Utopian Visions: The Soviet Experience through the Arts Jan Plamper, Simon Huxtable
Week 18 Outline
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film:
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours Example of director Kira Muratova
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours Example of director Kira Muratova Example of director Sergei Paradzhanov
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours Example of director Kira Muratova Example of director Sergei Paradzhanov Film Repentance
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours Example of director Kira Muratova Example of director Sergei Paradzhanov Film Repentance Film Assa
Utopian Visions: Week 18 Perestroika film: Contours Example of director Kira Muratova Example of director Sergei Paradzhanov Film Repentance Film Assa Parallel film
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Return of shelved films:
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Return of shelved films: At 1986 meeting of Union of Cinematographers ‘conflict commission’ founded. It reviewed over 100 banned films, all of which were eventually released.
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Return of shelved films: At 1986 meeting of Union of Cinematographers ‘conflict commission’ founded. It reviewed over 100 banned films, all of which were eventually released. E.g. Repentance (shortly released in 1984, then forbidden; relaunched in 1987).
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d New films, e.g. The Needle, dir. Radhid Nugmanov (1988)chernukha
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d New films, e.g. The Needle, dir. Radhid Nugmanov (1988)chernukha Star actor: Viktor Tsoi (1962-1990), frontman of rock band Kino (song ‘Changes!’/‘Peremen!’, final song in film Assa)
The Needle (1988)
The Needle (1988)
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz61ht_needle-1988-pt-1_creation http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz6ckt_needle-1988-pt-2_creation (24:00, 30:00, 47:00)
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha show ills of Soviet society in order to fix them
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha show ills of Soviet society in order to fix them Glasnost
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha show ills of Soviet society in order to fix them Glasnost retrospective term (glasnost of 1860s Great Reforms lifting of censorship, tsar Alexander II)
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha show ills of Soviet society in order to fix them Glasnost retrospective term (glasnost of 1860s Great Reforms lifting of censorship, tsar Alexander II) Perestroika
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Chernukha show ills of Soviet society in order to fix them Glasnost retrospective term (glasnost of 1860s Great Reforms lifting of censorship, tsar Alexander II) Perestroika re-construct Soviet society, return to good (Leninist) beginnings, much like in Thaw period
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Problem:
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Problem: self-radicalising dynamic with unintended consequences
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Problem: self-radicalising dynamic with unintended consequences, cultural producers take culture further than intended, return (perestroika) becomes impossible, nothing to return to, entire edifice of Soviet culture/society/state destroyed
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d Problem: self-radicalising dynamic with unintended consequences, cultural producers take culture further than intended, return (perestroika) becomes impossible, nothing to return to, entire edifice of Soviet culture/society/state destroyed paradox: perestroika necessary for system to survive; dynamic of perestroika leads to end of system
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d ‘Expensive’ foreign films, e.g. King Kong Lives (1986), 53.6 mio tix sold.
(1) Perestroika Film: Contours Cont’d ‘Expensive’ foreign films, e.g. King Kong Lives (1986), 53.6 mio tix sold. Also, video (VHS) revolution video salons (before perestroika: most foreign films from third-world countries, e.g. India)
(2) Ex. Dir. Kira Muratova Born 1934, finished VGIK in Moscow in 1959, then sent to film studio Odessa- Still lives in Odessa today. Several films shelved, fame not until perestroika. With Vysotski in Brief Encounters (1967) Today
(2) Ex. Dir. Kira Muratova often amateur actors modelled on Brechtian epic theater The Asthenic Syndrome (1990) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzs3jr_the-asthenic-syndrome-1990-pt-1_creation (47:00, 51:30)
(3) Ex. Dir. Sergei Paradzhanov (1924-1990) Georgian-born Armenian director. Most films prohibited. Imprisoned 1973-77 on grounds of homosexuality, protests by Truffaut, Fellini et al. Fame only during perestroika and posthumously.
(3) Ex. Dir. Sergei Paradzhanov (1924-1990) The Colour of Pomegranates (1968) about Armenian 18th-century poet’s life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glsytnUdt-E Paradzhanov’s cinema influenced by Tarkovsky
(4) Repentance, dir. Tengiz Abuladze (1984/1987) Studios across USSR: Armenfilm Azerbaijanfilm Belarusfilm Georgiafilm Gorky Film Studio Gruziya-film Kazahfilm Kyivnaukfilm Kirgizfilm Lenfilm Lithuanian Film Studio Moldova-Film Mosfilm Dovzhenko Film Studios Odessa Cinema Studio Pilot Rigas kinostudija Soyuzmultfilm Sverdlovsk Film Studio Tadjikfilm Tallinnfilm Turkmenfilm Uzbekfilm Yalta Film Studio
(4) Repentance, dir. Tengiz Abuladze (1984/1987) Filmed for tv with protection of Shevardnadze (later Gorbachev’s foreign minister) in Georgia, then shelved
(4) Repentance, dir. Tengiz Abuladze (1984/1987) Filmed for tv with protection of Shevardnadze (later Gorbachev’s foreign minister) in Georgia, then shelved Abuladze (1924-94): ‘phantasmagoria’ in the style of Georgian folklore
(4) Repentance Plot 2 framing stories and 1 flashback Anachronisms Phantasy/dream Music Literary quotations [Source: Josephine Woll, Denise Youngblood, Repentance (London, 2001).]
(4) Repentance literary quotations/intertextuality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tywrNMVXAZ8 (1:15:45) women queuing in front of prison (1:20:15) wood, sawdust
Acmeist Poetry, 1910s-1920s Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Portrait of Anna Akhmatova by Natan Altman, 1914
Akhmatova, ‘Requiem: Instead of a Preface’, 1957 In the dreadful years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months in prison queues in Leningrad. One day someone ‘identified’ me. Then a woman standing behind me, blue with cold, who of course had never heard my name, woke from that trance characteristic of us all and asked in my ear (there, everyone spoke in whispers): – Ah, can you describe this? And I said: I can. Then something like a tormented smile passed over what had once been her face.
Akhmatova, ‘Requiem: Dedication’, 1940 Mountains fall before this grief, A mighty river stops its flow, But prison doors stay firmly bolted Shutting off the convict burrows And an anguish close to death. Fresh winds softly blow for someone, Gentle sunsets warm them through; we don't know this, We are everywhere the same, listening To the scrape and turn of hateful keys And the heavy tread of marching soldiers.
Waking early, as if for early mass, Walking through the capital run wild, gone to seed, We'd meet - the dead, lifeless; the sun, Lower every day; the Neva, mistier: But hope still sings forever in the distance. The verdict. Immediately a flood of tears, Followed by a total isolation, As if a beating heart is painfully ripped out, or, Thumped, she lies there brutally laid out, But she still manages to walk, hesitantly, alone. Where are you, my unwilling friends, Captives of my two satanic years? What miracle do you see in a Siberian blizzard? What shimmering mirage around the circle of the moon? I send each one of you my salutation, and farewell.
(5) Assa, dir. Sergei Solovev (1987) Part 1: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy38mh_assa-1987-pt-1_creation Part 2: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy3wrh_assa-1987-pt-2_creation Part 3: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy0k29_assa-1987-pt-3_creation
(6) Parallel Film http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_938086&feature=iv&index=1&list=PLDbSvEZka6GGPGU1cpjG4iy9Mk3a9au-W&src_vid=DEmsbdTpo3w&v=eZxYAKSo5gw (25 mins.)