Robert Redford died-the star of the Hollywood of the 70s, the founder of the Sandance festival and the director, who received Oscar for the debut

His roles became a model in many genres, from western to melodrama

Actor and director Robert Redford, founder of the Sandance film festival, died. He was 89 years old. Redford became famous in the 1970s, acting in films, which eventually became a model for many genres: Western, Spy Triller, Melodrama. In the 1980s, he decided to make a movie himself-and became one of the six directors in history who received an Oscar for a debut film. Redford played a significant role in the career of people who are associated with American cinema today: from movie stars, such as Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson, who were discovered by him, to independent directors who first declared themselves at Sandance. Anton Dolin tells the story of a person who changed cinema.

Sometimes a significant actor leaves life, and the press writes: "His career was more than the sum of roles." Or: "He was more than just an artist." Robert Redford is a rare case when it is not just a figure of speech. He really was not only a performer, but a person unique to America. Not just a person, but an institution. Moreover, in the literal sense: the Institute of Independent Cinema "Sandance", founded by Redford and subsequently established the most influential film festival in the United States, is named after his famous character.

We are talking about a textbook-intentionally old-fashioned and that is why not yet lost charm- Baddy-Muy Muyj Jorda Roy Hill "Butch Cassidi and Sandance Kid" of 1969. This film has an impeccable partner duet of the two most beautiful Hollywood artists of the 1960s, the floor of Newman and Robert Redford. By that time, Sandance had already exceeded the performer of the role of the “baby” of Sandance. He managed to play in the “pursuit” of Arthur Penn with Marlon Brando and “Barewood in the Park” by Gina Sax with Jane Fonda, but real glory came with this picture - the most cash wewer Western of all time. In 1973, he again starred in Hill, and again with Newman-in the "Afaer", which became the standard for the genre of "The Film of the Brouping".

Redford, with his exemplary charisma, seemed to single-handedly replaced all the “good guys” of the Hollywood of the Golden era, who managed to grow old and went into circulation to the 1960s. Although not all of his characters were equally pretty. Nevertheless, it could have the impression that Redford left his mark in every important American genre, creating a certain ideal, standard, archetype of the protagonist. And this is with a wonderful ability to team game: colleagues always spoke about him as a sensitive and smart partner.

In Jeremiah Johnson, Sidney Pollak, a director who became key to the career of Redford, is the embodiment of the mythological wild West, the unexplored nature of Old America. In Michael Ritchi, the “candidate” is a personified and immediately subjected to the dream of an idealist policy. In the “on the other side of the barricades” and dedicated to the Watergate scandal “all the presidential rati”, Alan Pakula, who created the matrix of journalistic cinema, is professional honesty and eating, for a couple with Dustin Hoffman. In the melodramatic “meeting of two hearts” with Barbra Streisand, he is a hero of a rethought Romkom. In the spy “three days of Kondor” with Fei Danai (both films shot Pollak) - a hero of the Cold War. And, of course, the screen embodiment of the most mysterious and romantic hero of American literature - Jay Gatsby in the Great Gatsby.

The artist converts into a creative experiment in the 1980s. He tries his strength in directing, so successfully that his debut - the penetrating drama “ordinary people” with Timothy Hatton and Donald Suserland - becomes a cash hit. A little later, the film wins the Oscars, bringing the newcomer to a statuette for the best directing.

Continuing to actively act (among his best films of that decade - multi -rod “Sugan”, “From Africa” and “Orls of Jurisprudence”), he now makes his own cinema, although not regularly. At least the “where the river flows” with young Brad Pitt, “Teleactic” with John Toururro and Raif Fans, and then the “horses spell” with Scarlett Johansson and Christine Scott Thomas showed his talent to the narrator and the ability to feel the hidden potential of the actors - both famous and beginners.

But the most important thing is for the career of Redford and world cinema - the Sandance Institute and the film festival of the same name. The artist becomes the patron saint of the entire indie-kino of the United States. Thanks to him in the 1990s, the stars of Jim Jarmusha and Stephen Soderberg, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith and David O. Russell, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Thomas Anderson rose. Of course, Sandance had directors, curators and selection, Redford himself played a symbolic role more, but its significance cannot be reassessed.

He was not an actor of such a mighty talent as the same Dustin Hoffman or Jack Nicholson, Glory brought him an unforgettably bright type, and not the ability to reincarnate. In his extensive filmography there are no absolute masterpieces that are required to watch for everyone. He did not say a new word in directing or producing. But thanks to Sandance, Robert Redford forever entered his name in the history of world culture.

Having declared his intention to retire, he continued to act from time to time. His last acting appearance was Camoo at the Marvel blockbuster and the Rousseau Brothers “Avengers: final” - the most commercially successful film in history.

However, if you want to remember Redford, returning to one of his later works, it is better to look at the wordless drama “Hope will not fade away” 2013 - about the elderly sailor who fell into the storm. In this paraphrase of “old man and sea”, Redford plays the unbending of the human spirit, spontaneous and modest heroism, for which the public fell in love with his young characters half a century before. By the way, the original name of the film is the opposite - “All IS Lost” (“everything is lost”), but this is a rare case when you want to hold on to the headline reached by Russian distributors. After all, Redford was the embodiment of hopes warming in any of us, no matter what.

Anton Dolin