Introduction to Russian and Soviet Film

5 units · Undergraduate lower division (0-99)

Lecture/screenings four hours; discussion, one hour. Focus on cinema and culture of 20th-century Russia and Soviet Union, from 1917 Russian Revolution and to 1997, shortly after collapse of USSR. Chronologically and thematically organized introduction to cinemas of USSR including films by Russian, Jewish, Ukrainian, Armenian, and Georgian directors, and by women as well as men. Study centers on representative films of the Soviet era, showing how images can be manipulated to serve an ideological agenda, and how the past (1917 Russian Revolution, World War II, Cold War, collapse of USSR) continues to shape our present. P/NP or letter grading.