Luke Schwenker, Henry Katleman,

Henry Katleman: Russian industry and style notes

Soviet Union Film in 1970s

• ●  Communist societies were being liberated, causing individuality and imagination to play a key role in the production of films during this era. 1
• ●  A new genre known as Exile film appeared.

○ This genre displayed people breaking away from their home countries and

contemplated the function of their hometown from abroad.2

• ●  Films throughout this period often combined “formal innovation with direct emotionalappeal”. 2
• ●  Films from this location also were thought to have challenged Western cinematicthemes. 2
  • ○  They often depicted experimental mass audiences
  • ○  Films from the USSR were unlike those found in Hollywood and Europe.Russia Film Industry in 1980s

    1 ​Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. Film History: an Introduction. (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 2019), 536.

    2 ​Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. Film History: an Introduction, 538.

• ●  During the 1970’s & 1980’s new waves and cinemas appeared in various countries including the USSR. 3
• ●  With Gorbachev’s new policies, filmmakers were liberated from close censorship.

○ However, they had endured “problems of privatization, a decrepit infrastructure, and audiences eager to see American films”. 3

• ●  “Glasnost gave filmmakers an unprecedented freedom” . 4
• ●  A new genre appeared, known as Chernukha. 4
  • ○  In English, this means “Black cinema”.
  • ○  Mockery of tradition and popular fashions was often involved. 4
  • ○  Generally included common themes such as bodily functions, sexuality, sadisticviolence. 5
  • ○  This genre demotes Russia’s more common traditional themes (emotion andcompassion).
  • ○  Chernukha included extremely grotesque, dark, and creepy characteristics.
  • ○  This genre also included “satiric films”3 ​Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. Film History: an Introduction, 605.
    4 ​Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. Film History: an Introduction, 628-629
    5 ​“Cinema of the Soviet Union.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, March 4, 2020.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_Soviet_Union

• ●  Goskino, a state committee for cinematography, became extremely important to the film industry. 6○ It “served as a conduit for funds and a source of facilities”. 4
  ○ Filmmaking relied heavily on “free creative production units” that adopted the

  Eastern European model. 4

• ●  Censorship also greatly decreased, giving greater amounts of freedom to the industry atthat time.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dC0vvlce77-P_zJDYyDAlCiclaO0e-fGuFwWyWkSvs0/e dit?usp=sharing
Link to my notes about production ^

6 ​“Main Page.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, February 5, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Goskino&redirect=no

Historical Context

• ●  The Film is set in a post apocalyptic world, thought of as a post-atomic bomb world.7
• ●  Forty percent of births are degenerates that are caged together.
• ●  Comes in the light of denuclearization and the beginning of a religious revival.8
• ●  Scientists were learning the effects of a hypothetical Nuclear Winter.
• ●  Released in 1989, the same year as the fall of the Berlin Wall and two years before the fall of The Soviet Union.
• ●  Lopushansky’s other films are set in post-atomic bomb worlds, while exploring the ecological consequences of nuclear war, and deal with the deconstruction of morals.9
• ●  The topic of post apocalyptic worlds was meant to show the world what would happen if nuclear war happened and tied heavily with the denuclearization movement.
• ●  Lopushansky’s intention was to “help the viewer open up his soul for compassion, for understanding religious truths, for a desire to comprehend them and apply them to his own fate” (Mushtakova).10
• ●  Seen through the lack of compassion for degenerates from the normal humans.

7 “A Visitor to a Museum” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April 8, 2020
8 ​“​Confessions in the Soviet Era: Analytical Overview of Historiography” in ​Russian History ​by Gregory Freeze, 11

9 Galichenko​, Nicholas,​ G​ lasnost–Soviet cinema responds, (University of Texas, 1991), 86
10 George Faraday​ Revolt of the Filmmakers: “​The Struggle for Artistic Autonomy and the Fall of the Soviet Film Industry,” 229

Scene Analysis (37:02-40:20)

The main protagonist is on a train with a degenerate girl and asks: “There was a city here?”
“Where?”
“Here”

“Maybe, I don’t remember”
He then asks if he can see the priests, just to take a look at the degenerates. The Girl does not answer.
“Can you show me where they are?”
“Who?”
“The Priests, what is it a temple? What’s it called?”
“Nothing, it’s by the villiage, beyond the reservation.
The girl says they will not let him in to the temple.
“What do I need to do to get in?”
“You have to pray”
“Knock on the wall?”
“Knock and repeat the words.”
“What words?”
“Let me out of here, you have to say it many times.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s it. We only have one prayer.”

He then asks where he would be let out of and the girl replies, “The Reservation. Out of here in general.”
The look out the window to see people with plague masks on running and throwing rocks on the ground.

The protagonist looks out to see cages of degenerates yelling and screaming as the train passes by.

I think that this scene is about the impending end to The Soviet Union and that the people are becoming anxious of the communist ways. Once Gorbuchav took power, he began to ease a lot of the restrictions on film which has allowed Soviet Filmmakers to be a lot more expressive with their works. The priests being looked at as freaks is similar to how the communists tried to suppress freedom of religion and that people have begun to feel hopeless since they can’t put their faith into anything.

Shane Rosenthal

A Visitor to a Museum – Production Notes

Konstantine Lopushansky – The director and writer
Born June 12, 1947 in ​Dnepropetrovsk​, Ukrainian SSR. His mother was a linguistic professor and his father died in 1953 as a soldier.
In 1970 he graduated from Kazan conservatoire as a violinist, then in 1973 completed a postgraduate course at Leningrad conservatoire with a PHD in art criticism. He taught for a while, then took more courses on screenwriting and directing. After which he graduated in 1979 and was mentored by Andrei Tarkovsky and helped him with the iconic film ​Stalker (​ 1980).
All of Lopushansky’s films are post apocalyptic (besides one, ​Turn of the Century​, which is about a depressed old lady who is taken to an institute by her daugher where a doctor tries to wipe the old lady’s memory. Like his other films this one is still very hallucinatory) most of which are nuclear fallouts.

Genre-

Art House & International, Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy (RT definition) Experimental

Acclaim-
Released July 1989
Entered into the 16th Moscow International Film festival where it won silver St. George (2nd place) and the Prix of Ecunimical Jury.
87 % on Rotten tomatoes
7.3/10 on IMDB

Studio companies – FILM STYLEs/ NEW GENRES MENTIONED BY HENRY MOST NOTABLE

1. 2.

3.

LESS 4. 5.

Kinostudiya ”Lenfil’m”​ (as Lenfil’m) – After 1949 when it got color technology it produced about 30 films a year along with television shows and advertisements. Gosinko USSR – USSR State Committee for Cinematography. Started in 1963, went through some ownership/name changes until it’s eventual and final disestablishment in May 2008 due to V. Putin’s degree N 187

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) – Most popular and the most active today. First news broadcast on April 1, 1963. “a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz​, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all federal states of Germany (​Bundesländer​). ZDF is financed by ​television licence​ fees and advertising revenues”

(Did they help produce A VISITOR or did they just give it a place to be watched?) NOTABLE

CSM Filmproduktion
Tret’ye Tvorcheskoye Ob”yedineniye

Funding/production-
Couldn’t find any numbers on the budget, but it’s fair to assume it was reasonable when looking at the sets. Very high number of extras, houses either built or adapted for different scenes, even a factory setting.
Large production crew for the same reasons as above.

Examples of other Russian movies released the same year-
● Anecdote – Drama/Comedy – About a dysfunctional soviet management system at the end

of the 80s. Commentary about the decadence and corruption of the Soviet bureaucracy.

• ●  Abduction of the Wizard – Sci-fi – A time travel story about future scientists looking for geniuses who died before their time so they could send them to the future.
• ●  To kill a Dragon – Fantasy – A Lancelot descendent comes across a city being ruled by a dragon, and although advised not to he kills the dragon and the city collapses into chaos.
• ●  It happened near the sea – About the children at a boarding school who have “sick spines”. The strong manage the weak which is encouraged by teachers.There was a wide range of genres released in Russia in 1989. It seems like an era of expression and unrestrained storytelling.

  Director sources-

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visitor_to_a_Museum

  http://www.fright.com/edge/ApocalypseLopushansky.htm

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Lopushansky

  Production sources-

  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173024/companycredits?ref_=tt_dt_co

  https://books.google.com/books?id=p8veCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA366&lpg=PA366&dq=Kinostudi ya+%27%27Lenfil%27m%27%27+(as+Lenfil%27m)&source=bl&ots=24faSV8w-P&sig=ACfU 3U0gxFJlwuTLAvtKr1A7MvSNcxJ_bg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-pOu8_O3oAhWhGD QIHakdDFQQ6AEwAXoECAsQLw#v=onepage&q=Kinostudiya%20”Lenfil’m”%20(as%20Len fil’m)&f=false

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Committee_for_Cinematography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZDF

  Scene Analysis – 55:40 – 58:07
  The Dad/teacher is pacing the room in women’s heels and filing his nails
  The teacher asks, “what has man created in his time on Earth?” The student says that “man has created a trash heap”, to which the teacher replies, “not a trash heap, but material goods.” After being interrupted by the protagonist’s entrance the teacher continues.
  “What was the mistake? Can you tell me?” 

“Man has forgotten himself.”
The teacher gets frustrated because this seems to be a recurring conversation they have. “Wherever there is man, there is hell. It is written if you are born here, you are damned.”
The teacher gets angrier and says he refuses to hear any religious talk of any kind. Disregards it as “all madness, ignorance, and superstition.”
He announces his disbelief in God and the student cries into his hands.

I think this scene is about the refusal to admit what man’s wrongdoings had done to the world the characters now inhabit. At this point in history (1989) it was understood how wasteful and environmentally destructive we could be. The teacher looks pretty ridiculous and pompous with his high heels and nail filer. He represents the side of humanity that doesn’t want to see its wrongdoings, whereas the student, who is of some kind of special needs, represents the guilt that humanity feels for being so insensitive and destructive. These reasons are why this film is still relevant today, if not more relevant today than it was back in 1989.

Religion is definitely apparent in this scene. Historical contexts brought on by Henry.

Marc Chacon
Summary The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The main character is shown going through they run downtown looking for something that he calls the museum. you find the family which gets him ready for his long and dangerous journey to this mysterious Museum. While staying with this other family in the hotel they start talking about the other people that are among them called the degenerates. At first I mean character jokes about them but later realizes that they have a deeper meaning to them then he first realized. Through all this the main character has his sights set on his dangerous Journey that everyone keeps telling him not to go on. And throughout the movie he learns more and more about these degenerate people and how these degenerate people see him.

I tried to incorporate basically two scenes which were the scenes where our main character sees the degenerates for the first time and when he is taken by the degenerates. The point I want to drive home about these two scenes is the fact that these people have more to them than anyone understands and they are just misunderstood. But because he’s curious about them and he seems to be the only person that wants to see them or is curious about them, that shows the degenerate people that he probably is different from all the other people he actually cares about. This leads to them thinking that he is almost like a religious figure in their eyes which leads them to take him. Then talk about how greed Falls along with all this and compassion.