Directory of World Cinema: Russia 2

Description

Soviet and Russian filmmakers have traditionally had uneasy relationships to the concept of genre. This volume rewrites that history by spotlighting some genres not commonly associated with cinema in the region, including Cold War spy movies and science-fiction films; blockbusters and horror films; remakes and adventure films; and chernukha films and serials. Introductory essays establish key aspects of these genres, and directors’ biographies provide the background for the key players. Building on the work of its predecessor, which explored cinema from the time of the tsars to the Putin era, this book will be warmly received by the serious film scholar as well as all those who love Russian cinema. Directory of World Cinema: Russia 2 is an essential companion to the filmic legacy of one of the world’s most storied countries.

 

Acknowledgements

Introduction by the Editor

Film of the Year

Rasskazy/Short Stories

Interview with Mikhail Segal

Festival Focus

Moscow International Film Festival

Directors

Iakov Protazanov

Vsevolod Pudovkin

Aleksandr (Oleksandr) Dovzhenko

Abram Room

Lev Kuleshov

Vasil’ev ‘Brothers’

Ivan Pyr’ev Grigorii Aleksandrov (Mormonenko)

Mikhail Kalatozov (Kalatozishvili)

Fedor Khitruk

Elem Klimov

Kira Muratova

Stanislav Govorukhin

Aleksei Iur’evich German

Sergei Solov’ev

Pavel Lungin

Aleksandr Rogozhkin

Aleksei Balabanov

Adventure Film

Blockbusters

Science Fiction

Sequels & Remakes

Television Series

Cold War Spy Films

Chernukha

Animation D'Auteur

Documentary Film

Recommended Reading

Russian Cinema Online

Test Your Knowledge

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinema
• General officer
• History of film
• Art
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 20 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783204793
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

BEUMERS DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA RUSSIA 2
DIRECTORY OF
WORLD CINEMA
RUSSIA 2
EDITED BY BIRGIT BEUMERS
Soviet and Russian film-makers have traditionally had uneasy relationships to
the concept of genre. This volume rewrites that history by spotlighting some
genres not commonly associated with cinema in the region, including Cold War
spy films and science-fiction films, blockbusters and horror films, remakes and
adventure films and chernukha films and serials. Introductory essays establish
key aspects of these genres, and directors’ biographies provide the background
for the key players.
Building on the work of its predecessor, which explored cinema from the time of
the tsars to the Putin era, this book will be warmly received by the serious film
scholar as well as all those who love Russian cinema. Directory of World Cinema:
Russia 2 is an essential companion to the filmic legacy of one of the world’s most
storied countries.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION
‘Peppered with high-quality film stills and questions to consider while viewing,
Directory of World Cinema: Russia encourages its reader to hunt out lesser-known
films and to revisit his/her favourites.’
ROSEMARI BAKER: MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW

‘A provocative and illuminating volume. Even seasoned Russian film experts
stand to learn something from this volume, whether because it invited them to
re-evaluate their basic historiographical assumptions or because it introduces
them to a number of under-the-radar films.’
HANNAH FRANK: SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL
Directory of World Cinema: Russia 2 ISBN 978-1-78320-010-8
Dirorld Cinema: Russia 2 eISBN 978-1-78320-479-3
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971
Dirorld Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
www.worldcinemadirectory.org
intellect | www.intellectbooks.comVolume 29
directory of
world cinema
r USSia 2
Edited by Birgit Beumers
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USAFirst published in the UK in 2015 by
Intellect Books, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2015 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Publisher: May Yao
Publishing Managers: Jelena Stanovnik and Heather Gibson
Cover photograph: Mikhail Segal: Short Stories (2012). Still from the flm. Courtesy of Ru.Media
Cover designer: Holly Rose
Copy-editor: Emma Rhys
Typesetter: John Teehan
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971
Dirorld Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
Directory of World Cinema: Russia 2 ISBN 978-1-78320-010-8
Dirorld Cinema: Russia 2 eISBN 978-1-78320-479-3
Printed and bound by 4Edge, UK.
contentSdirectory of world cinema
r USSia 2
a cknowledgements 5Horror 154
Essay
introduction by the editor 6 Reviews
film of the year 8 Sequels & r emakes 184
Rasskazy/Short Stories Essays
Interview with Mikhail Segal Reviews
festival focus 19 television Series 214
Moscow International Film Festival Essay
Reviews
directors 28
Iakov Protazanov c old war Spy films 240
Vsevolod Pudovkin Essays
Aleksandr (Oleksandr) Dovzhenko Reviews
Abram Room
Lev Kuleshov chernukha 266
Vasil’ev ‘Brothers’ Essay
Ivan Pyr’ev Reviews
Grigorii Aleksandrov (Mormonenko)
Mikhail Kalatozov (Kalatozishvili) a nimation d'a uteur 290
Fedor Khitruk Essays
Elem Klimov Reviews
Kira Muratova
Stanislav Govorukhin documentary film 314
Aleksei Iur’evich German Essay
Sergei Solov’ev Reviews
Pavel Lungin
Aleksandr Rogozhkin r ecommended r eading 340
Aleksei Balabanov
r ussian c inema o nline 344
a dventure film 66
Essay test your Knowledge 346
Reviews
n otes o n c ontributors 349
Blockbusters 96
Essay filmography 360
Reviews
Science fiction126
Essays
Reviews
contentSDirectory of World Cinema
acKnowledGementSDirectory of World Cinema
This second edition of the Directory of World Cinema: Russia is the result
of the commitment of a wide range of contributors and an immensely
knowledgeable, helpful and patient board of section editors, consisting
of Otto Boele, Greg Dolgopolov, Seth Graham, Jeremy Hicks, Stephen M
Norris, Laura Pontieri, Elena Prokhorova, Alexander Prokhorov, Peter Rollberg
and Denise Youngblood. I would like to thank them all for their cooperation.
I am also very grateful to the team at Intellect, particularly Masoud Yazdani
and May Yao for launching this series; to Melanie Marshall and Jelena
Stanovnik for supporting the volume through its production stages and
making it a truly collaborative process; to Heather Gibson, who took over at a
crucial moment; and to the very fne copy-editor of this series, Emma Rhys.
Directory of World Cinema: Russia 2 could not have been illustrated
without the assistance of Miroslava Segida, whom I should like to thank here.
As an extremely fussy editor when it comes to cover designs, I owe special
thanks to the talented Holly Rose for her work, and to Anastasia Shabunina
of Ru.Media, Moscow, for granting permission to use the still of Rasskazy/
Short Stories (Mikhail Segal, 2012) for the cover design. My thanks also go
to Mikhail Segal for making time for an interview. And then, I am indebted
to Sitora Alieva and Kinotavr for acquainting me with the latest flms; to
Gosflmofond of Russia for enabling me to see so much of the country’s
flm history on the screens in Belye Stolby – and here I must mention the
support that both Vladimir Dmitriev and Valerii Bosenko generously granted
over the years: they will both be hugely missed! I should also like to thank
my colleagues Nikolai Izvolov, Sergei Kapterev, Valerii Fomin and Evgenii
Margolit for their good company, which is always an invaluable source
for ideas and inspirations. When it comes to production details, various
catalogues tend to provide varying information, and without the amazing
accuracy of Miroslava Segida and Sergei Zemlianukhin – where would I be?
Thank you.
Transliteration is a perennial problem with Russian: this volume follows
Library of Congress transliteration throughout, with the soft sign marked by
an apostrophe. The sole exception are the names of the studios Mosflm
and Lenflm, which have been adapted to common usage in English instead
of adhering to the transliteration Mosfl’m, Lenfl’m (and the same goes for
Soiuzmultflm and Soiuzdetflm).
Birgit Beumers
Acknowledgements 5
acKnowledGementSDirectory of World Cinema
introd Uction
By t He editor
If the frst edition of the Directory of World Cinema: Russia presented the classical
genres of Russian and Soviet cinema, then this second volume tries to discover its
less obvious genres. The adventure flm (prikliuchencheskii flm) is a genre that was
popular throughout the Soviet era, but the flms remained blockbusters at home,
with rare exposure to international audiences. Science fction is often neglected in
Soviet flm history, partly because the sci-f flms never competed with their American
counterparts, which were deemed to have better special effects – and once again
most flms remained within Soviet or Eastern bloc distribution only. The war flm
is included in this volume in the more specifed genre defnition of the ‘Cold War
thriller’, which often remained within the Soviet distribution system as it provided an
answer to American spy- and Cold War-movies of the same period. So these three
sections are likely to acquaint the reader with a number of relatively unknown flms,
which are, nevertheless, important to get a full picture of Soviet flm history.
The horror flm is a genre that offcially did not exist in Soviet cinema, although
several flms speak of attempts to experiment with the genre; it is not until recent
years that horror movies have been made in Russia, and – due to a lack of experience
– often unsuccessfully, clearly without interest for international audiences. An
exception, and a breathtaking one at that, is Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter (2012), made in the United States.
The genre of chernukha is a specifcally Soviet and post-Soviet phenomenon. Most
of these flms were not aimed at international audiences, but they were specifc to the
time of the collapse of the Soviet system, showing the bleakness of life in a world of
political and social turmoil, one freed from the demands of portraying only a positive
world, thus rejecting vehemently – almost violently – the Socialist Realist method.
The blockbuster (blokbaster), on the other hand, is a very recent phenomenon;
however, we can again observe a tendency to cater for the national rather than
international market, although some of the earliest box offce hits, such as Timur
Bekmambetov’s Nochnoi dozor/Night Watch (2004) and Dnevnoi dozor/Day Watch
(2005) (included in Directory of World Cinema: Russia) went into international
distribution also. The remake and the sequel are phenomena specifc to the
postSoviet era, and – like the blockbuster – focus on commercial success at home. The
section includes some of the best-known flms which have undergone serialization
to exploit their commercial potential to the full. The television series ties in with this
phenomenon, working on commercial success, but – as the section shows – it too has
its roots well in the Soviet era.
6 Russia 2Directory of World Cinema
The sections on animation and documentary have both chosen a specifc focus:
the section on animation explores some of the best-known auteur flms of the 1970s,
while the documentary section uncovers experiments in documentary flm-making that
have been relegated to oblivion in scholarship, which has focused instead on other,
more conventional flms. The section of directors’ biographies is more extensive in this
volume than in the fr