Film and Television Genres of the Late Soviet Era
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F i l m a n d Te l e v i s i o n G e n r e s o f t h e Late Soviet Era i ii Film and Television Genres of the Late Soviet Era A l e x a n d e r P r o k h o r o v a n d E l e n a P r o k h o r o v a Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc NEW YORK • LONDON • OXFORD • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY iii Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC 1B 3 DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2017 © Alexander Prokhorov and Elena Prokhorova, 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Names: Prokhorov, Alexander, 1965- author. | Prokhorova, Elena, author. Title: Film and television genres of the late Soviet era / Alexander Prokhorov and Elena Prokhorova Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifi ers: LCCN 2016023096 (print) | LCCN 2016035443 (ebook) | ISBN 9781441177292 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501324093 (ePub) | ISBN 9781501324086 (ePDF) Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures--Soviet Union. | Film genres—Soviet Union. | Television series--Soviet Union. | Television program genres—Soviet Union. | BISAC: PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism. | PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / General. Classifi cation: LCC PN1993.5.S65 P75 2007 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.S65 (ebook) | DDC 791.430947—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023096 ISBN : HB : 978-1-4411-7729-2 PB : 978-1-4411-3428-8 ePub: 978-1-5013-2409-3 e PDF : 978-1-5013-2408-6 Cover design by Dan Stiles Cover image (insert on the TV screen) © Anzhela Dzherih, Shtirlits nashego dvora Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk iv C o n t e n t s List of illustrations vii Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 Approaches to fi lm and television genres 2 Why television? 6 Th e diffi cult fate of genre studies in the USSR and Russia 7 Overview of chapters: from socialist realism to fi lm genres 15 1 Prestige Productions: Epic Film as a Tool of Hard and Soft Power during the Cold War 21 Syntax and semantics of the genre 21 War and Peace : art cinema on state service 27 Liberation : war spectacle and the politics of memory 43 Postscript: the revival of prestige productions under Putin 59 2 Th e Socialist Television Police Procedural of the 1970s and 80s: Teaching Soviet Citizens How to Behave 67 Syntax and semantics of the genre 67 Th e Investigation is Conducted by Experts : the Soviet police procedural is born 80 Th e Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed : the romantics of the criminal underworld 90 Postscript: streetwise cops meet the Russian mafi a 104 3 Late-Soviet Comedy: Between Rebellion and the Status Quo 107 Syntax and semantics of the genre 107 El’dar Riazanov: the trappings and traps of private life 116 Mark Zakharov’s television fi lms: between the romance and the sitcom 128 Postscript: the living and the (un)dead 146 4 Reinventing Desire: Late- Socialist Melodrama 149 Syntax and semantics of the genre 149 v vi Contents Television melodrama 158 Cinematic masculinities 163 Late-Soviet “woman’s fi lm” 173 Postscript: televised passions 188 Conclusion 191 Bibliography 197 Filmography 207 Index 213 List of illustrations 1.1 Street advertisement for Iurii Ozerov’s Liberation in East Berlin (1972) 25 1.2 Dancers in the Mass Ornament in War and Peace 31 1.3 Split screen in the scene aft er Natasha’s fi rst ball 32 1.4 Simon Ushakov’s Th e Tree of the Muscovite State 1668 33 1.5 Oak Tree in Otradnoe as the Tree of the Russian Empire. Th e director’s name is superimposed on the image of the tree 34 1.6 Prayer before Borodino, a harbinger of victory. No prayer before Austerlitz led to defeat 35 1.7 Th e victory bonfi re 36 1.8 Liudmila Savel’eva as Natasha Rostova 39 1.9 Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova 39 1.10 Th e number of Soviets killed in the Second World War confi rms who made the major contribution 45 1.11 Tank stunts as visual attraction: T-34 tank jumps over obstacles 50 1.12 Promotional brochure for Liberation 5 6 1.13 Promotional brochure for Liberation 5 7 1.14 Promotional brochure for Liberation 5 8 1.15 Th e Imperial Army and Golden Domes of Orthodox Cathedrals meet each other in Barber of Siberia (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov 1999) 61 1.16 President Vladimir Putin on the set of Burnt by the Sun-2 6 2 2.1 Th e investigator (Mikhail Zharov) exposes the spy under Stalin’s eagle eye in Engineer Kochin’s Mistake 70 2.2 Interrogation as soul- searching in Th e Investigation is Conducted by Experts (1972) 72 2.3 Fashion show as a value- neutral consumer spectacle 77 2.4 Th e police team in Th e Investigation is Conducted by Experts 81 2.5 Garbage dump as a setting and metaphor in Th e Investigation is Conducted by Experts, Episode 10 (1975) 86 2.6 Soviet teenagers and the gun fetish in Episode 13 (1978) of Th e Investigation is Conducted by Experts 88 vii viii List of illustrations 2.7 Stalin’s portrait behind the protagonist in Th e Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed 93 2.8 and 2.9 Criminal types in Th e Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed 95 2.10 Intelligentsia on trial in Th e Meeting Place 9 9 2.11 Zheglov in action in Th e Meeting Place 100 3.1 Kalugina as the gloomy Soviet bureaucrat 110 3.2 A character mocks the humorless boss 111 3.3 Th e individual overshadowed by the body of a nameless working- class character 112 3.4 Collective identity only in a state of inebriation 123 3.5 Zhenia visibly suff ers but recovers himself and makes a proposal to his fi ancée Galia, a woman he does not love 125 3.6 Zhenia’s mother observes the female “intruder” 126 3.7 Th e last frame of Zakharov’s fi lm: Munchausen departs into outer space from his oppressive community 132 3.8 Ilya Kabakov. Th e Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment . Installation. Created in 1984 133 3.9 Ostap’s eye gazing directly at the viewers opens every episode of Zakharov’s Twelve Chairs 135 3.10 “And this is his dream as well” 136 3.11 Giant Glium, who was ordered by the city mayor to stop growing 139 3.12 Evgenii Leonov as the king in An Ordinary Miracle 141 3.13 Th e king’s court, puzzled by characters who can have both agency and emotions 142 3.14 Th e king’s three-cornered Napoleonic hat covers . 143 3.15 . a Russian babushka kerchief 144 4.1 Princess Volkonskaia’s tear-stained face 155 4.2 Panagia Eleousa 155 4.3 Shura and her stepdaughter, with a church in the background 156 4.4 Revolution and love in Shadows Disappear at Noon 160 4.5 Russian community at the core of Soviet television melodrama Shadows Disappear at Noon 163 4.6 Sergei and Tania, the Soviet Romeo and Juliet 167 4.7 A TV cartoon character “looks” in amazement at the male protagonist who has undergone a dramatic change 169 4.8 Th e good Soviet life aft er the hero’s death 169 4.9 Warrior paradise lost/exchanged for the good but uninspiring life 171 List of illustrations ix 4.10 Watching the utopia in its fi nal hour 177 4.11 Uvarova in search of utopia, with the church in the background 178 4.12 Uvarova mentoring her children 180 4.13 Tat’iana and Aleksei entering the monumental world of the communist paradise (Radiant Path 1940) 184 4.14 A Russian (not Soviet) male protagonist emerging from behind a Russian samovar 187 Acknowledgments We would like to thank our mentors, Helena Goscilo and Vladimir Padunov, and our patient and supportive teachers, Mark Altshuller, David Birnbaum, Nancy Condee, Lucy Fischer, Jane Feuer, and Carole Stabile. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have worked and exchanged ideas with helpful and thoughtful colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh and the College of William and Mary. Continuous conversations, panels, and projects with our colleagues, Tony Anemone, Petr Bagrov, Marina Balina, Birgit Beumers, Eliot Borenstein, Katerina Clark, Fred Corney, Yana Hashamova, Beth Holmgren, Mikhail Iampol’skii, Vida Johnson, Lilya Kaganovsky, Arthur Knight, Ilya Kukulin, Mark Lipovetsky, Masha Maiofi s, Anna Malguina, Zhenia Margolit, Viktor Matizen, Tatyana Mikhailova, Serguei Oushakine, Rima Salys, Elena Stishova, Alexei Yurchak, and many others greatly assisted our research, although they may not agree with all of the claims and interpretations provided in this book. We thank Emilia and Ilya Kabakov for their generous permission to use a photograph of the installation Th e Man Who Flew into Space from his Apartment . We also thank Anzhela Dzherih for her permission to use her image on our cover.