Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Socialist Realism
Under Stalin, the cinematic avant-garde was kept on a tight leash. Stylistic experimentation
was repressed, and socialist realism was promoted. There was no mistaking the preferred so-
cial values of the political regime. Characters and plot lines were simple; the future looked
bright.
Some directors were assigned 'partners' to ensure that they did not get too creative and
stray into formalism. During this period, Eisenstein produced award-winning historical dra-
mas such as
Alexander Nevsky
(1938) and
Ivan the Terrible
(1946).
When Stalin departed the scene, directors responded with more honest depictions of
Soviet daily life and more creative styles. Russian productions again received international
acclaim, earning top honours at all the most prestigious cinematic venues. During this peri-
od, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film went to Mosfilm works multiple
times, for films such as
War and Peace
(1968),
The Brothers Karamazov
(1969),
Tchaikovsky
(1971),
Dersu Ozala
(1975) and
Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears
(1980).
However, getting past the censors at home still posed challenges. The fate of any movie
was decided by the risk-averse Goskino, the vast Moscow-based bureaucracy that funded
and distributed films.
Elem Klimov's comedies were thinly veiled critiques of contemporary society. They were
not exactly banned, but they were not exactly promoted. The dark and rather disturbing
Ad-
ventures of a Dentist
(1965) was shown in less than 100 theatres. Klimov's war drama
Come
and See
was on the shelf for eight years before it was finally released in 1985 to commem-
orate the 40th anniversary of the Soviet victory in WWII.
Andrei Tarkovsky earned worldwide recognition for his films, including his first feature
film
Ivan's Childhood
(1962), which won in Venice, and
Andrei Rublyov
(1965), which won
in Cannes. The latter film was cut several times before a truncated version was finally re-
leased in the Soviet Union in 1971.
Every year in June, the Moscow International Film Festival offers a venue for directors of
independent films from Russia and abroad to compete for international recognition.
Vasily Pichul's ground-breaking film Little Vera(1988), produced by the Gorky Film Stu-
dio, caused a sensation with its frank portrayal of a family in chaos (exhausted wife,
drunken husband, rebellious daughter) and with its sexual frankness - mild by Western
standards but startling to the Soviet audience.
