Synopses & Reviews
This is the first book to deal exclusively with Russian cinema of the 1990s. It introduces readers to the currents and common interests of contemporary Russian cinema, offers close studies of the work of filmmakers like Sokurov, Muratova and Astrakhan, reviews the Russian film industry in a period of massive economic transformation, and assesses cinemas function as a definer of Russias new identity.
Description
Filmography: p. [206]-210. Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-212) and index.
About the Author
Birgit Beumers teaches at the University of Bristol.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Birgit Beumers * The Russian Idea--Oleg Kovalov *
Part I: The Russian Idea: A Historical and Cinematographic Perspective * No Glory, No Majesty, or Honour: The Russian Idea and Inverse Value--Nancy Condee * Now that the Party's Over: Soviet Cinema and Its Legacy--Richard Taylor *
Russian Cinema--National Cinema? * "Cinema and Life"--Sergei Selianov * "The State of the National Cinema"--Daniil Dondurei * "The Function of a National Cinema"--Nikita Mikhalkov *
Part II: Remapping, Fragmenting, Myth-making: In Search of the Russian Idea * Tinkling Symbols: Fragmented Society--Fragmented Cinema?--Nina Tsyrkun * Viewed from Below: Subverting the Myths of the Soviet Landscape--Emma Widdis * To Moscow! To Moscow? . . . The Russian Hero and the Loss of the Centre--Birgit Beumers *
Part III: The Past of the Fatherland Reviewed * La Grande Illusion--Tatiana Moskvina * Fathers for the Fatherland: The Cult of the Leader--Natasha Zhuravkina * New Versions of Old Classics: Cinematic Interpretations of Russian Literature--David Gillespie *
Part IV: The Russian Idea for Contemporary Filmmakers * Representation, Mimicry, Death: The Latest Films of Alexander Sokurov--Mikhail Iampolski * The Meaning of Death: Kira Muratova's Cinema of the Absurd--Graham Roberts * Dmitri Astrakhan--Popular Cinema for a Time of Uncertainty--Julian Graffy