The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition / Edition 1

by Andrew Horton, Michael Brashinsky

Overview

Now faced with the "zero hour" created by a new freedom of expression and the dramatic breakup of the Soviet Union, Soviet cinema has recently become one of the most interesting in the world, aesthetically as well as politically. How have Soviet filmmakers responded to the challenges of glasnost? To answer this question, the American film scholar Andrew Horton and the Soviet critic Michael Brashinsky offer the first book-length study of the rapid changes in Soviet cinema that have been taking place since 1985. What emerges from their collaborative dialogue is not only a valuable work of film criticism but also a fascinating study of contemporary Soviet culture in general. Horton and Brashinsky examine a wide variety of films from BOMZH (initials standing for homeless drifter) through Taxi Blues and the glasnost blockbuster Little Vera to the Latvian documentary Is It Easy to Be Young? and the "new wave" productions of the "Wild Kazakh boys." The authors argue that the medium that once served the Party became a major catalyst for the deconstruction of socialism, especially through documentary filmmaking. Special attention is paid to how filmmakers from 1985 through 1990 represent the newly "discovered" past of the pre-glasnost era and how they depict troubled youth and conflicts over the role of women in society. The book also emphasizes the evolving uses of comedy and satire and the incorporation of "genre film" techniques into a new popular cinema. An intriguing discussion of films of Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kazakhstan ends the work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691019208
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	07/15/1992
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Period of Adjustment	3
Pt. 1	Glasnost: Back to the Present
Ch. 1	Back to the Present: (Re)presenting the Soviet Past and Feature Films	33
Ch. 2	"We Are Your Children": Soviet Youth, Cinema, Changing Values	67
Ch. 3	"Wherever Will I Begin?" Soviet Women in Cinema and on Film	99
Pt. 2	Glasnost: Down With Stuttering
Ch. 4	Is It Easy to Be Honest? Glasnost in the Documentary Film	127
Ch. 5	Down with Stuttering: Soviet Popular Genres and the New Film Language	157
Ch. 6	From Accusatory to Joyful Laughter: Restructuring the Soviet Comic-Satiric Muse	187
Pt. 3	The Islands of the Continent
Ch. 7	The Islands of the Continent: A Revised Map for Ethnic Cinemas	219
In Place of a Conclusion: The Zero Hour	245
Filmography	251
Bibliography	263
Index	277

Editorial Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1993

From the Publisher