Igor Diment
1939—1998
Artist, theater and film director.
A student of N. P. Akimov, a graduate (1968) of the evening department of the production department of LGITMiK, Igor Diment made a bright, visible statement with his first theatrical work. His design for P. N. Fomenko's play New Mystery-Buff at the Leningrad Lensovet Theater was his diploma work. Against the gray background of official socialist realism, his promising talent sparkled with ironic intellect, indomitable fantasy and thirst for life.
In 1969, at the suggestion of the director of the Hermitage Theater, the model of a theater-satellite of foreign exhibitions was tested for the first time. For the exhibition French Romanticism through the All-Russian Theatre Society (now STD) with actors of state theatres, LGITMiK graduates, the avant-garde director and philosopher Boris Ponizovsky together with I. Diment staged a synthetic performance Fantasio based on the play by A. de Musset, linking the comedy of the romantic freethinker with modern times. In 1970 he moved to Moscow, entered the directing department of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. In 1971 at the Moscow Art Theatre he designed Oleg Efremov's production of A. Volodin's play «Dulcinea of Toboso» (composer Oleg Karavaichuk). In 1973 he was expelled from the Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. In 1974, he took part (including as an actor) in V. Alenikov's surreal biopic about the Armenian genocide, Komitas. The unfinished film was banned.
The tenacity of Leningrad bohemia and the tendency to theatricalize their behavior, associated with the traditions of Russian futurism, can be seen in the fates of creative rebels. Such was Igor Diment by nature — a dreamer to the core, a buffoon and actor, a kind of Count Cagliostro, who could disappear in one place and immediately appear on the other side of the world. Confident in his genius, in 1975 Diment flew to conquer Hollywood. In the USA, he was engaged in painting, graphics, cinema, and theater directing. In Atlantic City, he staged a circus show. In the New Jersey Theater for the Deaf, he made a series of pantomimes. In a convent, he staged Song of Songs. Made a documentary near Princeton. In Hollywood, he created an acting studio, but soon closed it. In Philadelphia, he managed to work in a porn theater. Without staying anywhere, without dropping anchor or putting down roots in the soil, moving from place to place, he gradually spent his hypnotic vitality. Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Boston. Like Baron Munchausen, he wanted to control his destiny and in 1989 he committed suicide.
A student of N. P. Akimov, a graduate (1968) of the evening department of the production department of LGITMiK, Igor Diment made a bright, visible statement with his first theatrical work. His design for P. N. Fomenko's play New Mystery-Buff at the Leningrad Lensovet Theater was his diploma work. Against the gray background of official socialist realism, his promising talent sparkled with ironic intellect, indomitable fantasy and thirst for life.
In 1969, at the suggestion of the director of the Hermitage Theater, the model of a theater-satellite of foreign exhibitions was tested for the first time. For the exhibition French Romanticism through the All-Russian Theatre Society (now STD) with actors of state theatres, LGITMiK graduates, the avant-garde director and philosopher Boris Ponizovsky together with I. Diment staged a synthetic performance Fantasio based on the play by A. de Musset, linking the comedy of the romantic freethinker with modern times. In 1970 he moved to Moscow, entered the directing department of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. In 1971 at the Moscow Art Theatre he designed Oleg Efremov's production of A. Volodin's play «Dulcinea of Toboso» (composer Oleg Karavaichuk). In 1973 he was expelled from the Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors. In 1974, he took part (including as an actor) in V. Alenikov's surreal biopic about the Armenian genocide, Komitas. The unfinished film was banned.
The tenacity of Leningrad bohemia and the tendency to theatricalize their behavior, associated with the traditions of Russian futurism, can be seen in the fates of creative rebels. Such was Igor Diment by nature — a dreamer to the core, a buffoon and actor, a kind of Count Cagliostro, who could disappear in one place and immediately appear on the other side of the world. Confident in his genius, in 1975 Diment flew to conquer Hollywood. In the USA, he was engaged in painting, graphics, cinema, and theater directing. In Atlantic City, he staged a circus show. In the New Jersey Theater for the Deaf, he made a series of pantomimes. In a convent, he staged Song of Songs. Made a documentary near Princeton. In Hollywood, he created an acting studio, but soon closed it. In Philadelphia, he managed to work in a porn theater. Without staying anywhere, without dropping anchor or putting down roots in the soil, moving from place to place, he gradually spent his hypnotic vitality. Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, Boston. Like Baron Munchausen, he wanted to control his destiny and in 1989 he committed suicide.