Unit information: Soviet and Russian Cinema in 2011/12

Unit name	Soviet and Russian Cinema
Unit code	RUSS30039
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Beumers
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Russian
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit explores major developments in Russian cinema through the study of several films, viz Eisenstein: The Strike 1925 and/or Battleship Potemkin, 1925; melodrama and musical in Room, Tret'ya Meshchanskya (Bed and Sofa), 1927 and Aleksandrov, The Circus, 1936: the theme of the war (WWII and Civil War) in Kalatosov: The Cranes are Flying, 1957 or Chukhrai, Ballad of a Soldier (1959) and Mikhalkov: At Home Among Strangers, 1971; nostalgia for the past in Tarkovsky: Nostalghia 1982 and German: My Friend Ivan Lapshin 1984; and views on art and aesthetics in Balabanov: Of Freaks and Men 1998 and Muratova, Second-Rate People, 2000. The unit compares the treatment of certain themes, explores issues of genre, and places the films into the context of cultural history, production-related themes and theoretical debates.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Successful students will:

• be knowledgable about a significant cultural, historical or linguistic subject related to the language they are studying;

• will have advanced skills in the selection and synthesis of relevant material;

• be able to evaluate and analyse relevant material from a significant body of source materials, usually in a foreign language, at an advanced level;

• be able to respond to questions or problems by presenting their independent judgements in an appropriate style and at an advanced level of complexity;

• be able to transfer these skills to other working environments, including postgraduate study.

Teaching Information

Two seminar hours per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours).

Reading and References

Films

Eisenstein, The Battleship Potemkin and Strike, 1925

Aleksandrov, Circus 1934

Chukhrai, Ballad of a Soldier, 1960

Tarkovsky, Ivan’s Childhood, 1962

Menshov, Moscow does not Believe in Tears, 1988

Pichul, Little Vera, 1988

Popogrebsky and Khlebnikov, Roads to Koktebel, 2003

Zviagintsev, The Return, 2003

Bibliography

Reference

Taylor, Wood, Graffu, Iordanova (eds), BFI Companion to East European and Russian Cinema, 2000.

Rollberg, Peter, Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema, 2008

Beumers, Birgit, A History of Russian Cinema, 2009.