A Century of Attractions: Contextualizing Russian Film

A Century of Attractions: Contextualizing Russian Film is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Polina Barskova.

This course satisfies Division I requirements.

Course Description
Whom the Soviet film camera was in love with? Some say--the masses, others--the machine and process of labor, while the skeptics allow--it was all about the eerie shapes of the Self disfigured by the totalitarian ideology. We will deconstruct the dynamics of the Soviet cinematic desire using both the "greatest hits" of Russian and Soviet film (including the work of Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Andrey Tarkovsky, and Nikita Mikhalkov) and many names, movies, and topics that still await appreciation in the West. These less-known gems include the silent achievements of Evgeniy Bauer, the subversive, anti-colonial riches of Sergey Paradjanov, and the dreamlike animation of Yurii Norshtein are some of them. In twelve full days of class sessions, we cover works of the Soviet avante-guard, the "high" Stalinist Cinema, neo-realism of the Thaw, and much more. Each day will be dedicated to a one film-event and its director, followed by discussion based on background reading on cultural and historical context. We will also write: essay quizzes on film history and technique, film responses, creative film assignments, and a final research paper.

Learning Goals

 * Multi-Cultural
 * Presenting
 * Reading
 * Writing