Cuban and Russian Film (1960-2000) Hillman, Anna
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Queen Mary Research Online Carnivals of Transition: Cuban and Russian Film (1960-2000) Hillman, Anna The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/9733 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] 1 Carnivals of Transition: Cuban and Russian Film (1960-2000) Anna M. Hillman Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Queen Mary, University of London, School of Languages, Linguistics and Film. The candidate confirms that the thesis does not exceed the word limit prescribed by the University of London, and that work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given to research done by others. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on ‘carnivals of transition’, as it examines cinematic representations in relation to socio-political and cultural reforms, including globalization, from 1960 to 2000, in Cuban and Russian films. The comparative approach adopted in this study analyses films with similar aesthetics, paying particular attention to the historical periods and the directors chosen, namely Leonid Gaidai, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, El’dar Riazanov, Juan Carlos Tabío, Iurii Mamin, Daniel Díaz Torres and Fernando Pérez. This thesis maintains that most of the selected Cuban films are carnivalesque comedies comparable to films made during the same period in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. This thesis further argues that the carnivalesque became a strategic mode for socio-political subversion in these two countries. Informed by textual, contextual and intertextual examinations of selected films, this thesis establishes that the carnivalesque in both countries has been characterized by an eclectic mixture of genres, ranging from light farcical comedies to black, surreal comedies and satires, thus making this mode instrumental for the representation of competing socio-political, cultural, and intercultural trends. By investigating the evolution from bright carnivalesque film comedies to dark grotesque humour in Cuba and Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, this thesis provides new insights on black humour and on the importance of intercultural dialogue for the formation of new local and global cultural trends. This thesis will also consider how shifting social attitudes prompted the appearance of new genres, such as critical utopia and dystopian critique. The thesis concludes by asserting that as well as serving as a fertile strategy for mutual cultural illumination, the carnivalesque mode is also the cinematic mode that best captures the constant process of renewal in all areas of social life. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................7 GENERAL INTRODUCTION – THE CARNIVALESQUE AESTHETICS: ANTI- HEGEMONIC TRADITION AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE ..........................8 PART I. ADAPTATION AS A METATEXT AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE: GUTIÉRREZ ALEA’S (1962) & GAIDAI’S (1971) ADAPTATIONS OF IL’F AND PETROV’S NOVEL THE TWELVE CHAIRS (1927) ...................................................43 INTRODUCTION: ADAPTATION AS A METATEXT. GENETTE’S THEORY OF TRANSTEXTUALITY. ADAPTATION AS REVISION AND AS AESOPIAN READING OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY .........................................................43 CHAPTER ONE: IL’F AND PETROV’S NOVEL DVENADTSAT’ STUL’EV / THE TWELVE CHAIRS (1927) AS A HYPOTEXT FOR GUTIÉRREZ ALEA’S AND GAIDAI’S ADAPTATIONS (DOCE SILLAS, 1962 AND DVENADTSAT’ STUL’EV, 1971) ............................................................................................................................49 1.1 Soviet Satire and Il’f and Petrov’s Novel Cult Status.........................................49 1.2 The Picaresque Genre as a Metatext for the Novel and the Novel’s Intertextuality ......................................................................................................54 1.3 The Novel’s Context ...........................................................................................56 1.4 The Novel’s Plot and Main Characters ...............................................................59 CHAPTER TWO: GUTIÉRREZ ALEA’S AND LEONID GAIDAI’S ADAPTATIONS IN CONTEXT .................................................................................63 2.1 Gutiérrez Alea’s Adaptation as a Translation and a Metatext of Il’f and Petrov’s Novel ...................................................................................................................63 2.2 The Cuban Context and Gutiérrez Alea’s Role in Post-1959 Cuban Cinema ....66 2.3 Gutiérrez Alea’s Formal Influences and Aesthetics ...........................................68 2.4 Gaidai’s ‘Faithful’ Adaptation: Adaptation as a Hybrid Genre and the Origins of Gaidai’s Eccentric Carnivalesque Comedy Style ...............................................69 2.5 The Socio-Political and Cultural Context of Gaidai’s Adaptation .....................75 CHAPTER THREE: COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.................................78 3.1 Gaidai’s Version versus Alea’s Earlier Adaptation of Il’f and Petrov’s Novel ..78 3.2 Adaptation and Transculturation: An Ideological and Intercultural Dialogue ...86 3.3 The Dialogue of Gutiérrez Alea’s Adaptation with Recent Cuban Films ..........88 3.4 More Recent Soviet and Post-Soviet Adaptations of the Novel .........................90 3.5 Adaptation as Revision or as Aesopian Reading of Contemporary Mores ........91 PART II. THE 1980s: THE REAPPEARANCE OF SOCIAL COMEDY AND SATIRE WITH MELODRAMATIC AND FANTASTIC OVERTONES ...................................96 4 INTRODUCTION: MELODRAMATIC SATIRE AND THE BLACK HUMOUR TREND. EARLY PERESTROIKA AND CUBAN RECTIFICATION HUMOUR OF THE MID 1980S - EARLY 1990S ..............................................................................96 CHAPTER FOUR: EL’DAR RIAZANOV’S ZABYTAIA MELODIA DLIA FLEITY (1987) / FORGOTTEN MELODY FOR FLUTE (1987): FROM SAD COMEDY TO TRAGEDY................................................................................................................101 4.1 Synopsis. Historical Context: Perestroika and Glasnost..................................101 4.2 Riazanov’s Early Influences, Recurring Themes, and Aesthetics....................107 4.3 Favourite Topics. Stylistics. Possible Russian, Soviet or European Film Influences..........................................................................................................112 4.4 The Italian Connection ......................................................................................117 4.5 The Role of the Fool in Riazanov’s Oeuvre .....................................................123 CHAPTER FIVE: JUAN CARLOS TABÍO’S PLAFF (1988). PARODY AS A SOCIAL CRITIQUE .................................................................................................127 5.1 Historical & Socio-Political Context ................................................................127 5.2 The Cultural Framework of Tabío’s Plaff ........................................................129 5.3 Synopsis and Narrative Strategies ....................................................................134 5.4 Plaff’s Style and Aesthetics ..............................................................................138 5. 5 From the Parody of Melodrama to the Realms of Black Comedy ....................142 CHAPTER SIX: COMPARISONS AND CONLUSIONS. BLACK HUMOUR AS A SUBVERSIVE STRATEGY FOR REPRESENTING SOCIAL CRISIS AND DISCONTENT ..........................................................................................................144 6.1 The Tradition of Russian and Soviet Black Humour ........................................145 6.2 Perestroika’s Black Humour – Black Humour and Accusatory Satire in Socialist Cuba and Soviet Russia ....................................................................................146 PART III. CARNIVAL AS UTOPIAN / DYSTOPIAN CRITIQUE THROUGH FILM: BLACK HUMOUR AND THE DYSTOPIAN TURN OF THE LATE 1980s AND EARLY 1990s ...............................................................................................................152 INTRODUCTION: REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM: UTOPIA, DYSTOPIA, ANTI- UTOPIA AND THE END OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE ...........................................152 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE DYSTOPIAN TURN. CHERNUKHA & THE BLACK HUMOUR TREND IN CUBA & SOVIET RUSSIA IN THE LATE 1980S AND EARLY 1990S ...........................................................................................................159 7.1 The End of Utopia. The Chernukha Trend .......................................................159 7.2 Towards a ‘Philosophical’ Definition of Black Humour ..................................160 7.3 Carnival as Utopian Critique ............................................................................162 7.4 Dystopian Critique ............................................................................................164 5 CHAPTER EIGHT: MAMIN AS THE FILMMAKER OF RUSSIA’S TRANSITION OR THE ROAD FROM CARNIVAL TO DYSTOPIA ............................................167 8.1