Russian Films Research Articles

The image of the Soviet man in Russian films: a sociological analysis

Films are viewed as an instrument of historical policy and a means of interpreting and distributing certain views about various episodes in national history. The study sample consisted of the eight highest box-office non-military Russian films about Soviet society, which were released between 2008 and 2017. Based on the method of organizing the plot and the themes raised, the films were divided into two groups: “films about achievements” and “films about personal life.” The key methods were the following: 1. content analysis of screen time allocated to certain scenes and characters, to discussions of various topics; 2. discourse analysis of the speech of film characters. On the basis of analysis, three types of characters were described: “hero” (main positive character), “opponent” (main antagonist) and “helper.” The results of the analysis depict the main tendencies in the interpretations of the events of the Soviet era by contemporary Russian cinema. One of the key themes in all the films is the confrontation between a person and the state, manifested through the conflict of a “hero” and an “opponent” (a representative of the government department). Characters who uphold personal values, act independently and are not afraid to take risks, are marked positively. Moreover, behaviour of those characters is not always consistent with the interests of the state. At the same time, characters who support the values accepted in Soviet society and act strictly in accordance with the orders of the authorities are marked negatively. The films contrast the positive ideas about the Soviet people, the negative ideas about the state system. In this manner, the problem of the ambivalence of modern interpretations of Soviet history is being solved.

SOME STORIES OF BRASIL-JAPAN COLLABORATION AND CHACALTAYA MOUNTAIN

An international cooperation, named Brasil-Japan Collaboration of Chacaltaya Emulsion Chamber Experiment (B-J Collaboration) exposed 2.35 × 108 m2.s, during the period 15thJun, 1962 till 10thMay, 1988. It corresponds to 22 'runs' on Cosmic Rays and in this figure are not included photosensitive material set in the lower part of the two-storied emulsion chamber. Although 3 more 'runs' occurred after 1988, they were not included either, because they were not yet properly measured and because they contain mixed Japanese and Russian films. Chacaltaya Mountain was firstly used in 1947 for 2 meson observations and π - μ decays. It was a wise choice not only for these observations but also for the B-J Collaboration and for the Alpaca Project, running at neighbouring sites. The main results observed by the B-J Collaboration are presented.

Care for the Elderly Interpreted in Russian Films

Care for the Elderly Interpreted in Russian Films

Формула путешествия в российском роуд-муви 2000-х гг.: «Возвращение» и «Коктебель»

The article defines plot pattern of road-movie subgenre “child and adult travelling”. Author analyzes plots of Russian films “The return” and “Roads to Koktebel”. Introduction is dedicated to contextualizing the subgenre, defining its place in the road-movie genre structure and the time of arrival in soviet cinema. Then author separates out and compare main plot elements and permanent features of main characters using morphological method that allows to highlight evidently the common things, on which critics of- ten review these films together. Even more important is the difference in directors’ approaches to plot formula usage, which allows to create totally dissimilar films within the same subgenre framework. A selective Russian and foreign filmography of “child and adult travelling” subgenre is provided as a supplement.   Keywords: road-movie, subgenre, plot pattern, plot formula, child and adult, travelling, childhood.

The Image of the Provinces in the Russian Cinema of the 2000s As a Focus of Civil Identity

The articles originality and relevance reside in the fact that it considers Russian films about the provinces in the context of strengthening national identity, one of the main tasks of the governments cultural policy. The author surveys the films of the 2000s which not only touch upon quite acute issues of Russian societys self-identity but stimulate the process of their solution.

„Przyjaciel Moskali”. Daniel Olbrychski wobec Rosji i Rosjan

The text presents the relationship between Daniel Olbrychski (one of the most famous Polish actors in the world) and Russia, as well as his attitude towards the Russians. The author discusses, among others, Olbrychski’s roles in Russian films, and the characters of Russians he created in cinema worldwide. There are also reflections on the actor’s friendship, among others, with Vladimir Vysotzky and Nikita Michalkov, as well as Olbrychski’s attitude towards Vladimir Putin and contemporary Russian policy.

Filmy Eldara Riazanowa w Polsce – z zagadnień recepcji

Eldar Ryazanov directed films including The Irony of Fate, Station for Two, Carnival Night, Beware of the Car, and Office Romance. These films, regarded as cult classics in Russia (the former Soviet Union), are also known to Polish fans of Russian films. This paper takes account of two periods of reception of Ryazanov’s films in Poland: primary reception (1960s – 1980s) and secondary reception (beginning of 2000s). The reception analysis was conducted based on the following materials: press articles, collective monographs, Polish Television archival material and internet forums. Consequently, several areas of interest of critics and viewers were identified, including the following: 1) the plot, 2) aesthetic and artistic impressions, 3) the reference of the director’s works to the works of the Polish film industry, 4) the director’s artistry, 5) the cast, 6) the quality of translation.

Morley, Rachel Performing Femininity: Woman as Performer in Early Russian Cinema (review)

REVIEWS 559 story ends with the creation of new beau mondes in the GULag after many members of Kharkiv’s beau monde were arrested. This engaging book is a model of interdisciplinary work, undoubtedly facilitated by Fowler’s background in theatre. She defines ‘theatre’ broadly to incorporate various performance genres. Her study challenges established historians who ignore cultural production, and it deserves to read by scholars of diverse disciplines. Department of History Susan Costanzo Western Washington University Morley, Rachel. Performing Femininity: Woman as Performer in Early Russian Cinema. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2017. xv + 288 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Filmography. Index. £64.00: $120.00. The main thesis of Rachel Morley’s book is elaborated in its title: the motif of woman as performer is examined as the key to the history of early Russian cinema. Early Russian cinema does indeed begin and end with the image of woman as performer, but between the Persian princess from the first Russian film, Sten´ka Razin (1908), who performs a fiery dance, and the circus artiste Pola in Molchi, grust´, molchi… (1918) there are dozens, even hundreds of other dancers, actresses and singers. Having established this trajectory, Morley has written a new history of Russian pre-Revolutionary cinema. Morley emphasizes the motif of woman as performer in a large number of pre-Revolutionary films, both those that have been preserved and those that have not: the absolute majority of early Russian films have been lost, and Morley’s broad approach to the material is undoubtedly the most productive. It is another matter that within the corpus of films examined in the book too strong an accent, to my taste, is placed on those of Evgenii Bauer: sometimes it seems that other directors are left in the shadows. Each of the book’s seven chapters is devoted to a detailed examination of the variations on the motif of woman as performer: the oriental dancer, the peasant girl, the opera singer, the tango-dancer, the gipsy dancer, the ballerina and the early modern dancer, the actress. Morley’s analysis is cyclic in structure, beginning with a thorough (and extremely witty) analysis of Sten´ka Razin and ending with a no less interesting analysis of Bauer’s late film, After Death (1915). Thus her synchronic approach to the material grows into a diachronic approach. There are some aspects of Morley’s study that deserve criticism. First, the survey of scholarly literature on Russian pre-Revolutionary cinema (pp. 1–5) seems incomplete and a little tendentious. In particular it is surprising that SEER, 96, 3, JULY 2018 560 both in this chapter and in the book as a whole there is not a single reference to one of the most recent and comprehensive books on Russian pre-Revolutionary cinema, Irina Grashchenkova’s Kino Serebrianogo veka (Moscow, 2005). Not only does Grashchenkova propose her own concept of the history of early cinema, but she also touches upon the questions which directly interest Morley. In addition, the tendency to examine the history of early cinema as the history of film direction — reflected, in particular, in the filmography (pp. 274– 78), where the films mentioned in the text are not listed either alphabetically or chronologically, but grouped by directors — does not seem to me to be fully justified. In Russia at the end of the 1900s and the beginning of the 1910s the director was scarcely the author, the main creator of a film. Often he carried out only technical functions, while the main responsibility lay on the shoulders of the cameraman and the film factory owner. The names of directors did not begin to appear on posters and in advertisements until 1914, thanks to the initiative of Vladimir Gardin. The formula of describing a film in terms of its director, for example, ‘Romashkov’s Sten´ka Razin’ (p. 5), does not, therefore, seem quite correct. It is also a pity that in a book devoted to early film plots questions of film dramaturgy are hardly discussed and the names of the greatest scriptwriters are mentioned either in the margins or else not at all. Each of these criticisms, taken individually, can of course be considered...

СНИЖЕНИЕ КАТЕГОРИЧНОСТИ ОЦЕНКИ И ПРАГМАТИЧЕСКАЯ ФУНКЦИЯ ОЦЕНКИ В ТЕКСТЕ КИНОРЕЦЕНЗИИ

The article considers the problems of the assessment categoricity in the film review genre. The study focuses on analyzing the linguistic means to reduce the assessment categoricity in the reviews of modern Russian films and on identifying the pragmatic function of applied linguistic means in communication between the reviewer and the reader. The findings lead to the conclusion that reducing the assessment categoricity is the author’s strategy securing communicative efficiency and reinforcing influence on the reader’s evaluative attitude.

‘I shall show you the right path’: Samuil Lur’e and the first Russian film journal, Sine-Fono

This article is dedicated to the first Russian film journal, Sine-Fono, which was published from 1907 to 1918. Sine-Fono was a leading periodical for more than ten years and it played a crucial role in the pre-Revolutionary cinematic process. The journal Sine-Fono is interesting not only as a key fact of the history of early Russian cinema, but also as an extremely important source for its study: since the overwhelming majority of pre-Revolutionary Russian films have not been preserved, historians must judge this period in Russian film history primarily by means of the film press. The article also explores the fate, both before and after the Revolution, of the founder and constant editor of the journal, Samuil Lur’e.

Titus, Joan The Early Film Music of Dmitry Shostakovich (review)

REVIEWS 357 for concerts in Russia and abroad. This is decidedly not a portrait of a composer putting his affairs in order; it is a professional artist actively occupying himself with the future’ (p. 180). Bullock, following Chaikovskii, does not assume that there is ‘complete harmony between musician and man, of which you [Von Meck] dream’ (Chaikovskii, quoted p. 86). There is slippage between musician and person, as Chaikovskii himself often noted in correspondence, particularly when critics tried to tie down music’s effects too tightly or narrowly (pp. 41, 106, 146). Thus, within the ‘intimate world’ (pp. 9, 18, 43) that the Sixth Symphony embodied through formal innovation, through ‘Tchaikovsky’s ability to translate personal predicaments into artistic form’ (pp. 135, 193), and through musically ‘extreme emotional intensity and even suffering’ (p. 173), all three of which remain easily mis-readable as psychopathological symptoms, it is no surprise that Bullock, like many earlier listeners and critics, turns to the music’s ‘sense of speaking, of somehow communicating a truth inexpressible through mere verbal language’ (pp. 14, 58): the ‘voice’ trope (pp. 43, 52). He frequently describes Chaikovskii’s music as ‘sincere’ (though ‘authentic’ is his final word — p. 193), and the music’s distracting call as ‘inviting audiences to engage in acts of speculative and imaginative interpretation of their own’ (pp. 173, 21). Two minor points. It would have been good to read more about Chaikovskii’s love of the eighteenth century (pp. 80, 127, 132, 141) and his veneration of Mozart (pp. 98, 130); the latter figure could (without technical language) help to unpack key aspects of Chaikovskii’s aesthetic ideology. There are three typos (pp. 128, 149, 166). Final mention must go to a scene from Saint-Saëns’ visit to Moscow in 1875 that would have been worth witnessing: Chaikovskii and Saint-Saëns dancing an improvised ballet, with Nikolai Rubinstein on the piano (p. 28). Royal Academy of Music Anthony Gritten Titus, Joan. The Early Film Music of Dmitry Shostakovich. The Oxford Music/ Media Series. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2016. xv + 253 pp. Illustrations. Music examples. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £37.99. Studies of Shostakovich’s life and music have continued apace in the period since the composer’s death, and although it is well known that in his early years he earned money in the cinema and, later (in 1954) expressed clear and indeed pioneering views on the nature and demands of film music, relatively little is known about the nature of his early work in this genre. Joan Titus’s monograph is the first thorough attempt to describe the music with which he played a part in six well-known Russian films from 1928 to SEER, 96, 2, APRIL 2018 358 1936. This comprehensively annotated volume is rich in musical examples and photographic illustrations of contemporary documents and scores. A unique and particularly valuable addition is of periodically signalled references to a companion website providing material unavailable in book form, such as, for instance, video clips: . The selection of early movies and music discussed are: the silent New Babylon (1928–29); an early example of sound film Alone (1929–31); an example of the new Soviet sound film Golden Mountains (1931); a Socialist Realist movie, Counterplan (1932); a minimal score film, The Youth of Maxim (1934–35); and finally Girlfriends (1935–36) about the girls of the future, as envisioned in Soviet society. A chapter is devoted to each film, preceded by an introduction that lays out the author’s main concepts behind her approach to Shostakovich’s film music, and the historical background to such studies beginning with Asaf´ev, and including several of the Titus’s own articles. An Epilogue attempts to assess the times in which these scores were written, their relation to his other music, and his significance as a pioneer who introduced a new era of Soviet film music. It also serves as a concise summary of the main contents of the monograph. Amongst the book’s many merits is the way Titus relates the writing of music for film to the narrative strand that many listeners seem to find in Shostakovich’s symphonic and chamber...

Quantitative and Genre Dynamics of Film Production of Soviet and Russian Films related to the Subject of the School and University

Quantitative and Genre Dynamics of Film Production of Soviet and Russian Films related to the Subject of the School and University

The Western World in Soviet and Russian Cinema (1946–2016)

Cinema has always represented a powerful medium for influencing audiences (including in political and ideological ways). Therefore, exploring how the image of the Western world has been transforming in Soviet and Russian films is still relevant today. This study seeks to accomplish the following: define the role and place of the changing portrayal of the Western world in Soviet cinema between 1946 (the start of the postwar ideological confrontation) and 1991 (the break-up of the Soviet Union) while comparing these developments with trends from the modern era (1992–2016); study the political, ideological, social, and cultural context as well as the main stages, trends, and goals of filmmakers; study the concepts that these filmmakers used to interpret this theme in Soviet and Russian films; and classify and perform a comparative analysis of the ideology, content models, genre modifications, and stereotypes of Soviet and Russian cinema that came to be associated with the portrayal of the Western world. To achieve these goals, we have used theoretical methods, including classification, comparison, analogy, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, modeling, etc., as well as empirical research methods, including the collection of information about the topics that are addressed in the study.The chronological scope of this study was limited to films produced between 1946 and 2016 and excluded documentaries, animated films, television programs, and an extensive set of feature films related to the topic of World War II (though these films are very specific, and they deserve a separate conversation). As a rule, international co-productions with Russia that reflect how the West views the Russian world were also excluded from this analysis.

Taking cinematic aesthetics into outer space: Dreaming of Space and Paper Soldier

Abstract This article takes up Rancière’s conceptualization of the regimes of art in order to explore what might be left of art, if the scale of the world is expanded to the cosmos, rather than constrained to earth. Starting from the assertion that the beginning of the space age may be considered an event that radically reshapes the coordinates of subjectivity, the paper discusses its reverberations in the realm of aesthetics. The text focuses on two recent Russian films about the beginning of the space age: Dreaming of Space (2005) and Paper Soldier (2008). Both films are examined as statements – ones that are contextually bound and yet that harbour an element of excess – rather than as mere representations of a certain socio-cultural context.

STANISŁAW MIKULSKI I JEGO ZWIĄZKI Z ROSJĄ

This paper presents Stanisław Mikulski’s (one of the most popular Polish actors)relations with Russia. These include, among many others, his work as a young actor inthe plays written by Russian writers and playwrights, which were staged in the JuliuszOsterwa Theatre in Lublin, his most famous role as a Russian secret agent – codenameJ-23 – both in television theatre and the TV series More Than Life at Stake (Stawkawiększa niż życie), and his participation in six Russian films. Moreover, Mikulskiworked as the director in the Centre of Information and Polish Culture in Moscow, thuscontributing to Polish-Russian cultural relations.

The legend of the grand inquisitor; Stanislavski that Stanislavskians don’t want you to know about

The high quality of Russian actors (and quantity thereof) is unarguable, if based on the evidence of Russian touring theatres and award-winning films. Nevertheless, I believe that the way in which these great artists were trained bears little resemblance to how actors training is described in Stanislavski’s books An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, which is not to say, paradoxically, that the aforementioned artists were not trained utilizing the Stanislavski System. Nevertheless, most books written in English about Russian acting technique continue revolving around these same Stanislavskian tomes which incidentally correspond to a very short period of activity within a very long career as actor, director and acting teacher. The meagre amount of English translations of seminal works on Russian acting technique written by direct pupils and collaborators of Stanislavski, is only partly to blame for this; considering that scholars can now travel to Russia freely and that most of these texts can be found on the Internet at the push of a button there is really no excuse for not correcting archaic or imprecise views. I believe that the true Stanislavski System utilized to train great Russian actors is in truth a bulk of knowledge which was and is still being passed down from teachers to students in the great acting schools of Russia and which can be found duly transcribed in the literary legacy of these selfsame teachers and students (and on some recorded media) but that, however, remains as yet unknown or unacknowledged by many English-speaking specialists. Things are shifting quickly in Russian acting as directors begin to explore post-dramatic performance and it is important that clarity is achieved in relation to Russian text-based acting before it moves on irretrievably in whatever direction it may, once again.

Общественно-культурный образ детства (на материале анализа советских и российских художественных фильмов о детях)

The current situation of studies of childhood goes back to the classical psychological theories, in Russian psychology to cultural-historical theory. These theories were developed as a generalization and comprehension of the realities of childhood, which were typical at the time of the creation of these theories. Rapid social changes, especially in recent decades, led to the emergence of a wide range of sources that emphasize the changing daily life of childhood — childhood changed from epoch to epoch, there was even the metaphor of a “disappearance of childhood”. The article describes a gradual change of child’s image in relation to an adult, and the Soviet and Russian films of the 40-ies — 2000-ies were used as a material of analysis. Study is based on the assumption that a consistent analysis based on a theory of text structure M. Lotman, demonstrates the changing image of the child. In the 40s — 50s the child appears immature, pre-adult, and the adult — the embodiment of ideal forms, and the main conflict — a manifestation of the child’s immaturity/ Then gradually from decade to decade more and more the main characters — the child and the adult - appear as different personalities; and the child (teenager) sometimes acquires a pronounced negative features. The very dichotomy of child-adult loses its value.

The province called earth: the chronotope of the post-Soviet province explored through contemporary Russian cinema on outer space

This article examines the chronotope of the post-Soviet province in contemporary Russian cinema on outer space (kosmos). For this purpose, it provides close readings of three contemporary Russian films: Dreaming of Space (dir. Aleksei Uchitel', 2005); Paper Soldier (dir. Aleksei A. German, 2008); and First on the Moon (dir. Aleksei Fedorchenko, 2004). The article demonstrates that these films turn the entire world (with a descriptive emphasis on the USSR) into the provinces, insofar as the provinces may be understood as a structural characteristic, a relation between the centre and the periphery. Furthermore, I argue that these cinematic provinces are marked by three different kinds of provincialism: provincialism of the subject (Dreaming of Space); provincialism of memory, where memory is turned into a fairy tale (First on the Moon); and provincialism of universal axiology (Paper Soldier).

Popular Culture and Language Etiquette: The Use of formal and informal ‘you’ as Address Forms in selected Russian and Hungarian Films

Address forms, as key expressions of politeness are used in all cultures. They are well displayed in films which exhibit in many cases different societies of different times, and are becoming one of the biggest agents of popular culture, giving great opportunities for their use in sociolinguistic studies. This paper examines the socio-cultural aspects of the use of formal and informal ‘you’ as address forms through films in Hungarian and Russian languages. It explores the main similarities and differences between the studied societies in terms of the use of “Tu-vous” forms (Brown & Gilman, 1975). Anotacja Formy adresu jako wyrazu uprzejmości są aktualne we wszystkich kulturach narodowych. One są popularne w filmach, ktore pokazuą zachowania roznych spoleczesntw w roznych okresach historycznych. Formy te są przedstawicielami kultury popularnej. Ich rowniez mozna uzywac w lingwistyce spolecznej. W tym artykule opisaliśmy aspekty spoleczne i kulturowe formalnej i nieformalnej formy “ty” jako wyrazu adresu w filmach wegierskich i rosyjskich. W naszej pracy przedstawiono podobienstwa i roznice miedzy spoleczenstwami w stosowaniu formalnej і neformalnej formy “ty” (Brown & Gilman, 1975).

Формирование условий повышения инвестиционной привлекательности киноотрасли в России

For a long time the industry of cinematography in Russia has been unprofitable, which in turn determines the difficulty in finding investment for new film projects. The part of Russian films in total box office of domestic distribution is negligibly small, the most produced Russian film projects do not pay back the investment made in them. The situation is critical and requires a comprehensive approach to the analysis of all the possible causes of this situation and to develop measures and create conditions to increase investment attractiveness
 of this industry in Russia. They are still making incompleted attempts to reform the industry, for example, an adjustment has been made in the distribution system of state support, multiple meetings with theater owners have been held where they taked about a voluntary increase of quotas on rolled domestic films and a number of other measures. However, all these measures are chaotic, and therefore futile, attempts to correct the current situation, do not have single cohesive system of designed reforms that will help to improve the overall
 investment attractiveness of this industry. The article attempts to analyze the reasons that have not allowed the domestic film industry to become powerful, profitable and, most importantly, attractive for investment for a long time. The article also suggests actions that should be implemented and adapted to the Russian realities, to increase the investment attractiveness of the film industry in Russia that can serve as a locomotive for the
 output of the industry from years of systemic crisis.