SLA234H1

Russian and Soviet Cinema

A survey of the Russian cinematic tradition from its beginnings through the first decade following the disintegration of the USSR. The course examines the avant-garde cinema and film theory of the 1920s; the totalitarian esthetics of the 1920s-1940s and the ideological uses of film art; the revolution in film theory and practice in the 1950s-1960s; cinema as medium of cultural dissent and as witness to social change. Students also acquire basic skills of film analysis. Taught in English, all films subtitled in English.