Stalin and film…

1. Stalin and film…

2. Socialist Realism • Stalin’s dictatorship (1924-1953) • Mobilize the entire country around Communism, construction • New policy on art developed by Maxim Gorky and Zhdanov • Socialist Realism announced at First Congress of Writers, 1934 • Realistic (believable – no experiments) • “Party-minded” (Marxist-Leninist) • Optimistic – apotheosis at end • “Positive hero” • realistic but ideal (paradox)

3. “Soviet Hollywood” of 1930s • Very few films produced each year under strict state control • No experiments, no “formalism” • Search for new, ideologically acceptable forms and themes. • First sound film appeared: Abram Room’s The Plan For Great Works (1930) • 1933 – Boris Shumyatski (in charge of film industry; executed in 1938) plans a “Soviet Hollywood.” • 1935 – Union of Filmmakers; self-censorship • Emergence of musical comedy • Back to star system

4. Chapaev (1934) • Dir. Grigory and Sergey Vasiliev • based on novel by Dmitry Furmanov (1923) about Civil War (1917-1920) • depicts peasant Red Army leader Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev • Relationship of Party commissar Klychkov to Chapaev • Colourful characters Petya his assistant, Anka the machine-gunner enter Soviet folklore • Positive portrayal of White officers • Chapaev killed at end crossing river (from 1.17.30)

5. Grigori Aleksandrov (1903-1983) • Actor and film-director • Started his career in the Proletkult Theatre with Eisenstein; participated in all Eisenstein’s theatrical projects and films as assistant director and actor • In 1929-1932 traveled with Eisenstein to the USA, Mexico and Europe to study the technique of making sound films • Learned the technique of shooting musical films from Walt Disney (first, the phonogram was recorded, then the film was shot to the phonogram)

6. Merry Fellows (1934) • Dir. Grigori Aleksandrov • original title Jazz Comedy • (alternative English title Moscow Laughs) • First Soviet musical comedy

8. Jolly Fellows… • Genre: “Jazz-comedy” • Script: Grigory Aleksandrov, Vladimir Mass, and Nikolai Erdman (a comedy writer, arrested while the film was being shot, his name deleted from the credits) • Music: Isaak Dunaevski (1900-1955) • Starring: Leonid Utyosov, Lyubov Orlova (Orlova’s first lyrical-comedic role) • Venice Film Festival Best Director and Best Music Awards (1934); proclaimed one of 6 best movies ever

10. Merry Fellows • Plot: a cowherd (mistaken for a foreign celebrity) and a cleaning girl from Odessa region are talented musicians; they find their way to Moscow, rehearse posing as a funeral orchestra and perform, with a jazz band, in the Bolshoi Theatre. • The public excited, the critics enraged • Stalin approves; the genre thrives • Aleksandrov and is wife Lyubov Orlova (1902-1975) reign in the Soviet cinema

11. Liubov Orlova in Jolly Fellows

12. The Circus (1936)

13. The Circus (1936) • Director: Grigori Aleksandrov • Music: Isaak Dunaevski • Starring: Lyubov Orlova, Sergei Stolyarov • Synopsis: American actress Marion Dixon and her German manager are on tour in Moscow. Her number includes tap-dancing and a canon shooting her to the trapeze. The Moscow circus makes a (better, futuristic) copy of this act. Marion falls in love with a Russian; the German manager blackmails her because of her mulatto baby; the Soviet people surprise him (and Marion) with lack of racism; Marion stays in Moscow • The lullaby…

15. The Circus (1936) • Grand-Prix in Paris (1937) • Orlova’s acting style borrowed from Marlene Dietrich (The Blue Angel by J. Sternberg, first German sound film) • “Charlie Chaplin” clown in the circus (Chaplin’s Circus 1928) • Eccentric acting, the theme of circus, grotesque (the image of the German) – inherited from Eisenstein’s aesthetics

16. Lyubov Orlova (left), Marlene Dietrich (right)

17. From The Circus to Volga-Volga • Soviet realism: the reality “as it should be” • Soviet values opposed to “Western” ones; proletarian internationalism. The lullaby scene; Solomon Mikhoels, the Jewish actor later killed on Stalin’s orders. • Dialogue with Hollywood: James Whale’s Show Boat (1936), the issue of racism (a female star is forced to leave the show: with her “impure blood,” she breaks the law forbidding interracial marriage); Paul Robson sings “Old Man River”

18. Volga-Volga (1938) • Director: Grigory Aleksandrov • Music: Isaak Dunaevsky • Starring: Lyobov Orlova, Igor Ilyinski (silent and sound comedy star)

19. Volga-Volga • Synopsis: two groups of amateur musicians travel, along the Volga river, to Moscow to perform in a talent contest. • Most comic situations are based on their rivalry and on the stupidity of their boss. • The heroine, a mail-carrier, composes a hit song, so even her boyfriend, a lover of classical music, has to acknowledge her talent. • They are all a success at the contest.

20. Volga-Volga • Strong elements of satire within the allowed limits (ineffective bureaucrat, selfishness, etc.) • Soviet realism: idealization of reality during the Stalinist terror; “social optimism” • Insignificant problems, slightly troubled love, rivalry over artistic matters • Ideological message: amateurs vs professionals; a mail-carrier can write music like a trained professional; “art belongs to the people” • Reflected Stalin’s dislike of “specialists”

21. Volga-Volga • Elements of Eisenstein’s aesthetics: visual images from commedia del arte (ex., figures walking on stilts); small boats whiz back and forth around big ships (quote from Potemkin). • Hollywood-style musical numbers: inspired by the American musical Showboat (1936). • Difference: escapism in Hollywood vs propaganda in Aleksandrov’s film; Orlova - a glamorous star in working clothes

22. Volga-Volga • Title: the Volga is a symbol of Russia • Landscapes channel a patriotic message • Proletarian internationalism: ex., the heroine’s Georgian dance • Industrialization scene at the end • A new canal excavated by prisoners of the Gulag • A big cruise liner called “Josef Stalin” • Moral lesson (song) in conclusion • Stalin’s favourite film