Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 Instructor: Alec Brookes, [email protected] Office Hours: MWF 1-2pm, Tu 12-2pm, or by appointment

RUSS3003 Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 Fall 2016, MWF 10-10:50, A1049 Screenings: Fridays 3pm-5pm A1046

“Cinema is an art of illusion, yet it dictates its laws to life itself.”

Beginning with the origins of film in in the late imperial era, this course proceeds to follow the development of film in Russia and the , which played a crucial role in the Soviet Union and the life of its people between 1917 and 1948, an era that included a communist revolution, civil war, the rise of fascism in Europe, and the Second World War. Besides close formal analysis of the screened films, we will discuss the shifting artistic, cultural, historical, and ideological contexts in which these films were made, and their enduring relevance in current Russian and global contexts.

All movies will be screened with English subtitles. All screenings are optional but recommended. Films will be placed on reserve at the QEII Library for review and/or are available on the internet, in which case links will be provided on d2l.

Course Objectives

This course aims to familiarize students with Russian and Soviet film until the death of director in 1948, with emphasis on films from the twenties and thirties. We will develop a robust way of talking about film in its own terms, and develop a way of understanding the reciprocal relationship between film and their contexts.

Required Reading

There is no textbook that you are required to buy for this course. When reading materials are assigned, they are linked on the course outline below and will be posted to d2l when d2l becomes available, and/or they will be on overnight reserve at the QEII library.

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Method of Evaluation

4 viewing responses: 20%

Students are required to submit 3 viewing responses in 3 separate formats, choosing your favourite format for the 4th response. The three formats are 1) oral, 2) typed, and 3) hand-written. Submit oral responses to a dropbox folder on d2l for the film you’re responding to as recordings of your voice. Typed responses likewise can be submitted to d2l, but hand-written responses are to be submitted in person. These are not synopses, and you are not being tested on the quality of your thought or your competency in any particular task; I want to know what you think, what kind of ideas and associations were generated by watching the film. The purpose of these responses is to facilitate discussion in class with your input and to develop the oral aspect of the university classroom, but if you do not want me to call on you, please let me know in person or by e-mail. We will go over how I want you to record voice—with Windows, Macs, Androids, and iPhones—during class time. You may use the resources at the DLC to record and transmit your voice throughout the semester. In terms of evaluation, you will be given a mark out of 5 for each one based on perceived effort and engagement, and also on your originality of thought. Film are screening on Fridays: you must have your response in before Sunday so I have time to read it for Monday’s class. Because these are meant to contribute to class discussion and are therefore time-sensitive, late submissions will receive no more than a passing grade. You must submit 2 responses before and 2 responses after October 17, otherwise you will be given a 0 (zero) for all uncompleted responses.

Engagement: 15%

This mark is based on your engagement with class discussions and course materials inside and out of class. Attendance is an important factor, but it is not exclusion. Beyond attending, I would like you to pay attention and participate. If you do not feel comfortable participating in front of the class, you can talk to me personally during office hours or send me an e-mail with your thoughts on what we’ve covered in class. You will receive a mark out of 5 for your engagement by October 17.

2 Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 Story board: 25%

After watching and discussing feature films by Esther Shub and , and at least one newsreel from the latter, we will go over in class how to storyboard a newsreel in a style we will develop based on Vertov’s and Shub’s styles. This assignment is meant to offer you an in-depth understanding of their films by allowing you a chance to work with it creatively. The first assignment, due October 14, is to storyboard part of your newsreel.

Newsreel (3 minutes): 30% (newsreel itself) + 10% (Q & A) = 40%

Create a silent 3-minute newsreel on a subject of your choosing, in a style we develop in class based on the documentaries of Esther Shub and Dziga Vertov. The exercise will consist of re-editing other people’s footage to express your own point of view on an issue that you consider newsworthy. Although you can do something on Russia, you are free to choose any topic you find meaningful. Possible topics will be discussed in class and I will give suggestions based on your storyboards. Ideally your projects will however demonstrate familiarity with Shub and Vertov’s techniques as well as your own point of view, developed from re-framing the original footage. We will also devote some class time to explain how to use iMovie on the computers in the Digital Language Lab to complete this assignment. Newsreels are you be uploaded on YouTube (you do not need to share publicly), with a link sent to me following your presentation. In the last week of class, we’ll watch our films and you will give a brief introduction and a similarly brief Q & A afterwards. Marks for the Q & A will be based on your answers as well as your questions for other students. Questions should pertain to why the student made certain artistic decisions (dealing with form and content) in light of course material. Due the final week of class. Late submissions not accepted.

Late policies

For viewing responses, late submissions will be accepted for a passing grade only. This is because, if they are late, they are no longer relevant to our class discussion, which is their intended function.

3 Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 For the storyboard, you will lose 1 mark per day late (out of 25 possible marks). Extensions are given at the instructor’s discretion.

If you submit the newsreel late, that means you will not present it to the class. Therefore late submissions will NOT be accepted.

Course Outline

Normally I will have an introductory lecture before the screening on Fridays. You are responsible for viewing the films before the date indicated in brackets.

Sept 7: Introduction. Syllabus and explanation of terminology for the analysis of film art. Wladyslaw Stariewicz. Film and innovation.

Suggested Viewing: David Bordwell lecture: “How Motion Pictures Became the Movies.” http://vimeo.com/57245550

Sept 12: Merchant Decadence and Tsarist Reaction. The relationship between the new merchant class, Tsarist repression, and the early development of cinema on the eve of revolution.

Screening: Evgeny Bauer, Child of the Big City 1914 (37’), and Daydreams, 1915 (37’) and

Suggested Reading:

Leyda, Chp. 1: “Illusions,” p. 17-35 https://archive.org/details/kinohistoryofrus00jayl Leyda, Chp. 3: “Enter—Author and Stockholder,” p. 55-71.

Sept 19: Authorship, Ownership, and Revolution. Film as a commodity appropriated by the revolution. Editing, the creation of meaning, and the concept of authorship applied to cinema.

Screening: Esfir Shub, Fall of the Romanov Dynasty, 1927 (87’)

Suggested Reading:

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Michel Foucault, What is an Author? http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Foucault_Author.pdf

Suggested Reading:

Leyda, “Anniversary Year,” p. 222-245

Sept 26: The Soviet Assemblage. Dziga Vertov’s newsreel, Kino-Pravda, and the Cine-Eye. Reorganization of labour in the city. Author as labourer, film as commodity.

Screening: Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera, 1928 (80’).

Suggested Reading:

Jonathan Beller, “Dziga Vertov and the Film of Money,” Boundary 2, 26.3, p. 151-199 http://qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/boundary/v026/26.3beller.html

Sep. 30: Class on how to create a storyboard and use iMovie for your newsreel will be held in the Digital Learning Centre in either SN 4022 or SN 4030 (tbd).

Oct 3: International Avant-Garde and Vanguardism. Avant-garde theories of cinema, its ideological relationship to the party and to the masses. International aesthetics. Soviet montage.

Screening: Sergei Eisenstein, , 1925 (69’).

Suggested Reading:

Leyda, “Theory into Practice,” p. 193-221

Oct 12: Class in the DLC (SN 4022 or SN 4030). An opportunity to work on your projects, and ask questions of your instructor and fellow classmates.

Oct 17: Between the Intelligentsia and the Avant-Garde: Origins of Socialist Realism. Soviet

5 Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 appropriation and adaptation of literature to film. Theories of Acting.

Screening: Vsevolod Pudovkin, Mother, 1926 (87’).

Suggested Reading:

Maxim Gorky, “Speech Delivered to the Soviet Writers’ Congress 1934,” https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/lit_crit/sovietwritercongress/stetsky.htm

Oct 24: Domestic Malaise and the End of Utopia. Labour and the housing crisis. Satire of the everyday.

Screening: Abram Room, Bed and Sofa, 1927. (95’).

Suggested Reading:

Richard Stites, Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Visions and Experimental Life in the . p. 200-222. http://qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://www.myilibrary.com?id=44053

Oct 31: Soviet Imperialism or International Liberation? Ethnographic film. Technology and infrastructure in the Soviet age of exploration and expansion. Soviet Colonialism. Soviet Sublime.

Screening: Mikhail Kalatozov, Salt for Svanetia, 1931. (53’)

Suggested viewing: Viktor Turin, Turksib, 1929. (57’)

Suggested Reading:

Emma Widdis, “Exploring” in Visions of a New Land. p. 96-119. http://qe2a- proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/memorial/Doc?id=10170018

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Nov 7: Collectivization and the Soul. Reorganization of land and labour in the countryside and enduring aesthetics and ideologies of agriculture and farming.

Screening: Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Earth, 1930 (76’).

Nov 14: Against Fascism. Soviet film in response to the rise of fascism in Germany and to racialized violence in Depression-era America. Anti-racism in popular cinema. Spectacle and melodrama. Lyubov Orlova.

Screening: Grigorii Aleksandrov, Circus, 1936 (89’).

Suggested Reading:

Richard Taylor, “ ‘But Eastward, Look, the Land is Brighter’: Toward a Topography of Utopia in the Stalinist Musical,” in The Landscape of Stalinism. http://qe2a- proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/memorial/Doc?id=10521808

Katerina Clark, Chp. 7: “Love and Death in the Time of the Spanish Civil War,” in , the Fourth Rome. p. 242-275 http://qe2a- proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/memorial/Doc?id=10518213

Nov 21: Avant-Garde Beyond the Twenties. Cosmopolitanism in the Soviet 30s. Western influences on nationalist cinema.

Screening: Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible, 1944. *NB—Since Part I (99’) and II (88’) are a combined 187 minutes, you are responsible for watching pt. II at home or in the library/DLC before class discussion.

Suggested Reading:

7 Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 Katerina Clark, Moscow, the Fourth Rome, p. 170-209. http://qe2a- proxy.mun.ca/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/memorial/Doc?id=10518213

Nov 28: Presentations all week. Sign up for a time slot on Friday, November 25.

University Policies and Support

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Cheating includes but is not limited to allowing another student to copy from your work, presenting someone else’s work as your own including through failure to credit the source of ideas, consulting electronic devices such as mobile phones or MP3 players and/or interacting with others while a test is ongoing. Any submission in this course that is similar to another author’s work, beyond chance, will be treated as plagiarism. Information about procedures and penalties for academic misconduct is outlined in the University Calendar.

Campus Support

The Writing Centre (SN-2053) is a free, drop-in facility for students and helps them become better writers and critical thinkers.

The Academic Advising Centre (SN-4053) provides academic guidance to students in their first year of study. Students seeking advice about a specific Major or Minor should contact the designated undergraduate advisor in that department.

The Commons (QEII library) provides access to print, electronic and technology resources.

The Counselling Centre (UC-5000) helps students develop their personal capabilities, ranging from study strategies to assisting distressed students.

Student Affairs and Services (Answers, UC-3005) answers questions about such things as courses, housing, books, financial matters and health.

8 Russ3003: Russian and Soviet Cinema Until 1948 The Glenn Roy Blundon Centre (UC -4007) serves students whose disabilities involve conditions affecting mobility, vision, hearing, learning (disabilities), chronic illness, or mental health; support is also provided to students with documented temporary illnesses and injuries.

Sexual Harassment Office (ER 6039) Sexual Harassment is a violation of human rights and is not tolerated at Memorial University. The university is committed to ensuring a respectful and harassment free environment on all its campuses.

The Sexual Harassment Office provides information and education sessions to students, faculty and staff on how to identify and prevent harassing behaviors and also provides advice, information and support to any person who has experienced sexual harassment.

If you want to learn more, please contact the Sexual Harassment Advisor at 864-2015 or the Sexual Harassment Office at 864-8199.

Class Cancellations Policy

If I have to cancel a class, I will post to the class newsfeed on d2l. You can also check MUN’s class cancellation web page: http://www.mun.ca/main/cancellations.php.

Classroom Etiquette

Treat your fellow classmates with respect, and if you have a problem with someone in the class, feel free to approach me about it. Treat everyone with respect.

As far as cellphones and computers are concerned, I object to you coming to class and then distracting yourself with facebook or solitaire. It will affect the mark I give you for engagement, but I will only tell you to put it away if it’s distracting to me or I feel it’s distracting others in the classroom. You can bring food and beverages in to class and screenings, but please be quiet. Absolutely no screens (phones, tablets, laptops) on during screenings.

E-mail Policy

I’ll respond to your emails within 24 hours. You may either email me at [email protected] or [email protected]. DO NOT use d2l; I do not check d2l for email. 9