V. Substitute the words in italics with their antonyms from the text.
He deployed carefully chosen accessories of ancient life.
Bauer was obsessed with decorative columns and curtains that created width.
A wristwatch sported by a woman signalled her enslavement.
Once women followed the assigned role, men are scared and appear weak.
Woman strives for a full and independent social life with the modern men.
The film makes interesting use of the flashforward.
Bauer made several short, tragic films that followed the pattern of comedies
Bauer’s melodramas explore the intellect of people who inhabit an exquisite and tasteful world.
The genre of the fantasy explored the lives of individuals within the context of social circumstance.
These films offered opportunities for realism.
Unit 4. The revolution and its aftermath (1917-1919)
After the February Revolution of 1917 and the abdication of the tsar, many revolutionaries returned from their exile, including Vladimir Lenin. Newsreels and films touching on themes that had formerly been outlawed by censorship (the tsar and the clergy, notably) were popular with the new regime. As had most branches of the industry, film producers and distributors also formed trade unions, which began to organize strikes, to strengthen demands for better pay.
C
inema
visits became a luxury, and many cinemas closed; film stock became a
deficit; and numerous films artists and producers moved to the
studios in the Crimea (Odessa and Yalta). But in the south, too, the
political situation changed constantly as the Reds advanced even into
the last strongholds of the White army. Khanznonkov experienced one
episode of military reality infringing of cinematic life, when during
the filming of a ball scene in a pavilion, Red officers charged on to
the set, ready to arrest “bourgeois enemy”. The atmosphere of
this time is beautifully captured in Nikita Michalkov’s Slave
of Love
(Raba
Liubvi,
1975), which enacts a similar scene. Many artists had remained in
Moscow, declared capital in 1918, and expressed their loyalty to the
new regime. The agitka
– the political skit – became a popular form.
Despite the lack of film stock in post-Revolutionary Russia, Lev Kuleshov (photo on the right) began his career as a filmmaker. He had worked as production designer with Bauer, and made his first film in the year of the Revolution. Kuleshov asserted that the narrative of the film lay in the selection of the shots. As filmmaking became a distinct art form, the skill of the filmmaker consisted in the use (or skillful manipulation) of screen images to tell the story.
Kuleshov’s first experiences in film are contained in The Project of Engineer Prite (Proekt inzhinera Praita, dir. Lev Kuleshov, Khanzhonkov, 1918); it tells the story of the engineer Prite, who has invented a hydro-turbine and is sabotaged by capitalists, who want to control the production of electricity.
The films of the period of 1917-1919 represent the end of the melodramatic tradition that was characteristic of early Russian cinema. It brings to the foreground themes that are of concern for the new regime, such as scathing portrayals of the clergy sabotage of workers’ collectives, the ethos of construction and progress. Moreover, the working class – in the form of engineers and workers – features more prominently in positive roles in films such as Kuleshov’s Prite, but also Bauer’s last films The Revolutionary (Revoliutsioner,1918) and Alarm (Nabat, 1918). The first years of the Soviet era would, however, see film production hampered and stalled due to nationalization, reorganization and – very basically – lack of film stock.
In the films made between the two Revolutions and immediately after the October Revolution, there is a striking concern with evil and the satanic themes that had been banned by censorship before 1917.
Protazanov established himself as an able director who made films wanted by the audiences whilst using interesting stylistic devices. Protazanov excelled at portraying the evil and demonic in his characters, thus showing penchant for German expressionism, which undoubtedly equipped him well for working abroad, where his success continued until 1923 when he returned to Russia.
On 27 August 1919 the film industry was nationalized. Few foreign films found their way to Moscow during the Revolution and the ensuing Civil War (1918-1921); likewise, few new films were made.
TASKS