Ivan MOZZHUKIN was born on September 26, 1889 in the village of Kondol (now in the Penza region). He came from a family belonging to the landed nobility. To satisfy his father's demands, he agreed to study law at Moscow University. But two years later he left the university and joined a theater troupe, with which he worked in Moscow and Kiev and made several tours in the provinces. Moszhkin's theater career continued in Moscow. He played first at the Vveden People's House (Введенский народный дом), and then until 1917 - at the Moscow Drama Theater. Moszhkin performed in all repertoires, from Russian classical to European boulevard. When he made his film debut in the films of Khanjonkov Studios (Торговый дом А. Ханжонков и К/ АО "А. Ханжонков и К) in 1911, he was not yet very well-known. Performing various roles from the repertoire, notably comic and folkloric at the beginning, Mosjoukine appeared for Khanjonkov Studios in more than forty films. It was Yevgeny Bauer who allowed him to reveal the energy and intensity of his acting, associated with great sobriety and mastery of emotions, notably in his film Life in Death (1914) based on the screenplay by the symbolist poet Valery Brusov. This film predestined Mosjoukine's image for cinema and gave birth to his myth. Mosjoukine's acting was noted by several critics, who spoke a lot about the actor's serious and magnetic gaze. Thus he interpreted romantic, "satanic", "decadent" melodramas.
From 1915, MOZZHUKIN entered the Ermoliev studios (Т-во И. Ермольев). Acted in about twenty films by Yakov Protazanov, MOZZHUKIN often played double roles, as in the film Satan Triumphant (1917). With The Queen of Spades, in 1916 and Father Serge (1918), he reached creative perfection: the realism with which he interpreted his roles was unprecedented.
At the end of 1918, Mosjoukine fled the revolution. He left Moscow with Ermoliev who transferred his studios to Yalta. In 1920, the Ermoliev troupe emigrated to Paris. The Pathé company supported him: he became the "Russian school of Montreuil". Mosjoukine regained fame, and excelled himself in great films: Kean by Alexandre Volkoff (1924), Le Lion des Mogols by Jean Epstein (1924), Le Feu de Mathias Pascal by Marcel L'Herbier (1925). The actor also sought to develop his role as a mystical hero, he discovered avant-garde cinema, both French and American. He also became a director and shot two works, acclaimed by the avant-garde: L'Enfant du carnaval (1921) and Le Brasier ardent (1923).
In 1927, Mosjoukine left for the United States, but the Hollywood experience was a failure and marked the decline of his career. Indeed, after an unfortunate plastic surgery operation, which took away the expressive power of his features, he appeared in five mediocre films shot in Berlin for the UFA between 1928 and 1930. The advent of talking pictures condemned the actor. He played again in The Thousand and Second Night by A. Volkoff (1933) and the same year in The Loves of Casanova by René Barberis: in this last film, he gave a new interpretation of the role already played for Casanova by A. Volkoff in 1927. He only achieved partial success. He would play again in 1936, but in a secondary role in Nitchevo by Jean de Baroncelli.
MOZZHUKIN lived the last three years of his life in spirit, which he ended in poverty. He died after a long illness on January 18, 1939 in Neuilly-sur-Seine and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Île-de-France, Essonne department).
