career in 1905 as a conductor of an orchestra accompanying silent films. Studied at the Rostov Conservatory (1913-1918). During the silent film period, he led orchestras in major cinemas, scoring silent films and composing music for them. Since 1930, he began working in sound films (in 1931-1947 - sound designer and sound engineer). Since 1938, he was also a conductor at the Soyuzdetfilm film studio, in 1948 - Mosfilm. Conducted the premiere of the Second Suite by S.S. Prokofiev from Romeo and Juliet. David Blok wrote and edited music for more than 200 films. He was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. He was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery.

Profile

Movies

Private Aleksandr Matrosov

Music

The film is about the exploit of a nineteen-year-old soldier of the Great Patriotic War - Alexander Matrosov, who covered the embrasure of the enemy's bunker with his body.

Концерт

Conductor

The death of "Eagle"

Music

In the fall of 1920, when the Red Army fought on the outskirts of Novorossiysk, one of the best ships of the Russian fleet “Oryol” stood at the berths of the port. The ship's boatswain, the hiding communist Mikhail Gruzdev, convinced Captain Chistyakov to keep the Eagle and return it to the red flag. Soon the legendary ship aboard the White Guards pursued by the Red Army left Novorossiysk. History left no trace of the further fate of the "Eagle" and its crew. It was believed that Chistyakov handed over the ship to the White Guards, and they took him abroad. Many years later, the captain of the ship “Flounder” Mikhail Gruzdev, confident in Chistyakov’s uncompromising attitude, obtained permission - and set about searching for the missing ship.

In Memory of Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Sound Director

The film is about the life and work of Grigory Ordzhonikidze Konstantinoviche, an important personality in both the Communist Party and the Soviet state. The film includes speeches by his bereaved friends who attended his funeral. In 1937, after the unexpected death of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Vertov received an urgent order from the government to produce a film about the life of Ordzhonikidze. He was ordered to work together with Yakov Bliohom and the director of the film "Battleship Potemkin" distributed by Goskino (Soviet State Committee for Cinematography).

I'll Be Back

Original Music Composer

It was based on a poem "Batrak" by Oraz Tachnazarov. Batrak Kurban is denied to get married with his beloved since the girl’s father, a serf, depends on a wealthy landlord. After that, he joins the partisan movement and the Red Army. The story has a happy ending as Kurban marries the girl.

Torn Boots

Original Music Composer

Working with children led Barskaya to create superb direct sound and an inspired style of shooting. Don’t look for conventional cinematic syntax here. The film is chaotic in the way that Soviet films still knew how to be, and Langlois couldn’t help but be seduced by its rebellious spirit, its anarchy and love of children, comparable to Vigo’s Zero de conduite. As well as being a film made with and for children, it offers a complex take on Western society. Pre-Nazi Germany is not named as such but is carefully reconstructed, possibly under advice from Karl Radek, and children offer a playful reflection of class struggle – doubly excluded, as proletarians and as minors. “They play in the same way that they live”, one intertitle says. The interaction between their comical games and the yet more ludicrous ones played by adults is developed on several levels.

Horizon

Original Music Composer

A young Lyova travels with the hope of ascent from Czarist Russia to New York. Disappointed, he returns to the young Soviet Union and is glad to have found a simple work.

St. Jorgen's Day

Sound Director

The priests, stock market officials, and police conspire to squeeze income out of pilgrims come to see relics of a Christ like figure. A pair of con men try to pass of a resurrected saint.

The Land of the Lion and Sun

Original Music Composer

The 41-minute documentary directed by Vladimir Yerofeyev, is a 1928 Russian production. 'The Land of the Lion and Sun' has recorded different moments of Iranian people’s social life, the country’s general ambience, women’s clothing in the year 1921.

Mother

Music

A story about a Russian family torn apart by a worker's strike. At first, the mother wants to protect her family from the troublemakers, but eventually she realizes that her son is right and the workers should strike.