Cinema of the Soviet Union
Encyclopedia
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia
" despite Russian language
films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union
reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, although sometimes censored by the Central Government. Most notable for their republican cinema were the Russian SFSR, Armenian SSR
, Georgian SSR, Ukrainian SSR
, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuanian SSR
, Byelorussian SSR
and Moldavian SSR
. At the same time, the nation's film industry, which was fully nationalized throughout most of the country's history, was guided by philosophies and laws propounded by the monopoly Soviet Communist Party which introduced a new view on the cinema, socialist realism
, which was different from the one before or after the existence of the Soviet Union.
Any censorship regime is dynamic. Some subjects did not appear on screen - or only in a coded form.
The reasons of censorship in USSR are mostly political (criticism of the Soviet Union, CPSU, Soviet regime, particular political bodies and figures). They are: political unreliability (temporary or permanent) of an artist, whose work was the subject of the publication; political unreliability (temporary or permanent) of an author of a publication; mentioning an unreliable person, unworthy fact or event in the text unless it was criticized (possible cuttings of the text or plates); generally prohibited subject (for instance: unofficial Soviet art); propaganda of fascism, violence or terror (horror films belonged to that category); pornography (a magic word - none of the censors could ever give a distinct definition of this term in their special vocabulary; the most frequent reason for art publications to become banned as most of the artists, since the ancient times, had made the studies of the nude models); themes, subjects, facts, events which caused or might have caused undesirable thoughts, associations or illusions not in favor of the Soviet state.
The new state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
, officially came into existence on December 30, 1922. From the outset, this new republic held that film would be the most ideal propaganda tool for the Soviet Union because of its widespread popularity among the established citizenry of the new land; Vladimir Lenin
, in fact, declared it the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of Communism, a position which was later echoed by Joseph Stalin
. Meanwhile, between World War I
and the Russian Revolution
, the film industry, and the infrastructure needed to support it (e.g., electrical power), had deteriorated to the point of unworkability. The majority of cinemas had been in the corridor between Moscow
and St. Petersburg, and most were out of commission. Additionally, many of the performers, producers, directors and other artists of pre-Soviet Russia, had fled the country or were moving ahead of the Red Army
forces as they pushed further and further south into what remained of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the new government did not have the funds to spare for an extensive reworking of the system of filmmaking. Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands. As this amounted mostly to cinema houses
, the first Soviet films consisted of recycled films of the Russian Empire and its imports, to the extent that these were not determined to be offensive to the new Soviet ideology
. Ironically, the first new film released in Soviet Russia
did not exactly fit this mold: this was Father Sergius
, a religious film completed during the last weeks of the Russian Empire but not yet exhibited. It appeared on Soviet screens in 1918.
Beyond this, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most notorious of which were the agitki - propaganda films intended to "agitate", or energize and enthuse, the masses to participate fully in approved Soviet activities, and deal effectively with those who remained in opposition to the new order. These short (often one small reel) films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village (along with the lecturers) to indoctrinate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen.
Newsreels, as documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Soviet cinema. Dziga Vertov
's newsreel series Kino-Pravda
, the best known of these, lasted from 1922 to 1925 and had a propagandistic bent; Vertov used the series to promote socialist realism
but also to experiment with cinema.
Still, in 1921, there was not one functioning cinema in Moscow until late in the year. Its rapid success, utilizing old Russian and imported feature films, jumpstarted the industry significantly, especially insofar as the government did not heavily or directly regulate what was shown, and by 1923 an additional 89 cinemas had opened. Despite extremely high taxation of ticket sales and film rentals, there was an incentive for individuals to begin making feature film product again - there were places to show the films - albeit they now had to conform their subject matter to a Soviet world view. In this context, the directors and writers who had remained in support of the objectives of Communism assumed quick dominance in the industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors.
New talent joined the experienced remainder, and an artistic community assembled with the goal of defining "Soviet film" as something distinct and better from the output of "decadent capitalism". The leaders of this community viewed it essential to this goal to be free to experiment with the entire nature of film, a position which would result in several well-known creative efforts but would also result in an unforeseen counter-reaction by the increasingly solidifying administrators of the government-controlled society.
Sergei Eisenstein
's Battleship Potemkin
was released to wide acclaim in 1925; the film was heavily fictionalized and also propagandistic, preaching the party line about the virtues of the proletariat. The party leaders soon found it difficult to control directors' expression, partly because definitive understanding of a film's meaning was elusive.
One of the most popular films released in the 1930s was Circus
. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, color movies such as The Stone Flower
(1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and The Kuban Cossacks (1949) were released.
Other notable films from the 1940s include Alexander Nevsky
and Ivan the Terrible
.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Soviet Cinema produced Ballad of a Soldier
, which won the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film
, and The Cranes Are Flying
.
Height is considered to be one of the best films of the 1950s (it also became the foundation of the bard movement
).
In the 1980s there was a diversification of subject matter. Touchy issues could now be discussed openly. The results were films like Pokayanie (Repentance (film)), which dealt with Stalinist repressions in Georgia, and the allegorical science fiction
movie Kin-dza-dza!
, which satirized the Soviet life in general.
Oddities created by censorship include:
, was established in Moscow in 1919.
During the Russian Civil War
, agitation trains and ships visited soldiers, workers, and peasants. Lectures, reports, and political meetings were accompanied by newsreels about events at the various fronts.
and the film Forward, Soviet! by Vertov
, whose experiments and achievements in documentary films influenced the development of Russian and world cinematography. Other important films of the 1920s were Shub
's historical-revolutionary films such as The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty. The film Hydropeat by Yu. Zheliabuzhsky marked the beginning of popular science films. Feature-length agitation films in 1918-21 were important in the development of the film industry. Innovation in Russian filmmaking was expressed particularly in the work of Eisenstein. The Battleship Potemkin was noteworthy for its innovative montage and metaphorical quality of its film language. It won world acclaim. Eisenstein developed concepts of the revolutionary epic in the film October. Also noteworthy was Pudovkin
's adaptation
of Gorky's Mother to the screen in 1926. Pudovkin developed themes of revolutionary history in the film The End of St. Petersburg
(1927). Other noteworthy silent films were films dealing with contemporary life such as Barnet's The House on Trubnaya
. The films of Protazanov
were devoted to the revolutionary struggle and the shaping of a new way of life, such as Don Diego and Pelageia (1928). Ukrainian director Dovzhenko was noteworthy for the historical-revolutionary epic Zvenigora
, the Arsenal
and the poetic film Earth
.
to their work. Among the most outstanding films was Chapaev
, a film about Russian revolutionaries and society during the Revolution and Civil War. Revolutionary history was developed in films such as Golden Mountains
by Sergei Yutkevich
, The Outskirts by Boris Barnet, and the Maxim trilogy by Grigori Kozintsev
and Leonid Trauberg
: The Youth of Maxim
, The Return of Maxim
, and The Vyborg Side
. Also notable were biographical films about Lenin such as Mikhail Romm
's Lenin in October and Lenin in 1918
. The life of Russian society and everyday people were depicted in films such as Courageous Seven and City of Youth by Sergei Gerasimov. The comedies of Grigori Aleksandrov
such as Circus
, Volga-Volga
, and The Shining Path as well as The Rich Bride by Ivan Pyryev
and By the Bluest of Seas
by Boris Barnet focus on the psychology of the common person, enthusiasm for work and intolerance for remnants of the past. Many films focused on national heroes, including Alexander Nevsky
by Sergei Eisenstein
, Minin and Pozharsky by Vsevolod Pudovkin
, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky by Igor Savchenko
. There were adapdations of literary classics, particularly Mark Donskoy's trilogy of films about Maxim Gorky
: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Stalinist wing of the Communist Party consolidated its authority and set about transforming the Soviet Union on both the economic and cultural fronts. The economy moved from the market-based New Economic Policy
(NEP) to a system of central planning. The new leadership declared a "cultural revolution" in which the party would exercise tight control over cultural affairs, including artistic expression. Cinema existed at the intersection of art and economics; so it was destined to be thoroughly reorganized in this episode of economic and cultural transformation.
To implement central planning in cinema, the new bureaucratic entity Soyuzkino was created in 1930. All the hitherto autonomous studios and distribution networks that had grown up under NEP's market would now be coordinated in their activities by this planning agency. Soyuzkino's authority also extended to the studios of the national republics such as VUFKU, which had enjoyed more independence during the 1920s. Soyuzkino consisted of an extended bureaucracy of economic planners and policy specialists who were charged to formulate annual production plans for the studios and then to monitor the distribution and exhibition of finished films.
With central planning came more centralized authority over creative decision making. Script development became a long, torturous process under this bureaucratic system, with various committees reviewing drafts and calling for cuts or revisions. In the 1930s censorship became more exacting with each passing year, in a manner that paralleled the increasing cultural repression of the Stalinist regime. Feature film projects would drag out for months or years and might be terminated at any point
Alexander Dovzhenko
drew from Ukrainian folk culture in such films as Zemlya
(Earth, 1930)
along the way because of the capricious decision of one or another censoring committee.
Such redundant oversight slowed down production and inhibited creativity. Although central planning was supposed to increase the film industry's productivity, production levels declined steadily through the 1930s. The industry was releasing over one-hundred features annually at the end of the NEP period, but that figure fell to seventy by 1932 and to forty-five by 1934. It never again reached triple digits during the remainder of the Stalin era. Veteran directors experienced precipitous career declines under this system of bureaucratic control; whereas Eisenstein was able to make four features between 1924 and 1929, he completed only one film, Alexander Nevsky (1938) during the entire decade of the 1930s. His planned adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev story Bezhin lug (Bezhin Meadow, 1935–1937) was halted during production in 1937 and officially banned, one of many promising film projects that fell victim to an exacting censorship system.
Meanwhile, the USSR cut off its film contacts with the West. It stopped importing films after 1931 out of concern that foreign films exposed audiences to capitalist ideologies. The industry also freed itself from dependency on foreign technologies. During its industrialization effort of the early 1930s, the USSR finally built an array of factories to supply the film industry with the nation's own technical resources.
To secure independence from the West, industry leaders mandated that the USSR develop its own sound technologies, rather than taking licenses on Western sound systems. Two Soviet scientists, Alexander Shorin in Leningrad
(formerly St. Petersburg) and Pavel Tager in Moscow, conducted research through the late 1920s on complementary sound systems, which were ready for use by 1930. The implementation process, including the cost of refitting movie theaters, proved daunting, and the USSR did not complete the transition to sound until 1935. Nevertheless, several directors made innovative use of sound once the technology became available. In Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa (Enthusiasm, 1931), his documentary on coal mining and heavy industry, Vertov based his soundtrack on an elegantly orchestrated array of industrial noises. In Dezertir
(The Deserter, 1933) Pudovkin experimented with a form of "sound counterpoint" by exploiting tensions and ironic dissonances between sound elements and the image track. And in Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein collaborated with the composer Sergei Prokofiev
on an "operatic" film style that elegantly coordinated the musical score and the image track.
As Soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early 1930s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as "socialist realism". In 1932 the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avant-garde practices of the 1920s and to embrace socialist realism, a literary style that, in practice, was actually close to nineteenth-century realism. The other arts, including cinema, were subsequently instructed to develop the aesthetic equivalent. For cinema, this meant adopting a film style that would be legible to a broad audience, thus avoiding a possible split between the avant-garde and mainstream cinema that was evident in the late 1920s. The director of Soyuzkino and chief policy officer for the film industry, Boris Shumiatsky (1886–1938), who served from 1931 to 1938, was a harsh critic of the montage aesthetic. He championed a "cinema for the millions", which would use clear, linear narration. Although American movies were no longer being imported in the 1930s, the Hollywood model of continuity editing was readily available, and it had a successful track record with Soviet movie audiences. Soviet socialist realism was built on this style, which assured tidy storytelling. Various guidelines were then added to the doctrine: positive heroes to act as role models for viewers; lessons in good citizenship for spectators to embrace; and support for reigning policy decisions of the Communist Party.
Such restrictive aesthetic policies, enforced by the rigorous censorship apparatus of Soyuzkino, resulted in a number of formulaic and doctrinaire films. Apparently, they did succeed in sustaining a true "cinema of the masses". The 1930s witnessed some stellar examples of popular cinema. The single most successful film of the decade, in terms of both official praise and genuine affection from the mass audience, was Chapayev (1934), co-directed by Prokofiev (1900–1959) and Grigori Vasiliev. Based on the life of a martyred Red Army commander, the film was touted as a model of socialist realism, in that Chapayev and his followers battled heroically for the revolutionary cause. The film also humanized the title character, giving him personal foibles, an ironic sense of humour, and a rough peasant charm. These qualities endeared him to the viewing public: spectators reported seeing the film multiple times during its first run in 1934, and Chapayev was periodically re-released for subsequent generations of audiences.
A genre that emerged in the 1930s to consistent popular acclaim was the musical comedy, and a master of that form was Grigori Aleksandrov
(1903–1984). He effected a creative partnership with his wife, the brilliant comic actress and chanteuse Lyubov Orlova
(1902–1975), in a series of crowd-pleasing musicals. Their pastoral comedy Volga-Volga
(1938) was surpassed only by Chapayev in terms of box-office success. The fantasy element of their films, with lively musical numbers reviving the montage aesthetic, sometimes stretched the boundaries of socialist realism, but the genre could also allude to contemporary affairs. In Aleksandrov's 1940 musical Svetlyi Put (The Shining Path), Orlova plays a humble servant girl who rises through the ranks of the Soviet industrial leadership after developing clever labour-saving work methods. Audiences could enjoy the film's comic turn on the Cinderella story while also learning about the value of efficiency in the workplace.
(1946), Ballad of Siberia
(1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban
(1949) were released.
Other notable films from the 1940s include the black and white films, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and the Encounter at the Elbe
.
, writers, still considered the primary auteurs, were all the more reluctant to take up script writing, and the early 1950s saw only a handful of feature films completed during any year. The death of Stalin was a merciful relief to many, and all the more so was the official trashing of his public image as a benign and competent leader by Nikita Khrushchev
two years later. This latter event gave filmmakers the margin of comfort they needed to move away from the narrow formula stories of socialist realism, expand its boundaries, and begin work on a wider range of entertaining and artistic Soviet films.
Notable films include:
Soviet films tend to be rather culture-specific and are difficult for many foreigners to understand without having been exposed to the culture first. Various Soviet directors were more concerned with artistic success than with economical success (They were paid by the academy, and so money was not a critical issue). This contributed to the creation of a large number of more philosophical and poetical films. Most well-known examples of such films are those by directors Andrei Tarkovsky
, Sergei Parajanov and Nikita Mikhalkov
. In keeping with Russian character, tragi-comedies were very popular. These decades were also prominent in the production of the Eastern
or Red Western.
Animation
was a respected genre, with many directors experimenting with technique. Tale of Tales (1979) by Yuriy Norshteyn
was twice given the title of "Best Animated Film of All Eras and Nations" by animation professionals from around the world, in 1984 and 2002.
In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet cinema (1979), on April 25, a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established a commemorative "Day of the Soviet cinema". It was then celebrated in the USSR each year on August 27, the day on which Vladimir Lenin
signed a decree to nationalise
the country's cinematic and photographic industries.
and glasnost
saw a loosening of the censorship of earlier eras. A genre known as "chernukha" (from the Russian word for "black"), including films such as Little Vera
, portrayed the harsh realities of Soviet life. Notable films of this period include:
as sayings and idioms. Most of these classic Soviet movies were produced by Mosfilm
and other state-owned film studios.
Later personalities:
Germanically-transliterated Cyrillic. Eisenstein, a German name to begin with, goes through the wringer
and comes back out as "Ejzenstejn", e.g.)
Cinema of Russia
The cinema of Russia began in the Russian Empire, widely developed under the Soviet and in the years following the fall of the Soviet system, the Russian film industry would remain internationally recognised...
" despite Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, although sometimes censored by the Central Government. Most notable for their republican cinema were the Russian SFSR, Armenian SSR
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
, Georgian SSR, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
, Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
and Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
. At the same time, the nation's film industry, which was fully nationalized throughout most of the country's history, was guided by philosophies and laws propounded by the monopoly Soviet Communist Party which introduced a new view on the cinema, socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
, which was different from the one before or after the existence of the Soviet Union.
Any censorship regime is dynamic. Some subjects did not appear on screen - or only in a coded form.
The reasons of censorship in USSR are mostly political (criticism of the Soviet Union, CPSU, Soviet regime, particular political bodies and figures). They are: political unreliability (temporary or permanent) of an artist, whose work was the subject of the publication; political unreliability (temporary or permanent) of an author of a publication; mentioning an unreliable person, unworthy fact or event in the text unless it was criticized (possible cuttings of the text or plates); generally prohibited subject (for instance: unofficial Soviet art); propaganda of fascism, violence or terror (horror films belonged to that category); pornography (a magic word - none of the censors could ever give a distinct definition of this term in their special vocabulary; the most frequent reason for art publications to become banned as most of the artists, since the ancient times, had made the studies of the nude models); themes, subjects, facts, events which caused or might have caused undesirable thoughts, associations or illusions not in favor of the Soviet state.
Historical outline
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, officially came into existence on December 30, 1922. From the outset, this new republic held that film would be the most ideal propaganda tool for the Soviet Union because of its widespread popularity among the established citizenry of the new land; Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, in fact, declared it the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of Communism, a position which was later echoed by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Meanwhile, between World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, the film industry, and the infrastructure needed to support it (e.g., electrical power), had deteriorated to the point of unworkability. The majority of cinemas had been in the corridor between Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and St. Petersburg, and most were out of commission. Additionally, many of the performers, producers, directors and other artists of pre-Soviet Russia, had fled the country or were moving ahead of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
forces as they pushed further and further south into what remained of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the new government did not have the funds to spare for an extensive reworking of the system of filmmaking. Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands. As this amounted mostly to cinema houses
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, the first Soviet films consisted of recycled films of the Russian Empire and its imports, to the extent that these were not determined to be offensive to the new Soviet ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
. Ironically, the first new film released in Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
did not exactly fit this mold: this was Father Sergius
Father Sergius (film)
Father Sergius is a 1917 Russian silent film directed by Yakov Protazanov based on the eponymous story by Leo Tolstoy....
, a religious film completed during the last weeks of the Russian Empire but not yet exhibited. It appeared on Soviet screens in 1918.
Beyond this, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most notorious of which were the agitki - propaganda films intended to "agitate", or energize and enthuse, the masses to participate fully in approved Soviet activities, and deal effectively with those who remained in opposition to the new order. These short (often one small reel) films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village (along with the lecturers) to indoctrinate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen.
Newsreels, as documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Soviet cinema. Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov
David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
's newsreel series Kino-Pravda
Kino-Pravda
Kino-Pravda was a newsreel series by Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova, and Mikhail Kaufman.Working mainly during the 1920s, Vertov promoted the concept of kino-pravda, or film-truth, through his newsreel series. His driving vision was to capture fragments of actuality which, when organized...
, the best known of these, lasted from 1922 to 1925 and had a propagandistic bent; Vertov used the series to promote socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
but also to experiment with cinema.
Still, in 1921, there was not one functioning cinema in Moscow until late in the year. Its rapid success, utilizing old Russian and imported feature films, jumpstarted the industry significantly, especially insofar as the government did not heavily or directly regulate what was shown, and by 1923 an additional 89 cinemas had opened. Despite extremely high taxation of ticket sales and film rentals, there was an incentive for individuals to begin making feature film product again - there were places to show the films - albeit they now had to conform their subject matter to a Soviet world view. In this context, the directors and writers who had remained in support of the objectives of Communism assumed quick dominance in the industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors.
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
's Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin
The Battleship Potemkin , sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm...
was released to wide acclaim in 1925; the film was heavily fictionalized and also propagandistic, preaching the party line about the virtues of the proletariat. The party leaders soon found it difficult to control directors' expression, partly because definitive understanding of a film's meaning was elusive.
One of the most popular films released in the 1930s was Circus
Circus (1936 film)
Circus is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."...
. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, color movies such as The Stone Flower
The Stone Flower
The Stone Flower is a 1946 Soviet fantasy film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. It was the Soviet Union's first color film shot on AgfaColor negative film seized in Germany, and was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival...
(1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and The Kuban Cossacks (1949) were released.
Other notable films from the 1940s include Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (film)
Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in association with Dmitri Vasilyev and a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko, who were assigned to ensure Eisenstein did not stray into "formalism" and to facilitate shooting on a reasonable timetable...
and Ivan the Terrible
Ivan the Terrible (film)
Ivan the Terrible is a two-part historical epic film about Ivan IV of Russia made by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship...
.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Soviet Cinema produced Ballad of a Soldier
Ballad of a Soldier
Ballad of a Soldier , is a 1959 Soviet film directed by Grigori Chukhrai and starring Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko. While set during World War II, Ballad of a Soldier is not primarily a war film...
, which won the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film
BAFTA Award for Best Film
This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
, and The Cranes Are Flying
The Cranes are Flying
The Cranes Are Flying is a Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II . It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana...
.
Height is considered to be one of the best films of the 1950s (it also became the foundation of the bard movement
Bard (Soviet Union)
The term bard came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to beatnik folk singers of the United States...
).
In the 1980s there was a diversification of subject matter. Touchy issues could now be discussed openly. The results were films like Pokayanie (Repentance (film)), which dealt with Stalinist repressions in Georgia, and the allegorical science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
movie Kin-dza-dza!
Kin-dza-dza!
Kin-dza-dza! is a 1986 Soviet comedy-science fiction film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgi Daneliya, with a story by Georgi Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze. The movie was filmed in color, consists of two parts and runs for 135 minutes in total.The film is a dark and grotesque...
, which satirized the Soviet life in general.
Censorship
After the death of Stalin, Soviet filmmakers were given a free hand to film what they believed audiences wanted to see in their film's characters and stories. However, the industry remained a part of the government and any material that was found politically offensive or undesirable, was either removed, edited, reshot, or shelved. In rare cases the filmmakers managed to convince the government of the innocence of their work and the film was released. The definition of "socialist realism" was liberalized to allow development of more human characters, but communism still had to remain uncriticized in its fundamentals. Additionally, the degree of relative artistic liberality was changed from administration to administration.Oddities created by censorship include:
- The first chapter of the epic film Liberation (Освобождение) was filmed 20 years after the subsequent three parts. The film's director, Alexander DovzhenkoAlexander DovzhenkoAleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
, had refused to minimize the errors of the Soviet High Command during the first year of the war, and instead waited for a time when he could film this portion accurately. - Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Part II was completed in 1945 but was not released until 1958; 5 years after Stalin's death.
- Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky was censored before the German invasion of the Soviet Union due to its depiction of a strong Russian leader defying an invading army of German Teutonic KnightsTeutonic KnightsThe Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
. After the invasion, the film was released for propaganda purposes to considerable critical acclaim.
Revolution and Civil War
The first Soviet Russian state film organization, the Film Subdepartment of the People's Commissariat of Education, was established in 1917. The work of the nationalized motion-picture studios was administered by the All-Russian Photography and Motion Picture Department, which was recognized in 1923 into Goskino, which in 1926 became Sovkino. The world's first state-filmmaking school, the First State School of CinematographyGerasimov Institute of Cinematography
The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov), VGIK for short, is a film school in Moscow, Russia.-History:...
, was established in Moscow in 1919.
During the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, agitation trains and ships visited soldiers, workers, and peasants. Lectures, reports, and political meetings were accompanied by newsreels about events at the various fronts.
1920s
In the 1920s, the documentary film group headed by Vertov blazed the trail from the conventional newsreel to the "imagecentered publicistic film", which became the basis of the Russian film documentary. Typical of the 1920s were the topical news serial Kino-PravdaKino-Pravda
Kino-Pravda was a newsreel series by Dziga Vertov, Elizaveta Svilova, and Mikhail Kaufman.Working mainly during the 1920s, Vertov promoted the concept of kino-pravda, or film-truth, through his newsreel series. His driving vision was to capture fragments of actuality which, when organized...
and the film Forward, Soviet! by Vertov
Dziga Vertov
David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
, whose experiments and achievements in documentary films influenced the development of Russian and world cinematography. Other important films of the 1920s were Shub
Esfir Shub
Esfir Ilyichna Shub , also referred as Esther Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker.Born in Surazh, Chernigov Governorate, part of Left-bank Ukraine within the Russian Empire, Shub began her career in film as a re-editor for Goskino; she edited several Western films according to Goskino...
's historical-revolutionary films such as The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty. The film Hydropeat by Yu. Zheliabuzhsky marked the beginning of popular science films. Feature-length agitation films in 1918-21 were important in the development of the film industry. Innovation in Russian filmmaking was expressed particularly in the work of Eisenstein. The Battleship Potemkin was noteworthy for its innovative montage and metaphorical quality of its film language. It won world acclaim. Eisenstein developed concepts of the revolutionary epic in the film October. Also noteworthy was Pudovkin
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
's adaptation
Mother (1926 film)
Mother is a 1926 Soviet film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin depicting one woman's struggle against Tsarist rule during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The film is based on a novel of the same title by Maxim Gorky....
of Gorky's Mother to the screen in 1926. Pudovkin developed themes of revolutionary history in the film The End of St. Petersburg
The End of St. Petersburg
The End of St. Petersburg is a 1927 silent film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin and produced by Mezhrabpom. Commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, The End of St Petersburg was to be Pudovkin's most famous film and secured his place as one of the foremost Soviet...
(1927). Other noteworthy silent films were films dealing with contemporary life such as Barnet's The House on Trubnaya
The House on Trubnaya
The House on Trubnaya is a 1928 comedy film directed by Boris Barnet and starring Vera Maretskaya.-Cast:* Vera Maretskaya - Parasha Pitunova - housemaid* Vladimir Fogel - Mr. Golikov - hairdresser* Yelena Tyapkina - Mrs...
. The films of Protazanov
Yakov Protazanov
Yakov Alexandrovich Protazanov was Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter, and one of the founding fathers of cinema of Russia....
were devoted to the revolutionary struggle and the shaping of a new way of life, such as Don Diego and Pelageia (1928). Ukrainian director Dovzhenko was noteworthy for the historical-revolutionary epic Zvenigora
Zvenigora
Zvenigora, or Zvenyhora is a 1928 Soviet silent film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko. Regarded as a silent revolutionary epic, Dovzhenko's initial film in his "Ukraine Trilogy" is almost religious in its tone, relating a millennium of Ukrainian history through the story of an old man...
, the Arsenal
Arsenal (film)
Arsenal is a 1928 Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko. It is the second film in his "Ukraine Trilogy", the first being Zvenigora and the third being Earth ....
and the poetic film Earth
Earth (1930 film)
Earth is a 1930 Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, concerning an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by Kulak landowners...
.
1930s
In the early 1930s, Russian filmmakers applied socialist realismSocialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
to their work. Among the most outstanding films was Chapaev
Chapaev (film)
Chapaev is a 1934 Soviet film. It was directed by the Vasilyev brothers on Lenfilm. It is a story about Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev , a legendary Red Army commander who became a hero of the Russian Civil War...
, a film about Russian revolutionaries and society during the Revolution and Civil War. Revolutionary history was developed in films such as Golden Mountains
Golden Mountains (film)
Golden Mountains is a 1931 Soviet silent film directed by Sergei Yutkevich. A re-edited sound version of the film as released in 1936.-Cast:* Boris Poslavsky - Pyotr, the country boy* Yuri Korvin-Krukovsky - Industrialist Krutilov...
by Sergei Yutkevich
Sergei Yutkevich
Sergei Iosifovich Yutkevich was an award-winning Soviet film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:He began work as a teen doing puppet shows. Later he helped found the Factory of the Eccentric Actor , which was primarily concerned with circus and music hall acts. He entered films in the...
, The Outskirts by Boris Barnet, and the Maxim trilogy by Grigori Kozintsev
Grigori Kozintsev
Grigori Mikhaylovich Kozintsev was a Jewish Ukrainian, Soviet Russian theatre and film director. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1964.He studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts...
and Leonid Trauberg
Leonid Trauberg
Leonid Zakharovich Trauberg was a Jewish Ukrainian Soviet film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1924 and 1961 and was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1941.-Filmography:* The Adventures of Oktyabrina ...
: The Youth of Maxim
The Youth of Maxim
The Youth of Maxim is a 1935 Soviet film directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, the first part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim....
, The Return of Maxim
The Return of Maxim
The Return of Maxim is a 1937 Soviet film directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, the second part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim....
, and The Vyborg Side
The Vyborg Side
The Vyborg Side is a 1939 Soviet film directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, the final part of trilogy about the life of a young factory worker, Maxim. The film was also released in the United States under the title New Horizons....
. Also notable were biographical films about Lenin such as Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Ilych Romm was a Soviet film director.He was born in Irkutsk. His father was a social democrat of Jewish descent who had been exiled there. He graduated from gymnasium in 1917 and entered the Moscow College for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture...
's Lenin in October and Lenin in 1918
Lenin in 1918
Lenin in 1918 is a 130-minute long Soviet revolution film released in 1939. It gives the background of the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution.The film was directed by Mikhail Romm with E. Aron and I. Simkov as co-directors...
. The life of Russian society and everyday people were depicted in films such as Courageous Seven and City of Youth by Sergei Gerasimov. The comedies of Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov was a prominent Soviet film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1947 and a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973...
such as Circus
Circus (1936 film)
Circus is a 1936 Soviet melodramatic comedy musical film. It was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov at the Mosfilm studios. In his own words, it was conceived as "an eccentric comedy...a real side splitter."...
, Volga-Volga
Volga-Volga
Volga-Volga is a Soviet comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres around a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the...
, and The Shining Path as well as The Rich Bride by Ivan Pyryev
Ivan Pyryev
Ivan Aleksandrovich Pyryev , served as Director of the Mosfilm studios and was, for a time, the most influential man in the Soviet motion picture industry.Pyryev was born in Kamen-na-Obi, now Altai Krai, Russia...
and By the Bluest of Seas
By the Bluest of Seas
By the Bluest of Seas is a 1936 Soviet film directed by Boris Barnet.-Cast:* Yelena Alexandrovna Kuzmina - Mariya* Lev Sverdlin - Yussuf* Nikolai Kryuchkov - Alyosha* Semyon Svashenko* Sergei Komarov * Lyalya Sateyeva * Andrei Dolinin...
by Boris Barnet focus on the psychology of the common person, enthusiasm for work and intolerance for remnants of the past. Many films focused on national heroes, including Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky (film)
Alexander Nevsky is a 1938 historical drama film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, in association with Dmitri Vasilyev and a script co-written with Pyotr Pavlenko, who were assigned to ensure Eisenstein did not stray into "formalism" and to facilitate shooting on a reasonable timetable...
by Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
, Minin and Pozharsky by Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky by Igor Savchenko
Igor Savchenko
Igor Andreyevich Savchenko was a writer and director of films, often cited as one of the great early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin and Aleksandr Dovzhenko....
. There were adapdations of literary classics, particularly Mark Donskoy's trilogy of films about Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Stalinist wing of the Communist Party consolidated its authority and set about transforming the Soviet Union on both the economic and cultural fronts. The economy moved from the market-based New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
(NEP) to a system of central planning. The new leadership declared a "cultural revolution" in which the party would exercise tight control over cultural affairs, including artistic expression. Cinema existed at the intersection of art and economics; so it was destined to be thoroughly reorganized in this episode of economic and cultural transformation.
To implement central planning in cinema, the new bureaucratic entity Soyuzkino was created in 1930. All the hitherto autonomous studios and distribution networks that had grown up under NEP's market would now be coordinated in their activities by this planning agency. Soyuzkino's authority also extended to the studios of the national republics such as VUFKU, which had enjoyed more independence during the 1920s. Soyuzkino consisted of an extended bureaucracy of economic planners and policy specialists who were charged to formulate annual production plans for the studios and then to monitor the distribution and exhibition of finished films.
With central planning came more centralized authority over creative decision making. Script development became a long, torturous process under this bureaucratic system, with various committees reviewing drafts and calling for cuts or revisions. In the 1930s censorship became more exacting with each passing year, in a manner that paralleled the increasing cultural repression of the Stalinist regime. Feature film projects would drag out for months or years and might be terminated at any point
Alexander Dovzhenko
Alexander Dovzhenko
Aleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
drew from Ukrainian folk culture in such films as Zemlya
Earth (1930 film)
Earth is a 1930 Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, concerning an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by Kulak landowners...
(Earth, 1930)
along the way because of the capricious decision of one or another censoring committee.
Such redundant oversight slowed down production and inhibited creativity. Although central planning was supposed to increase the film industry's productivity, production levels declined steadily through the 1930s. The industry was releasing over one-hundred features annually at the end of the NEP period, but that figure fell to seventy by 1932 and to forty-five by 1934. It never again reached triple digits during the remainder of the Stalin era. Veteran directors experienced precipitous career declines under this system of bureaucratic control; whereas Eisenstein was able to make four features between 1924 and 1929, he completed only one film, Alexander Nevsky (1938) during the entire decade of the 1930s. His planned adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev story Bezhin lug (Bezhin Meadow, 1935–1937) was halted during production in 1937 and officially banned, one of many promising film projects that fell victim to an exacting censorship system.
Meanwhile, the USSR cut off its film contacts with the West. It stopped importing films after 1931 out of concern that foreign films exposed audiences to capitalist ideologies. The industry also freed itself from dependency on foreign technologies. During its industrialization effort of the early 1930s, the USSR finally built an array of factories to supply the film industry with the nation's own technical resources.
To secure independence from the West, industry leaders mandated that the USSR develop its own sound technologies, rather than taking licenses on Western sound systems. Two Soviet scientists, Alexander Shorin in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
(formerly St. Petersburg) and Pavel Tager in Moscow, conducted research through the late 1920s on complementary sound systems, which were ready for use by 1930. The implementation process, including the cost of refitting movie theaters, proved daunting, and the USSR did not complete the transition to sound until 1935. Nevertheless, several directors made innovative use of sound once the technology became available. In Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa (Enthusiasm, 1931), his documentary on coal mining and heavy industry, Vertov based his soundtrack on an elegantly orchestrated array of industrial noises. In Dezertir
The Deserter (1933 film)
The Deserter is a 1933 Soviet film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin.-Cast:* Boris Livanov - Karl Renn* Vasili Kovrigin - Ludwig Zelle* Aleksandr Chistyakov - Fritz Muller* Tamara Makarova - Greta Zelle* Semyon Svashenko - Bruno...
(The Deserter, 1933) Pudovkin experimented with a form of "sound counterpoint" by exploiting tensions and ironic dissonances between sound elements and the image track. And in Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein collaborated with the composer Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
on an "operatic" film style that elegantly coordinated the musical score and the image track.
As Soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early 1930s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as "socialist realism". In 1932 the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avant-garde practices of the 1920s and to embrace socialist realism, a literary style that, in practice, was actually close to nineteenth-century realism. The other arts, including cinema, were subsequently instructed to develop the aesthetic equivalent. For cinema, this meant adopting a film style that would be legible to a broad audience, thus avoiding a possible split between the avant-garde and mainstream cinema that was evident in the late 1920s. The director of Soyuzkino and chief policy officer for the film industry, Boris Shumiatsky (1886–1938), who served from 1931 to 1938, was a harsh critic of the montage aesthetic. He championed a "cinema for the millions", which would use clear, linear narration. Although American movies were no longer being imported in the 1930s, the Hollywood model of continuity editing was readily available, and it had a successful track record with Soviet movie audiences. Soviet socialist realism was built on this style, which assured tidy storytelling. Various guidelines were then added to the doctrine: positive heroes to act as role models for viewers; lessons in good citizenship for spectators to embrace; and support for reigning policy decisions of the Communist Party.
Such restrictive aesthetic policies, enforced by the rigorous censorship apparatus of Soyuzkino, resulted in a number of formulaic and doctrinaire films. Apparently, they did succeed in sustaining a true "cinema of the masses". The 1930s witnessed some stellar examples of popular cinema. The single most successful film of the decade, in terms of both official praise and genuine affection from the mass audience, was Chapayev (1934), co-directed by Prokofiev (1900–1959) and Grigori Vasiliev. Based on the life of a martyred Red Army commander, the film was touted as a model of socialist realism, in that Chapayev and his followers battled heroically for the revolutionary cause. The film also humanized the title character, giving him personal foibles, an ironic sense of humour, and a rough peasant charm. These qualities endeared him to the viewing public: spectators reported seeing the film multiple times during its first run in 1934, and Chapayev was periodically re-released for subsequent generations of audiences.
A genre that emerged in the 1930s to consistent popular acclaim was the musical comedy, and a master of that form was Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Aleksandrov
Grigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov was a prominent Soviet film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1947 and a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973...
(1903–1984). He effected a creative partnership with his wife, the brilliant comic actress and chanteuse Lyubov Orlova
Lyubov Orlova
Lyubov Petrovna Orlova, was the first recognized star of Soviet cinema, famous theatre actress and a gifted singer.She was born to a middle class family in Zvenigorod near Moscow and grew up in Yaroslavl...
(1902–1975), in a series of crowd-pleasing musicals. Their pastoral comedy Volga-Volga
Volga-Volga
Volga-Volga is a Soviet comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres around a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the...
(1938) was surpassed only by Chapayev in terms of box-office success. The fantasy element of their films, with lively musical numbers reviving the montage aesthetic, sometimes stretched the boundaries of socialist realism, but the genre could also allude to contemporary affairs. In Aleksandrov's 1940 musical Svetlyi Put (The Shining Path), Orlova plays a humble servant girl who rises through the ranks of the Soviet industrial leadership after developing clever labour-saving work methods. Audiences could enjoy the film's comic turn on the Cinderella story while also learning about the value of efficiency in the workplace.
1940s
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, color movies such as The Stone FlowerThe Stone Flower
The Stone Flower is a 1946 Soviet fantasy film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. It was the Soviet Union's first color film shot on AgfaColor negative film seized in Germany, and was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival...
(1946), Ballad of Siberia
Ballad of Siberia
The Ballad of Siberia from Mosfilm is Soviet Union's second color film , directed by Ivan Pyryev, starring Vladimir Druzhnikov and Marina Ladynina....
(1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban
Cossacks of the Kuban
The Cossack of the Kuban from Mosfilm is a color film, glorifying the life of the farmers in the kolkhoz of the Soviet Union's Kuban region, directed by Ivan Pyryev and starring Marina Ladynina, his wife at that time.-Cast:* Marina Ladynina, as Galina...
(1949) were released.
Other notable films from the 1940s include the black and white films, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and the Encounter at the Elbe
Encounter at the Elbe
Encounter at the Elbe is a Soviet movie released in 1949 from Mosfilm, describing the conflict, spying and collaboration between the Soviet Army advancing from the East and the American Army advancing from the West, that met each other for the first time on the River Elbe, at the closing time of...
.
1950s
With the start of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, writers, still considered the primary auteurs, were all the more reluctant to take up script writing, and the early 1950s saw only a handful of feature films completed during any year. The death of Stalin was a merciful relief to many, and all the more so was the official trashing of his public image as a benign and competent leader by Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
two years later. This latter event gave filmmakers the margin of comfort they needed to move away from the narrow formula stories of socialist realism, expand its boundaries, and begin work on a wider range of entertaining and artistic Soviet films.
Notable films include:
- The Cranes Are FlyingThe Cranes are FlyingThe Cranes Are Flying is a Soviet film about World War II. It depicts the cruelty of war and the damage suffered to the Soviet psyche as a result of World War II . It was directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov in 1957 and stars Aleksey Batalov and Tatiana...
, directed at Mosfilm by the Georgian-born director Mikhail KalatozovMikhail KalatozovMikhail Kalatozov born Mikheil Kalatozishvili was a Georgian/Russian film director. Born in Tiflis , he studied economics before starting his film career as an actor and later cinematographer....
in 1957. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival.
1960s-70s
The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of many films, many of which molded Soviet and post-Soviet culture. They include:- I Step Through MoscowI Step through MoscowWalking the Streets of Moscow is a 1963 Soviet movie directed by Georgi Daneliya and produced by Mosfilm studios. It stars Nikita Mikhalkov, Alexei Loktev, Evgeniy Steblov and Galina Polskikh. The film also features cameos by four People's Artists of the USSR: Rolan Bykov, Vladimir Basov, Lev...
(1963) - Operation Y and Other Shurik's AdventuresOperation Y and Other Shurik's AdventuresOperation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures is a 1965 Soviet slapstick comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Seleznyova, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin and Yevgeny Morgunov. The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate" , "Déjà vu" and "Operation Y"...
(1965) and its sequel, Kidnapping, Caucasian StyleKidnapping, Caucasian StyleA she-prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures , also known as Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is a Soviet comedy film dealing with the theme of bride kidnapping....
(1966) - War and Peace (1965) Sergei BondarchukSergei BondarchukSergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, and actor.- Biography :Born in Belozerka, in the Kherson Governorate, Sergei Bondarchuk spent his childhood in the cities of Yeysk and Taganrog, graduating from the Taganrog School Number 4 in 1938. His first performance as an...
's adaption of TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's novelWar and PeaceWar and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
, with a budget of 700 000 000 rubles (funded primarily by the Soviet government), a running time of eight hours, and utilizing 120 000 extras. It was the first Russian film to receive an Oscar. - Andrei RublevAndrei Rublev (film)Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
(1966) won various international awards, such as FIPRESCIFIPRESCIThe International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
. - The Colour of Pomegranates (1968) had a limited release inside the Soviet Union and wasn't seen abroad until years later, but has received critical acclaim since.
- The Diamond ArmThe Diamond ArmThe Diamond Arm is a 1968 Soviet comedy film filmed by Mosfilm and first released in 1968. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova and Svetlana Svetlichnaya. The...
(1968), the last four comedies, especially Diamond Arm, have contributed a lot of humorous quotes. - White Sun of the DesertWhite Sun of the DesertWhite Sun of the Desert , a classic 'Eastern' or Ostern film of the Soviet Union.The film is one of the most popular Russian films of all time. Its blend of action, comedy, music and drama has made it wildly successful and it has since achieved the status of a cult film in Soviet and Russian...
(1970), a classic "EasternOsternThe Ostern or Red Western was the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western.It generally took two forms:...
", although with dubious stereotyping of central Asians. It is ritually watched by cosmonauts before launches, and has contributed many quotes to the Russian language such as 'The East is a delicate matter'. Its theme tune became a huge hit. - SolarisSolaris (1972 film)Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
(1972) - Gentlemen of FortuneGentlemen of FortuneGentlemen of Fortune is a Soviet comedy, filmed at Mosfilm. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Savely Kramarov, Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, and Radner Muratov....
(1972) starring Yevgeny LeonovYevgeny LeonovYevgeny Pavlovich Leonov was a famous Russian/Soviet actor who played main parts in several of the most famous Soviet films. Called "one of Russia's best-loved actors", he also provided the voice for many Soviet cartoon characters, including Vinny Pukh .-Early life:While growing up in a typical... - Seventeen Moments of SpringSeventeen Moments of SpringSeventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet TV miniseries. It was filmed at Gorky Film Studio, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the book of the same title by the novelist Yulian Semyonov. The series comprises 12 episodes of 70 minutes each...
(1973), which created the immortal character of Standartenführer Stirlitz, and whose compelling and unbiased look at the life of a spy in war-torn Germany made the film popular in both German states as well.
- The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)
- Office Romance (1977)
- Moscow Does Not Believe In TearsMoscow Does Not Believe In TearsMoscow Does not Believe in Tears is a 1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Menshov's wife Vera Alentova and by Aleksey Batalov. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in...
(1979) won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980.
Soviet films tend to be rather culture-specific and are difficult for many foreigners to understand without having been exposed to the culture first. Various Soviet directors were more concerned with artistic success than with economical success (They were paid by the academy, and so money was not a critical issue). This contributed to the creation of a large number of more philosophical and poetical films. Most well-known examples of such films are those by directors Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
, Sergei Parajanov and Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
. In keeping with Russian character, tragi-comedies were very popular. These decades were also prominent in the production of the Eastern
Ostern
The Ostern or Red Western was the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western.It generally took two forms:...
or Red Western.
Animation
History of Russian animation
The History of Russian animation is very rich, but is so far a nearly unexplored field for Western film theory and history. As most of Russia's production of animation for film|cinema and television was created during Soviet times, it may also be referred to as the History of Soviet...
was a respected genre, with many directors experimenting with technique. Tale of Tales (1979) by Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn , or Yuri Norstein is an award-winning Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales...
was twice given the title of "Best Animated Film of All Eras and Nations" by animation professionals from around the world, in 1984 and 2002.
In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet cinema (1979), on April 25, a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established a commemorative "Day of the Soviet cinema". It was then celebrated in the USSR each year on August 27, the day on which Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
signed a decree to nationalise
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
the country's cinematic and photographic industries.
1980s
The policies of perestroikaPerestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
and glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
saw a loosening of the censorship of earlier eras. A genre known as "chernukha" (from the Russian word for "black"), including films such as Little Vera
Little Vera
Little Vera , produced at the Gorky Film Studio and released in 1988, is a film by Russian film director Vasili Pichul. The title in Russian is ambiguous and can also mean "Little Faith," symbolizing the characters' lack of hope ....
, portrayed the harsh realities of Soviet life. Notable films of this period include:
- The Pokrovsky Gate (1982) a made-for-television comedy starring Oleg Menshikov
- Repentance a.k.a. The Confession (1984), a Georgian film about a fictional dictator which was banned until 1987.
- Come and SeeCome and SeeCome and See directed by Elem Klimov, is a 1985 Soviet war movie and psychological horror drama about and occurring during the Nazi German occupation of the Byelorussian SSR. Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova star as the protagonists Florya and Glasha. The screenplay is by Ales Adamovich and...
(1985) a widely acclaimed World War II drama - Kin-dza-dza!Kin-dza-dza!Kin-dza-dza! is a 1986 Soviet comedy-science fiction film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgi Daneliya, with a story by Georgi Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze. The movie was filmed in color, consists of two parts and runs for 135 minutes in total.The film is a dark and grotesque...
(1986) allegorical science fiction - The Cold Summer of 1953 (1987) about criminals being released from the gulagGulagThe Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s after Stalin's death. - Little VeraLittle VeraLittle Vera , produced at the Gorky Film Studio and released in 1988, is a film by Russian film director Vasili Pichul. The title in Russian is ambiguous and can also mean "Little Faith," symbolizing the characters' lack of hope ....
(1988) notable as one of the first Soviet films with sexually explicit scenes
Soviet films
There are many movies which are well-remembered and looked upon fondly in the former Soviet republics; famous lines or jokes from these movies are often quoted and some have even become a part of the Russian languageRussian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
as sayings and idioms. Most of these classic Soviet movies were produced by Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
and other state-owned film studios.
Action
- White Sun of the DesertWhite Sun of the DesertWhite Sun of the Desert , a classic 'Eastern' or Ostern film of the Soviet Union.The film is one of the most popular Russian films of all time. Its blend of action, comedy, music and drama has made it wildly successful and it has since achieved the status of a cult film in Soviet and Russian...
, one of the best loved Soviet films of all time. For more information on this type of movie, see Red Western.
Science fiction
- AelitaAelitaAelita , also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a silent film directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov made on Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio and released in 1924. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's novel of the same name...
, a 1924 silent film directed by Yakov ProtazanovYakov ProtazanovYakov Alexandrovich Protazanov was Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter, and one of the founding fathers of cinema of Russia....
based on Alexei TolstoyAleksey Nikolayevich TolstoyAleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels...
's novel of the same name - SolarisSolaris (1972 film)Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
and StalkerStalker (film)Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
by Andrey Tarkovsky - Kin-dza-dza!Kin-dza-dza!Kin-dza-dza! is a 1986 Soviet comedy-science fiction film released by the Mosfilm studio and directed by Georgi Daneliya, with a story by Georgi Daneliya and Revaz Gabriadze. The movie was filmed in color, consists of two parts and runs for 135 minutes in total.The film is a dark and grotesque...
, a 1986 dystopian comedy/science fiction film by Georgi DaneliyaGeorgi DaneliyaGeorgi Daneliya is a Soviet/Georgian/Russian film director, who became known throughout the Soviet Union for his "sad comedies" .Daneliya graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and worked as an architect...
Comedy
- Gentlemen of FortuneGentlemen of FortuneGentlemen of Fortune is a Soviet comedy, filmed at Mosfilm. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Savely Kramarov, Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, and Radner Muratov....
, a kindergarten principal played by Evgeni Leonov pretends to be a criminal boss called the Professor (who looks exactly like him) in order to gain information about a stolen artifact from the Professor's two lackeys. - Kidnapping, Caucasian StyleKidnapping, Caucasian StyleA she-prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures , also known as Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is a Soviet comedy film dealing with the theme of bride kidnapping....
. A lot of ethnic humor, as Shurik gets involved unwittingly in kidnapping. It's also a satire of corrupt local officials. - Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the FutureIvan Vasilievich: Back to the FutureIvan Vasilievich Changes Profession is a Soviet comedy film produced by Mosfilm in 1973. In the United States the film has sometimes been sold under the title Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future....
, a scientist's time travel machine ends up teleporting his tenement administrator into 16th century Russia and bringing Ivan the Terrible into the present. The two are identical in appearance and chaos promptly ensues. - The Twelve ChairsThe Twelve Chairs (film)The Twelve Chairs is a 1928 satirical novel by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. Its screen adaptations include:* Dvanáct křesel, 1933, directed by Martin Fric and Michal Waszynski...
- based on the famous novel of the same name by Ilf and PetrovIlf and PetrovIlya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
. - The Diamond ArmThe Diamond ArmThe Diamond Arm is a 1968 Soviet comedy film filmed by Mosfilm and first released in 1968. The film was directed by slapstick director Leonid Gaidai and starred several famous Soviet actors, including Yuri Nikulin, Andrei Mironov, Anatoli Papanov, Nonna Mordyukova and Svetlana Svetlichnaya. The...
- starring Yuri NikulinYuri NikulinYuri Vladimirovich Nikulin was a well-known Soviet and Russian actor and clown who starred in many popular films.He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1973 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990...
, Anatoli PapanovAnatoli PapanovAnatoli Dmitrievich Papanov was a popular Soviet film and theatre actor.Papanov starred in some of the best and well-known Soviet films, often together with his friend, Andrei Mironov. Mostly known for his great performances in comedies, he also had serious and dramatic roles, such as that of the...
, and Andrei MironovAndrei MironovAndrei Alexandrovich Mironov was a Soviet theatre and film actor who played lead roles in some of the most popular Soviet films, such as The Diamond Arm, Beware of the Car and Twelve Chairs...
. Inept smugglers try to recover diamonds which ended up with the wrong man. - The Pokrovsky Gate - starring Oleg MenshikovOleg MenshikovOleg Evgenyevich Menshikov ; is a Russian entertainer. He is a film and theatre actor, singer and director. He started his film career in the early 1980s playing in the comedy Pokrovskie vorota and in Nikita Mikhalkov's Rodnya....
as a young student who comes to Moscow and finds himself involved in the misfortunes of his fellow apartment tenants.
Drama/Epic
- The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!, a comedy-drama so beloved in Russia that it is broadcasted on television every New Year Eve, similarly to the American movie It’s a Wonderful Life being broadcast every Christmas.
- The Meeting Place Cannot Be ChangedThe Meeting Place Cannot Be ChangedThe Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed is a 1979 Soviet 5-part television miniseries directed by Stanislav Govorukhin. It achieved the status of a cult film in the USSR, and along with Seventeen Moments of Spring it became a part of popular culture with several generations of russophone TV viewers...
, a 1979 miniseries set in 1945. Vladimir VysotskyVladimir VysotskyVladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was a Soviet singer, songwriter, poet, and actor whose career had an immense and enduring effect on Russian culture. He became widely known for his unique singing style and for his lyrics, which featured social and political commentary in often humorous street...
plays a no-nonsense cop trying to catch the deadly Black Cat gang. - An Ordinary MiracleAn Ordinary Miracle (1964 film)An Ordinary Miracle is a Soviet 1964 lyrical comedy film, a love story directed by Erast Garin based on a play by Yevgeni Shvarts.King's palace was filmed in Vorontsov's Palace.- Cast :* Aleksei Konsovsky* Nina Zorskaya * Oleg Vidov as The Bear...
and its remakeAn Ordinary Miracle (1978 film)An Ordinary Miracle is a Soviet 1978 musical film, a love story by Mark Zakharov based on a play by Yevgeni Shvarts. This is the second screen version of the play; the first one was filmed in 1964 by Erast Garin....
, a fairy-tale love story about a bear who has been transformed into a man by a wizard, and must be kissed by a princess to return to his original form. - Seventeen Moments of SpringSeventeen Moments of SpringSeventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet TV miniseries. It was filmed at Gorky Film Studio, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the book of the same title by the novelist Yulian Semyonov. The series comprises 12 episodes of 70 minutes each...
, a multi-episode film about an undercover Soviet spy, StirlitzStirlitzMax Otto von Stierlitz is the lead character in a popular Russian book series written in the 1960s by novelist Julian Semyonov and of the television adaptation Seventeen Moments of Spring, starring Vyacheslav Tikhonov, as well as in feature films, produced in the Soviet era, and in a number of...
, in Germany during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. An entire type of joke, usually based on a play on words, has arisen from these movies. - And Quiet Flows the DonAnd Quiet Flows the Don (1958 film)And Quiet Flows the Don is a three-part epic 1958 Soviet film directed by Sergei Gerasimov based on the novel of the same title by Mikhail Sholokhov. The first two parts of the film were released in October 1957 and the final third part in 1958...
(1957-8) by Sergei Gerasimov - an adaptation of the Nobel prizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning novel And Quiet Flows the DonAnd Quiet Flows the DonAnd Quiet Flows the Don or Quietly Flows the Don is the first part of the great Don epic Tikhiy Don , written by Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov. It originally appeared in serialized form between 1928 and 1940...
. - War and PeaceWar and Peace (1968 film)War and Peace is a Soviet-produced film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Sergei Bondarchuk directed the film, co-wrote the screenplay and also acted in the lead role of Pierre. It was produced over a seven year period and released in four parts between 1965 and...
, a version of TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's novelWar and PeaceWar and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
as giant as the original.
Notable filmmakers
Early personalities in the development of Soviet cinema:- Mikheil ChiaureliMikheil ChiaureliMikheil Chiaureli was a Soviet Georgian film director and screenwriter. He directed 25 films between 1928 and 1974. Mikheil Chiaureli was awarded the Stalin Prize six times, twice in 1941, 1943, 1946, 1947, and 1950.-Selected filmography:as actor...
- Grigori AleksandrovGrigori AleksandrovGrigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov was a prominent Soviet film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1947 and a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973...
- Sergei BondarchukSergei BondarchukSergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, and actor.- Biography :Born in Belozerka, in the Kherson Governorate, Sergei Bondarchuk spent his childhood in the cities of Yeysk and Taganrog, graduating from the Taganrog School Number 4 in 1938. His first performance as an...
- Alexander DovzhenkoAlexander DovzhenkoAleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
- Sergei EisensteinSergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
- Lev KuleshovLev KuleshovLev Vladimirovich Kuleshov was a Soviet filmmaker and film theorist who taught at and helped establish the world's first film school .-Career:...
- Yakov ProtazanovYakov ProtazanovYakov Alexandrovich Protazanov was Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter, and one of the founding fathers of cinema of Russia....
- Vsevolod PudovkinVsevolod PudovkinVsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
- Ivan PyryevIvan PyryevIvan Aleksandrovich Pyryev , served as Director of the Mosfilm studios and was, for a time, the most influential man in the Soviet motion picture industry.Pyryev was born in Kamen-na-Obi, now Altai Krai, Russia...
- Dziga VertovDziga VertovDavid Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...
Later personalities:
- Tengiz AbuladzeTengiz AbuladzeTengiz Abuladze was a Georgian film director.Abuladze studied theatre direction at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute, Tbilisi, Georgia, and filmmaking at the VGIK in Moscow. He graduated VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziya-film as a director...
- Andrei KonchalovskyAndrei KonchalovskyAndrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
- Nikita MikhalkovNikita MikhalkovNikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
- Aleksandr Sokurov
- Andrei TarkovskyAndrei TarkovskyAndrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
- Aleksei German
- Elem KlimovElem KlimovElem Germanovich Klimov was a Soviet Russian film director. He studied at VGIK, and was married to film director Larisa Shepitko. He is best known in the West for his final film, 1985's Come and See , a powerful tale of a teenage boy in German-occupied Byelorussia during the German-Soviet War,...
- Larissa Shepitko
- Eldar RyazanovEldar RyazanovEldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov is a Soviet/Russian film director whose comedies, satirizing the daily life of the country, are very famous throughout the former Soviet Union....
- Leonid GaidaiLeonid GaidaiLeonid Iovich Gaidai was one of the most popular Soviet comedy directors, enjoying immense popularity and broad public recognition in the former USSR & modern Russia...
- Georgi DaneliyaGeorgi DaneliyaGeorgi Daneliya is a Soviet/Georgian/Russian film director, who became known throughout the Soviet Union for his "sad comedies" .Daneliya graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and worked as an architect...
- Kira MuratovaKira MuratovaKira Muratova is a Soviet and Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and actress. She was born in 1934 in Soroca, Bessarabia, Romania . She was born to a Romanian mother and a Russian father. Muratova is known for her unusual and original directorial style...
- Sergei Parajanov
Soviet studios
- ArmenfilmArmenfilmArmenfilm is an Armenian film studio in Yerevan. The film studio was founded on 16 April 1923 as the State Cinema Organisation with Daniel Dznuni as the first director....
- AzerbaijanfilmAzerbaijanfilmAzerbaijanfilm is an Azerbaijani state film production company. It was established in 1920 as a photo-cinema department at Azerbaijan SSR People's Commissariat, and in 1923 renamed to "Azerbaijani Photo-Cinema Office"...
- BelarusfilmBelarusfilmBelarusfilm is the main film studio of Belarus.Founded in 1928 as Soviet Belarus studio in Leningrad, the studio was moved to Minsk in 1939...
- Georgiafilm
- Gorky Film StudioGorky Film StudioGorky Film Studio is a film studio in Moscow, Russian Federation. By the end of the Soviet Union, Gorky Film Studio had produced more than 1,000 films...
- Gruziya-filmGruziya-filmKartuli Pilmi was a Soviet film studio in Tbilisi in the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Kartuli Pilmi was founded in 1921 as a film section of the Commissariat of Education. In 1923 the film section was reorganized into a trust under the name Georgian State Film Industry...
- Kazahfilm
- Kyivnaukfilm
- Kirgizfilm
- LenfilmLenfilmKinostudiya "Lenfilm" is a production unit of the Russian film industry, with its own film studio, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, formerly Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R. Today OAO "Kinostudiya Lenfilm" is a corporation with its stakes shared between private owners, and several private film studios,...
- Lithuanian Film Studio
- Moldova-FilmMoldova-FilmMoldova-Film is a Moldovan film studio and production company founded in 1952 in the Moldavian SSR.- History:Moldova-Film was founded in 1947 in Chişinău as a branch of the Central Studio for Documentary Film. In 1949 the branch was taken over by the Odessa Film Studio and in 1952 became an...
- MosfilmMosfilmMosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
- Dovzhenko Film Studios
- Odessa Cinema Studio
- PilotPilot (studio)Pilot was a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. It was founded in 1988 by Aleksandr Tatarskiy, Igor Kovalyov and Anatoliy Prokhorov, becoming the first private animation studio in the Soviet Union.-History:...
- Rīgas kinostudijaRigas kinostudijaRiga Film Studio is a Latvian film production company based in Riga and founded in 1940 on the basis of the earlier private film companies. In 1948 the Riga Documentary Film Studio was founded....
- SoyuzmultfilmSoyuzmultfilmSoyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union...
- Sverdlovsk Film StudioSverdlovsk Film StudioSverdlovsk Film Studio is a Russian film studio based in Yekaterinburg . It was established by a decision of the Council of People's Commissars on February 4, 1943-Feature films:...
- Tadjikfilm
- TallinnfilmTallinnfilmTallinnfilm is the oldest still functional film studio in Estonia. Originally founded as Estonian Culture Film in 1931, the studio was nationalized in 1940 after Estonia was forced into Soviet Union. During the first year of Soviet Occupation Eesti Kultuurfilm was taken over by the Communist Party...
- Turkmenfilm
- Uzbekfilm
- Yalta Film Studio
See also
- Cinema of the world
- Cinema of RussiaCinema of RussiaThe cinema of Russia began in the Russian Empire, widely developed under the Soviet and in the years following the fall of the Soviet system, the Russian film industry would remain internationally recognised...
- Cinema of UkraineCinema of Ukraine-State owned:* Dovzhenko Film Studios * Odessa Film Studio * National Cinematheque of Ukraine * Ukrtelefilm* Yalta Film Studio-Film distribution:...
- List of Soviet movies of the year by ticket sales
- History of Russian animationHistory of Russian animationThe History of Russian animation is very rich, but is so far a nearly unexplored field for Western film theory and history. As most of Russia's production of animation for film|cinema and television was created during Soviet times, it may also be referred to as the History of Soviet...
- History of cinema
- World cinemaWorld cinemaWorld cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
External links
- Russian Film Database, University of Innsbruck, Austria (in German and
Germanically-transliterated Cyrillic. Eisenstein, a German name to begin with, goes through the wringer
and comes back out as "Ejzenstejn", e.g.)