Adult films: what is surprising about the list of paintings for schools
Mosfilm, following the instructions of the president, compiled and sent to the Ministry of Education a document with recommendations for drawing up a school curriculum on the history of Soviet cinema. Izvestia reviewed a table containing 100 selected films and systematized those controversial points on the list that could give rise to public discussion. We tried to understand the logic of the authors of the list and find weaknesses in it: for example, some of the positions are not movies, but TV series. In addition, the list does not include recognized masterpieces of Russian cinema and the names that brought him worldwide fame. For more information, see the Izvestia review.
"The best Soviet films" — how to figure it out?
If you catch a film critic, film critic, or film historian on the street and ask them to quickly name 100 domestic films that "everyone should know," they'll come up with a decent list in about 10 minutes. If you collect a lot of such lists and compare them, they are unlikely to differ much. Maybe ten percent, and that's mostly in relation to Russian rather than Soviet cinema. And maybe not everyone will put pre-revolutionary cinematography there, with the exception of "Ponizovaya Volnitsa", a tiny short film from 1908, from which our entire game cinema starts. Director Sergei Solovyov once spoke best about her quality, calling her a typical example of ordinary Russian hack work.
A shot from the movie "Ponizovaya volnitsa"
The Mosfilm list looks polemical. Such a list would hardly have been compiled by a film historian or a critic, but there were other tasks set for this list. "First of all," the explanatory note to the list says, "military, psychological, historical and other paintings were selected. But since the themes of some comedies and melodramas, which are entertaining, play an important role not only in upbringing and education, but also in the perception of the country's cultural code by the younger generation, films of these genres have also been included in the list."
There were other principles. All films in the list are up to and including 1991. Because they are time-tested, and because it is easier to resolve the issue of rights to paintings. Mosfilm's specialists also focused on ensuring that films were accessible to the audience and accessible to schoolchildren.
As if the list turned out to be quite voluminous. 100 films, if you compare, for example, with literature lessons. The recommended literature, of course, is significantly more than 100 works, but if you count the really mandatory ones, it is unlikely that there will be more.
But still, this list will be criticized, and harshly, because it strikingly does not coincide with how those who have been studying cinema professionally all their lives are accustomed to imagine the history of cinema.
There is no silent movie
The main pride of Russian cinema is our silent cinema, the 1920s. What is the most famous Russian film in history, practically a symbol not only of our cinema, but in a sense of the whole cinematography? What is studied in all film schools in the world? "Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein, of course! The whole modern cinema has grown out of it. He is not on the list, as there are no "October" and "Strikes". This is a challenge, a kind of slap in the face to public taste. There are no Lev Kuleshov films, and the whole world knows the Kuleshov effect too.
A shot from the movie Battleship Potemkin
There is no Pudovkin's "Mother", there is no Dovzhenko's "Earth", there are no films by Dziga Vertov (and sound films too, by the way), first of all "The Man with the Camera". There are no outstanding FEKS experiments, in particular— the best film adaptation of Gogol's "The Overcoat". There are no paintings by Esther Shub, who laid the foundations of montage cinema, an absolute classic. Apparently, the authors of the list felt that silent films would be incomprehensible to children. But why? This movie was shot to show it to the semi-literate population of the country, and it was understandable to everyone, and all over the world. And now it is also very clear, for a reason, there are full halls at all the shows of the restored copies, often with a live tap player or even an orchestra. It seems that schoolchildren just need to show and explain what constitutes the main value of Russian cinema.
There are no Russian films and documentaries
Before analyzing the main part of the list, let's move to the end of it, that is, to 1991 and what was behind it. Is it right to end up with the collapse of the USSR? This means that schoolchildren will not be told about Pavel Lungin's "Taxi Blues" and "Island". Sergei Bodrov's "Prisoner of the Caucasus" will not be shown. Nikita Mikhalkov's "Tired Sun" is the last Oscar in the history of Russian cinema. There will be no review of Alexey Balabanov's films, and soon the children will no longer understand why he was our main director for a long time, the only one of his kind. Andrey Zvyagintsev will not be there. Alexander Sokurov is not on the list with either Soviet or Russian works. There is no Rustam Khamdamov. But all this is already a classic, already a story.
A shot from the movie "The Caucasian Prisoner"
Now let's move to the actual list. It is striking that there is no animated film, another of our pride. But the logic is clear here: there are few families where Soviet animation is not shown to kids almost from the first months. It is much sadder that there is no documentary film, and we had a unique one, one of the best in the world. Dziga Vertov and Esther Shub have already been mentioned, but with what interest the guys would have watched the passionate films of Roman Carmen, wept over Lisakovich's Katusha, and seen The Defeat of the German Troops near Moscow, the first national Oscar, as you know. But there were Samari Zelikin, Juris Podnieks, Maya Merkel, Pavel Kogan and Lyudmila Stanukinas. There was Herz Frank, finally, one of our most important documentary filmmakers. "10 minutes older" and "The Supreme Court" make no less a strong impression today than they did half a century ago. Who and where will tell children about them, if not in school lessons? And it was the documentaries who told about their time in a way that no one else had.
Cinema without Muratova, Parajanov, Ioseliani and Shpalikov
The feature films on the list are also full of gaps that would not exist if it were made up of film critics and film historians. There are no pillars of Soviet cinema here, those thanks to whom he will be remembered even after 100 years. Kira Muratova, Otar Ioseliani, Tengiz Abuladze, Sergey Paradjanov, Boris Barnett, Alexander Medvedkin, Roman Balayan, Ilya Averbakh, Artavazd Peleshyan, Gennady Shpalikov, Peter Todorovsky. Alexander Askold's absolute masterpiece "Commissar" is also missing here. And there is no "Assa" by Sergei Solovyov, as well as his other paintings. Is it possible to study the history of our cinema without these names? And is it even possible to understand the history of our country without looking at films made in the republics, but which have become popular and important? Isn't "The Soldier's Father" a masterpiece? Of course, even jokingly, no film historian would have compiled a list that did not include these names and titles. He would most likely have started with them, and then moved on to the secondary, in terms of significance for the art and history of the country, cinema.
A shot from the movie "Once upon a time there was a songbird"
The logic of the list seems to be that the named authors may be difficult for schoolchildren. But there is "Ascent" on the list, there is "Go and see", there is a three-hour "Solaris" (but there is no "Andrey Rublev"). These are all quite complex paintings, too. It is unlikely that schoolchildren would be bored watching "Once upon a Time there was a Songbird" or "The Color of a Pomegranate", and the list would be much more diverse, but now there are too many war films, the children may simply get bored. Moreover, military paintings are on the list of different artistic levels.
Soviet TV series and movie epics are presented in the list
It is not very clear why the TV series "Seventeen Moments of Spring", "Shield and Sword" and "The meeting place cannot be changed" are on the list. After all, it is clear that you will not be able to watch them entirely in the assembly hall, you will have to ask them "at home", and this contradicts the idea of the authors of the list — collective reviews and discussions. The epic "Liberation" is also on the list, but there is no "War and Peace", a shorter series of films.
We can discuss for a long time why the directors selected for the list have exactly those films, and not other, more worthy ones. For example, Karen Shakhnazarov has "Courier" and "We are from jazz" there, although the second one could be replaced with "City of Zero", which is deeper, more meaningful, and more mature. And, by the way, his paradoxical humor would be easily accepted by children today. But at the same time, it is worth noting how many beautiful and worthy paintings are included in this list. Those who open up the whole world to the audience, break stereotypes, and simply make other people. "Cranes are flying", "Ivan the Terrible", "Ivanov's childhood", "Plum", "Road check". This is all for the ages, it shapes the soul, it gives an idea of beauty, and not only in an aesthetic, but also in an ethical sense.
A shot from the movie "City of Zero"
Yes, it is unclear who and how this will be taught, so as not to discourage students from watching Soviet cinema at all. Who will read the essays and with what optics, how exactly the discussions will be conducted, who will write the textbooks. There are too many questions so far. The list needs to be adjusted, that's quite clear. But it is necessary to show the best movies to children. Of course, not only domestic, but also international, so that Fellini, Chaplin, Renoir, Keaton and Weider would not be an empty phrase for them.
Cinema was originally conceived as a language that unites the world, and it still remains so. It is impossible to watch thaw movies without knowing neorealism. It is impossible to consider only Soviet cinema in isolation without the French new wave, Polish, German, English, Japanese, Indian and, of course, American cinema. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand why it was like this and, of course, why it occupied such an important place in the world. And it still does, by the way.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
