KINOfiles Film Companion – serie

The KINO Russian Cinema series has been expanding to provide students and general readers with readable, companion handbooks to important and interesting films of Russian cinema from its beginnings to the late 1990s. This volume investigates the production, context and reception of the film "Battleship Potemkin", the people who made it, and the film itself, including its place in Russian and World cinema.

Abram Room's daring 1927 film is the story of a ménage à trois - one woman, two men - set in a 1920s Moscow flat. Remarkable for its frankness, humour and corrosive assessment of the new Soviet society, particularly the new Soviet man, _Bed and Sofa_ has found new and enthusiastic audiences in recent years.

"Chapaev" is the most popular film of the Soviet era. Directed by Georgi and Sergei Vasilev, it tells of the legendary exploits of the Red Army Commander Vasili Ivanovich Chapaev during the Russian Civil War. Its greatest fan was Joseph Stalin, who saw it 38 times at late-night showings in the Kremlin. It was both praised by Party ideologues for its faithfulness to the Bolshevik cause and loved by mass audiences for its adventure sequences and its tragic love story. For over seventy years, "Chapaev", Furmanov the Commissar, Petka and Anka have remained heroes of the Russian popular imagination. This illuminating and enjoyable companion tells the story of the real-life Chapaev, of the novel by Dmitri Furmanov, and of the struggles to make the film. Julian Graffy offers a detailed analysis of the film itself and then considers Chapaev's extraordinary after-life. The film provoked poetry by Osip Mandelstam and a novel by Viktor Pelevin, operas and scabrous popular anecdotes. Graffy shows that to understand Chapaev's appeal is to understand something about what it means to be Russian.

Arguably the first masterpiece of post-Stalinist cinema, "The Cranes are Flying" is an intersection of politics and art. A product of Khruschev's "Thaw", its sympathetic portrayal of human beings affected by World War II, and its highly individual style won awards worldwide. Josephine Woll examines questions of theme and genre, the controversial representation of heroism and the audience reaction to these issues, as well as production, content, style and context.

Eisenstein's last, unfinished masterpiece is a strange, complex and haunting film. Commissioned personally by Stalin in 1941, the project placed Eisenstein in the paradoxical situation of having to glorify Stalinist tyranny in the image of Ivan, without sacrificing his own artistic and political integrity - or his life. Drawing on sources that include Eisenstein's personal archive and the memoirs of those involved in Ivan's making, Joan Neuberger's vivid account reveals how, in almost impossible circumstances, he managed to create a film of cinematic innovation, intellectual depth and political critique. She reveals the film to be both a great work of art and a product of the time and place in which it was made.

Directed by Vasisli Pichul and released in 1988 "Little Vera" received the European Film Award for best screenplay as well as the special jury prize at Montreal. Looking at the wider context of the film, this text observes its use of space and representations of complex family relationships, placing "Little Vera" within the context of youth cinema and overturning its reputation in the West as the "first ever Soviet sex film".

At the centre of Tarkovsky's oeuvre, _Mirror_ is his most complex and autobiographical film. It stretches the viewer by moving without apparent effort between past, present and imagined realities, in a series of episodes which observe neither plot nor overt logic. The film reconstructs and records iconic memories and deep emotional impressions in the life of an individual, a nation and an era. Audience reaction to 'Mirror' was overwhelming and it came to represent a watershed in many people's lives. It also occasioned Tartovsky's first open dialogue with his viewers, as letters poured in to convince him of the importance and need for his films. It remains to this day most Russians' favourite Tarkovsky film.

Tengiz Abuladze's allegorical film, made in Georgia, is the best known film of the perestroika and glasnost years. With its outspoken and controversial reference to the Stalin era and Stalin's place in the Soviet psyche, 'Repentance' was originally shelved but ultimately released in 1986 to widespread popular and critical acclaim. This _KINOfile_ investigates the production, context and critical reception of the film, the people who made it, and provides an analysis of the film itself and its place in world cinema.

Pudovkin's epic is the most complex work of his brilliant career. The film was made to commemorate the Bolshevik Revolution's tenth anniversary and it is a gripping recreation of the events of 1917 as well as the conditions and events that led to revolution. It is a remarkable interweaving of subplots, motifs and historical references, realized through a mix of cinematic techniques, which Vance Keply Jr traces and clarifies in his analysis of the film. He explores the production circumstances that shaped the film and its reception, establishing its key place in both Russian and world cinema.

"Storm over Asia" ('The Heir to Genghis Khan') was the third of Vsevolod Pudovkin's great silent films. Released in 1928 it confirmed the director's reputation and Soviet cinema's growing stature internationally. It was subsequently re-edited, sonorised and re-released in 1949. The Buriat-Mongolian actor, Valeri Inkizhinov stars as the trapper hero, Bair, a character partly inspired by the actual Revolutionary figure, Sukhebator. Many of the extras in the film had participated in the events depicted. The film acknowledges a debt to D.W. Griffith and documents the everyday life and rituals of the people living around Lake Baikal, a culture that was almost entirely suppressed in the 1930s.This KINOfile describes the circumstances under which "Storm over Asia" was produced and distributed and discusses the warm reception of the film in Russia, Germany and France. In Britain the film was widely understood as an attack on British involvement in the Russian Civil War and on colonial policy in China and India - and was banned. Amy Sargeant also examines the potency of the Genghis Khan myth for a Soviet audience, and the continuing resonance of this fine film.

The KINO Russian Cinema series has been expanding to provide students and general readers with readable, companion handbooks to important and interesting films of Russian cinema from its beginnings to the late 1990s. This volume investigates the production, context and reception of the film "Battleship Potemkin", the people who made it, and the film itself, including its place in Russian and World cinema.

The "KINO Russian Cinema" series has been expanding to provide students and general readers with readable companion handbooks to important and interesting films of Russian cinema from its beginnings to contemporary times. This volume investigates the production, context and reception of the film "The Man with the Movie Camera" directed by Dziya Ventov, the people who made it, and the film itself, including its place in Russian and World cinema.

Tengiz Abuladze's allegorical film, made in Georgia, is the best known film of the perestroika and glasnost years. With its outspoken and controversial reference to the Stalin era and Stalin's place in the Soviet psyche, 'Repentance' was originally shelved but ultimately released in 1986 to widespread popular and critical acclaim. This _KINOfile_ investigates the production, context and critical reception of the film, the people who made it, and provides an analysis of the film itself and its place in world cinema.

Nikita Mikhalkov's film about the Stalin period has received wide attention inside and outside Russia, being shown at Cannes, winning an Oscar, and reaching cinemas worldwide. Mikhalkov is a fine and controversial director, and this "KINOfile" is a valuable introduction to his work. It investigates the production, context, and critical reception of the film, the people who made it, and provides an analysis of the film itself and its place in Russian and world cinema.

Arguably the first masterpiece of post-Stalinist cinema, "The Cranes are Flying" is an intersection of politics and art. A product of Khruschev's "Thaw", its sympathetic portrayal of human beings affected by World War II, and its highly individual style won awards worldwide. Josephine Woll examines questions of theme and genre, the controversial representation of heroism and the audience reaction to these issues, as well as production, content, style and context.

At the centre of Tarkovsky’s oeuvre, _Mirror_ is his most complex and autobiographical film. It stretches the viewer by moving without apparent effort between past, present and imagined realities, in a series of episodes which observe neither plot nor overt logic. The film reconstructs and records iconic memories and deep emotional impressions in the life of an individual, a nation and an era. Audience reaction to 'Mirror' was overwhelming and it came to represent a watershed in many people’s lives. It also occasioned Tartovsky's first open dialogue with his viewers, as letters poured in to convince him of the importance and need for his films. It remains to this day most Russians’ favourite Tarkovsky film.

Eisenstein's last, unfinished masterpiece is a strange, complex and haunting film. Commissioned personally by Stalin in 1941, the project placed Eisenstein in the paradoxical situation of having to glorify Stalinist tyranny in the image of Ivan, without sacrificing his own artistic and political integrity - or his life. Drawing on sources that include Eisenstein's personal archive and the memoirs of those involved in Ivan's making, Joan Neuberger's vivid account reveals how, in almost impossible circumstances, he managed to create a film of cinematic innovation, intellectual depth and political critique. She reveals the film to be both a great work of art and a product of the time and place in which it was made.