I. These words are taken from the text. Match the words to make expressions. Make your own centences with them:

meeting statistics

opposite tunes

conscientious values

prominent competition

falsified worker

actual places

folk exponents

II. Complete the sentences by choosing the right word for each gap.

1. Satirists think that comedy [provokes / requires] a grotesque, absurd plot.

2. Two characters of opposite values or lifestyles are [made / confronted].

3. Alexandrov’s films are [full of / fond of] curious turns and slapsticks.

4. It would be very stupid to [fall in love / fall ill] with such an evil man.

5. Dunaevsky’s composition is [expressed / inspired] by jazz music.

6. The “Song of the Motherland” [praised / highlighted] the freedom of Soviet man.

7. The love intrigue [grows / unfolds] at work.

III. In each sentence add missing prepositions (between, by, for, from, of, through X 2, to X 2 ):

1. Klim conquers Mariana’s heart _______ hard work and with the support of the collective.

2. His film Party Card was supported ______ Stalin.

3. It is ______ the Party leader that Gordei learns of her love.

4. It was a love ______ a conscientious worker ______ a new worker.

5. Amateur singers and musicians can move ______ the countryside _____ city to create a genuine art.

6. The contrast _______ light and dark crudely draws the line between good and bad characters.

7. Soviet art wants to remain accessible ______ people.

IV. Complete each sentence with the right verb form in capitals.

1. Alexandrov’s Volga-Volga ______ SET in a village full of musical talents and with two musical amateur collectives.

2. Tania studies and _______ ELECT deputy of the Supreme Council.

3. Dunaevsky’s music _______ CONTAIN elements of folk tunes as well as specially written lyrics commenting on the love intrigue.

4. They ______ UNITE in a happy end.

5. Pyriev ______ MAKE feature films: his Party Card was supported by Stalin.

6. Klim ______ SEE her photograph in Pravda, where she featured as a leading tractor driver.

7. The new number prepared by Soviet engineer Martynov is called “flight into the stratosphere”: _____ CONQUER space is the Soviet ambition at the time.

Unit 6. The purges in the cinema (1937-1939)

^Th e 1929 purges had touched the film industry, but the Great Purges would affect it profoundly. Vladimir Nilsen, cameraman to Eisenstein and Alexandrov, had been arrested in 1929 and released; he was again arrested at the height of the Purges and executed in 1938.

At the All-Union Creative Conference on Cinema Matters in January 1935, Eisenstein as subjected to severe criticism for not having produced any new films since his return to the USSR. His arch enemy, Shumiatsky (photo on the left), in charge of cinema matters, had expressed on numerous occasions his desire to see filmmakers make films ‘for the millions’ and that we need genres that are infused with optimism, with mobilizing emotions, joie de vivre and laughter. He suggested the genres of musical and historical drama as particularly suitable, and rejected the complex montage that provided no coherent plot.

Under Shumiatsky, Soyuzkino maintained the Party’s presence in studios to increase control during the entire production process, ensuring that the right balance between commerce and ideology was struck. In 1936, Shumiatsky advanced to the chair of the Committee of Arts Affairs, overseeing not only film production, but the entire arts sector. Shumiatsky had grand plans for a Soviet Hollywood on the Black Sea, which were hampered by reality: in 1935 he had delivered merely forty-three of the 120 films planned, followed by a further drop in production, which led Pravda to accuse him of wasting money (9 January 1938). Shumiatsky had indeed used a large slice of the state budget and had not delivered the number of films promised; moreover, he had put his foot wrong with his handling of Eisenstein’s Bezhin Meadow.

E isenstein had been in Hollywood from 1929 until 1932, when his contract with Paramount was cancelled because of differences in opinions. Eisenstein had travelled to Mexico to make a film when he was recalled to Soviet Russia by a telegram from Stalin; he had to leave most of the unedited film footage behind. From 1933 onwards he taught at the Film Institute. Back in Soviet Russia, Eisenstein first applied to make a film based on a comedy script entitled MMM (Maxim Maximovich Maximov), a project he abandoned. A project for a film about Moscow was also dropped.

In 1935 Eisenstein began working on Bezhin Meadow (Bezhin lug, Mosfilm 1935-7), which was loosely based on Turgenev’s Huntsman’s Sketches, comparing old and new ways of peasant life. Stepok, the main character was modelled on Pavlik Morozov, the legendary pioneer boy who denounced his parents for hoarding grain and who was murdered by his relatives. The disturbing theme of both the Morozov legend and the film is that of betraying parental links for the sake of Party loyalty. Moreover, there is a scene when the peasants enter the church where the kulaks have been hiding, destroying the interior, which reflected Stalin’s anti-religious campaigns.

Whilst the workers had biblical features, the scene extended its religious meaning by suggesting that Stalin was a (pagan) god, who dominated the Soviet culture in the 1930s. Bezhin Meadow was halted in March 1937 by Shumiatsky. Eisenstein had to write about his ‘errors’ in the film in 1937 and publicly repent.

Amidst growing fear of ideological errors, Purges and repression, political circumstances often changed before films were completed. The style of films in the latter half of the 1930s became dull and non-experimental. The acting became stale, reminding Jay Leyda of the style of old-fashioned performances.

TASKS