Introduction:
Reading Russian film
Issues,
Historical context
Two types of discontinuity
•
Technical innovation: sound, colour,
hand-held camera (steadycam)
•
Social and political breaks in evolution
Issues: function, organization, sociology
Issues: “Elite” intellectual strain vs.
popular film
Issues:
Political role of film as form of dissent
• Victor Tsoy: “Change”
• Film: Assa
• Dir. Sergei Solov’ov (1987).
Issues: Narrative vs non-narrative structure
The Russian Ark
Dir. Aleksandr
Sokurov (2002)
Issues
Relationship of film to
other genres:
theatre, literature, visual
arts, TV
TV Series Liquidation
(2007)
The Historical Perspective
Tsarist Russia: 1896 – 1918
Nicholas II and Family
Capitalist, commercial cinema
• Entertainment predominated. Star system.
• Melodramas, national sagas.
• Private distributors and cinemas
Vera Kholodnaia (1893-1919)
Ivan Mozzhukhin (1889-1939)
October 1917
• Bolsheviks
(Communists) seize
power
• Vladimir Lenin takes
control of the new
Soviet Russia
1918 – 1928
Early Experimental Soviet Cinema
• Cinema nationalized.
• “Avantgarde” political cinema: Pudovkin,
Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Dovzhenko.
But….
Audiences prefer Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford…
A Canadian girl … in Moscow!
Mary Pickford’s Kiss…
1927 Canadian-born star
Mary Pickford shoots
cameo scene with
Douglas Fairbanks in
Moscow for Russian
film starring Igor
Ilinsky.
1928–1953
Stalinism – War – Cold War
• Joseph Stalin seizes
control of Soviet Union
• Industrialization,
collectivization,
militarization
• Preparations for the
coming war with Germany
Film under Stalin 1928–1953
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sound movies and musicals.
Tight political control,
1935 - Union of film-makers.
Socialist realism.
Film as propaganda.
“Trophy” films seized in Germany.
The Circus (1936)
Dir. Grigory Aleksandrov
Soviets learn from
Hollywood…
• Most famous Soviet
musical
• Starring Liubov
Orlova
• Anti-racist message
“Trophy” films
Marika Rökk
The Girl of My Dreams
(1944)
Life after Stalin: Khrushchev and Brezhnev
Post-Stalin Film 1953-1984
• Golden age of Soviet Cinema.
• Influence of French and Italian cinema.
• Mass production of high quality popular
films: Georgy Danelia, Eldar Ryazanov.
• “Elite” films with deeper intellectual
content: Sergei Paradzhanov, Andrei
Tarkovsky.
Autumn Marathon
by Georgy Danelia (1979)
Mikhail Gorbachev1985-1991
• Perestroika brings
radical change to the
USSR
• Opening up of
country, end of Cold
War
• Party controls
abolished
Perestroika 1985 - 1991
• Competition from video and TV (Porno,
Rambo, Mexican and Brazilian soaps).
• Distribution of banned films.
• “Black Film” (“Chernukha”)
• Collapse of film industry.
• Breakdown of Soviet system.
Out of the archives
The Commissar
dir. Aleksandr Askoldov
(film shot in 1967,
released 20 years later)
The Needle
dir. Rashid Nugmanov (1988)
• Chernukha (“black”
film)
• Shows Soviet reality
with the lid off.
Boris Eltsin (1990-1999 and… Vladimir Putin
(1999-2008)
Post-Soviet Russia 1991
• Capitalist film industry
• Flood of American films in cinemas and
video
• Struggle to maintain Russian film industry
• Alternative films and TV series.
The Barber of Siberia
dir. Nikita Mikhalkov (1999)
Brother
dir. Aleksei Balabanov (1997)
The Night Watch (Nochnoy dozor)
dir. Timur Bekmambetov (2004)
“All that stands between light and darkness is the
Night Watch.”
The Mongol
dir. Sergei Bodrov the Elder (2007)
A Slave of Love (1976)
Dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCXScj6QLK0&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBThP4ZN8U&feature=related
Entire film in Russian:
http://zafilm.ru/smotret_online/5368_raba_lyubvi.html