Co-Sponsored by the Film and Media Studies Depart and Russian Area Studies
HOLLYWOOD IN MOSCOW
American and Soviet film of the 1930s-1940s
Video presentation by Dr. Vladimir Paperny of work-in-progress.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 7PM
Hunter North, 5th Floor, Room HN510
The 1930s was the time when motion pictures in both countries started to create national mythologies – the American Dream in one case, and the Communist Dream in the other. In the new social reality, movies had to talk to masses. A new type of cinematographic narration was developed. A narration based on storytelling replaced a narration based on montage. In America, the objective was mostly commercial. In Russia, it was mostly political. Very often, the results were almost identical. Some of the films studied are listed below.
America
Russia
The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Zolushka (Cinderella), 1937
Boys’ Town, Norman Taurog, 1938
Putevka v zhizn’ (Road to Life), 1931
Ninotchka,1939
Tsirk (Circus), 1936
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939
Velikii Grazhdanin (Great Citizen), 1937
Treasure Island, 1934
Ostrov sokrovishch (Treasure Island), 1937
The Night at the Opera, 1935
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Veselye rebiata (Jolly Fellows), 1934
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Dr. Vladimir Paperny graduated from Stroganov Art Academy in Moscow and received his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the Russian State University for the Humanities. His doctoral thesis Architecture in the Age of Stalin. Culture Two was published in Russian (Moscow, 1996, 2006) and in English (Cambridge University Press, 2003, 2011). Since moving to the US in 1981, Dr. Paperny was visiting professor at USC, UCLA, Woodrow Wilson Center, and Bristol University, UK. His articles, essays, and columns have appeared in such publications as Snob, Architectural Digest, Project Russia, Speech and many others. He’s the author of three volumes of essays on culturologal and architectural issues