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Elizaveta Svilova and Soviet Documentary Film University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Film Studies Elizaveta Svilova and Soviet Documentary Film by Christopher Penfold Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Film Studies Doctor of Philosophy ELIZAVETA SVILOVA AND SOVIET DOCUMENTARY FILM By Christopher Penfold The focus of my research is Soviet documentary filmmaker, Elizaveta Svilova (1900- 75), most commonly remembered, if at all, as the wife and collaborator of acclaimed Soviet film pioneer, Dziga Vertov (1896-1954). Having worked with her husband for many years, Svilova continued her career as an independent director-editor after Vertov fell out of favour with the Central Committee. Employed at the Central Studio for Documentary Film, a state-initiated studio, Svilova’s films were vehicles of rhetoric, mobilised to inform, educate and persuade the masses. She draws on visual symbols familiar to audiences and organises them according to the semiotic theories – namely techniques of dialecticism and linkage – attributed to the Soviet montage school of the 1920s. On-screen credits indicate that, during the period 1939 to 1956, Svilova was the director-editor of over 100 documentaries and newsreel episodes, yet this corpus of films has received very little critical attention. As my thesis aims to demonstrate, the reasons for the lack of attention to Svilova’s films are partly due to her husband’s eminent status – the rules whereby we construct film history have resulted in Svilova’s contribution being absorbed into Vertov’s – and this is related to the long- standing tendency within film criticism to marginalise the female artist. My thesis also touches on issues regarding curatorial and archival policies, and provides an opportunity to rethink early film history and the modes through which historiographic and filmographic knowledge are transmitted. List of Contents Declaration of Authorship 1 Acknowledgements 3 Notes on Transliteration and Sources 5 Introduction 7 Chapter 1 13 The Context of Svilova’s Career Chapter 2 81 Evidence of Aggression: Oświęcim (1945) and Cinema Documents of the Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders (1945) Chapter 3 135 Female Spectators and the Feminine Ideal Chapter 4 181 Foreign Lands and Depictions of Otherness Chapter 5 241 Conclusion Notes 253 Appendix 1 281 Elizaveta Svilova and Foreign Stories Appendix 2 287 Filmography of Elizaveta Svilova Bibliography 321 Web Sources and Archive Sources 335 Filmography 337 Declaration of Authorship I, Christopher Penfold, declare that this thesis, Elizaveta Svilova and Soviet Documentary Film, and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Parts of this work have been published as: Testimony of an Absent Witness, Holocaust Studies 18.3 (2012) Signed: Date: 10 May, 2013 1 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents for their kind hearts, Tim Bergfelder and David Dunn for their inspired minds, and Christen Ericsson-Penfold for her caring shoulder. I am thankful to the University of Southampton for additional research funds and to the various scholars who have offered invaluable advice on aspects of my thesis at conferences and through peer review. I also wish to express my gratitude to the archivists at the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive in Krasnogorsk, the Russian Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow, and the Open Society Archive in Budapest. 3 4 Notes on Transliteration and Sources Transliteration of Russian is according to the Library of Congress system. Titles in the text are given in English and Russian at first mention (unless no transliteration is necessary), and thereafter in English only. Titles in the notes section and in the filmography are given in English, and titles in Appendix 2 are given in English and Russian. Beyond Svilova’s films and archival documents, I refer mainly to English-language sources. I am aware that there might exist additional non-English language sources, particularly in Russian, that would provide further scope to this thesis, and I encourage future researchers with access to these materials to supplement or challenge my analysis. 5 6 Introduction The focus of my research is Soviet documentary filmmaker, Elizaveta Svilova (1900- 75), most commonly remembered, if at all, as the wife and collaborator of acclaimed Soviet film pioneer, Dziga Vertov (1896-1954). Having worked with her husband for many years, Svilova continued her career as an independent director-editor after Vertov fell out of favour with the Soviet authorities. According to on-screen credits, between 1939 and 1956 Svilova was the director-editor of over 100 documentaries and newsreel episodes, yet this corpus of films has received hardly any critical attention. As my thesis aims to demonstrate, the reasons for the lack of attention to Svilova and her films are partly due to her husband’s eminent status – the rules whereby we construct film history have resulted in Svilova’s contribution to Soviet documentary being absorbed into Vertov’s – and this is related to the long-standing tendency within film criticism to marginalise the female director. Julia Wright has argued that Svilova’s contributions to Vertov’s canon have not been fully acknowledged because she was a woman.1 The third factor that has led to a misunderstanding of Svilova’s contribution is the ambiguity surrounding the role of the director in the Soviet film industry during the period of her career. Directors of documentaries, particularly newsreels, are understood to have made a limited impact on the shaping of their films as they were often absent from the shooting locations 7 and instead ‘directed’ the film at the editing table. I will argue that, for Svilova at least, having control of the editing process compensated for her absence from the shooting location and provided her with opportunities to make a substantial artistic contribution to her films. The last potential cause of Svilova’s marginalisation is of a logistical nature. Archived in the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive in Krasnogorsk (approximately twelve miles west of central Moscow), Svilova’s independent films are not easily accessible in the public domain and require a concerted effort to view. In this respect, my thesis also touches on issues regarding curatorial and archival policies, and how the latter shape our conception of a filmmaker’s contribution to the industry. Beyond issues of access, engaging with Svilova’s body of work is by no means a straightforward task. Throughout the process of identifying her contribution – researching filmographies, archive catalogues and biographical accounts of her life – it is evident that sources do not always correspond with on-screen credits, the latter of which I consider to be the most reliable system of allocating film roles. Often films Svilova co-directed with Vertov, or filmmakers such as Yuli Raizman or Roman Karmen, are listed exclusively as the work of her collaborator. On other occasions, films for which she is credited as director-editor are either attributed to the name of a studio executive or attributed to no name at all. Also, sources that do attempt to acknowledge Svilova’s contribution, particularly to her collaborative films with Vertov, frequently contradict one another. These inconsistencies have resulted in a disjointed and ambiguous picture of Svilova. Characterised by numerous collaborations, various production roles (most notably alongside a film pioneer) and, importantly, by her gender, her contribution to Soviet documentary film has not been fully appreciated. 8 The project of the thesis Chapter One outlines my methodology for identifying Svilova’s contribution to Soviet documentary film through her role as an editor, first as Vertov’s collaborator and then as an independent director-editor. I also outline the context in which Svilova produced her films and the framework in which I am analysing them. By highlighting the contradiction between Marxist ideology and the reality inherited by the Central Committee, and in turn illustrating the policies of defence and legitimisation that emerged as a result of the deficit, I make clear the purpose of Svilova’s films – what she as a state documentary filmmaker was employed to do. Cinema was mobilised to persuade the masses of the righteousness of the regime and their duty to participate in the realisation of Marx’s communist utopia.
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