CMST 22402 Introduction to Russian and Soviet Cinema
What is the relationship between film, myth, ideology, and revolution? What are the features of Soviet comedy? What could it mean for a film to be "poetic" and how is this concept understood by and manifest in the work of directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Sokurov? These are only some of the many questions we will explore as we engage in a survey of Russian-language cinema from its very beginnings (in the 1890s) to the present, engaging with representative texts and cinematic works from each of Russian cinema's primary periods. The course features films by Bauer, Eisenstein, Vertov, Kalatozov, Tarkovsky, Muratova and others.