Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost

Essays by Russian commentators of film and culture provide insight into Glasnost and the 1980s.

Michael Brashinsky (Edited by), Andrew Horton (Edited by)

9780521444750, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 1994

176 pages, 10 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.385 kg

"...not only presents the views of Soviet critics on the glasnost movies, it also casts light on film criticism as a type of active and assertive social behavior....a useful tool." Dina Iordanova, Slavic and East European Journal

Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost gathers together twenty-three essays written by some of Russia's most astute commentators of film and culture. Written during the 1980s and published in English for the first time, this collection includes reviews of films such as Little Vera and Taxi Blues, which were critically hailed in the West. Their comments not only illuminate important aspects of Russian filmmaking during this decade: as importantly, they capture a sense of a society in flux during the waning years of communism, as well as the larger context within which Glasnost cinema and culture developed. This collection provides insight into the successes and shortcomings of Glasnost, as captured in film, for a Western audience.

Part I: Films in a Shifting Landscape: 1. Cinema without cinema Mikhail Yampolsky
2. Cinema for every day Yuri Bogomolov
3. The last romantics Alexander Timofeevsky
4. Jobless prophets Lev Karakhan
5. Midseasonal anarchists Marina Drozdova
6. The most avant garde of all parallel ones Sergei Dobrotvorsky
Part II. Glasnost's Top Ten: 7. Repentence: on the road that leads to the truth Tatyana Khloplyankina
8. Between the circus and the zoo Igor Aleinikov
9. Is it easy to be young
is it easy to be grown up? Lev Anninsky
10. Deafening voids Alexander Kiselev
11. A forgotten tune for the flute, Scherzo - suite - nocturne Alexander Timofeevsky
12. The cold summer of '53 Mikhail Trofimenkov
13. Birds of passage Mikhail Trofimenkov
14. Assa
The tenderest shroud Alexander Timofeevsky
15. Commissar Maya Turovskaya
16. Little Vera: forward, singing Tatyana Moskvina
17. Days of eclipse: out of bounds Victor Bozhovich
18. The days of eclipse Maya Turovskaya
19. The world as a mirror for the other world Mikhail Yampolsky
20. A billion years before the end of cinema Tatyana Moskvina
21. The needle: a dandy of the postpunk era Marine Drozdova
22. Taxi blues: forgiveness Pyotr Shepotinnik
23. Taxi fares, blues fans and film viewers Sergei Lavrentiev
Conclusion
Notes on the Contributors
Directors' Bio-filmography
Filmography
Index.

Subject Areas: Films, cinema [APF]