The Cranes Are Flying by Josephine s> Woll Real Images: Soviet Cinema and the Thaw by Josephine s> Woll (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 955 been directed to Harold Segel's useful two-volume 7The Literature ofEighteenthCentuyRussia (New York, I967), not least because it includes, in English translation, some of the plays referred to here. The specialist, on the other hand, might have benefited from knowing that, despite the fact that 'L. N Starikova'swork on Volkov is not extensive' (note 44, p. 207), there exists Mark Liubomudrov's full-length study of the so-called 'Father of Russian Theatre'. The final impression is that, as a work of historical scholarship, this is a remarkablebook by any standards.However, the 'play of ideas' in the title seems too rigidlyexclusive of its punning resonances, suppressingthe sense of intellectualplaywhich might have yielded more stimulatinginsightsinto ways in which eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russian drama might be read. London NICK WORRALL Woll, Josephine. 7he Cranes areFlying.KINOfiles Film Companion, 7. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2003. iX+ II 2 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Furtherreading. k(I 2.99 (paperback). Woll,Josephine. RealImages: SovietCinema andtheThaw.I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2000. XVi+ 267 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography.Index. ?39 95; /I4.95. JOSEPHINE WOLL treatedMikhailKalatozov's 1957 film 7The Cranes areFlying in her book Real Images:SovietCinema and the 7Thaw, and already there it was evident that the author had more to saybut no scope to do so in that context. She has now written this KINOfiles volume about the film and, although inevitablythere is some overlapbetween the materialin the two, anyone with an interest in one should also read the other, as together they provide complementary and contrastingwide angle and close up views of cinema in the Thaw period. RealImages is an extremely interestingbook and one which has been very thoroughly researched, annotated and thoughtfully written. It features a wonderful still on the cover, although the surroundinggraphics do not do it justice. As the titleindicates,it is an examination of the 'thaw'period in Soviet cinema, covering the years 1953-67. The period is divided into the years I953-56, 1957-59,i60-64, i964-65 and I965-67, each of which forms a section which is, in turn, split into several chapters. The book contains a wealth of informationon a greatmany filmswhich enables it to be easilyused as a quickreferencebook, asmuch asreadin itsentirety(andI would certainly recommend such a reading). RealImages provides a solid political, historicaland culturalbackgroundto the films and period in question; it can be usefully read by those with an interest in the thaw and in cinema but with no knowledge of the Russian language, yet it also provides a few key terms in transliterationwhich are welcome to Russian speakers. Woll writes about individual films in some detail, yet manages to draw general conclusions from specific cases in a clear way. 956 SEER, 82, 4, 2004 Woll'sdiscussionsencompass world famousfilmssuch as the Cannes prizewinning Balladofa Soldier, or the 'firstindisputablemasterpiece of post-Stalin cinema' TheCranes areFlying(p. 7I), as well as the obscure and bizarrescience fiction film TheAmphibious Man.She gives merely briefplot outlineswhere this is sufficientto make her point, and analysesone film and its fate over several pageswhere such an approachismore appropriate,aswith MarlenKhutsiev's Ilich'sGate.This section is one of the book's strongest,revealing the plethora of problems faced by an innovative director.As well as analysingmore deepseated issueswhich provokedcontroversyover the film and caused it to be reedited , Woll gives examples of some truly absurdcriticismsmade against the film such as its inclusion of a candle-litdance scene:the directorwas forced to cut thisforfearthat 'peoplewill copy it and startfires'(p. 150). As an example of the book's coherence, it is worth pointing out here that six chapters later Woll draws attention to Khutsiev's ironic reference in his I967 film ulYto Ilich'sGate(made in I96I but not releaseduntil I965). Such detail contributes to the reader'soverallunderstandingof the filmsand individualsdiscussed,as well as of theirtimes, and makesthe book rewardingto read. It is usefulto explain, as Woll does, the general differencein significanceof the use of black-and-whitefilmin the mid-I96os (lyrically)and itsuse a decade previously (to suggest reality, reliability). There are welcome, but few, references to the cinema of other countries, such as the information...