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The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras

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The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras Bratova, Natalia 2013 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Bratova, N. (2013). The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras. Lund University (Media-Tryck). 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Download date: 11. Oct. 2021 LUND SLAVONIC MONOGRAPHS 11 CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE LUND UNIVERSITY The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in the Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras Natalia Bratova Lund 2013 LUND SLAVONIC MONOGRAPHS 11 CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE LUND UNIVERSITY LUND SLAVONIC MONOGRAPHS 11 CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE LUND UNIVERSITY The Petersburg Text of Russian Cinema in the Perestroika and Post-Perestroika Eras Natalia Bratova Lund 2013 Editorial office Lunds Universitet Spr˚ak-och Litteraturcentrum Box 201 SE-221 00 Lund Sweden email: [email protected] http://www.sol.lu.se/ryska/publikationer Lund Slavonic Monographs·11 ISSN: 0280-0284 ISBN 978-91-7473-726-4 c by Natalia Bratova All rights reserved Published by Centre for languages and literature, Lund University Printed in Sweden by Mediatryck, Lund To my father Coverphotograph: From Happy Days (Aleksei Balabanov, 1991). By courtesy of CTB Film Company. Contents I INTRODUCTION 1 1 Backgrounds 3 1.1 Staging the Problem . .3 1.2 The Definition and Functions of Myth . .6 1.3 The City in Cinema . 10 1.4 A Short Overview of the Cinema of the Perestroika and Post- Perestroika Periods . 17 II THEORETICAL APPROACH 21 2 The Myth of Saint Petersburg 23 2.1 The Petersburg Myth . 23 2.2 The Myth’s Transformations in the 1990s . 48 2.3 Cinematic Petersburg in the Works by Leonid Muratov . 53 3 Coming to terms 59 3.1 Methods of the analysis . 59 3.2 Functional Elements of Space . 63 3.3 Bakhtin and His Concept of Carnivalisation . 69 III ANALYSES 91 4 Space in the Cinematic Petersburg Text 93 4.1 Functionality of Gala Space. Outskirts vs. Fa¸cades . 93 4.2 Public vs. Private Space . 110 4.3 Liminal Spaces as Forms of Escape from the City . 126 4.3.1 Cemeteries and Lunatic Asylums . 128 4.3.2 Roofs and the Sea . 132 4.4 Moving Around . 137 5 The Protagonist 147 5.1 A General Overview . 147 5.2 Masked Personalities . 159 5.3 Gothic and Carnivalised Doubles . 166 5.3.1 Gothic Double (Doppelg¨anger) . 166 5.3.2 Carnivalised Doubles . 172 6 Connecting to the Tradition 177 6.1 Familiar Plots and their New Forms . 178 6.1.1 Arithmetic of a Murder .................. 178 6.1.2 The Myth of Leonid .................... 189 6.2 Other Traditional Patterns . 200 6.2.1 Intertextual References . 200 6.2.2 Pseudo-Plagiarisms . 205 7 Time Preferences 217 IV THE MYTH AFTER THE TERCENTENARY AN- NIVERSARY OF THE CITY 227 8 Tradition and New Developments 229 8.1 Presentation of Films Revised . 229 8.2 Russian Ark and Petersburg .................... 230 8.3 The Myth in the Cinema after the Tercentenary Anniversary of the City . 234 8.3.1 Space . 237 8.3.2 Protagonist . 247 8.3.3 Time . 252 8.3.4 Following the Tradition . 252 Concluding remarks 266 References 273 Appendices A Films of Cinematic Petersburg Text (in chronological order) 287 B Index of Films (in alphabetical order) 291 C Filmography for Further Studies (in chronological order) 295 . но ни на что не променяем пышный гранитный город славы и беды. Аnna Akhmatova, 19151 Эй, Ленингpад, Петеpбуpг, Петpогpадище Маpсово пастбище, Зимнее кладбище. Отпpыск России, на мать не похожий Бледный, худой, евpоглазый пpохожий. Геpp Ленингpад, до пупа затоваpенный, Жаpеный, паpеный, даpеный, кpаденый. Мсье Ленингpад, pеволюцией меченный, Мебель паливший, дом пеpекалеченный. С окнами, бабками, львами, титанами, Липами, сфинксами, медью, Авpоpами. Сэp Ленингpад, Вы теплом избалованы, Вы в янваpе уже пеpецелованы. Жадной весной ваши с ней откpовения Вскpыли мне вены тоски и сомнения. Пан Ленингpад, я влюбился без памяти В Ваши стальные глаза. Iurii Shevchuk (rockband DDT), 19932 1But we shall never seek a substitution For this grand city our woe and prize. (Bonver 2002) 2Hey, Leningrad, Petersburg, Petrogradishche, The pasture of Mars, the Winter cemetery. Russia’s offspring not resembling its mother, A pale, thin, euro-eyed passerby Herr Leningrad, overstocked to its paunch, Fried, boiled, gifted and stolen, Monsieur Leningrad, marked by the revolution, Which has burnt its furniture, a mutilated house With its windows, grannies, lions, Titans, Lindens, sphinxes, copper, Auroras. Sir Leningrad, you are pampered by warmth, Already in January you are showered with kisses By the avid spring. Your revelations to it Have cut my veins of anguish and doubt. Pan Leningrad, I have fallen in love With your steel eyes. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all I would like to express my deep gratitude to Prof. Fiona Bj¨orling who was gently and thoughtfully supervising my work during these long years. It was my honour and pleasure working with her. I would never be able to accomplish this thesis without her patient guidance, enthusiastic encourage- ment and her wise advice. She was always open to listen and discuss my most ridiculous ideas on the subject and ready to motivate me with her never-fading confidence about this research. Thank you! I would also like to thank Mark Lipovetsky, Olga Boitsova, Anders Mark- lund, Lars Kristensen, Anna Cabak R´edei,Aleksandr Markov for their valu- able recommendations and comments on my research. I am particularly grateful to Aleksandr Markov for his assistance in con- nection with my research work in St. Petersburg and appointing my interview with Irina Evteeva. I would like to thank Irina Evteeva and Dmitrii Dolinin for their openness and willingness to talk to me and also for the films and books I received from them. I am grateful to the staff of CTB film company and Sergei Sel’ianov for organising an interview with Aleksei Balabanov and for courtesy to use film frames to illustrate my work. Although this is too late, I would like to thank Aleksei Balabanov for the sincere and interesting conversation we had. I also wish to thank Mit’ki artists for their joyful ef- forts in searching the film The City, especially to Dmitrii Shagin and Viktor Tikhomirov. I would like to acknowledge assistance of staff of the Panorama Film Studio, Mosfilm and Lenfilm Studios in granting me a permission to use clips from the films that belong to these film studios. I would like to express my appreciation to my colleagues at the former Department of Slavonic Studies, Lund University. I am passing my special thanks to Terho Paulsson for his invaluable help in technical work on the thesis. I am also grateful to Johanna Lindbladh for organising the interna- tional conference ‘The Poetics of Memory in Post-Totalitarian Narration’ that gave such an inspiring effect to my research. Thank you Barbara T¨ornquist- Plewa, Lars Steensland, Karin Greltz, Karin Sarsenov, Sverker Holmstedt, Miloslava Slavi¯ckov´a,Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath, Mattias Nowak, Ana- maria Dutceac Segesten for all the brain-teasing discussions we had, for your interest and for useful critiques of my research, but also for your loyalty and friendship. I am especially grateful to my colleagues and friends Jessica and Stefan Carlzohn and their family for their kind-hearted help and support. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Malgorzata Andr´eassonat the Centre for Language and Literature and of Monika J¨onssonat Media-Tryck. I am grateful to Holger and Thyra Lauritzen’s Foundation and the Crafo- ord Foundation for financial support of my research. I wish to thank Kiril Lunkin and Olga Bratova for their technical support of the illustrations in this thesis and Danila Prikazchikov for his assistance in last minute proofreading of the inserted passages. I would like to thank my family: my mother Nina Barbalat and my mother- in-law Irina Bratova and my children Victor and Fjodor for their ever-lasting belief in me. I express my deep gratitude and appreciation to my husband Vladimir Bratov for being my technical guru and encouraging me in my work. Finally, the last thanks are to my native city, St. Petersburg for the inspiration it gave to me in writing this work. Let the curse never fulfill! Part I INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 Backgrounds 1.1 Staging the Problem The study of a city can proceed in a variety of directions. It is possible to explore the history of the city from its foundation to the present day, its architecture and different architectural styles represented in it or the quotidian life of its citizens and of separate sections of its population, so to speak, and the physiology of the city in the different periods of time.
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