Film Criticism
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ALEXANDER FEDOROV FILM CRITICISM Файл загружен с http://www.ifap.ru FEDOROV, A. FILM CRITICISM. МOSCOW: ICO “INFORMATION FOR ALL”. 2015. 382 P. COPYRIGHT © 2015 BY ALEXANDER FEDOROV [email protected] ALL RIGHT RESERVED. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 2 1 FEDOROV, ALEXANDER. 1954-. FILM CRITICISM / ALEXANDER FEDOROV. P. CM. INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES. 1. FILM CRITICISM. 2. FILM STUDIES. 3. MEDIA LITERACY. 4. MEDIA EDUCATION. 5. MEDIA STUDIES. 6. FILM EDUCATION. 7. STUDENTS. 8. CINEMA. 9. FILM. 10. MASS MEDIA. 11. STUDY AND TEACHING. 2 Contents The Mystery of Russian Cinema ………………………………..…... ..6 Phenomenon of Russian Film-Hits ………………………………….. 10 Russian Screen Distribution …………………………………..………..12 Video-pirates from Russia ……………………………………..…….. 15 Film Criticism and Press in Russia …………………………………… 17 Russian Cinematography and the Screen Violence ………………....….21 The Gloom of Russian Fantastic Movie-Land …………….………..….27 Sex-Cinema: Made in Russia …………………………………… ..….. 29 America, America… ……………………………………………….… .31 French Motives and Russian Melodies ………………………….…… .33 Fistful of Russian Movies ……………………………………….…… .41 Nikita Mikhalkov before XXI Century ………………………….…… 78 Karen Shakhnazarov: a Fortune's Favorite? ……………………….… 86 Pyotr Todorovsky: Dramatic Romance ……………………….……. 92 Oleg Kovalov, Former Film Critic .........................................................99 How to Shoot the “True” Film about Russia …………………………102 Locarno Film Fest: The View of a Film Educator ……………………103 The Analysis of Detective Genre at Film Education in Students’ Audience ……………………………………………… ……….…..106 Hermeneutical Analysis of the Soviet Space Fantasy Genre of the 1950s – 1960s and Its American Screen Transformation at Film Education in Students’ Audience …………118 Hermeneutical Analysis of the Soviet Military-Utopian Films of the Second Half of the 1930-s at Film Education in Students’ Audience …………………………………………………………….. 133 Hermeneutic Analysis of Soviet Feature Films of 1941-1942 on the Military Theme ……………………………………………… ……...150 Nazi Feature Films on the Russian Topic …………………………… 165 Positive image of the USSR and Soviet characters in American films in 1943-1945 ………………………………………………….. 172 The Image of Russia on the Western Screen in the Ideological Confrontation Epoch (1946-1991) ………………………………….. 178 The Image of Russia on the Western Screen: the Present Stage (1992-2015) ……………………………………………………. 221 Russian Image on the Federal Republic of Germany screen …………..244 The analysis of stereotypes of politically engaged media texts in media studies in student audience (by the example of Renny Harlin’s films ‘Born American’ (1986) and ‘Five Days 3 of War’ (2011) ………………………………………………………….258 The Ideological, Structural Analysis of the Russian Image Presentation on the Western Screen in the Epoch of Ideological Confrontation (1946-1991). Example: Film ‘White Nights’ Directed by T. Hackford)…………………………………………….… 263 Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” as a Burlesque Transformation of Media Stereotypes of the “Cold War” Within the Framework of Mass/Popular Culture of the XXI Century ……………………………..274 Ideological and Structural Analysis of the Interpretation of the Image of Russia on the Western Screen in the Post-Soviet Period (1992-2015) (by the example of the film “Duska” by J. Stelling)….…. 279 Analysis of Media Stereotypes of the Russian Image in Media Studies in the Student Audience (example: the screen versions of Jules Verne's Novel “Michael Strogoff”) ………………….……….. 286 Grigory Rasputin in the Mirror of Western Screen …………………… 295 Analysis of the art house media texts on media studies in the student audience (by the example of films by Alain Robbe-Grillet)……………..301 "The Little School Orchestra'': a Sample of the Hermeneutic Analysis of Media Texts in Student Audience ………………………. 317 The Mystery of Two Oceans: The Novel and its Screen Version: Ideological and Structural Analysis ………………………………….. 326 Amphibian man – The Novel and the Film Adaptation: Cultural Mythology Analysis of Media Text ………………………………….. 335 “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”: the novel and its adaptation to media education lessons in the student audience ……………… … 342 Analysis of the stereotypes of Soviet film image of the war in a media education classroom …………………………………………….. 351 Ukrainian rebels of the 1940s - 1950s in the mirror of modern Ukrainian screen ……………………………………………………….. 361 References ……………………………………………………………… 367 About the Author ………………………………………………………. 376 4 Introduction The first publications of some of these texts: 1. in the American magazines Cineaste (1997, Vol. XXII, n 4, p. 62), Audience (1994, n 179, p.20-22; 1995, n 180, p.13-17; 1995, n 181, p. 24-28; 1995, n 182, p. 4-7; 1995, n 183, p.15-17; 1995, n 184, p.40-42; 1995, n 185, p.14-16; 1996, n 186, p. 14-16; 1996, n 187, p.2-4; 1996, n 188, p. 21-23; 1996, n 189, p. 14-15; 1997, n 197, p. 19; 1998, n 198, p. 29; 1998, n 199, p. 19-21; 1998, n 201, p. 20); 2. in the Norwegian magazines Media I Skolen (1992, n 5, p.55-57; 1993, n 1, p. 55-58; 1993, n 2, p. 58-61; 1993, n 3, p. 51-55; 1993, n 4, p. 46-50; 1994, n 1, p. 36-39; 1994, n 2, p. 21-24; 49-51; 1994, n 4, p. 41-45; 1994, n 5, p. 48-50; 1994, n 6, p.50-52; 1995, n 1, p. 55- 58; 1995, n 2, p. 40-42; 1995, n 4, p. 54-60; 1996, n 1, p. 25-32; 1996, n 6, p. 26-30; 1997, n 1, p. 39-41; 1995, n 2, p. 26; 1997, n 3, p. 12-13; 1997, n 4, p. 34-35; 1997, n 5-6, p. 39; 1998, n 1, p. 30-31; 1998, n 2, p. 22,33; 1998, n 3, p. 40-42; 1998, n 4, p. 39; 1998, n 5, p. 58-59; 1999, n 1, p.36-37; 1999, n 2, p. 45-47; 2000, n 2, p. 6-7, 45-47; 2000, n 4, p. 38-41; 2001, n 1, p. 36-37). 3. In European Researcher Journal (2012-2015). http://www.erjournal.ru/ru/archive.html 5 The Mystery of Russian Cinema Russian cinema today is, like Russia itself - chaotic, unpredictable and full of contrasts. No one can tell if the country will become an equal among equals on the world's professional stages by the beginning of the XXI century, casting off its poor role as a supplicant to Western artistic leaders. Anyone who knows even a little history is aware that Russia was virtually outside European civilization for 75 years of XX century. The Communist regime firmly controlled all spheres of life for a sixth of the planet's citizens. In spite of totalitarian pressure, however, Russian culture managed to survive. The best books of Mikhail Bulgakov and Anna Ahmatova, the symphonies of Dmitry Shostakovich and Alexander Prokofiev, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Vassily Shukshin were created in the years of the most rigid censorship. Despite bans, prisons and gulags, the artists leaned to speak to their readers and spectators in some sort of “language of initiates”. Music, without clearly defined plot, made it much easier to do this. Writers, directors and actors were forced to talk about many things in hints and symbols, taking advantage of legends, fairy tales and parables. Russian authorities of the 1960-s through the 1980-s officially supported the publication and distribution of classical literature - the works of Lev Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov, etc. The best film directors knew this, and were aware of weakened censorial control applied, at times, to screen adaptations. Consequently, the period saw The Nest of Noble Family (1968) based on Turgenev novel and Uncle Vanya (1971) based on Chekhov's play, directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. There were also Station's Employee (1972, using Pushkin's prose) directed by Sergey Soloviev, Dead Souls (1984, from the Gogol novel) directed by Mikhail Schweitzer, and others. Nikita Mikhalkov, making films based on Chekhov (Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano, 1976) and Ivan Goncharov (Several Days in the Life of Oblomov, 1980), succeeded in telling more about the situation in Russia - and the national character - than the majority of his colleagues whose pictures dealt with the country's modern life. Oblomov embodies the paradoxes of mysterious Russian soul: intelligence, talent and an innate sense of beauty go poignantly hand in hand with passivity, laziness, sleepy inaction and abstract dreaming... The Russian cinematic fairy tale also has old traditions, founded by Alexander Row (The Frosty Fire, Water and Cooper Trumpets, Morozko, etc.) and Alexander Ptushko (The Stone Flower, Sadko). Until recently, however, fantasy films had to submit to two unwritten rules: all except a few 6 were made for a children's audience, and the action had to take place in ancient times, in a faraway kingdom. The first rule dictated an understandable style for the fairy tale, with vivid, clear pictures and vocabulary, and villains looking not very fearful but on the contrary, usually, funny and harmless. The second rule was very seldom infringed, because magicians, witches, demons and other fairy characters - according to «highly placed» thought - could be perceived as an embodiment of the authors' mysticism intruding on a modern background. In these cases, when magic and witchery were admitted into our days (as in The Snowy Fairy Tale by E.Shengelaya and A.Saharov), unintended associations and parallels appeared. In the word, the production of films similar to The Omen by Richard Donner and The Shining by Stanley Kubrick for the Russian screen couldn't be even imagined until 1980-s. Now the situation has turned 180 degrees. Russian screen are full of foreign and indigenous horror films and fearsome tales that chill the blood. Vampires, demons, witches and others evil spirits have become frequent guests on video/DVD and cinema circuits from Moscow to the very frontiers... Remarkable Russian actors - Oleg Dal (1941-1981), Vladimir Vissotsky (1938-1980), Anatoly Solonitsin (1934-1982), Vladislaw Dvorzecki (1937-1978), Nikolai Grinko (1920-1989), Alexander Kaidanovsky (1946-1995) - very often played heroes who stood beyond the usual circle of life on the screen of the 1960-s and 1970-s.