'Russian Americans' in Soviet Film: Cinematic Dialogues Between the US and the USSR

by Marina L. Levitina

Overview

Certain aspects of American popular culture had a formative influence on early Soviet identity and aspirations. Traditionally, Soviet Russia and the United States between the 1920s and the 1940s are regarded as polar opposites on nearly every front. Yet American films and translated adventure fiction were warmly received in 1920s Russia and partly shaped ideals of the New Soviet Person into the 1940s. Cinema was crucial in propagating this new social hero. While open admiration of American film stars and heroes of literary fiction in the Soviet press was restricted from the late 1920s onwards, many positive heroes of Soviet Socialist Realist films in the 1930s and 1940s were partially a product of Soviet Americanism of the previous decade. Some of the new Soviet heroes in films of the 1930s and 1940s possessed traits noticeably evocative of the previously popular American film stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Pearl White and Mary Pickford. Others cinematically represented the contemporary trope of the 'Russian American,' an ideal worker exemplifying the Stalinist marriage of 'Russian revolutionary sweep' with 'American efficiency.

'Russian Americans' in Soviet Film analyses the content, reception and underlying influences of over 60 Soviet and American films, the book explores new territory in Soviet cinema and Soviet-American cultural relations. It presents groundbreaking archival research encompassing Soviet audience surveys, Soviet film journals and reviews, memoirs and articles by Soviet filmmakers, and scripts, among other sources. The book reveals that values of optimism, technological skill, efficiency and self-reliance - perceived as quintessentially American - were incorporated into new Soviet ideals through channels of cross-cultural dissemination, resulting in cultural synthesis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857729699
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/29/2015
Series:	KINO - The Russian and Soviet Cinema
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Marina Levitina teaches Russian Cinema and Russian Cultural Studies at Trinity College, University of Dublin. Her research interests include early Soviet cinema and culture, the cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky and cinema and memory. She is also a documentary filmmaker.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Sources and Models
II. American Cinema as the Source of the 'Russian American' New Soviet Man Model
III. The 'Crucified' and the 'Glorified' New Man
IV. Contribution to the Field
V. Methodology

Chapter 1. Popularity of American Films and Stars in Soviet Russia in the 1920s

I. Before and After 1917: 'Daredevil' Pearl White through Russian Eyes
II. After 1922: Soviet Reception of American Films
III. Avant-garde Filmmakers' Response to American Cinema
IV. Douglas Fairbanks as the Prototype of the Positive Hero of Socialist Realist Cinema

Chapter 2. Americans and 'Russian Americans' on the Screen in the 1920s: Cinematic and Literary Connections

I. 'Red Pinkertons': The Effects of the American Adventure Genre on Portrayals of the New
Soviet Man
II. 'Russian American' New Soviet Man in 'Novyi Byt' Films of the Late 1920s
III. Representations of Americans in Soviet Films with Contemporary Themes
IV. Representations of Americans in Soviet Film Adaptations of American Literature

Chapter 3. New Soviet Woman in the Cinema of the 1920s

I. Reality and Transformation of a Soviet Woman
II. American Models of New Femininity in Early Soviet Films
III. From the 1920s to the 1930s: the Shift in Policy and Representation

Chapter 4. 'Americanized' New Soviet Woman on the Screen in the 1930s and early 1940s

I. From Multiple Models of Femininity in the 1920s to the Unified Model of the 1930s
II. Liubov' Orlova: Pickfordian Femininity and the 'Russian American' Ideal
III. The New Soviet Woman in The Shining Path (1940)
IV. Ianina Zheimo: Another Soviet Pickford?

Chapter 5. 'Americanized' New Soviet Man in Films of the 1930s and early 1940s

I. The New Optimism
II. Fitness and Fame: Sportsmen Heroes
III. Mastery over Technology: Engineers-Inventors
IV. Efficiency and Rationalization of Labour
V. Trailblazers in the Skies: The Cult of the Aviator Hero

Conclusion

I. American Film Actor: The 'Brick and Cement' for Constructing Soviet Cinema
II. 'Americanization of Personality'
III. 1930s: Human Beings of a Superior Kind
IV. 'Americanness' at the Root of 'Sovietness'?

Appendix
Filmography
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Jane A. Taubman

‘Russian Americans’ in Soviet Film provides a meticulously-researched discussion of the American films that Russians were seeing in the NEP-era 1920’s and the varied messages they took from them. Levitina argues convincingly that the “American” character traits of optimism, physical fitness, and energy, epitomized by stars like Pearl White and Douglas Fairbanks, continued to influence film images of the “new Soviet man and woman” well into the 1930’s and 40’s, long after American films were withdrawn from the Soviet market and America was officially a decadent rival, not an object for emulation.

Jeffrey Brooks - Johns Hopkins University

This is a book that sparkles with fresh insights and information. Marina L. Levitina has studied the impact of American films, actresses, and actors on Soviet authorities, critics, and the broad film-going public. The result is a novel and convincing reading of Soviet film and cultural politics in the 1920s and 1930s. The popularity of American films in the early Soviet era is well known but here readers will discover much that is new about the cultural interchange in the heyday of American imports and long afterwards as well. More fascinating still is her elucidation of the links between the pop culture of the American film industry and the officially promoted heroes and heroines of the Leninist-Stalinist social order. One can only say, well done. I recommend it highly for students and scholars alike.

Editorial Reviews

The book is so informative, engaging, and accessible that it deserves a readership that extends beyond the relatively small circle of Soviet cinephiles to scholars and and students of Soviet culture, Russian-American relations, gender studies, and American silent film. Highly recommended.

From the Publisher

The book is so informative, engaging, and accessible that it deserves a readership that extends beyond the relatively small circle of Soviet cinephiles to scholars and students of Soviet culture, Russian-American relations, gender studies, and American silent film. Highly recommended.

Denise J. Youngblood

‘Russian Americans’ in Soviet Film provides a meticulously-researched discussion of the American films that Russians were seeing in the NEP-era 1920’s and the varied messages they took from them. Levitina argues convincingly that the “American” character traits of optimism, physical fitness, and energy, epitomized by stars like Pearl White and Douglas Fairbanks, continued to influence film images of the “new Soviet man and woman” well into the 1930’s and 40’s, long after American films were withdrawn from the Soviet market and America was officially a decadent rival, not an object for emulation.

Jane A. Taubman

This is a book that sparkles with fresh insights and information. Marina L. Levitina has studied the impact of American films, actresses, and actors on Soviet authorities, critics, and the broad film-going public. The result is a novel and convincing reading of Soviet film and cultural politics in the 1920s and 1930s. The popularity of American films in the early Soviet era is well known but here readers will discover much that is new about the cultural interchange in the heyday of American imports and long afterwards as well. More fascinating still is her elucidation of the links between the pop culture of the American film industry and the officially promoted heroes and heroines of the Leninist-Stalinist social order. One can only say, well done. I recommend it highly for students and scholars alike.

Jeffrey Brooks - Johns Hopkins University

Professor Levitina has written an important new book on the dialogic or cross cultural interchange emerging among Soviet movie makers and the film industry centered in Hollywood. She conclusively demonstrates the paradoxical relation between the makers of a new Soviet culture and the imagery of American stars like Douglas Fairbanks and the techniques of montage created by directors like D. W. Griffith in America. The Soviets drew on Hollywood to create images of a new "Soviet man" and woman that their leaders hoped would stimulate Russians to embark on the road to modernity with its aspirations to energy, speed and will power. Her book will provide a revelation to all readers interested in cinema, in world history and culture.

Lary May