Ants Lauter
Acting
Biography
Ants Lauter (July 5, 1894 – October 30, 1973) was an Estonian actor, theatre director and pedagogue, People's Artist of the USSR (1948). He was born in Veski, Wiek County. Since 1974 the Ants Lauter Award has been given to a young stage actor or theatre director.
Born: July 5, 1894
Place of Birth: Veski, Wiek County, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire [now Rapla County, Estonia]
Known For
Hamlet
Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.
King Lear
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
Men Don't Cry
A group of sleepless nerds should be taken into sanitarium for hard-therapy. They are taken to a lonely island but no sanitarium is in sight. Suddenly turns out that the nurses have kidnapped the men and are about to give them the only useful medicine they need - fresh air and work. But the patients decide to disobey. There's only one solution - to escape.
The Last Relic
A medieval love story with lots of adventures. The times are troubled - there's a revolt of peasants going on. To secure its safety a monastery chases for a relics of a holy Brigitte. A nobleman promises to get it if he gets beautiful Agnes as a reward. But she fells in love with a handsome adventurer. The monastery has to act shrewd now and play double game. The movie is still the best achievement of the Estonian cinema. Based on a novel.
Captain of the First Rank
Zakhar Psaltyrev went through many ordeals in the royal fleet, where massacres and bullying of people became a custom. Only thanks to his natural intelligence and perseverance, the illiterate peasant boy managed to avoid the fate of many of his comrades, who became drunkards and lost their human dignity. Captain 1st Rank Lezvin, commander of the cruiser "Svyatoslav", himself suffocating in the difficult atmosphere of the tsarist autocracy, fatherly fell in love with his messenger for his simple Russian soul, quick-witted mind, love for the homeland and hatred of oppression. Zakhar learned a lot from Lezvin, but soon they had to part. Zakhar becomes an active underground Bolshevik.
Between Three Plagues
The story of Balthasar Russow, an Estonian pastor from the 16th century, his life and life's work - writing The Chronicle of Livonia.
The Dead Season
Soviet spy Ladeynikov learns that in one of the pharmaceutical centers in a small resort town works a former German war criminal, Dr. Hass, who is finishing the creation of a deadly chemical gas RH development that he began during World War II, experimenting on POWs. Since Ladeynikov doesn't know Dr. Hass's appearance, Soviet intelligence recruits an actor, Ivan Savushkin, who, during the war, escaped from a prison camp where Hass was testing his gas. Together, they must identify and stop him before he finishes and unleashes his weapon of mass destruction.
Uninvited Guests
Four Estonians who have escaped to Sweden during the war return to Soviet Estonia in the 1950s. The four saboteurs work for the Western Secret Service. Difficulties arise when they cross the border with an injured companion - the three have to decide what to do next.
Andrus' Happiness
Andrus Laane comes from a fisherman's village. He dreams of becoming a captain to sail the seas but fails the entrance exams to the marine academy. By accident he starts working at a big gas plant. Sharp-witted young man with innovative ideas will be recognized. He will also find his first true love. It seems that Andrus has found his happiness, even if not at sea.
The Milkman of Mäeküla
A baron gives a poor peasant a well-paid job of a milkman but for reward he has to accept his beloved girl going to the mansion from time to time. Does the wealth outweigh the honor and conscience?
Filmography
as Horn
as Old Man
as Managing Director
as Baron von Kremer
as Priest
as Episodic role
as Kallak
as Arulaid
as Captain