Cinema and Soviet Society from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin (Kino, the Russian Cinema Series)

Rating:
Summary: An Essential Book on Soviet Cinema
Review: Anyone who wants to understand the movies of the Soviet Union should start with this book. It is very thorough and written in a lively, bright style that is free of academic jargon.

Kenez begins with the pre-Revolutionary film industry and shows how it broke down and was built back up by the Soviets. He pays equal attention to the "high art" films that were famous in the West for decades (those of Eisenstein and Pudovkin) and the entertainment films that attracted the average Soviet citizen (such as the musical comedies of the 1930s, like "Volga-Volga.") He shows how Soviet movies responded to the imposition of Socialist Realism, World War II, and the cultural freeze of the late Stalin era.

The only problem with this book is that it is TOO SHORT. Upon reaching the end, the reader wants to see Kenez tackle the films of the Khrushchev Thaw and the Brezhnev era. However, one should be thankful for what one has, and in this volume, one has a truly indispensible book.

Rating:
Summary: An Essential Book on Soviet Cinema
Review: Anyone who wants to understand the movies of the Soviet Union should start with this book. It is very thorough and written in a lively, bright style that is free of academic jargon.

Kenez begins with the pre-Revolutionary film industry and shows how it broke down and was built back up by the Soviets. He pays equal attention to the "high art" films that were famous in the West for decades (those of Eisenstein and Pudovkin) and the entertainment films that attracted the average Soviet citizen (such as the musical comedies of the 1930s, like "Volga-Volga.") He shows how Soviet movies responded to the imposition of Socialist Realism, World War II, and the cultural freeze of the late Stalin era.

The only problem with this book is that it is TOO SHORT. Upon reaching the end, the reader wants to see Kenez tackle the films of the Khrushchev Thaw and the Brezhnev era. However, one should be thankful for what one has, and in this volume, one has a truly indispensible book.