Russian/Soviet Film and History

HIS 350L Prof. Joan Neuberger TTh 2-3:30 [email protected] GAR 1.134 Office Hrs: W 1-3 GAR 2.102

During the twentieth century, Russians directed some of the greatest films ever made: popular entertainment features, avant-garde experiments, radical revolutionary agitation, comedies, melodramas, and animation. In this course we will study the ways Russian filmmakers used cinema to explore the history, culture, politics, and social issues in the Soviet Union in the 20th century. The course will combine screening of films, class discussion of issues raised in these films, and written, visual, and oral presentation of students’ ideas about the films.

Goals of the course include • Learning to “read” films critically and creatively • Learning to read films as primary sources • Gaining appreciation for Russian avant-garde and entertainment films • Learning about Russian revolutionary and Soviet culture through films • Learning to write concise, articulate prose • Learning to produce a video essay on some aspect of Soviet film and history.

Books to Purchase: Mark Edele, The Soviet Union: A Short History Rimgaila Salys, ed. The Russian Cinema Reader, vol 1, 1908-to the Stalin Era *Readings marked with an * will be posted on Canvas

Films: • Students should watch the film assigned for each week before the class on Tuesday. You have several options for viewing: • All required films are available on DVD in the Fine Arts Library on reserve. • Some films are available to stream on Kanopy (utexas.kanopy.com), or the Mosfilm website (cinema.mosfilm.ru) or as indicated by links in the syllabus. • I’ll be screening most of the films on Monday evenings in Gar 1.102 at 5:00, if you want to watch better quality prints, on a big screen, with an audience (the time is negotiable).

1. The Province of Lost Film (Lahusen, McDonald, Nikitin, 2008) 2. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925) 3. Aelita: Queen of Mars (Protozanov, 1924) 4. Bed and Sofa (Room, 1927) 5. Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929) 6. Chapaev (Vasilievs, 1934) 7. Circus (Aleksandrov, 1936) 8. Ivan the Terrible Parts I (1944) and II (1946/58) 9. Ivan’s Childhood (Tarkovsky, 1962) 10. Nine Days of One Year (Romm, 1961) 11. Animation: Film-Film-Film, Man in a Frame (Fedor Khitruk), Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein) 12. Wings (Shepitko, 1966) 13. Garage (Riazanov, 1979) 14. Urga/ Close to Eden (Mikhalkov, 1991)

ASSIGNMENTS: Three kinds of assignment are used in this class. 1. Very Short Weekly response papers based on the reading and screening. Each week each student must be prepared to show the class one clip from the week’s film (no more than 30 seconds) and explain how that clip illustrates or explains a significant point about the film. The clip can be related to the story, to the historical context, to the director’s style, or to a specific cinematic technique. These are intended to help you think through at least one aspect of the week’s topic and be better prepared for discussion. Write up your comments (approx. 250 words), upload them to Canvas, but speak without the text in class.

2. Video Essay. Each student will construct a 5-10 minute video essay on a theme in Soviet film history. It will be based partly on work done in class and partly on individual research. Each student will present their video essay to the class during Finals.

3. Timeline: In order to think about the connections between history and film making, students will construct timelines using Cliovis (link on Canvas). Each week students will plot 3-4 historical events and link them to 3-4 elements of that week’s film.

Additional information on assignments will be distributed and discussed in class

GRADING: Participation in Discussion: 20% Very Short Weekly Assignments 30% Timeline 10% Digital Exhibit/Video Essay 40%, of which: Topic and bibliography 15pts Script for 2 minute segment 15pts 2 minute segment of final project 20pts Final Script 20pts Final Project 30pts

+/- are used in this class. A 93-100, A- 90-92, B+ 88-89, B 83-87, B- 80-82, C+78-79, C 73-77, C- 70-72 D 60-69, F 0-59

FLAGS: This course has a Writing flag and an Independent Inquiry flag. More info on flags here: https://ugs.utexas.edu/flags/faculty-resources/criteria

COMMUNICATION: All students are required to have functioning email addresses registered with the university. Information about the course will be posted on Canvas and I will send information via Canvas’s announcements.

Availability, Questions, Concerns: Office hours are for students to drop by to discuss any aspect of the course. I have scheduled office hours once a week (Weds 1-3) but I am happy to meet with you at any other time during the week. Please feel free to schedule an appointment via email.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE:

Participation: Join in discussion. Raise questions you had while viewing or reading, or questions that occur to you during discussion. This class will be run in seminar format and you will be graded on participation. If you are naturally shy or for any other reason feel uneasy joining the discussion, please come talk to me.

Attendance: Come to every class. Students are required to attend every class meeting. Absences will be excused only for documented family or medical emergencies or specific religious holidays. If you miss more than two meetings you are required to talk to me about staying in the class.

Reading and Screenings: Read and view films actively and critically. Come to class prepared to discuss that week’s reading and screening. All reading should be finished before the class day listed on the syllabus. All assignments uploaded to Canvas before class.

If you find yourself falling behind, please come see me or email me; PLEASE don’t just give up and disappear. Alternatively, don’t download a paper or video from the internet. We can find ways to solve any academic problem - except plagiarism, which will be prosecuted. Read on…

Academic Integrity: I take academic integrity seriously. If you have any questions about plagiarism or other issues of academic dishonesty please feel free to raise such questions with me. University policies are available at: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs

Accommodations: Students with special needs (documented by the Services for Students with Disabilities Office) should notify me immediately to set up accommodations.

Electronics: Laptops may be used for note checking and note taking. I do not need to tell you how tempting it is to text, tweet, shop, and so on, so: Please don’t. Also, I do not want to see your phone.

Title IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender are Civil Rights offenses subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, etc. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can find helpful resources here: http://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/appendices/appendix-d/ http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/vav/index.html

GUNS UT Austin is obliged to follow a law that allows the concealed carry of loaded handguns in our classrooms. Course participants with a license to carry a handgun must keep it concealed and on their person in a proper holster at all times. A gun carrier who moves further than arm’s reach away from their handgun while in the classroom is in violation of the law and policy. Therefore, handguns may not be brought to the classroom in backpacks, bags, or purses, because course participants will be called on at unpredictable times to move about the room for the purposes of group work or presentations causing them to be separated from their belongings. For more on state law and UT policy, see https://campuscarry.utexas.edu/

The law bars instructors from prohibiting guns in our classrooms but I am allowed to say that I would prefer to teach in a gun-free space. And I am allowed by law to point out that my preference is not based on a naïve belief that nothing dangerous ever happens in classrooms, but is based on reliable studies that show that carrying a gun might make people feel safer but does not, in fact, make people safer. I would prefer to teach in a gun-free space because I believe that the potential for the presence of loaded, concealed guns prevents the full practice of free expression.

SCREENINGS, READINGS, DISCUSSIONS, ASSIGNMENTS * indicates reading on Canvas

Week 1. Th Aug 29. Intro. Cinema & History. Films as primary sources. Individual and collective viewing In class screening: The Province of Lost Film (Lahusen, McDonald, Nikitin, 2008, 46 mins)

Week 2 T Sep 3 Film Form Basics & Soviet Film Basics Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925, 82 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1920-1929/bronenosets-potemkin-1905-god/

Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 1-48 *Youngblood, “Soviet Silent Cinema,” in The Russian Cinema Reader, 14-31 Write: Choose 4 major historical events for your timeline. Set up your account in Cliovis on Canvas. We’ll set up each student’s individual timeline in class.

Th Sep 5 Read: *Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film, 34-77, 171-72 (1-34 optional) *Neuberger, Salys, Bordwell, “Battleship Potemkin,” in Russian Cinema Reader, 107-43 Be prepared to discuss: Basic film terminology and practices: the camera, the frame, the director, the actor, film genres, technology, politics and history. How were each of these elements or techniques shaped Battleship Potemkin? Write: choose any one film practice discussed by Corrigan, describe its uses in Potemkin (250 words). Bring a clip from Potemkin (no more than 30 seconds) to illustrate your point. Be prepared to show the clip to class. I’ll have the film uploaded in the classroom. All you need to do is remember the time code.

Week 3. T Sep 10 Aelita: Queen of Mars (Yakov Protozanov, 1924, 113 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoROo4Ur49c Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 49-95 *Erwin W. Fellows, “‘Propaganda and Communication: A Study in Definitions,” Journalism Quarterly 34 (1957): 431-441

Th Sep 12 *Denise Youngblood, “Iakov Protozanov, ‘The Russian Griffith,’” Movies for the Masses, 105- 121 *Ian Christie, “Down to Earth: Aelita Relocated,” Inside the Film Factory: New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema, ed. Richard Taylor and Ian Christie, Routledge, New York, 1991

Be prepared to discuss the ways in which social problems and various sectors of society are represented in this film; how audience might have viewed it at the time. Is Aelita propaganda? How does it differ from Battleship Potemkin in the ways it delivers ideas? Write: 1. Cliovis Timeline add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc 2. Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates either social issues or propaganda in Aelita, write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Week 4. T Sep 17 Bed and Sofa (Abram Room, 1927, 95 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1920-1929/tretya-meschanskaya-lyubov-vtroem/

Read: *B.E. Clements, “The Birth of the New Soviet Woman” Julian Graffy and Rimgaila Salys, “Bed and Sofa,” Russian Cinema Reader, 144-171 Be prepared to discuss: how do gender issues complicate or derail assumptions about building socialism? How are social problems treated here? How are bourgeois culture and working class culture contrasted? How are men and women contrasted? Write: Cliovis Timeline add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates something about gender roles, write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Th Sept 19 NO CLASS. BUT: Watch as many video essays as you can. Google “video essay” to get started. Or look at this selection of video essays about individual directors: http://www.filmscalpel.com/dossiers/ Or this selection from Film Studies for Free https://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/ Watch: What is a video essay: here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLGNJzPQLFc And think about the criteria proposed. Write: Think about how you might convey film and history analysis as a video essay. Pick one video essay you like that might be a model for you. Write 250-300 words about why the video essay that you picked works as a model for you. Upload to Canvas.

Week 5. T Sep 24 Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929, 80 mins) https://utexas.kanopy.com

Read: Jeremy Hicks, “Man with a Movie Camera,” Russian Cinema Reader, 172-191 Write: Cliovis Timeline add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc Th Sep 26 *Yuri Tsivian, “Man with a Movie Camera,” in Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties, 318-348 Be prepared to discuss: Tsivian tells us that Vertov was as much opposed to simple recording of daily life as he was to fictional film stories. How does Vertov use avant garde methods to create a new kind of film narrative? What does his revolution look like? Who is his New Soviet Man and New Soviet Woman? Write: Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates something about Vertov’s revolution(s), write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Week 6. Oct 1 Chapaev (Georgii and Sergei Vasiliev, 1934, 95 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6KDKMgALps

Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 99-122 Write: Cliovis Timeline add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc

Th Oct 3 Lilya Kaganovsky, “Stalinist Cinema, 1928-1953” Russian Cinema Reader, 208-234 Rimgaila Salys and Oksana Bulgakowa, “Chapaev,” Russian Cinema Reader, 235-249 Be prepared to discuss: what makes Chapaev the ideal Stalin-era hero? How is Chapaev’s relationship with Furmanov used to structure the film and its portrait of heroism? How is heroism gendered in this film? Does this film share any formal attributes with the avant-garde films that preceded it? Write: pick a clip that could be the start of video essay on some aspect of Chapaev.

Week 7 Oct 8 Circus (Grigory Aleksandrov, 1936, 94 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1930-1939/tsirk/

Read: *Richard Stites, “Stalin by Starlight,” 64-97 Write: Cliovis Timeline: add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc Write: Watch these three video essays and write 350-500 words on the point(s) each one is trying to make and compare the different strategies each uses to gets its point across: provocative visuals, editing, story, voice-over + visuals, editing, etc. Upload to Canvas Tony Zhou on staging or mise-en-scene https://vimeo.com/118078262 Kogonada on Ozu’s passageways http://kogonada.com/portfolio/ozu/passageways Konogada on Tarkovsky’s Solaris http://kogonada.com/portfolio/auteur-in-space

Oct 10 Read: Rimgaila Salys, “Circus: The Spectacle of Ideology” Russian Cinema Reader, 250-268 *Jennifer Wilson, “When the Harlem Renaissance Went to Communist Moscow,” The New York Times, August 21, 2017 Be prepared to discuss the political and popular responses to Alexandrov film; their “utopian” elements and how that utopia differs from that of the 1920s avant-garde. Pay attention to the film music and the way it is used. Why was this film, which is so heavily propagandistic, so popular? How did Alexandrov mix education and entertainment so successfully? Write: Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates how music is used in Circus; think about how you might use music in your video essay; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

****Week 8 Oct 15-17 NO CLASS*****but still some independent work to do.

Use the no-class time this week to: 1) get started watching and reading about Ivan the Terrible (see assignments for next week). The film is long and complex and brilliant and bewildering, so I want to give you extra time to watch and think about it. This week at least watch Part I of Ivan the Terrible, and start the reading. 2) Begin to plan your final video essay. You will need to choose two films that we haven’t watched in class but that are related to a class film by theme, director, time period, historical problem, formal visual structures, or other element, and compose a coherent video essay about them. One of your three films can be non-Russian. We’ll talk much more about this in class. For now, pick your three films and think about what you want to show about them. 3) Write: 250-500 words on your project: list the two additional films and explain the topic of your project. Tell me what questions you’ll be asking and how you intend to answer them. Upload to Canvas.

Week 9 Oct 22 Ivan the Terrible, Parts I and II (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944, 1946/1958, 103+88 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/Ivan-Groznyj/ivan-grozniy-1-ya-seriya/ http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/Ivan-Groznyj/ivan-grozniy-2-ya-seriya/ (this is the best available version. The Criterion version on Kanopy is also good) Read: Joan Neuberger, “Ivan the Terrible,” Russian Cinema Reader, 269-303

Oct 24: Read *Joan Neuberger, This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia, 1-7, 26- 71, 304-335 Be prepared to discuss: the incredible complexity of this film, its confusing political stance, its striking visual compositions, the motives of the main characters, the odd gender depictions. Pay attention to the material details (clothing, icons, architecture, etc), music, and camera work and how they are used to shape our response to Ivan. Think about how Ivan’s biography is organized and narrated. Also think about how the production history and reception of the film help us understand the experience of watching the film. Who is Eisenstein’s Ivan? Write: Choose a 30 sec clip that best illustrates something about how Eisenstein depicts Ivan; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Week 10 T Oct 29 Ivan’s Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962, 91 mins) Kanopy (untexas.kanopy.org) or http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1960-1969/ivanovo-detstvo/

Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 123-63 * Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, “Beginnings: The Steamroller and the Violin and Ivan’s Childhood” in Andrei Tarkovsky: a Visual Fugue, 63-78 Be prepared to discuss: the roles played by authority figures, the use of landscape, the flashback and dream sequences, and Ivan’s relationships to show the impact of war on ordinary people and the nature of heroism. How does Tarkovsky challenge and revise heroic narratives of conventional war films? Write: Cliovis Timeline: add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates any of these issues; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

***Th Oct 31 NO CLASS*** Prepare a 2 minute draft of your video essay to show in class on Nov 7. This can be the introduction or it can represent a specific point. It should convey some aspect of your argument. Upload to Canvas.

Week 11: T Nov 5 Nine Days of One Year (Mikhail Romm, 1961, 104 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1960-1969/devyat-dney-odnogo-goda/

Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 167-187 Write: Cliovis Timeline: add 3-4 historical events and connect them to 3-4 cinema events, ideas, etc Be prepared to discuss: the ways that individual and collective values are contrasted here. How is Stalinist ideology being challenged? How is it being replicated? No clips this week.

Th Nov 7 Video Essays Watch each other’s video essay drafts

Week 12 Nov 12 Wings (Larissa Shepitko, 1966, 85 mins) Streaming instructions, TBA Read: Nov 14 *Lilya Kaganovsky, “Ways of Seeing: on Kira Muratova’s Brief Encounters and Larisa Shepit’ko’s Wings,” Russian Review, Vol. 71, No. 3 (July 2012): 482-499.

Be prepared to discuss: the ways that this film shifts our focus and asks us to confront gender difference. How do we meet and get to know Nadezhda and what does her isolation tell us? And how is power configured in this film: what sort of power does she have and what sort does she lack? Write: Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates something important about this film; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Week 13 Nov 19 Garage (Eldar Riazanov, 1979, 96 mins) http://cinema.mosfilm.ru/films/film/1970-1979/garazh/

Read: Edele, The Soviet Union, 191-215 Th Nov 21 Read: *Natalya Chernyshova (2011) Philistines on the big screen: consumerism in Soviet cinema of the Brezhnev era, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 5:2, 227-254

Be prepared to discuss: the ways that issues of individualism, private life, and ambition as well as older ideological values such as collectivism, are no longer celebrated but satirized. How is satire gendered in this film? What are all those animals about? What roles does “the collective” play? Does this 1979 film anticipate the issues of late socialism and collapse or is it a film about human qualities in every society (or both)? Write: Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates one of these issues; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

Week 14 Thanksgiving: NO CLASS. Watch and Enjoy: Film-Film-Film, Man in a Frame, Tale of Tales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLwk7VcbbVM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLwk7VcbbVM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ52H1YlOm4

Work on your video essays

Week 15 Dec 3-5 Urga, (released in the US as Close to Eden) (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1991, 118 mins) Streaming instructions TBA Read: *Nancy Condee, “European but not Western?” in The Imperial Trace, 85-115.

Be prepared to discuss: Is this a film about the end of the Soviet (Russian) empire or its endurance? Which values are represented as virtues, which are represented as vices? And how are those virtues and vices gendered? Does the film look forward or backward and why might that matter?

Write: Choose 30 sec clip that illustrates one of these issues; write 250 words, upload to Canvas, be prepared to show/discuss in class

DEC 9 WRITE: FINAL VIDEO ESSAY SCRIPT: DUE THE LAST DAY OF CLASSES: MONDAY DEC 9.

FINAL PRESENTATION OF VIDEO ESSAYS DATE TBA: Students will present final projects during the period reserved for the class final exam. When the university releases finals dates, we will know where and when that will be. Canvas Readings

*Youngblood, “Soviet Silent Cinema,” in The Russian Cinema Reader, 14-31 *Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film, 34-77, 171-72 (1-34 optional) *Neuberger, Salys, Bordwell, Battleship Potemkin, in Russian Cinema Reader, 107-43 *Erwin W. Fellows, “‘Propaganda and Communication: A Study in Definitions,” Journalism Quarterly 34 (1957): 431-441 *Denise Youngblood, “Iakov Protozanov, ‘The Russian Griffith,’” Movies for the Masses, 105- 121 *Ian Christie, “Down to Earth: Aelita Relocated,” Inside the Film Factory: New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema, ed. Richard Taylor and Ian Christie, Routledge, New York, 1991 *B.E. Clements, “The Birth of the New Soviet Woman” *Yuri Tsivian, “Man with a Movie Camera,” in Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties, 318-48 *Richard Stites, “Stalin by Starlight,” 64-97 *Jennifer Wilson, “When the Harlem Renaissance Went to Communist Moscow,” The New York Times, August 21, 2017 *Joan Neuberger, This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia, 1-7, 26- 71, 304-335 *Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, “Beginnings: The Steamroller and the Violin and Ivan’s Childhood” in Andrei Tarkovsky: a Visual Fugue, 63-78 *Lilya Kaganovsky, “Ways of Seeing: on Kira Muratova’s Brief Encounters and Larisa Shepit’ko’s Wings,” Russian Review, Vol. 71, No. 3 (July 2012): 482-499. *Natalya Chernyshova (2011) Philistines on the big screen: consumerism in Soviet cinema of the Brezhnev era, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 5:2, 227-254 *Nancy Condee, “European but not Western?” in The Imperial Trace, 85-115.

Video Essays: Resources Making video essays with still images: http://miriamposner.com/classes/dh150w16/getting-started-with-imovie/

Making video essays: https://owl.excelsior.edu/online-writing-and-presentations/multi-modal-writing/multi-modal- writing-video-essays/ https://ecu.au.libguides.com/video-essay/how-to-do-a-video-essay

Video essays about individual directors: http://www.filmscalpel.com/dossiers/

One selection of good video essays https://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/