The New-Year film as a genre of post-war Russian cinema

Abstract

This article argues that there is a genre of the Russian New-Year film (novogodnii fil'm). Drawing on Rick Altman's concept of genre on the syntactic and semantic level, the New-Year film is identifiable by six standard aesthetic and narrative elements: the on-screen representation of the New Year; release and screening dates that coincide with the New Year; time imagery representing the transition from one stage of life to the next; the presence of fairy-tale motifs; the preference of television and private viewing over public release; and the emphasis on private rather than public space. I explore the roots of this genre in the 1930s and 1950s in musical comedies (The Radiant Path, Carnival Night) before examining its crystallization in the post-war period with Irony of Fate (1975). I then discuss films from the Stagnation period, glasnost and perestroika, and the post-Soviet era, assessing the development of the genre while paying particular attention to films produced for television. In each of these periods, the New-Year film adheres rigidly to the genre's conventions without undermining or modifying the six main components, thus offering largely conservative cinematic narratives.