A2 Soviet and German Cinema

8/4/2019 A2 Soviet and German Cinema

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A2: Research project

German and Soviet Cinema of the

1920sPart 1: Soviet Cinema


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What we will look at

Consider general issues raised by studyingfilms made in particular countries at specifichistorical moments

A Brief overview of the key films of Germanexpressionism and Soviet Cinema in andaround the 1920s

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Key Films

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Wiene, 1919)

Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)

Metropolis (Lang, 1926)

Strike (Eisenstein, 1924)

Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925)

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Why is studying German & SovietCinema important?

Soviet and German films of the 1920s didmuch to define the cinematic vocabulary ofmodern Hollywood, producing a range of

effects designed to emotionally manipulatethe audience.

Even today modern filmmakers have at

various times paid direct or indirect homageto their Russian cinematic forebears.


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Social & Historical context

The films we are looking at were made in the periodafter WWI in two countries traumatically affected by theevent.

In Russia - the war was a catalyst for a politicalrevolution that transformed it from Feudalism tocommunism

In Germany - the war and high death rates, meant thatevery family in Germany would have experienced thedeath of a close family member.

Both countries faced economic hardships, starvationand disease.

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Categorisation

Often films from this period are referred to asGerman Expressionism and Soviet Montage.

What do these terms mean and what are the

differences or similarities between the two?

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Expressionism

This term refers to the expression of theinner thoughts or emotions of the filmmakeror a character through the use of stylistic

elements of film form. Features - Stylised and distorted set design,

make up and acting style. This stylisation is

used symbolically to suggest the darkeraspects of human nature.

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Montage

The assemblage of a series of shots inreference to editing. Within the context ofSoviet Cinema, where the process of editing

came to be so intensely linked to the creationof meaning, montage reflects on the intensityand collision of shots together to create new

meanings.

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Revolution in Russia 1905


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Kuleshov & Soviet Montage

At First Russian films were influenced by the American stylecomedies.

In a 1922 article entitled "Americanism," pioneering director LevKuleshov called for filmmaking with an "organic link with

contemporary life," "the maximum amount of movement," shorterscenes and therefore more rapid cutting, close-ups and attentionto how individual shots worked when combined together -montage.

Russian directors responded to Kuleshov with a series of worksthat came to be known as Soviet montage.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474487/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474487/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474487/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474487/


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Strike (1924) Dir. SergeiEisenstein This film, set in Tsarist Russia in 1912, was

made in support of the Bolshevik governmentthat had come to power in Russia after the

1917 Revolution. It is a propaganda film forthe new regime and puts forward a stronglyMarxist message.

Strike looks back to what it portrays veryobviously as the brutality of pre revolutiondays when any attempt by workers to defendthe simplest of rights for themselves was

violently put down by the police, secret 11


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How does the film show the differencesbetween the rich and poor?

Why do you think the film was not shown in

European countries for many years after itsrelease?

How can the film be seen as propaganda or

one-sided? What effect does the montage technique of

editing have

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Strike clip 1

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Strike Clip 2

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decompressorare needed to s ee this picture.


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Film as political act

Eisenstein uses approaches to filmconstruction, each of which challenge theexpectations of any reader brought up on

mainstream American film Soviet Cinema therefore challenged the

dominant techniques of American cinema

and therefore capitalism Can filmmaking be a political act?

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Hollywood vs Soviet

Hollywood movies focuses on individuals

Narrative structures that resolve problems

The viewer identifies with the centralcharacter

American cinema therefore re-inforces itsown ideology- that of the individual and of

Capitalism - that individualism rather thancollectivity as in Soviet cinema is the ideal.

Do you agree with this argument?

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Style

Photogrpahic realism/Documentary style

Use of non-actors

Real locations/props

Visual metaphors are used that destroy theillusion of reality of the documentary style.For example, shots of police spies in clip 1

are intercut with images of animals theyresemble.

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Editing

Juxtaposition

clash of images

Collision of shots

Active viewer

Creation of meaning through editing

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Battleship Potemkin OdessaSteps


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Eisenstein's theory of montage

In formal terms, this style of editing offers

discontinuity in graphic qualities,

violations of the 180 degree rule,

and the creation of impossible spatial matches.

It is not concerned with the depiction of acomprehensible spatial or temporal continuity as isfound in the classical Hollywood continuity system.

It draws attention to temporal ellipses because changesbetween shots are obvious, less fluid, and non-

seamless. His collisions of shots were based on conflicts of scale,

volume, rhythm, motion (speed, as well as direction ofmovement within the frame), as well as more conceptualvalues such as class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rulehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinemahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinemahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule


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Other Directors to consider

Vsevelod Pudovkin

Dziga Vertov

Aleksandr Dovzhenko


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Summing Up

Tsarism, famine and Industrialisation led to Revolution

The Russian Revolution led to an intense period of artisticcreation by directors such as Lev Kuleshov, Vsevelod Pudovkin,Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov.

Soviet montage was highly influential and innovative to this day Internal conflicts within the Communist party led to the rise of

Lenin and Stalin and ultimately a return to dictatorship.

Constraints placed on Artists and filmmakers led often tobanishment, reactive works such as Eisensteins Ivan the

Terrible and Social Realism (Documentary propaganda in favourof the communist party).

Censorship and the introduction of sound effectively led to theend of much experimentation in Soviet Cinema.


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Methods of Montage

Some contemporary examples of intellectual montage:

In The Godfather, during Michael's nephew's baptism, the priestperforms the sacrament of baptism while we see killings ordered byMichael take place elsewhere. The murders thus "baptize" Michael into alife of crime.

At the end ofApocalypse Nowthe execution of Colonel Kurtz isjuxtaposed with the villagers' slaughter of a water buffalo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfatherhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Nowhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Nowhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather


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The Godfather Francis FordCoppola

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Apocalypse Now Francis FordCoppola


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Dog Star Man Stan Brakhage


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Soviet Art Early Years

Proletkult -During the Russian Revolutiona movement was initiated to put all arts toservice of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The instrument for this was created just daysbefore the October Revolution, known as Proletkult, an abbreviation for "Proletarskiekulturno-prosvetitelnye organizatsii" (Proletarian Cultural and EnlightenmentOrganizations). A prominent theorist of this movement was Aleksandr Bogdanov. InitiallyNarkompros (ministry of education), which was also in charge of the arts, supportedProletkult. However the latter sought too much independence from the ruling CommunistParty of Bolsheviks, gained negative attitude of Vladimir Lenin, by 1922 declined

considerably, and was eventually disbanded in 1932. The ideas of Proletkult attracted the intersests of Russian avantgarde, who strived to get

rid of the conventions of "bourgeois art". Among notable persons of this movement wasKazimir Malevich. However the ideas of the avantgarde eventually clashed with the newlyemerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.

In search of new forms of expression, the Proletkult organisation was highly eclectic in itsart forms, and thus was prone to harsh criticism for inclusion of such modern directions asimpressionism and cubism, since these movements existed before the revolution and

hence were associated with "decadent bourgeois art". Among early experiments of Proletkult was of , the prominent theoretist being .

Another group was UNOVIS, a very short-lived but influential collection of young artistslead by Kasimir Malevich in the 1920's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletkulthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Bogdanovhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narkomproshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevikshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Leninhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_avantgardehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimir_Malevichhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimir_Malevichhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Realismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNOVIShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasimir_Malevichhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasimir_Malevichhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNOVIShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Realismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimir_Malevichhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_avantgardehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Leninhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevikshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Partyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narkomproshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Bogdanovhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletkulthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik_Revolution_of_1917


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Kasimir Malevich 1879 - 1935

Self portrait, 1912


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Kasimir Malevich 1879 - 1935

Black Square, 1915


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Influenced by Cubism

Developed the concept of Suprematisman art movement focused on fundamental

geometric forms (in particular the square andcircle) which formed in Russia in 1915-1916.

I felt only night within me and it was then that

I conceived the new art, which I calledSuprematism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric


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Black Circle, 1915


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Gerasimov's famous Lenin on thetribune, 19291930


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Artistic Movements - SummingUp Artistic practice was controlled by the state

Artists were sponsored by the state and therefore

mainly worked creating propaganda

European art movements such as Cubism,Abstraction, Futurism were seen as bourgeoisie.

In the 1950s after the death of Stalin artists began

to experiment more with abstraction.

Non-conformist art was established a move awayfrom Socialist Realism.

Documents

A2 Soviet and German Cinema