Description
Book SynopsisThis book highlights the significant role that production artists played when Russian cinema was still in its infancy. It uncovers Russian cinema's connections with other art forms, examining how production artists drew on both aesthetic traditions and modernist experiments in architecture, painting and theatre as they explored the new medium of cinema and its potential to engender new models of perception and forms of audience engagement.Drawing on set design sketches, archival documents and film-makers' memoirs, Eleanor Rees reveals how less-canonical films such as
Behind the Screen (
Kulisy ekrana, 1919) and
Palace and Fortress (
Dvorets i krepost, 1923), were remarkable from a design perspective, and also provides new readings of well-known films, such as
Children of the Age (
Deti veka, 1915) and
Strike (Stachka, 1925). Rees brings to light information on significant but understudied figures such as Vladimir Egorov and Sergei Kozlovsk
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Early-Russian Production Artist: Design, Creativity and Technology I. Professional Backgrounds and Artistic Training II. Collaborative Partnerships and Studio Practices III. Roles and Responsibilities: From the Film Decorator to the Film Architect 2. The Rural Provinces I. The Russian Landscape and the Search for a Native Cinema II. Ethnographic Authenticity in late-Imperial Cinema III. Transforming the Rural Environment: The Enchantment of Infrastructure and Technology in early Soviet Cinema 3. The Domestic Interior I. The House as Entrapment: The Domestic Interiors of Boris Mikhin and Evgenii Bauer II. The House as Ornament: Objects and the Desiring Gaze in late-Imperial Cinema III. The House as Shelter: Material and Psychological Comfort in 1920s Soviet Cinema 4. The Workplace I. The Private Study in Evgenii Bauer’s Films: Individual Desire and Power Relations II. Fantasy and the Everyday Reality of Labour: Aelita (1924) and
The Overcoat (1926) III. Cinematic Expressivity and Pleasure in the Industrial Workplace, from Engineer Prait’s Project (1918) to Golden Mountains (1931) 5. In the Studio and on the Stage I. The Painter’s Atelier II. Cinema Studios and Auditoriums III. The Circus Arena Conclusion Selected Bibliography Filmography Appendix
