Kosmatov, Leonid Vasilevich

Born Dec. 30, 1900 (Jan. 12, 1901), in the village of Verkhnii Lomov, now in Penza Oblast. Soviet cameraman; Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1941.

Kosmatov graduated from the State Technicum of Cinematography in 1927. Motion pictures filmed by Kosmatov include The Earth Thirsts (1930), Flyers (1935), The Dawns of Paris (1937), The Oppenheim Family (1939), Virgin Soil Upturned (1940), and The Artamonov Business (1941). Kosmatov was an innovator in Soviet color motion pictures—for example, Michurin (1949, with lu. M. Kun), The Fall of Berlin (1950), The Freemen (1956), The Sisters (1957), 1918 (1958), and The Gloomy Morning (1959). He shot several wide-gauge films, including The Lunatic Trial (1962) and A Lifetime in One Year (Karl Marx; 1966).

Kosmatov created new techniques in process filming and color, wide-screen, and wide-gauge cinematography. He began teaching at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in 1929 (since 1950, professor). He received the State Prize of the USSR (1947, 1949, 1950), the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.