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CLASS SCHEDULE
This course meets three times each week. The relatively small class size permits us to depart from a rigid lecture format and much of the class time will be devoted to discussion. As a general rule, on Tuesdays the instructor will introduce important themes for each unit, provide a sketch of some things to look for and think about regarding the film that week, and offer any necessary historical background. On Wednesay evenings, students will attend a film showing and on Thursdays we will discuss and analyze the films. To take this class you must be able to attend all scheduled class sessions, including the evening film showings, over the entire course of the semester.
If in some extraordinary circumstance you are unable to attend one of the evening film showings, you must make arrangements to view the film at Media Services in advance. The films will not be available during the day of the evening screening, so you must make sure you see them before Wednesday. They also may or may not be returned before class on Thursdays. Do not leave this for the last minute! If you have a conflict, plan ahead. There is no excuse for coming to discussion on Thursday unprepared. All films assigned for the course are on reserve for the entire semester and may only be viewed at the library. A few may be available for rental at local video stores at your own expense.
The amount of reading varies from one week to the next. In general, there is a lot more reading early in the semester than later. I have deliberately kept readings light in the final weeks of the semester to give you more time to research your papers. Also, if you see that a heavy week of reading is coming up, or you have overwhelming obligations in other courses, plan ahead and do the readings for this course in advance so as not to fall behind. Each week’s work builds on the previous week, so it is imperative to stay on top of things.
I have provided film run times for each week’s films to help you plan your time better. Only once during the semester will we actually take the full three hours scheduled for Wednesday nights. Most of the films are under two hours.
| Week 1 | Introduction to Russian and Soviet Film |
| Readings: | Suny, 3-55; Kenez, 1-46 |
| August 27 | Introduction |
| August 28 | Father Sergius (Protazanov, 1917, 112 min) |
| August 29 | Discussion |
| Week 2 | NEP and Cultural Experimentation, Part I |
| Readings: | Suny, 93-94, 136-39, 147-69; Kenez, 47-87; Taylor, all |
| September 3 | Early Soviet Politics and Culture |
| September 4 | October (Eisenstein, 1927, 103 min) |
| September 5 | Discussion |
| Week 3 | NEP and Cultural Experimentation, Part II |
| Readings: | Suny, 170-94, 195-213; CP: Feldman, Seth. “’Peace between Man and Machine’: Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera,” in Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video. Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Slonsowski, eds. Detroit, 1998: 40-54. |
| September 10 | Documentary Film in the Soviet Context |
| September 11 | Man with A Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929, 70 min.) |
| September 12 | Discussion |
| Week 4 | The End of Cultural Pluralism |
| Readings: | Suny, 217-68; Kenez, 91-113; CP: Gillespie, David. “Alexander Dovzhenko: Ukrainian Nationalist Cinema,” in Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology, and Propaganda. London, 2000: 83-92. |
| September 17 | The Stalin Revolution |
| September 18 | Earth (Dovzhenko, 1930, 88 min.) |
| September 19 | Discussion |
| Week 5 | Socialist Realism, Part I |
| Readings: | NOTE THE CHANGES IN THIS WEEK'S READINGS! Suny, 269-90; Kenez, 114-158; Horton, Andrew. "Better to Die A Russian Than to Live A Soviet: Sergei and Georgi Vasiliev's Chapaev" Central Europe Review (June 14, 1999) [linked to full text of article] |
| September 24 | Stalin's Cultural Revolution |
| September 25 | Chapaev (Georgi and Sergei Vasiliev, 1934, 101 minutes) |
| September 26 | discussion |
| Week 6 | Socialist Realism, Part II |
| Readings: | Suny, 291-308; Kenez, 158-164; CP: Eisenstein, Sergei M. “Bolsheviks Do Laugh (Thoughts on Soviet Comedy),” in Selected Works. 3rd vol. Richard Taylor, ed. William Powell, trans. London, 1988: 68-72; Ratchford, Moira. “Circus of 1936: Ideology and Entertainment under the Big Top,” in Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash. Andrew Horton, ed. New York, 1993: 85-93. |
| October 1 | |
| October 2 | Circus (Aleksandrov, 1936, 90 min.) |
| October 3 | discussion; SHORT PAPERS DUE AT START OF CLASS |
| Week 7 | War and Film |
| Readings: | Suny, 309-26, 329-36, 363-75; Kenez, 165-228; CP: Eisenstein, Sergei. “Why I Became a Director,” in Selected Works. 4th vol. Richard Taylor, ed. William Powell, trans. London, 1988: 23-41.______. “Ivan the Terrible: A Film about the Sixteenth-Century Russian Renaissance” in Selected Works. 3rd vol. Richard Taylor, ed. William Powell, trans. London, 1988: 188-192, 382.Youngblood, Denise. “A War Remembered: Soviet Films of the Great Patriotic War,” American Historical Review 106 (June 2001): 839-56. Transcript of Stalin's Conversation with Eisenstein about Ivan the Terrible |
| October 8 | The Great Patriotic War |
| October 9 | Ivan the Terrible (Eisenstein, 1944 & 1946, 184 min.) |
| October 10 | discussion |
| Week 8 | The Thaw |
| Readings: | Suny, 387-95, 404-411, 418-20; CP: Shrayer, Maxim D. “Why Are the Cranes Still Flying?” The Russian Review 56 (July 1997): 425-39 |
| October 15 | The Thaw |
| October 16 | The Cranes Are Flying (Kalatozov, 1957, 95 min.) |
| October 17 | discussion |
| Week 9 | Art Films under Brezhnev, Part I |
| Readings: | Suny, 421-23, 425-36; CP: Golovskoy, Valery S. “Film Censorship in the USSR,” in The Red Pencil: Artists, Scholars, and Censors in the USSR. Marianna Tax Choldin and Maurice Friedberg, eds. Boston, 1989: 117-43. AS THE FILM FOR THIS WEEK HAS BEEN CHANGED, DO NOT READ: Ackerman, Galina, “Introduction” in Sergei Paradjanov, Seven Visions. Copenhagen and Los Angeles, 1998: 7-20.Steffen, James. “Parajanov’s Playful Poetics: On The ‘Director’s Cut’ of The color of Pomegranates,” Journal of Film and Video 47 (Winter 1995/96): 17-32. I may hand out a brief reading on this film in class on Tuesday |
| October 22 | Nationalities and Dissent |
| October 23 | NOTE: CHANGE OF FILM The Commissar (Askoldov, 1967, 105 min.) |
| October 24 | discussion |
| Week 10 | Art Films under Brezhnev, Part II |
| Readings: | CP: Tarkovsky, Andrey. “On Cinema, 1966,” in Time within Time: The Diaries, 1970-1986. Kitty Hunter Blair, trans. Calcutta, 1991: 355-61._____. “On ‘Mirror,’” in Time within Time: The Diaries, 1970-1986. Kitty Hunter Blair, trans. Calcutta, 1991: 367-70.Petric, Vlada. “Tarkovsky’s Dream Imagery,” Film Quarterly 43 (Winter 1989/90): 28-34. |
| October 29 | Dissent and the Soviet Intelligentsia |
| October 30 | Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975, 106 min.) |
| October 31 | discussion |
| Week 11 | Popular Cinema under Brezhnev |
| Readings: | Suny, 436-446 |
| November 5 | Everyday Life in Times of Stagnation [table] |
| November 6 | Autumn Marathon (Daneliia, 1979, 100 min.) |
| November 7 | discussion |
| Week 12 | Glasnost, part I |
| Readings: | Suny, 449-68; CP: Christensen, Julie. “Tengiz Abuladze’s Repentance and the Georgian Nationalist Cause,” Slavic Review 50 (Spring 1991): 163-75. |
| November 12 | Glasnost and History |
| November 13 | Repentence (Abuladze, 1987, 151 min.) |
| November 14 | discussion; LAST DAY TO CONSULT W/PROF ABOUT RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC |
| Week 13 | Glasnost, part II |
| Readings: | Suny 469-85; CP: Klimov, Elem. “’Learning Democracy’: The Filmmakers’ Rebellion” in Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers. Stephen F. Cohen and Katrina vaden Heuvel, eds. New York, 1989: 230-45. |
| November 19 | Social Issues under Gorbachev |
| November 20 | Little Vera (Pichul, 1988, 110 min.) |
| November 21 | NO CLASS; INDEPENDENT WORK ON RESEARCH PROJECTS |
| Week 14 | |
| Readings: | None, which gives you additional time to research your papers |
| November 26 | Discussion |
| November 27 | NO FILM; INDEPENDENT WORK ON RESEARCH PROJECTS |
| November 28 | THANKSGIVING BREAK |
| Week 15 | Post-Soviet Russia, part I |
| Readings: | Suny, 486-506; CP: Beumers, Birgit. “The Film and its Themes,” in Burnt by the Sun. London, 2000: 59-65, 104-13. |
| December 3 | Russia after 1991 |
| December 4 | Burnt by The Sun (Mikhalkov, 1995, 134 min.) |
| December 5 | discussion |
| Week 16 | Post-Soviet Russia, part II |
| Readings: | CP: Beumers, Birgit. “Cinemarket, or the Russian Film Industry in ‘Mission Possible,’” Europe-Asia Studies. 51, no. 5 (1999): 871-96. |
| December 10 | Russia’s Post-Soviet Economic and Social Problems (continues lecture from 12/3) |
| December 11 | Brother (Balabanov, 1997, 96 min.) |
| December 12 | Discussion and Q&A |
| December 17 | 9:30 a.m.: FINAL PAPER DUE IN HISTORY DEPT OFFICE, SH280 |
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