The film industry was plagued by damage from the war, low production, and stalins cult of personality. Given such pressures it is hardly surprising that, with rare exceptions, soviet cinema of the 1930s presented a dispiriting parade of mediocrity. Pdf questionable foundations for a national cinema. Soviet filmmaking opened up even more with the advent of glasnost and perestroika in the late 1980s and 1990s. Art, ideology, and entertainment in soviet cinema by. The politics of the soviet cinema 19171929 by professor richard taylor, 9780521088558, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Buy stalinism and soviet cinema 1 by spring, derek, taylor, richard isbn. The bolsheviks led by vladimir lenin had overthrown the tsar in 1917 and the country of 160 million people, mostly poor and illiterate, was torn apart from years of civil war. Socialist cinema seventeen moments in soviet history. Today were adding to our list of free movies a 1930 soviet silent film by director alexander dovzhenko. Perestroika and the postsoviet period, 1986aleinikov, gleb.
The cinema of the soviet union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the. Stalinism and soviet cinema marks the first attempt to confront systematically the role and influence of stalin and stalinism in the history and development of soviet cinema. General interest the politics of the soviet cinema 19171929 by richard taylor. The first page of the pdf of this article appears above. Lenin on the most important of the arts seventeen moments. A glimpse on the history of russian cinema theatre and. Marxism and early cinema marxism film, movie, documentary. The cinema of the russian empire roughly spans the period 1907 1920, during which time a. Mar 10, 2018 early soviet cinema, then, became an exercise in interior design, in soviet homemaking. View history of russian and soviet cinema research papers on academia. The key figure of the soviet cinema, and a giant of film history, is sergei eisenstein 18981948, who fused marxist dialectics with art movements such as cubism and constructivism to produce a challenging, dynamic cinema that served the agitation purposes of the soviet revolution. Comparing soviet and us industrial output and labour productivity.
The soviet hand itself, interestingly, played a major role in this cinematic discourse of design and making. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. How is this possible, if the ussr itself, as a geopolitical entity, only lasted seven decades, before its spectacular demise in 1991, when the rule of the communist party was overthrown and the union shattered into its. Rich variety of firsthand and regularly supplemented information on russian culture. The figure of the contemporaneous internal enemy was an integral part of soviet cinema throughout the 1930s. Boris shumyatsky and the soviet cinema in the 1930s. Ukrainian poetic cinema of the 1960s find, read and cite all the research you need on. The cinema of russia began in the russian empire, widely developed in the soviet union and. The guide contains a large selection of databases, books, and reference material.
Government policies and practical necessities in the soviet cinema of the 1920s. Historical journal of film, radio and television, vol. Soviet armenian identity and cultural representation. University of groningen a comparison of soviet and us.
There is a provocative dimension, perhaps, in the title of this dossier. Early russian cinema, 19071918 pdf russian and soviet cinema 18961953, a j horton at day archived 20121209. Apr 05, 2016 this lecture talks about early soviet cinema. Soviet cinema 1920s the russians are coming compared to hollywood, cinema as an art form in the 1920s was more advanced in europe, where filmmakers took a more mature, nuanced approach to movies. Stalinism and soviet cinema marks the first attempt to confront systematically the role and influence of stalin and stalinism in the history and development of soviet cinema the collection provides comprehensive coverage of the antecedents, role and consequences of stalinism and soviet cinema, how stalinism emerged, what the relationship was between the political leadership, the cinema. In the 1920s, the soviet film industry was statesponsored and subject to state interference, its propaganda function for the new soviet state accepted as a matter of course. Russian and soviet cinema in the age of revolution, 1917 1932. Project muse the enemy, the communist, and ideological. Jeff brooks, the johns hopkins universitythis book explores how soviet film worked with time, the past, and memory.
Cinema was nothing less than the most important art, lenin famously declared. Privately owned movie theaters prospered, and with them, the. The cinema of the soviet union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the soviet union reflecting elements of their pre soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in moscow. It was a brief but brilliant interlude, before joseph stalin came to power and cast a puritanical and paralyzing pall over all the arts, including cinema, in the. Earth, capped by that avowedly secular title, is a. At the time, the iconoclasm of the immediate postrevolutionary years had given way to nation building and a conscious attempt to create a new soviet culture. Letter never sent neotpravlennoe pismo letter never sent, mikhail kalatozov, 1960 is a curious document that bears a. Watch earth, a landmark of soviet cinema 1930 open culture. The birth of soviet cinema and the kuleshov workshops. The man is shown throughout with camera and tripod in hand climbing towers, trestles, and bridges, lying on railroad tracks, precariously poised in a speeding car to capture a tracking shot of others in a speeding horsedrawn carriage.
The politics of the soviet cinema 19171929 by richard taylor. On cinefantoms new criticism as the corpus callosum of film cognition. In 1919 lenin nationalized the russian film industry. Ships from and sold by herb tandree philosophy bks. Soviet montage cinema as propaganda and political rhetoric michael russell doctor of philosophy the university of edinburgh 2009 this. How can the soviet armenian identity and its different dimensions be character ized. Operation y and shuriks other adventures, 1965 of the twenty highestgrossing films in the history of the soviet. With lack of movie theaters, soviet government innovated trains, trucks, and even steamboats visited the countryside, painted with slogans and caricatures, and carrying propaganda leaflets, printing presses, and small filmmaking setups. Cinema revealed how socialist utopia could be built on macro and microlevels, in factories and in living rooms. The soviet hand itself, interestingly, played a major role.
As soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early 1930s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as socialist realism. Lawrence, jazz age, mae west, movietone, prohibition, roaring twenties, russian cinema 1920s, soviet cinema 1920s, speakeasies, the end of st. The cinema of the soviet union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the soviet union reflecting elements of their presoviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in moscow. History of russian and soviet cinema research papers.
Soviet cinema in the silent era, 19181935 book description. The 1920s was the decade of the new economic policy in the ussr, when a relaxation of state control of some industries gave people a taste of minicapitalism within the communist economy. Stalinism and soviet cinema by derek spring overdrive. At the end of the first world war, russia was in disarray. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. For as miller notes, the apparatchiks efforts were ultimately selfdefeating in aiming for a national cinema that would inspire the masses, they succeeded mainly in boring and alienating them.
Stalinism and soviet cinema by richard taylor, derek spring. Recommended books russian and soviet cinema library. Soviet avantgarde tectonics first appear on film in an entirely abstract fashion, and not in the ussr at all, in the form of hans richters series of animated shorts, rhythmus, made in 192123. Apr 01, 2010 given such pressures it is hardly surprising that, with rare exceptions, soviet cinema of the 1930s presented a dispiriting parade of mediocrity.
Pow deaths and people handed over to germany and the soviet. In 1932 the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avantgarde. Soviet montage cinema as propaganda and political rhetoric michael russell doctor of. The possibilities of cinema as a propaganda, agitation, and educational tool in a country of widespread illiteracy intrigued the soviet leaders. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of the antecedents, role and consequences of stalinism and soviet cinema, how stalinism emerged, what the relationship was between the political leadership, the cinema. Importance of soviet silent films film studies essay. This article focuses the technical issues involved in soviet cinema and makes the argument that a lack of equipment and technical advancement hindered the soviet film industry. And yet in 1922 lenin said, of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important. Wonderfully illustrated, socialist senses will engage all scholars of the period. The historical simultaneity of cinemas emergence as a mass medium and the bolshevik revolution virtually determined that the new regime would appropriate film as a key weapon of mass. Soviet cinema politics and persuasion under stalin. During the period of 19541964 the soviet union and soviet cinema witnessed a thaw. Nor can one ade quately estimate the actual effect of his work on the cinema itself.
Andre staggered me, tellenay continues, at this time by his. Nebesio and others published questionable foundations for a national cinema. They would also put on theatrical skits or showed movies on outdoor screens for local crowds. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of the antecedents, role and consequences of stalinism and soviet cinema, how stalinism emerged, what the relationship was between the political leadership, the. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of the antecedents, role and consequences of stalinism and soviet cinema, how stalinism emerged, what the relationship was between the political leadership, the cinema administrators, the filmmakers and their films and audiences, and how soviet cinema is coming to terms with the disintegration of. The purpose of this guide is to facilitate researching russian and soviet cinema in the variety of online and printed resources at university of california, berkeley library. In painting, architecture, literature, cinema, and song, images of landscape were enlisted to help mold the masses into joyful, hardworking citizens of a state with a radiant, utopian. This figure was novelsoviet cinema in the 1920s found little material in a soviet reality dominated by the new economic policy nep to warrant a violent political plotline. Antimonumentalism and understatement, typical of thaw cinema, perhaps, provide one explanation why the films of the era went through a period of relative. Article databases russian and soviet cinema library. This is a major study of the place of soviet film within the soviet cultural system. One of the soviet filmmakers who developed this idea into both a theory and a practice of filmmaking was sergei eisenstein. The collection provides comprehensive coverage of the antecedents, role and consequences of stalinism and soviet cinema, how stalinism emerged, what the relationship was.
Aug 09, 2012 in a situation where efficiency was fantasy, we have a cinema where factory farming is presented as a practically orgasmic technoprimitive process. This book looks at the soviet cinema in its formative period from the political point of view, examining both the attitude of the authorities towards the cinema and the actual use to which the cinema was put. Jul 11, 2011 in the 1920s, the soviet film industry was statesponsored and subject to state interference, its propaganda function for the new soviet state accepted as a matter of course. But surprisingly, most of the films in the bfis kino season of early soviet films transcend the sort of didactic political preaching you might expect from that setup. Stalinist cinema and the production of history edinburgh. Depicting americans through the lens of russian cinema. Mar 05, 2020 the purpose of this guide is to facilitate researching russian and soviet cinema in the variety of online and printed resources at university of california, berkeley library. In a situation where efficiency was fantasy, we have a cinema where factory farming is presented as a practically orgasmic technoprimitive process. The golden age of soviet cinema, in the years following the russian revolution, was a time of both achievement and contradiction, as reflected in the films of eisenstein, pudovkin, and kuleshov. By the 1930s socialist realism was decreed to be the official art of the soviet union. Until recently, soviet cinema of the sixties received relatively little attention, overshadowed, as it was, by russian avantgarde film of the 1920s, the cinema of gorbachevs perestroika, russian prerevolutionary film, and even stalinera cinema.
Government policies and practical necessities in the. The soviet cinema was born together with the soviet state, inheriting no traditions from the past. In a country where an unsuccessful film used to draw. Not according to plan shows that even though josef stalin recognized cinema as a mighty instrument of mass agitation and propaganda and strove to harness the soviet film industry to serve the state, directors such as eisenstein, alexandrov, and pudovkin had far more creative control than did partyappointed executives and censors. The montage cinema which demanded that the audiences continually searched for the meaning created by the juxtaposition of two shots can thus be seen as alternative to the continuity editingbased hollywood cinema. Stalins death in 1953 and khrushchevs secret speech in 1956 gave the soviet cinema much needed breathing space. The soviet cinema 5 jul 1945 the spectator archive. In 1970, soviet cinema liberated itself from its inferiority complexes in relation to hollywood, although many genres such as. Its called earth, and its the third installment in dovzhenkos ukraine trilogy.
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