Rou, Aleksandr

Born Feb. 24 (Mar. 9), 1906, in Moscow; died there Dec. 28, 1973. Soviet motion-picture director. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1968). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

In 1930, Rou graduated from the B. V. Chaikovskii Motion-picture School in Moscow, and in 1934 from the M. N. Ermo-lova Dramatic Technicum, also in Moscow. He began working in films in 1930 and in 1938 directed his first film, By a Wave of the Wand. He was very successful in the filming of fairy tales and directed the following children’s films: Vasilisa the Beautiful (1940), The Little Humpbacked Horse (1941), Kashchei the Deathless (1945), The New Adventures of Puss-in-Boots (1958), Maña the Skillful (1960), The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1963), Father Frost (1965), Fire, Water, and Copper Pipes (1968), Varvara, Charming Lass, With a Long Tress (1969), and Golden Horns (1970).

Rou directed A May Night, or the Drowned Woman (1952, a stereoscopic film) and Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1961), which were both based on Gogol’s works. Rou also directed the following films based on modern material: The Secret of the Mountain Lake (1954) and the stereoscopic films A Day of Marvelous Impressions (1949) and A Precious Gift (1956). In 1961 he collaborated with R. V. Zakharov on the ballet film The Glass Slipper (or Cinderella). Many of Rou’s films won prizes at international and all-Union film festivals. Rou was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and various medals.