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1 Chapter 1 : Agit-train - Wikipedia Much has been written about Soviet literature and its political significance in the years following the October Revolution, but little has been written about the cinema in the same context. And yet in Lenin said, 'Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.'. Princeton University Press, The Politics of the Soviet Cinema, â Cambridge University Press, A Study in Industry Development. Basic documents from the period can be found in Taylor, Richard, and Ian Christie, eds. Harvard University Press, Hill and Wang, On Constructivism and the implications for Soviet cinema as montage see Burch, Noel. A special issue of Screen on "Soviet Film of the s. Yale University Press, Masters of Soviet Cinema. Stuttgart, dramaturgie de la forme. Lev Kuleshov is covered in Levaco, Ronald. University of California Press, Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema. Edited by Anna Lawton, â Sergei Eisenstein has an extensive literature, part of which includes Bordwell, David. The Cinema of Eisenstein. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, See also Thompson, Kristin. Notes of a Film Director. Leyda, Jay, and Zina Voynow. Geduld, Harry, and Ronald Gottesman. Sergei Eisenstein and Upton Sinclair. Indiana University Press, For more of his writings see Taylor, Richard, ed. And Eisenstein, Sergei Mikhailovich. The Memoirs of Sergei Eisenstein. Edited by Richard Taylor and translated by William Powell. His basic biography can be found in Barna, Yon. And also in Seton, Marie. Other biographical details can be found in Moussinac, Leon. With Eisenstein in Hollywood. Dziga Vertov is dealt with in Michelson, Annette, ed. From Magician to Epistemologist. Film Technique and Film Acting. See also Dart, Peter. Classic Films of the Soviet Avant-Garde. Alexander Dovzhenko is covered by Kepley, Jr. In the Service of the State. University of Wisconsin Press, And Carynnyk, Mario, ed. For a bibliography on Dovzhenko see Nebesio, Bohdan Y. A Guide to Published Sources. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, For background read Kepley, Vance. And Youngblood, Denise J. Movies for the Masses: Popular Cinema and Soviet Society in the s. Moviemaking in Russia, â The University of Wisconsin Press, Soviet Cinema in the Silent Era, â University of Texas Press, And Taylor, Richard, and Ian Christie, eds. Inside the Film Factory. New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema. London and New York: Shlapentokh, Dmitry, and Vladimir Shlapentokh. Ideological Conflict and Social Reality. Aidine de Gruyter, Geschichte des Sowjetischen und Russischen Films. Early Cinema in Russia and its Cultural Reception. Translated by Alan Bodger and edited by Richard Taylor. British Film Insitute and s. Russia and Soviet Cinema in Documents. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : Movie History - Further Reading The Politics of the Soviet Cinema (LSE Monographs in International Studies) 1st Edition. Historical outline[ edit ] Upon the establishment of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic RSFSR on November 7, although the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did not officially come into existence until December 30,, what had formerly been the Russian Empire began quickly to come under the domination of a Soviet reorganization of all its institutions. From the outset, the leaders of this new state held that film would be the most ideal propaganda tool for the Soviet Union because of its widespread popularity among the established citizenry of the new land. Vladimir Lenin, in fact, reportedly even declared it the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of communism, a position which was later echoed by Joseph Stalin. However, between World War I and the Russian Revolution, the Russian film industry and the infrastructure needed to support it e. The majority of cinemas had been in the corridor between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and most were out of commission. Additionally, many of the performers, producers, directors and other artists of pre-soviet Russia had fled the country or were moving ahead of Red Army forces as they pushed further and further south into what remained of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the new government did not have the funds to spare for an extensive reworking of the system of filmmaking. Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands. As this amounted mostly to cinema houses, the first Soviet films consisted of recycled films of the Russian Empire and its imports, to the extent that these were not determined to be offensive to the new Soviet ideology. Ironically, the first new film released in Soviet Russia did not exactly fit this mold: It appeared on Soviet screens in Beyond this, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most famous of which were the agitki â propaganda films intended to "agitate", or energize and enthuse, the masses to participate fully in approved Soviet activities, and deal effectively with those who remained in opposition to the new order. These short often one small reel films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village along with the lecturers to educate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen. Newsreels, as documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Soviet cinema. Still, in, there was not one functioning cinema in Moscow until late in the year. In this context, the directors and writers who were in support of the objectives of communism assumed quick dominance in the industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors. The leaders of this community viewed it essential to this goal to be free to experiment with the entire nature of film, a position which would result in several well-known creative efforts but would also result in an unforeseen counter-reaction by the increasingly solidifying administrators of the government-controlled society. Height is considered[ by whom? In the s there was a diversification of subject matter. Touchy issues could now be discussed openly. The results were films like Repentance, which dealt with repression in Georgia, and the allegorical science fiction movie Kin-dza-dza! The industry remained a part of the government and any material that was found politically offensive or undesirable, was either removed, edited, reshot, or shelved. The definition of "socialist realism" was liberalized to allow development of more human characters, but communism still had to remain uncriticized in its fundamentals. Additionally, the degree of relative artistic liberality was changed from administration to administration. Examples created by censorship include: The first chapter of the epic film Liberation was filmed 20 years after the subsequent three parts. After the invasion, the film was released for propaganda purposes to considerable critical acclaim. The work of the nationalized motion-picture studios was administered by the All-Russian Photography and Motion Picture Department, which was recognized in into Goskino, which in became Sovkino. During the Russian Civil War, agitation trains and ships visited soldiers, workers, and peasants. Lectures, reports, and political meetings were accompanied by newsreels about events at the various fronts. Typical of the s were the topical news serial Kino-Pravda and the film Forward, Soviet! The film Hydropeat by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky marked the beginning of popular science films. Feature-length agitation films in were important in the Page 2

3 development of the film industry. Innovation in Russian filmmaking was expressed particularly in the work of Eisenstein. Battleship Potemkin was noteworthy for its innovative montage and metaphorical quality of its film language. It won world acclaim. Eisenstein developed concepts of the revolutionary epic in the film October. Pudovkin developed themes of revolutionary history in the film The End of St. The films of Yakov Protazanov were devoted to the revolutionary struggle and the shaping of a new way of life, such as Don Diego and Pelagia Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko was noteworthy for the historical-revolutionary epic Zvenigora, Arsenal and the poetic film Earth. Among the most outstanding films was Chapaev, a film about Russian revolutionaries and society during the Revolution and Civil War. The new leadership declared a "cultural revolution" in which the party would exercise control over cultural affairs, including artistic expression. Cinema existed at the intersection of art and economics; so it was destined to be thoroughly reorganized in this episode of economic and cultural transformation. To implement central planning in cinema, the new entity Soyuzkino was created in Soyuzkino consisted of an extended bureaucracy of economic planners and policy specialists who were charged to formulate annual production plans for the studios and then to monitor the distribution and exhibition of finished films. With central planning came more centralized authority over creative decision making. Script development became a long, torturous process under this bureaucratic system, with various committees reviewing drafts and calling for cuts or revisions. In the s censorship became more exacting with each passing year. Feature film projects would drag out for months or years and might be terminated at any point. Alexander Dovzhenko drew from Ukrainian folk culture in such films as Earth along the way because of the capricious decision of one or another censoring committee. This redundant oversight slowed down production and inhibited creativity. The industry was releasing over one-hundred features annually at the end of the NEP period, but that figure fell to seventy by and to forty-five by It never again reached triple digits during the remainder of the Stalin era. Veteran directors experienced precipitous career declines under this system of control; whereas Eisenstein was able to make four features between and, he completed only one film, Alexander Nevsky during the entire decade of the s. His planned adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev story Bezhin Meadow â 37 was halted during production in and officially banned, one of many promising film projects that fell victim to an exacting censorship system. It stopped importing films after out of concern that foreign films exposed audiences to capitalist ideology. The industry also freed itself from dependency on foreign technologies. To secure independence from the West, industry leaders mandated that the USSR develop its own sound technologies, rather than taking licenses on Western sound systems. Petersburg and Pavel Tager in Moscow, conducted research through the late s on complementary sound systems, which were ready for use by The implementation process, including the cost of refitting movie theaters, proved daunting, and the USSR did not complete the transition to sound until Nevertheless, several directors made innovative use of sound once the technology became available. The Symphony of Donbass, his documentary on coal mining and heavy industry, Dziga Vertov based his soundtrack on an elegantly orchestrated array of industrial noises. In The Deserter Pudovkin experimented with a form of "sound counterpoint" by exploiting tensions and ironic dissonances between sound elements and the image track. And in Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein collaborated with the composer Sergei Prokofiev on an "operatic" film style that elegantly coordinated the musical score and the image track. As Soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as "socialist realism". In the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avant-garde practices of the s and to embrace socialist realism, a literary style that, in practice, was actually close to 19th-century realism. The other arts, including cinema, were subsequently instructed to develop the aesthetic equivalent. For cinema, this meant adopting a film style that would be legible to a broad audience, thus avoiding a possible split between the avant-garde and mainstream cinema that was evident in the late s. The director of Soyuzkino and chief policy officer for the film industry, Boris Shumyatsky â, who served from to, was a harsh critic of the montage aesthetic. He championed a "cinema for the millions"[ citation needed ], which would use clear, linear narration. Although American movies were no longer being imported in the s, the Hollywood model of continuity editing was readily available, and it had a successful track record with Soviet movie audiences. Soviet socialist realism was built on this style, which Page 3

4 assured tidy storytelling. Various guidelines were then added to the doctrine: Such aesthetic policies, enforced by the rigorous censorship apparatus of Soyuzkino, resulted in a number of formulaic films. Apparently, they did succeed in sustaining a true "cinema of the masses". The s witnessed some stellar examples of popular cinema. The single most successful film of the decade, in terms of both official praise and genuine affection from the mass audience, was Chapayev, directed by the Vasilyev brothers. Based on the life of a martyred Red Army commander, the film was touted as a model of socialist realism, in that Chapayev and his followers battled heroically for the revolutionary cause. The film also humanized the title character, giving him personal foibles, an ironic sense of humour, and a rough peasant charm. These qualities endeared him to the viewing public: He effected a creative partnership with his wife, the brilliant comic actress and chanteuse Lyubov Orlova â, in a series of crowd-pleasing musicals. Their pastoral comedy Volga-Volga was surpassed only by Chapayev in terms of box-office success. The fantasy element of their films, with lively musical numbers reviving the montage aesthetic, sometimes stretched the boundaries of socialist realism, but the genre could also allude to contemporary affairs. Other notable films from the s include the black and white films, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and the Encounter at the Elbe. The postwar period was marked by an end of almost all autonomy in the Soviet Union. The Catalogue of Soviet Films recorded remarkably low numbers of films being produced from to, with as few as nine films produced in and a maximum of twenty-three produced in These numbers do not, however, include many of the works which are not generally considered to be "film" in an elitist sense, such as filmed versions of theatrical works and operas, feature-length event documentaries and travelogues, short films for children, and experimental stereoscopic films. But compared to the four hundred to five hundred films produced every year by Hollywood, the Soviet film industry was practically dead. Even as the economy of the Soviet Union strengthened, film production continued to decrease. A resolution passed by the Council of Ministers in further crippled the film industry. The resolution criticized the work of the industry, saying that an emphasis placed on quantity over quality had ideologically weakened the films. Instead, the council insisted that every film produced must be a masterpiece for promoting communist ideas and the Soviet system. Often, Stalin had the ultimate decision on whether a newly produced film was appropriate for public viewing. The strict limitations on content and complex, centralized process for approval drove many screenwriters away, and studios had much difficulty producing any of the quality films mandated by the resolution. In response, cinemas played the same films for months at a time, many of them the works of the late s. Anything new drew millions of people to the box office, and many theaters screened foreign films to attract larger audiences. Most of these foreign films were "trophy films", two thousand films brought into the country by the Red Army after the occupation of Germany and Eastern Europe in World War II. Of these fifty, Bolshakov was only allowed to release twenty-four for screening to the general public, mainly films made in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. The other twenty-six films, consisting almost entirely of American films, were only allowed to be shown in private screenings. Chapter 3 : Cinema of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia The Politics of the Soviet Cinema by Taylor, Richard available in Trade Paperback on theinnatdunvilla.com, also read synopsis and reviews. The book provides an illuminating background of the political history of the Soviet cinema in the. Chapter 4 : Formats and Editions of The politics of the Soviet cinema, [theinnatdunvilla.com] Title / Author Type Language Date / Edition Publication; The politics of the soviet cinema Chapter 5 : The Politics of the Soviet Cinema - Richard Taylor - Google Books LSE Monographs in International Studies: The Politics of the Soviet Cinema by Professor Richard Taylor,, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. Page 4

5 Chapter 6 : Russo-Soviet Cinema: to s Page to Russian and Soviet Cinema: Bibliography The Politics Of The Soviet Cinema Lse Monographs In International Studies PDF Format Size 43,30MB The Politics Of The Soviet Cinema Lse Monographs In International. Chapter 7 : Project MUSE - Writing about the Cinema of the Stalin Years: The State of the Art Buy LSE Monographs in International Studies: The Politics of the Soviet Cinema by Professor Richard Taylor from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over Â Page 5

Format: Lecture/Discussion READINGS MARKED WITH ASTERISK or DOUBLE ASTERISK ARE OPTIONAL (for student presentations).

Format: Lecture/Discussion READINGS MARKED WITH ASTERISK or DOUBLE ASTERISK ARE OPTIONAL (for student presentations). Spring 2012 Title: The History of Russian Cinema Course: REE 385 Instructor: Keith Livers Time: SCREENINGS: M: 5:00 7:00, TH: 2:00 5:00 Place: CBA 4.338 Office hours: M: 2:00 4:00 E-mail: Kalivers@mail.utexas.edu