Pavel Khazanov

In English. No prerequisites.

Cross-listed with Cinema Studies 01:175:377:02 and Comparative Literature 01:195:397:01

This course surveys the impressive body of Russian and Soviet cinema, from its pre-Revolutionary roots to its contemporary circumstances. We will watch and analyze the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Andrei Tarkovsky, and a variety of other directors from Russia and various former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia. This course will engage recurrent thematic concerns of Russian cinema (inter/nationalism, gender and sexuality, the aesthetics of violence) alongside formal ones (the development of montage, the advent of sound film, non-narrative cinema techniques). It will serve as an introduction to both cinema studies and Russian studies.

No prerequisites; all readings and discussions in English.