a2 unit 3 art and the moving image - soviet cinema presentation

8/14/2019 A2 Unit 3 Art and the Moving Image - Soviet Cinema Presentation

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Unit 3: Art and theMoving Image

Soviet Cinema


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Why is studying Soviet Cinemaimportant? Soviet films of the 1920s did much to define

the cinematic vocabulary of modern

Hollywood, producing a range of effects

designed to emotionally manipulate theaudience. Even today modern filmmakers

have at various times paid direct or indirect

homage to their Russian cinematic forebears.


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Historical context: Tsarist

Russia

When studying film it is important to always consider the political, social and

historical context in which films are made. This is particularly the case withRussia, which has a long and turbulent history. The origins of the revolution - Despite being the third biggest Empire in

the world it can be suggested that the prevalence ofserfdom and theconservative policies ofNicolas I and a Tsarist or monarchist systemimpeded the development of Russia in the mid-nineteenth century.

Nicholas's successorAlexander II (18551881) enacted significant reforms,

including the abolition of serfdom in 1861; these "Great Reforms" spurredindustrialization. However, many socio-economic conflicts were aggravated during

AlexanderIIIs reign and under his son, Nicholas II. Harsh conditions infactories created mass support for the revolutionary socialist movement.

In January 1905, striking workers peaceably demonstrated for reforms inSaint Petersburg but were fired upon by troops, killing and wounding

hundreds. The abject failure of the Tsar's military forces in the initially popular

Russo-Japanese War, and the event known as "Bloody Sunday", ignited theRussian Revolution of 1905.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_serfdomhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_I_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_reform_of_1861http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialisationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_(1905)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lenin_1920.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_(1905)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialisationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_reform_of_1861http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_I_of_Russiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_serfdom


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Revolution in Russia 1905


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Historical context: Effects ofWar, Industrialisation, Famine. Famine - Although the uprising was swiftly put down by the army and although Nicholas II

retained much of his power, he was forced to concede major reforms, including granting thefreedoms of speech and assembly, the legalization of political parties and the creation of anelected legislative assembly, the Duma; however, the hopes for basic improvements in the livesof industrial workers were unfulfilled. Droughts and famines in Russia tended to occur on a fairlyregular basis, with famine occurring every 1013 years. The 189192 famine killed approximatelyhalf-million people.[77]Cholera epidemics claimed more than 2 million lives.[78]

WWI & The Russian Revolution - Russia entered World War I in aid of its ally Serbia and fought

a war across three fronts while isolated from its allies. Russia did not want war but felt that theonly alternative was German domination of Europe. Although the army was far from defeated in1916, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war,casualties (Russia suffered the highest number ofboth military and civilian deaths of theEntente Powers), and tales of corruption and even treason in high places, leading to the outbreakof the Russian Revolution of 1917.

February Revolution & Provisional Government - A series of uprisings were organized byworkers and peasants throughout the country, as well as by soldiers in the Russian army, whowere mainly of peasant origin. Many of the uprisings were organized and led by democraticallyelected councils called Soviets. The February Revolution overthrew the Russian monarchy, whichwas replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself theProvisional Government.

October Revolution and Lenin - The abdication marked the end of imperial rule in Russia, andNicholas and his family were imprisoned and later executed during the Civil War. While initiallyreceiving the support of the Soviets, the Provisional Government proved unable to resolve manyproblems which had led to the February Revolution. The second revolution, theOctober Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government and created theworlds first socialist state.
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Vladimir Lenin


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Historical Context: SovietRussia Internal Conflict - Following the October Revolution, a civil warbroke out

between the new regime and the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, andthe White movement. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk concluded hostilities withthe Central Powers in World War I. Russia lost its Ukrainian, Polish andBaltic territories, and Finland by signing the treaty. The Allied powerslaunched a military intervention in support of anti-Communist forces andboth the Bolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns ofdeportations and executions against each other, known respectively as the

Red Terrorand White Terror.

The Soviet Union - The famine of 1921 claimed 5 million victims.[79] By theend of the Russian Civil War, some 20 million had died and the Russianeconomy and infrastructure were completely devastated. Following victory inthe Civil War, the Russian SFSR together with three other Soviet republicsformed the Soviet Union on 30 December 1922. Out of the 15 republics that

constituted the Soviet Union, theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the largest republic in termsof size and making up over half of the total USSR population, dominated theSoviet Union for its entire 69-year history; the USSR was often referred to,though incorrectly, as "Russia" and its people as "Russians."
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Historical Context: SovietRussia Joseph Stalin - Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin consolidated power,

becoming a dictator. He launched a command economy, rapid industrialization of thelargely rural country, and collectivization of its agriculture. These moves transformedthe Soviet Union from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in ashort span of time. This transformation came with a heavy price, however. Millions ofcitizens died as a consequence of his harsh policies (see Gulag, Dekulakization,Population transfers in the Soviet Union, Soviet famine of 19321933, andGreat Terror).

World War II - On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union with the largest and

most powerful invasion force in human history,[83] opening thelargest theater of the Second World War. Although the German army had considerable successearly on, they suffered defeats after reaching the outskirts of Moscow and were dealt their firstmajor defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 19421943.[84] Soviet forces drovethrough Eastern Europe in 194445 and captured Berlin in May, 1945. In the conflict, Sovietmilitary and civilian death toll were 10.6 million and 15.9 million respectively,[85] accounting forabout a third of all World War II casualties. The Soviet economy and infrastructure sufferedmassive devastation[86] but the Soviet Union emerged as an acknowledged superpower. TheRed Army occupied Eastern Europe after the war, including the eastern halfof Germany; Stalininstalled socialist governments in these satellite states. Becoming the world's secondnuclear weapons power, the USSR established the Warsaw Pact alliance and entered into astruggle for global dominance with the United States, which became known as the Cold War
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Early Russian Cinema 1896-

First Films - The first films were shown in Russia in 1896 andwithin ten years domestic interest in cinema-going was so strongthat it led to the beginnings of domestic production. With itsorigins as a novelty in stalls at fairs, cinema was seen asentertainment rather than an art form.

Silent Films? Early screenings featured a series of short filmsrunning continuously with often drunk and noisy audienceswandering in and out. Films were shot without sound, but earlyRussian films were based around songs that viewers could singalong with.

Literary Adaptations - There were a number of historicalproductions and adaptations of well-known works of literature aswell, since cinema was seen as working better when theaudience was already familiar with the plot.


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World War I

Breakthrough The onset of WWI created a wealth ofinnovation and increased demand for domestic films as Importswere hindered.

First Auteur - The length of productions had by this timeincreased, and Evgeny Bauerbecame the first Russian director

to insist that he have overall creative control for all of his films'elements (set design, lighting, costumes, script, editing) and not

just marshal the actors in the shooting process. Although firmly rooted in melodrama and often exploiting such

clichs as the little country girl corrupted by the big city, Bauer's

films are of much interest, rooted as they are in symbolism,Greek tragedy and the great Russian novels of the 19th century.Even today, his choice of themes seems adventurous, albeitmorbid, and his sense of mise-en-scne is striking.
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The Dying Swan 1917 RussianSilent Vera Karalli Evgeni Bauer

Ballet


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After the Revolution

Growth of Film Under Communism - The Tsaristauthorities and the Orthodox Church were extremelydistrustful of cinema, popular and bawdy as it was.The communists, who seized power in October

1917, knew only too well its power and were keen totap into it. Initially though, the politicians were more concerned

with consolidating their shaky power base (civil warraged in the country until 1921), and the Tsarist

filmmakers were more concerned with fleeing thecommunists. Moreover, early Soviet film was hampered by a

shortage of film stock.


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Agit-Prop

The first films after the revolution were "agit-prop" (agitation-propaganda) works that sought to educate a largely illiteratepopulation about the goals of communism. With few cinemas inthe areas that most needed educating, screenings took place onspecially converted "agit trains" that toured the country.

With the old guard of filmmaking largely in exile and a newpolitical order in place, young emerging filmmakers sought tocreate a new way of looking at reality (as did those working inother art forms, such as music, poetry, architecture and fine art).The result was one of the most intense periods of creativity in

cinema history.


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Americanism

Early Soviet directors were highly influenced by the "cinema-ness" of American films of the time: Keystone Kops chasescenes made in the early teens, for example, included suchstunts as jumping off a bridge onto a bus passing underneath - ascene that totally transcended the possibilities of theconventional theater. D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), whichhad to be smuggled into the country, was also a huge influence,despite grave reservations about the director's racism.

Kuleshov & Soviet Montage - In a 1922 article entitled"Americanism," pioneering directorLev Kuleshov called forfilmmaking with an "organic link with contemporary life," "themaximum amount of movement," shorter scenes and thereforemore rapid cutting, close-ups and attention to how individualshots worked when combined together - montage. Russiandirectors responded to Kuleshov with a series of works that,despite the heavy influence of American cinema, came to beknown as Soviet montage.
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Keystone Cops


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Lev Kuleshov

Kuleshov worked under Evgeny Bauer during the Tsarist period, first as a set designer and thenas an actor. Although Kuleshov repudiated "the Bauer method," he consolidated the notion of thedirector as artist in total control and he doubtless learned much from Bauer.

The Kuleshov Experiment - His first films were newsreels and enacted documentaries for thenascent Soviet state and he then went on to found "Kuleshov Collective" at the State Film School.However, shortages of film stock were chronic and agit-prop work had priority. Starved of theability to make art films, Kuleshov went through an intense period of theorization about cinemaand experimented with a form of theater that mimicked the visual language of cinema - "filmswithout film."

When he made his first film in 1924, Neobychainye prikliucheniya mistera Vesta v stranebol'shevikov(The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, 1924) hewas able to claim that it was a "verification of [his workshop's] methods." As well as being notablefor its montage, Mr. Westillustrates Kuleshov's interest in actors and acting, something that setshim aside from montage directors such as Eisenstein.

Innovation - After a science fiction thriller, The Death Ray(Luch smerti, 1925), Kuleshov madeBy the Law(Po zakonu, 1926), based on a Jack London story about the Gold Rush (thus onceagain showing Kuleshov's interest in America). It's a film that graphically demonstrates the ends

to which Kuleshov and his team of actors would go in order to make cinema. The cabin in whichthe action takes place was built alongside an actual Russian river in the full knowledge that it wasabout to flood. Kuleshov intended there to be a couple of inches of water on the cabin floor, but itrose to a couple of feet. Nevertheless, the team continued shooting, despite occasional electricshocks from the lighting cables that had to run underwater and the freezing conditions for thesoaked actors. The only film currently available on video from Kuleshov's oeuvre, By the Lawdemonstrates his huge talent, imagination and energy.
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By the Law


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Vsevelod Pudovkin

Pudovkin, like his teacher Kuleshov, also cherished the role ofthe actor. His first film was the comic short Chess Fever(Shakhmatnaya goryachka, 1925), which seemlessly blendeddocumentary footage of real-life Grand Master Jose RaulCapablanca (shot at a tournament in Moscow) to make it seem

he is part of the story. His most famous film is Mother(Mat, 1926), based on a story by

leading light of communist literature, Maxim Gorky. It follows amother in Tsarist Russia who is unable to understand her son'sopposition to the regime. Only when he is imprisoned does the

need for revolution dawn on her. The final scene, with the sonescaping down a river on an ice floe and the prison guards in hotpursuit, is one of the best known from Soviet silent cinema.
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Mother


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Vsevelod Pudovkin

The End of St Petersburg(Konets Sankt-Peterburga, 1927) was one of a string of filmsmade to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. In this version, apeasant arrives in pre-war Saint Petersburg to find work just as strikes break out acrossthe capital. He joins the strike-breakers and turns one of the organizers in to the police, buthe soon realizes he's wrong and tries, in vain, to make amends. Until, that is, some yearslater when revolution breaks out.

Storm over Asia (Potomok Chingis-khana, 1928) was filmed on location in Mongolia and isset during the period when British rule was being destabilized by the Civil War. The wily

British believe they have found the heir to Ghengis Khan and install him as a puppet leaderto try and introduce stability. The ethnographically shot scenes are still notable, and thiscautionary tale of ill-advised imperialism may strike some as strikingly resonant withtoday's global politics.

Pudovkin's reputation is now less than that of his fellow montagists, perhaps because,unlike directors such as Kuleshov, Eisenstein orDovzhenko, he never made a film thathad a decidedly anti-regime subtext and was always the dedicated artist in the service ofthe state. Furthermore, during the Great Terror he "was not always averse to protecting hisown interests at the expense of others," as Richard Taylor phrases it. Still, his films fromthe 1920s are undoubted masterpieces of the era and, if they look less spectacular nowthan they once did, it is because Pudovkin's experimentations with editing have been moreevenly successful and incorportated into the mainstream of cinema vocabulary than havethose of other directors from the period.
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Sergei Eisenstein

No film director has had more words written about them than Sergei Eisenstein,the undisputed master of Soviet montage, and no director has written so muchabout film. His works are still referenced and borrowed from by modern directorssuch as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma, not tomention advertising.

Yet none of the films he made exist in the final form in which he wanted them.The negatives to his first two features Strike (Stachka, 1924) and

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potemkin, 1925) were sold by Russia toGermany to raise hard currency, and were censored and edited there. His nexttwo features, including October(Oktyabr, 1927), had to be radically revised in anattempt to meet official approval. Two films from the 1930s were nevercompleted. His attempt to rehabilitate himself,Aleksandr Nevsky(1938) wasshown to Stalin before it was completed and the dictator was so pleased with theunfinished work that nobody dared alter it further. Eisenstein died withoutfinishing his final project, the Ivan the Terrible trilogy (1943-46). Like that otherpioneering auteurOrson Welles (with whom he shared a passion forShakespeare), Eisenstein left behind a long list of unrealized projects and ideasfor films with his death.
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Sergei Eisenstein

Eisenstein started in experimental theater but soon drifted towards cinema. Hisfirst film, Strike (Stachka, 1924), although in some ways still marked by hisbackground in theater - Eisenstein would also prefer to use character "types"rather than let his actors explore the personalities of complex individuals -employed some boldly cinematic techniques. The film depicts the titularindustrial action, which takes place in Tsarist times, and its suppression by thepolice. While some of the experiments in film language fail (the dramatic sweeps

and shapes to change or frame action would go in his later films), others are asvivid and memorable as anything he would do in his more famous films. ThoughStrike is a little more uneven than Eisenstein's later works, veteran critic DerekMalcolm considers it his best, as it shows his basic humanity far better than hislater masterpieces.

Eisenstein's most famous and influential film is Battleship Potemkin (1925).Although originally conceived as one of a number of films celebrating the 20thanniversary of the 1905 uprisings against Tsarist rule, Battleship Potemkin wasthe only one of the series made. The film's plot is loosely based on the mutinyaboard the titular war vessel in response to appalling conditions and an uncaringand aloof officer class.


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Battleship Potemkin

Odessa, in the film, comes out in support of the militant sailors, and theTsarist army brutally suppresses the jubilant shoreline encouragement -the infamous "Odessa Steps" sequence (in fact, a fictional invention bythe film's makers rather than a historical event). The battleship thenheads out to sea; in the final act, another memorable and endlesslycopied sequence, the battleship faces the combined might of the

imperial navy with its red flag (hand tinted on the film) fluttering proudlyin the wind. The true end was rather more ignominious, with the sailorsdocking in Romania and being arrested and transferred to Russia.

Eisenstein's conception of montage was that by understanding that theshot is the basic unit of filmmaking you could play the audience'semotions like a violin, making them feel rage or calm as the directordesired. This, for Eisenstein, was the basis of a revolutionary cinema,

galvinizing the masses to support the political changes in society. Thefilm was seen as so effective at rousing the emotions against thetyranny of capitalism that it was banned in some parts of the world; inEngland, the film couldn't be shown until 1954.


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Battleship Potemkin OdessaSteps


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October

The director's next project was also a commemorative work, marking the tenth anniversary of the October1917 revolution in which the Bolsheviks seized power. Its original title was simply October, but forinternational distribution the film is also often given the title of communist journalist John Reed's accountof the events, Ten Days that Shook the World. More intellectual than Battleship Potemkin, the film usesstriking juxtapositions of symbols to comment on the events.

The film had to be violently recut, though, in order to severely downplay the role played in the revolutionby Trotsky, who had fallen out of political favor and been expelled from the Party by the time the film wasfinished. A similar fate would befall The Old and the New(Staroe I novoe, 1929), which was originallyentitled The General Line (General'naya liniya) and was to portray the advantages of collectivized farms

over individual peasant small-holdings. With the advent of sound, Eisenstein would travel abroad to investigate the new techniques. Although hewas feted in Hollywood as a genius, his proposals to make a film there never led to anything concrete; ifhis attempts to make films under Stalin were perpetually hindered, in Hollywood they were thwartedcompletely.

Out of luck in Hollwood, Eisenstein tried to shoot a film, Qu Viva Mexico!, in and about Mexico for hisfirst sound project. But the money ran out, and Stalin refused the director access to the footage he hadshot. The film was reconstructed in 1979 from the available footage and the director's notes.

When the director returned to Russian in 1932, under the orders of Stalin, he was distinctly out of favor,with his work branded as "formalist," a favorite term of abuse by the regime for directors who were more

concerned with film language than talking to the masses. Although he lived for another 16 years, he wouldwork on only three more film projects, one of which, Bezhin Meadow(Bezhin lug), was only partiallycompleted before the footage was destroyed. His other two works are covered in the section "SoundCinema and the Great Terror."
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Dziga Vertov

The work ofDziga Vertov (born Denis Kaufman) was diametricallyopposed to that ofEisenstein, but is just as rewarding and challenging.Suspicious of "unreal" staged fiction, Vertov called a for a radical filmlanguage that apotheosized the camera lens (the "cine-eye") assuperior to the human eye in capturing a cinematic reality. Perhaps notentirely consistently, he claimed his work as objective documentary

while using extreme stylization in composition, special effects andediting. Although later eclipsed by accusations of formalism in his owncountry, Vertov's interest in everyday life would go on to influencecinma vrit, Direct Cinema, the French New Wave and Dogme 95.

Vertov, whose pseudonym translates as "whizzing top," started his filmcareer in news reels, reporting from the front of the Civil War and alsoscreening his works in the agit-trains. Trained in psycho-neurology in

the field of perception, Vertov was able to use his background toexperiment with montage techniques. Throughout the early 1920s, hepublished a slew of manifestos and theoretical papers on cinema whileat the same time producing a series of features that sought to present"life caught unawares."
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Dziga Vertov Man with a MovieCamera The culmination of this came in 1929 with his magnus opus

Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom), one of aseries of otherwise unrelated productions at the time that were"symphonies" to the great cities of Europe. In Vertov's case, thecity was a composite one, including scenes from Moscow, Kievand Odessa, but the point was to capture general Soviet reality

not that of an individual place. As the title suggests, the filmfollows a filmmaker who is shooting a documentary about life inthe city. Not only is the whole premise of the film exceedinglyself-referential, it also contains an unusually prescient subtextthat shows cinema as a medium of manipulation and casts doubton its own veracity.

Vertov went on to experiment with sound in films such asThree Songs of Lenin (Tri pesni o Lenine, 1934). The adulationof the European avant garde and a steady stream of awardsprotected Vertov's position at first. But it was not to last, andVertov eventually went back to editing newsreels.
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Man with a Movie Camera


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Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Although Zvenigora (1928) was Dovzhenko's fourth film project, it is often labelled as hisdebut, so violently did it fling him from provincial obscurity to bright stardom in thefirmament of Soviet montage. Dovzhenko, aside from his distinctive film language, isdistinguished from his contemporaries by his painterly eye (he trained as an artist), hisinterest in the folklore of his native Ukraine, his attempts to reconcile modernity andtradition and his lyricism.

Zvenigora's sweeping narrative encapsulates the whole of Ukrainian history, and was, asthe director himself put it, "in 2000 meters of film, a whole millennium." Replete with

culturally specific references and adopting an ambitious narrative structure, Zvenigora wasnotoriously difficult to follow for Soviet audiences at the time. Even Eisenstein's account ofthe Moscow premiere ofZvenigora suggests as much confusion as admiration. Perhaps itis no surprise then that nobody has yet risked springing it on the American public via aDVD release.Arsenal(1929), was also historical, commissioned to mark the tenthanniversary of the battle for Kiev during the Civil War. The battle was noteworthy for a six-day siege in which Bolshevik irregulars managed to defend the city's munitions factory -the "Arsenal" of the title - from the Tsarist "Whites." Although the narrative is firmly rootedin one time period,Arsenalis thematically more ambitious. Not only did the director show

the Civil War victory to be a result of the commitment of ordinary people (rather than theleadership of the Party), Dovzhenko made a brutal film that refused to glorify war orrevolution.Arsenal's triumphalist ending (slightly at odds with the rest of the film's tone) isa retelling of a Ukrainian folk legend about an 18th-century leader of a peasant uprising.
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Earth


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Entertainment Film in the1920s Montage was a major innovation that has made Russian cinema

famous throughout the world. But it was not appreciated by Russianaudiences at the time. The classics of montage generally got smallreleases and were seen by a relatively small number of people.

Far more popular than these exercises in the avant garde use of filmlanguage were genre films whose first aim was to entertain, returning

the cinema to its popular roots. Although frequently less thanideological, these films often found favor with the authorities as theycould be exported, thus bringing the Bolsheviks much needed hardcurrency.

One of the big coups of Soviet cinema in the early days was succeedingin wooing one of the big names of Tsarist-era cinema back to work inthe country - Iakov Protazanov. Given his connections with the old

guard of filmmaking, perhaps it is no surprise that Protazanov shouldmake far more "traditional" cinema, with strong characters and story-lines; he was, after all, one of the most popular and prolific directors ofthe time.
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It's a strange twist of fate, then, that the only film of his to beavailable on DVD in the US is not one of his "popular" works buthis semi-experimental featureAelita: Queen of Mars (1924), thefirst film he made after his return. Commonly described as thefirst Soviet science fiction film and noted for its expressionistcostume and set design,Aelita is both heralded as a precursor to

Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) and sometimes dismissivelywritten off as communist propaganda - an accusation which iscompletely baffling, given that the film argues that the ideals ofrevolutions are prone to being hijacked by tyrants.

Protazanov learned his lesson fromAelita and never made sucha densely plotted and avant garde film again. YetAelita already

shows his interest in popular cinema and conventional genreforms, such as the detective story, slapstick comedy andromance, while the expressionist portions of the film, althoughstriking, take up relatively little screen time, causing some criticsto question whether it should be called a science fiction film atall.
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A refreshing alternative to the giddy experimentalism of the 1920s canbe found in the hilarious comedies ofBoris Barnet. Two of them areavailable on DVD, Girl with the Hatbox(Devushka s korobkoi, 1927) andhis first sound film, Outskirts (Okraina, 1933). Although light-hearted,these are also works of considerable perception and artistry. Outskirts isalso the title of one of the most original Russian films of the 1990s, PetrLutsik's satiric homage to 1920s and 30s Soviet cinema that quotesdozens of the classics, including its nod to Barnet's film.

Worth noting is that Girl with the Hatboxfeatures the comic genius ofVladimir Fogel, an extraordinary chameleon actor who starred in someof the best comedies of the age. He can also be seen in Kuleshov's Bythe Law, Pudovkin's Chess Feverand Abram Room's Bed and Sofa.

The ability to entertain was obviously a deceptive reflection of hispersonality; he committed suicide in 1929, at a time when the regimewas becoming more repressive. Barnet himself also took his own life,although not until 1965.
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Sound and the GreatTerror The introduction of sound in the 1930s had a huge effect on Soviet

cinema, creating two great challenges. The first problem was how to reconcile sound techniques with montage,

and Eisenstein quickly realized that sound could mean that cinemawould return to a more theater-like presentation of action, with thesound added as mere "illustration." Rapid visual editing could not be

matched by rapid editing of sound in a way that would be decipherableto the audience, and a continuous aural experience demanded aparallel visual continuity which montage could not supply (Pudovkin'ssound film, Deserter[Dezertir, 1933] amply illustrates the mismatch). Inshort, sound cinema made Soviet montage obsolete.

Not to be defeated, Eisenstein immersed himself in sound theory andproposed that sound would work best when the music undercut the

image rather than reinforced it. He was able to put his ideas to the testin his filmAleksandr Nevsky(1938), which had an original score bySergei Prokofiev.
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Sound and the Great Terror

The second problem was that of the script. Sound cinema enabled film to say somuch more. Whereas previously the message was carried visually, now it couldbe carried more directly in the dialogue. But this was a double-edged sword. Aswell as allowing a plainer, simpler cinema, it also meant that it was more subjectto censorship. As a result, film production dropped as scripts struggled to makeit past the censors, who were monitoring words now rather than abstractassociations.

Social Realism and the Great terror - These major changes were exacerbatedby a reorganization of the arts and the promulgation of Socialist Realism - theaesthetic doctrine that tried to bring to life Stalin's famous dictum, "Life hasbecome more joyous, comrades, life has become happier." As Stalin increasedhis grip on the reins of the country (murdering the only plausible challenger tohis power, Sergei Kirov, in 1934), he launched the Great Terror in whichthousands of people vanished into the Soviet gulag (prison camps) in Siberia.Artistic expression became more difficult - and dangerous. Irony, expressionismand "inner soul drama" were definitely to be avoided if a filmmaker wanted tostay out of trouble.


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It required a certain amount of skill to produce a film, such as MarkDonskoi's The Childhood of Maxim Gorky(Detstvo Gor'kogo, 1938),that was exciting enough to please audiences and yet not containanything politically problematic. Also highly popular in this period wereStalinist musicals, which had an uncannily similar history to Nazimusicals in Germany at the same time.

Nevertheless, the 1930s were not without brave souls who dared to

challenge Stalin in film, such as Lev Kuleshov, whose The GreatConsoler(Velikii uteshitel, 1933) is a complex critique of artists whorefused to tell the truth about the social conditions around them, andAleksandr Medvedkin, whose Happiness (Shchaste, 1935) is anoutrageously irreverent satire, complete with one of the strangest

images in of all Russian film - nuns wearing see-through tops.Medvedkin, who claimed with a straight face throughout his life that hewas a committed Bolshevik, has been the subject of two documentariesby Chris Marker.
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Eisenstein'sAleksandr Nevskylargely toed the Party line, thus rehabilitating himand giving him the freedom to make the audacious and sophisticated cinematicattack on Stalin in the dictator's lifetime, the epic Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozny,1943-46). The film was originally intended to be in three parts, but Eisensteindied before the third part could be completed. But parts I and II alone stand assolid Shakespearean dramas about power and tyranny, complete with originalmusic from Prokofiev, lavish sets and costumes and truly astounding

camerawork. Part II is particularly dizzying, subjectively taking us into the causesof Ivan's brutal ruling style - his madness. Stalin had no trouble in seeingthrough the comparison Eisenstein was making, and the film was first recut andthen banned.

After the war, Russian cinema was marked by hagiographic works that idolizedthe position of Stalin in Russian history. As in the early 1930s, there was ashortage of scripts that met the strict criteria of the time, and many of the filmsshown in cinemas had been stolen from the retreating Germans. Also lootedfrom the invaders was color film stock, and Russia was able to make its firstcolor films (Ivan the Terrible contains some sequences in dazzling color).
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Ivan the Terrible


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Essentially, though, Russian art cinema was inhibernation and, afterIvan the Terrible, it would takemore than ten years for a Russian director to makea film that would be respected on the international

cinema scene. In the intervening period, twoimportant events had to happen:

in 1953, Stalin died and, in 1956, Khruschev gavehis "secret speech" denouncing Stalinism. It sent

waves through the establishment and allowed awhole new type of cinema to be made. And, withStalin now a bte noire, Ivan the Terrible couldfinally be shown to the Soviet public in 1958.


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Summing Up

Tsarism, famine and Industrialisation led to Revolution The Russian Revolution led to an intense period of artistic

creation by directors such as Lev Kuleshov, Vsevelod Pudovkin,Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov.

Soviet montage was highly influential and innovative to this day Internal conflicts within the Communist party led to the rise of

Lenin and Stalin and ultimately a return to dictatorship. Constraints placed on Artists and filmmakers led often to

banishment, reactive works such as Eisensteins Ivan theTerrible and Social Realism (Documentary propaganda in favour

of the communist party). Censorship and the introduction of sound effectively led to the

end of much experimentaion in Soviet Cinema.


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SOVIET MONTAGE THEORY

Soviet montage theory is an approach tounderstanding and creating cinema that reliesheavily upon editing (montage is French for "puttingtogether").

Although Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s disagreedabout how exactly to view montage,Sergei Eisenstein marked a note of accord in "ADialectic Approach to Film Form" when he noted

that montage is "the nerve of cinema," and that "todetermine the nature of montage is to solvethe specific problem of cinema."
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Eisenstein's theory ofmontage In formal terms, this style of editing offers discontinuity in graphic qualities, violations of the 180 degree rule, and the creation of impossible spatial matches. It is not concerned with the depiction of a comprehensible spatial or temporal continuity as

is found in the classical Hollywood continuity system. It draws attention to temporal ellipses because changes between shots are obvious, less

fluid, and non-seamless. Eisenstein describes five methods of montage in his introductory essay "Word and Image".

These varieties of montage build one upon the other so the "higher" forms also include theapproaches of the "simpler" varieties. In addition, the "lower" types of montage are limitedto the complexity of meaning which they can communicate, and as the montage rises incomplexity, so will the meaning it is able to communicate (primal emotions to intellectualideals). It is easiest to understand these as part of a spectrum where, at one end, theimage content matters very little, while at the other it determines everything about thechoices and combinations of the edited film.

Eisenstein's montage theories are based on the idea that montage originates in the"collision" between different shots in an illustration of the idea ofthesis and antithesis.This basis allowed him to argue that montage is inherently dialectical, thus it should beconsidered a demonstration ofMarxism and Hegelian philosophy. His collisions of shotswere based on conflicts of scale, volume, rhythm, motion (speed, as well as direction ofmovement within the frame), as well as more conceptual values such as class.
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Methods of Montage

Overtonal/Associational - the overtonal montage is the cumulation of metric,rhythmic, and tonal montage to synthesize its effect on the audience for an evenmore abstract and complicated effect. Overtonal example from Pudovkin's Mother. In this clip, the men are workers

walking towards a confrontation at their factory, and later in the movie, theprotagonist uses ice as a means of escape.[1].

Intellectual - uses shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual meaning.[2] Intellectual montage examples from Eisenstein's Octoberand Strike. In

Strike, a shot of striking workers being attacked cut with a shot of a bull beingslaughtered creates a film metaphor suggesting that the workers are beingtreated like cattle. This meaning does not exist in the individual shots; it onlyarises when they are juxtaposed.

Some contemporary examples of intellectual montage: In The Godfather, during Michael's nephew's baptism, the priest performs

the sacrament of baptism while we see killings ordered by Michael takeplace elsewhere. The murders thus "baptize" Michael into a life of crime.

At the end ofApocalypse Nowthe execution of Colonel Kurtz isjuxtaposed with the villagers' slaughter of a water buffalo.
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The Godfather Francis FordCoppola


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Apocalypse Now Francis FordCoppola


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Dog Star Man StanBrakhage


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Soviet Art Early Years

Proletkult -During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to put all arts toservice of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The instrument for this was created just daysbefore the October Revolution, known as Proletkult, an abbreviation for "Proletarskiekulturno-prosvetitelnye organizatsii" (Proletarian Cultural and EnlightenmentOrganizations). A prominent theorist of this movement was Aleksandr Bogdanov. InitiallyNarkompros (ministry of education), which was also in charge of the arts, supportedProletkult. However the latter sought too much independence from the rulingCommunist Party ofBolsheviks, gained negative attitude ofVladimir Lenin, by 1922declined considerably, and was eventually disbanded in 1932.

The ideas of Proletkult attracted the intersests ofRussian avantgarde, who strived to getrid of the conventions of "bourgeois art". Among notable persons of this movement wasKazimir Malevich. However the ideas of the avantgarde eventually clashed with the newlyemerged state-sponsored direction ofSocialist Realism.

In search of new forms of expression, the Proletkult organisation was highly eclectic in itsart forms, and thus was prone to harsh criticism for inclusion of such modern directions asimpressionism and cubism, since these movements existed before the revolution andhence were associated with "decadent bourgeois art".

Among early experiments of Proletkult was of , the prominent theoretist being . Another group was UNOVIS, a very short-lived but influential collection of young artists

lead by Kasimir Malevich in the 1920's.
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Kasimir Malevich 1879 - 1935

Self portrait, 1912


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Kasimir Malevich 1879 - 1935

Black Square, 1915


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Influenced by Cubism

Developed the concept of Suprematism an

art movement focused on fundamental

geometric forms (in particular the square andcircle) which formed in Russia in 1915-1916.

I felt only night within me and it was then that

I conceived the new art, which I calledSuprematism.
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Black Circle, 1915


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Social Realism AleksandrGerasimov Officially approved art was required to follow

the doctrine ofSocialist Realism. Roses for Stalin (1949)

One of the best known official Soviet artistswas Aleksandr Gerasimov. During his careerhe produced a large number of heroicpaintings of Stalin and other members of the

Politburo. Gerasimov's painting shows amastery of classical representationaltechniques.

G i ' f L i
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Gerasimov's famous Lenin onthe tribune, 19291930

A i i M


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Artistic Movements -Summing Up Artistic practice was controlled by the state

Artists were sponsored by the state and therefore

mainly worked creating propaganda

European art movements such as Cubism,Abstraction, Futurism were seen as bourgeoisie.

In the 1950s after the death of Stalin artists began

to experiment more with abstraction.

Non-conformist art was established a move awayfrom Socialist Realism.

a2 unit 3 art and the moving image - soviet cinema presentation

Documents