The waning of the young sincere hero in Averbakh and Maslennikov’s The Private Life of Kuziaev Valentin

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article discusses the 1967 film The Private Life of Kuziaev Valentin, directed by Il’ia Averbakh and Igor’ Maslennikov. The film belongs to the Thaw period of Soviet filmmaking, defined by cineastes’ pledge to sincerity. This idea aligned with the cultural transformations launched by the Khrushchev administration at the end of the 1950s, which encompassed radical changes in the attitudes and behaviour of the Soviet youth. Sensitive to the current political climate, Soviet filmmakers populated their narratives with the new, honest and self-reflective young heroes. Our detailed analysis of The Private Life of Kuziaev Valentin demonstrates how it critically interrogates and destabilises the popular sincerity discourse of the time. Engaging in a complex dialogue with Marlen Khutsiev’s iconic 1962 production Ilyich’s Gate, the film also foreshadows the imminent appearance, on the Soviet screen, of a radically different character. In the 1970s, the introspective flaneurs of the Thaw are slowly replaced by their cynical and shallow, two-dimensional copies. Remarkably, this evolution of the contemporary protagonist coincided with similar tendencies in French and British cinema.