Costumes and vehicles collection, Mofilm museum

In several halls of the Mofilm museum, the elements of various scenery are collected – the old Copenhagen from the film “Andersen. Zhizn bez lyubvi” (Andersen. Life Without Love) by Eldar Ryazanov, a replica of the huge bull, in the carcass of which doctors put poisoned Cesare Borgia in the film “Yady ili Vsemirnaya istoria otravleny” (Poisons or the World History of Poisoning), ancient postal and royal carriages, and much more.

Vehicles
Mosfilm transportation workshop provides all kinds of vehicles needed for the film-, video- and TV-shoots.

Vintage vehicles:

The highlight of Mofilm museum’s collection is the vintage cars. Peugeot phaeton made in 1913, open Rolls-Royce cabriolet of 1913, Russo-Balt of 1913 – all these cars feel pretty good in XXI century. All of them are restored, brought back to a working order and, despite their age, look like they have just come from the conveyor belt. Some of them are represented in Russia in a single copy. Each exhibit has an unusual story behind it.

The famous Volga could be seen in such films as “Beregis’ Avtomobilya” (Beware of the Car) and “Brilliantovaya ruka” (The Diamond Arm). “Mercedes-Benz” produced in 1938 was a car in which Stirlitz traveled in “17 mgnoveniy vesny” (Seventeen Moments of Spring), Buick-Eight made in 1941 once belonged to the Manchurian emperor Henry Puyi. The Packard car created in 1937 for a long time was the official car of the Soviet political elite – Voroshilov and the legendary pilot Chkalov rode in the car of this kind. Here you can also see the legendary governmental cars ZIL-101 of the year 1936 and ZIS-110 of the year 1945, trucks, buses and military vehicles from the times of the first and second World Wars.

Special vehicles:

Trailer for actors
Mounted on the chassis of MAZ-4370. It is designed for the making-up and the recreation of the actors on set. It has a make-up section, LCD television, DVD, air conditioning, autonomous heating, сomposting toilet, shower with hot water, microwave, refrigerator.

Bus for costumes and makeup (Grimwagen)
Mounted on LiAZ bus. It has a break room, a make-up section with two armchairs and large mirrors, wash basin and сomposting toilet, dressing room equipped with an iron and an ironing board. In the bus, there is an additional 250V lighting and sockets. Grimwagen is powered by the autonomous 6-kilowatt Honda generator.

IVECO Daily vehicle for actors
The vehicle for actors, mounted on IVECO Daily 50C15VH, is designed for recreation and work of actors and directors on set. It is a van that is divided into two areas: recreational and working-technical.

Costumes and Stage
Our collection of costumes is a subject of the great interest. In the presented exposition you will see the dress that Elen from “War and Peace” by S. Bondarchuk wore, Andrey Rublev’s monk clothes from the film of the same name by Andrey Tarkovsky, the luxurious fairy costumes from the film “Skazka o tsare Saltane” (The Tale of Tsar Saltan) by A.Ptushko, the tsar’s costume from the film “Boris Godunov” by S. Bondarchuk, and many others.

The exposition of the museum is changing constantly, because many exhibits are still used in films, so when some items are sent to the film set, others are taken from the richest collection of the studio.

Department of means for stage and performance is a unique collection of costumes, furniture, and props, which includes both original items from the 18-20 centuries, and those created according to sketches of the leading Mosfilm artists, related to different countries and times, including in the style of fairy tale and science fiction.

Today the department has 287 733 items of men’s, women’s and military clothes, hats and shoes, as well as 87 129 items of various props! The photo shows not everything we have in our warehouses; we invite you for a visit so you could see it before you use it.

The costume collection
The collection of costumes has been assembled at Mosfilm since the 1920s. During the first years following the revolution of 1917, the foundation of what is now a unique antique collection was laid — specifically the array of costumers dating from the 19th century, which the studio either bought from citizens or accepted as gifts. The studio is capable of choosing or producing a costume of any epoch — from muslin dresses worn by damsels of bygone days to massive armor suits. If suits of armor from the History Museum and the Mosfilm collection were placed side by side, the only difference would be their weight — the thing is that for film sets, even chain mails are made from special light alloys that enable actors to work a few takes in a row.

A mirror to our times
Each epoch has its own face. When following the intricacies of a story on the screen, a viewer may not pay special attention to details of garments or interiors; however, they will immediately sense fakeness as soon as a serious mistake is made in the reconstruction of a certain period. Therefore, during the preparatory stage that precedes the production of any movie, close attention is given to specific historical features that an epoch imposes on a human, primarily its costumes.

Fashion and film
The mode of dress and nature of clothes provide evidence of the social affinity of a person and their special individual characteristics. However, a costume is also an element of the artistic entirety of a film; therefore, it should always be addressed in the context of the figurative concept developed for a movie.

Costumes
The costumes form the unique collection of the Mosfilm Cinema Concern. Currently any museum would be happy to make it part of its exposition; however, the studio offers these costumes a long vivid working life at stage sets, rather than tedious duties of regular exhibits.

Uniforms
Movies that feature military and civil uniforms constitute a special challenge for costume designers. To reconstruct them, perfect knowledge of all minute details and historic peculiarities is required.

Historical costumes for women
In order to create a historical costume for a film, perfect knowledge of the fashion and stylistic peculiarities characteristic of various periods is a must. A costume designer thoroughly studies the everyday life and clothes of the respective historical time and double checks all of the relevant minute particulars. This work results in a series of sketches that pave the way for tailoring the approved model. In order to render the model more credible, artists make use of old fabrics or pick contemporary equivalents; sometimes fabrics are specially produced using old techniques. Details of costumes are frequently augmented by genuine elements, such as gold embroidery, fur, pearls, or alternatively, stylized designs and materials are employed.

Mosfilm Cinema continues to produce motion pictures with new stars appearing in them, so the collection of costumes is destined to grow.

Mosfilm
Mosfilm is the leading Russian film company producing almost all the film- TV- and video products in the country. The studio’s production capacity is more than a hundred films a year. Mosfilm produces, distributes and sells film-, TV- and video products. It also provides services relating to all phases of filmmaking.

Most films are made in studios on the territory of Mosfilm. They are headed by the leading Russian cinematographers: Vadim Abdrashitov, Stanislav Govorukhin, Georgiy Daneliya, Svetlana Druzhinina, Vladimir Menshov, Vladimir Naumov, Gleb Panfilov, Sergei Solovyov, Alla Surikova, Andrei Eshpai and others.

In recent years Mosfilm has been actively involved in the modernisation of its production and technical capabilities. A great deal of work has been done on the reconstruction of stages and studios and on equipping them with the equipment and cameras that meet the highest modern day standards.

The most advanced digital equipment is installed in Mosfilm Sound Studio. The re-recording studios it contains were the first in the world to receive Dolby Premier Studio quality certificate from the Dolby Laboratories Company in 2006.

Mosfilm provides all kinds of work on the editing of films and video films, telecopying and computer graphics, and this work is carried out through the use of most advanced equipment. The Studio created the unique museums of historical costumes, prop and vintage cars. Mosfilm is the only studio that has preserved its film archive and carries out a great amount of work on the restoration of films from its golden collection at its own expenses. Mosfilm is actively involved in Russian film festivals in many countries and runs retrospective shows and screenings in Russia, as well as in other countries.

Having overcome the crisis of the 90s, the studio has not only preserved its traditions and professions in the sphere of cinematography but became a highly profitable enterprise. In the past nine years, it has increased its profitability by more than 10 times.

Nowadays Mosfilm consists of the new technologies, active film-making, high skilled creative workers, rare collections. All this allows the studio to be rightly considered the leading enterprise of the Russian film industry and to contribute hugely to the revival of the Russian cinema.