FILM 168: Soviet and Russian Cinema in Revolution  [UCSC]

FILM 168: National Cinema: Soviet and Russian Cinema in Revolution

Instructor: Daniel Vukovich

Tues. & Thurs., 7:00-10:00 p.m. @ 240 College Eight

Office: D-127 Porter College

Office hours: 10:00–12:00 Wednesdays

Phone: 459-1239 (o)

email: dfvukov@cats.ucsc.edu

Description:

            This course is about two events that profoundly influenced the course of the 20th century: the development of cinema, and historical communism in the former Soviet Union.  As we will see, these two events were in fact deeply related.  We will focus on both classic and lesser known films of the former Soviet Union (1917-1991), and on their  attendant cinematic and socio-political histories, from the initial revolutionary years (1917-1932/4), through the tumultuous and at times tragic periods of socialist construction during the Stalinist and post-Stalinist or “reform” eras.  Our guiding questions will be two-fold: On the one hand, what can we learn about Soviet and modern history and culture from these films, and on the other, what do they tell us about the problems and promises of political  and cultural revolution, of historical communism, of cinema as such (what Lenin called “the most important of all the arts”), and of a specifically communist approach to film-making?  En route, we will examine these films in three related ways: as instances of art (their cinematic and aesthetic achievements); as “propaganda” or “agit-prop”(their avowedly pedagogic functions); and as foreign texts which therefore raise the issue of viewing a film from an “alien” (say, non-Russian or non-communist) location.  

            By the end of the course, students should have a greater understanding of the above historical and cultural issues, sharpened skills of film analysis, and a greater appreciation of cinematic expression in what was (and in some ways, still is) Soviet Russia. 

Prerequisites:  Film 20A or B (the “Intro” courses) and 132A or B, the International film classes.  As these are new pre-req.’s, see me if you’ve concerns. 

Assignments:   Substantial reading (about 75 pages per week); several “pop” (unannounced)  quizzes; several one-page response papers; 2 short, critical essays (3-4 pages each); a mid-term; and a final exam.  Exams will be of the short-essay, in-class type, with some “objective” questions and sequence-analyses thrown in.  The mid-term occurs on 10/29.  Other due-dates are t.b.a. 

Grading:   The mid-term and final will each account for 25% of your final evaluation or grade; the short essays will together account for 30%, and the pop-quizzes, responses  and your participation – and this last is both expected and rewarded – will together count for 20%.  

Attendance: All students MUST attend each of the week’s formal screenings.  You are allowed only two absences, for whatever reasons.  If you miss more than two classes, you cannot pass the course.

Required Texts:

The texts are available at Bay Tree Bookstore on campus. 

1.  Richard Taylor and Ian Christie (Eds.), The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents.  Required. (Denoted as FF on the schedule below)

Please Note: As of 9/16, there are only 23 copies of Film Factory at Bay Tree.  The rest are on back order, and allegedly will be shipped on Sept. 30th.  In the meantime, there are several hard copies of the initial readings from this text on reserve in McHenry Library. If you are not one of the lucky 23, make copies there, and bring them to class as per the schedule. 

2.  Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution.  Optional purchase, but highly recommended. 

3.  Two Coursepacks of photocopied materials from the Bay Tree Bookstore. The first volume is ready for purchase, and the second will be available in mid-October.  These are both required.

4.  Library Reserve (1st floor McHenry).   In addition to hard copies of the Film Factory’s initial readings (weeks 2-4), as well as that whole text and Fitzpatrick’s, a copy of each of our required screenings/films is located here, for your studying and re-viewing pleasures. After the mid-term, you will also find readings for our later films/weeks here.

COURSE & FILM SCHEDULE:

I.  SCREENINGS: You are required to attend these, of course.  A copy of each film is on  reserve in McHenry, for study and writing purposes.  I expect that everyone will take some form of notes during the screenings.  Do see me or ask if you need any guidance about how to take film-notes. 

II.  READINGS: For Film Factory (FF), the document number and author is given, not the page numbers.  For the Coursepacks, complete all the readings, unless a given text is marked below as “Recommended” only.  If you’ve any questions with the schedule of readings, do ask me ahead of time (dfvukov@cats.ucsc.edu).    The following schedule is subject to change.  If you miss class, check with someone else or myself in re. the readings and assignments; you are responsible for all the material (and announcements) covered in lectures, discussions, and in the texts.

Week 1: Introducing The October Revolution

THURSDAY 9/19:   Course Introduction.  Brief lectures on Soviet Cinema, Russia from 1905-circa.1927, and Esfir Shub.

SCREENING in class: Esfir Shub, THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY (1927, 90 min.).  Time permitting, we will also view clips from Sergei Eisenstein’s OCTOBER.

READINGS:  FF: 67 (Mayakovsky); 68 (Mayakovsky); 74 (Shub).   Coursepack: Recommended:  G. Roberts: “Esfir Shub and the Great Way Forward.”  Please note that you are not expected to have read these by the first class (!).  I will refer to them on Thursday and again during Week 5 (in re. Vertov).  For the mid-term, you will be responsible for the basic (lecture) information on Shub, so you may want to read these. 

Week 2: Eisenstein and The Revolutionary Years in Russia

TUESDAY 9/24: 

READINGS:     Film Factory (FF), pp. xiv-xviii; xx-xxi ; “Introductions” (pp.1-23); 11 (Lenin); 12 (Lenin); 13 (Lenin); 14 (Lenin); 30 (Eisenstein); “Intro”( pp. 121-3); 32 (Trotsky); 50 (Boltyansky).   Coursepack: “Sergei Eisenstein” (bio. By D Bordwell);  Leyda, 180-85 (“Youth of an Art”); Eisenstein: “A Sequence form Strike” (233-5) &  “Methods of Montage” (72-83);  Balazs: “Changing Set-Up,” 89-105   Recommended: Moshe Lewin, “Russia/USSR in Historical Motion.”

SCREENING:  Sergei Eisenstein, STRIKE (1925, 82 min.)

THURSDAY 9/26: 

READINGS: FF: “Intro” ( pp.137-8); 51 (Piotrovsky); 52 (Gvozdev); 54 (Balazs); 55 (Eisenstein); 61 (Lunacharsky).   Coursepack: Eisenstein: “The Filmic Fourth Dimension” ; Leyda “Theory Into Practice” (193-201).  Balazs: “Changing Set-Up” 111-17; “Editing”, 118-129.    Recommended: Bordwell/Thompson: “Soviet Cinema in the 1920s” (esp. pages on “montage”).

SCREENING: Eisenstein, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1926, 74 minutes).

Week 3: Socialist Construction and an Avant-Garde “For the Masses”  

TUESDAY: 10/1: 

READINGS: FF: Intro, pp101-2; 9 (Kuleshov); 20 (Kuleshov);  35 (Declaration of ARC) 38 (Kuleshov); 39 (Lunacharsky); 40 (“Resolution...”)   Coursepack: Kuleshov, “The Origins of Montage” ; Gillespie, “Lev Kuleshov” (pp. 27-30 only; can skip rest); Kepley, “Mr Kuleshov in the Land of the Modernists.” 

SCREENING:  Lev Kuleshov, THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF  MR. WEST IN THE LAND OF THE BOLSHEVIKS (1924, 78 min), with clips from Kuleshov’s BY THE LAW (1927). 

THURSDAY: 10/3:

READINGS:  FF: Intro, pp 283-5; 112 (ARK Member); 113 (Sokolov);117 (Kino i zhizn Editorial); 148 (Dovzhenko)  Coursepack: Kepley, “A. Dovzhenko” (brief bio); Dovzhenko, “Beginnings – Sources”; Gillespie, “A Dovzhenko: A Ukrainian...” (p 83 -90)    Recommended:  Leyda and FF, 144 (Shumyatsky)

SCREENING: Alexander Dovzhenko, EARTH (1930, 69 min), plus clips from Eisenstein’s “lost” film,  BEZHIN MEADOW (1937, 31 min.). 

Week 4: Socialist Realism & Subversion at the Dawn of Stalinism

TUESDAY: 10/8

READINGS: FF: Intro, pp. 315-7; 124 (Proletarskoe kino Editorial); 131 (First Congress of Soviet Writers); 132 (Pravda Editorial) 133 (Film-Makers’ Letter to Stalin); 137 (Stalin); 138 (Trauberg et al.) ; 140 (Shumyatsky);  Coursepack:  Zorkaya, “The Thirties: Favorites of the Screen”; Balazs, 143-5 (located back in Week 2 of Coursepack);  Recommended: “Socialist Realism and Chapayev”; Leyda, “Witnessed Years”

SCREENING:  Grigory and Sergei Vasilev, CHAPAYEV (1934, 101 min.)

THURSDAY: 10/10

READINGS: FF: 47 (Room); 82 (To the Party Conference); 101 (Eisenstein);  102 (Tynyanov); 103 (Petrov-Bytov); 110 (RAPP)  Coursepack: Leyda (212-17); DeBartolo, “Bed and Sofa Review”; Kotz and Weir, “Socialism and the Soviet System.” 

SCREENING: Abram M. Room, BED AND SOFA (1926, 73 min).

Week 5:  Apotheosis of the Avant-Garde:  Vertov, the Kinoks, and Documentalism

TUESDAY: 10/15:  

READINGS: FF: 118 (Vertov); 119 (Vertov); 136 (Vertov); 139 (Vertov); 143 (Vertov);

 Coursepack:  Vertov:  “Let’s Discuss Ukrainfilm’s First Sound Film” (106-12); “First Steps” (112-15) ; “Sound March”(289-93); “Symphony of the Donbas” (293-7).  G. Roberts: “The Impact of Sound and Documentalism” (92-103). 

SCREENING: Dziga Vertov, ENTHUSIASM (or “Symphony of the Donbas”, 1931, 67 min.). 

THURSDAY:   10/17:  

READINGS: Fitzpatrick: t.b.a. ;   FF: 21 (Vertov); 31 (Vertov); 41 (Vertov); 43 (Vertov); 44 (Blyum); 48 (Vertov); 57 (Vertov); 58 (Shklovsky); 59 (Shub); 80 (Vertov).  Coursepack: G. Roberts, “Vertov and the Cine-Eye.” ; Vertov: “On the Significance of Newsreel”; “Kinopravda”; “On the Significance of Nonacted Cinema”; “Kinoglaz”

SCREENING: Dziga Vertov, KINO-PRAVDA and KINO-EYE newsreels (“Cine-Truth” & “Cine-Eye,” circa 1920s, 52  min.).

Week 6: The Thaw of Thermidor and the “Re-Birth” of Socialist Realism

TUESDAY: 10/22

READINGS: Fitzpatrick: t.b.a.   Coursepack: Turovskaya, “Commissar” (98-101); Horton & Brashinsky, “Back to the Present” (pp. 33-39 only); Leyda: “Looking Back from 1983"; Johnson, “Russia After the Thaw”;  Ferro, “Does a Film Writing of History Exist?” Recommended: Zorkaya, “The Unforgettable Sixties”   

SCREENING: Alexander Askoldov, COMMISSAR (1968/1985, 105 min.) 

THURSDAY: 10/24: 

READINGS: t.b.a, but possibly none.  Mid-term review and course re-cap.   No Screening.

Week 7: Late Returns to the Revolutionary and Socialist Construction Eras

TUESDAY: 10/29:  MID-TERM.  Scheduled for full 3 hours, but may not take that long to complete successfully. In-part quantitative, but mostly short-essays and sequence analysis.

THURSDAY: 10/31

READINGS:   Fitzpatrick: t.b.a.   Coursepack2:   Dunlop, “Russian Nationalist Themes...”; Zorkaya, “Time’s Captive”; Other Readings t.b.a. (Library Reserve).

SCREENING: Andrei Konchalovsky, SIBERIADE (1978, 206 min.)  Please NOTE:  this is a long film, and will take us 26 minutes past our allotted time.  If you cannot stay, you will have to watch the final half-hour on McHenry library reserve by the following class (Tues. 11/5). 

Week 8:  Spectres of Koba, or, Stalin Never Died

TUESDAY: 11/5

READINGS: FF: 149 (Ermolayev); 150 (Iskusstvo kino Editorial).     Coursepack2: Khloplyankina, “On the road the leads to truth”; Aleinikov, “Between the circus and the zoo”; Horton/Brashinsky, “Director’s Film and Stalinism” (39-44); Zorkaya, “Epilogue”                                                                                              

SCREENING: Tengiz Abuladze, REPENTANCE (1984/86, 101 min.)

THURSDAY: 11/7

READINGS: Coursepack2: Getty: “Two Bolsheviks” (Bukharin and Yezhov); “Conclusion”; “Number of Victims of the Terror.”

SCREENING: None, in lieu of combined discussion of Siberiade and Repentance.

Week 9: The Great Patriotic War and Modern Russian Memory

TUESDAY: 11/12

READINGS: Library Reserve t.b.a.

SCREENING: Elem Klimov, COME AND SEE (1985, 142 min.) 

THURSDAY:: 11/14   ....  READINGS: t.b.a. (And placed on library reserve).

Week 10:  Once Again On the Theory of “Dissidence” and Socialist Realism

TUESDAY: 11/19:

READINGS: Coursepack2: Navailh, “Image of Women in Contemporary Soviet Cinema”; ; Horton/Brashinsky, “Down with Stuttering” (158-61, 170-1);  Zorkaya, “Time’s Captive: An Oscar for Katya”.

SCREENING: Vladimir Menshov, MOSCOW DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TEARS  (1981, 150 min.). 

THURSDAY: 11/21:

READINGS: Coursepack2:  Moskvina, “Forward, Singing!” (pp.105-8); Horton/Brashinsky, “Through a Glasnost Darkly: Images of Women in Soviet Films”; Kotz and Weir: “Revolution from Above” (Preface and Intro.)

SCREENING:  Vasily Pichul,  LITTLE VERA (a.k.a. “Little Faith,” 1988, 110). 

Week 11: The Apotheosis of the New Socialist Realism, and the Fall of the USSR

TUESDAY: 11/26

READING: Coursepack2: Lewin, “Concluding the Unconcluded”

Discussions and “conclusions” about glasnost film, Soviet cinema, and the thematics of the course.   Review for Final Exam.   Student evaluations.