The Russian revolution of 1917. The radical leftist revolutionaries overthrew the centuries-old Czar Nicholas II ending the Romanov rule. The Bolsheviks established a socialist state in the empire once called the Russian empire. A long and bloody civil war followed.
During WW1 Russia suffered from poor and underdeveloped infrastructure. She was reliant on foreign exchange and due Russia’s struggling economy during the period they were incapable of competing with the German’s powerhouse economy. During the three years of war Russia showed serious strain on their economy and led to famine and a depression within the country.
Between WW1 and The Russian revolution, the film industry within Russia had deteriorated to the point of being unusable. Additionally the government did not have the funds to support the production of Russian films.
‘Describe some of the stylistic conventions associated with the expressionist art movement. Post some additional examples of Constructivist art.’
Constructivist art tends to use sharp, geometric shapes that have been arranged/layered in a specific manner in order to express the experience of modern life and individuality, creating a dramatic piece of work. It often discards bright colours and uses a small colour pallet, usually sticking to red, black and white.
‘Identify at least one other film which appears to have been influenced by the visual style of classic German Expressionist Cinema + illustrate and explain reasons briefly’
A film that has been influenced by the visual style of classic German expressionism is Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. Throughout the film, Burton uses a set with jagged edges, slanted architecture and a variety of vivid colours which make the set reminiscent of classic German expressionist films. Along with that, the makeup and costume design is also reminiscent of German expressionism due to the dramatic makeup and gothic looks.
The Soviet Union came around as a result of the Russian Revolution ending Tsarism in Russia. This was compounded by the rise in general power of the Proletariat and the ideology of Marxism which lead into Communism. Soviet Constructivism was born under these conditions, with messages of ending Bourgeoise reign and putting power into the hands of the Proletariat.
During this period of social reconfiguration, Russia was not very rich. This led to a shortage of unused film stock, meaning Russian directors couldn’t film movies at will. However, what they did have was was stock that was already used. These conditions are what led to the major developments in editing that was representative of the Constructivist movement. They couldn’t focus on things like cinematography since they could only use films others had made. Directors like Kuleshov and Eisenstien used this chance to develop techniques related to editing, such as the Gerasimov Effect or the 5 methods of montage.
UFA managed to stay in business as it was used in order to promote German culture along with Germany’s international image after WW1. Throughout the silent era, it was well known for creating incredible films due to its studios being the most modern in the word.
The expressionist art movement was conveying emotion and meaning into art rather than reality. Different artists expressed their own version of the meaning.
During WW1 cinema was used to share war footage and propaganda to those who went to watch and so more people went to the cinema to watch this.
After war less people went to the cinema but film production companies began creating films about the war by 1927 there was at least 15 war films based on WW1. Russian film directors and writers were intrigued by the war which is why majority of the soviet films were mainly based upon war but also was a movement for rejecting stylist concepts which were brought back in the form of film.
Voice-Over: Audio that is recorded [usually post-production] and plays over the scene, often used to tell a story/explain to the viewer what’s happening on screen without the character being shown on screen. It’s typically used in documentaries to ensure that the audience understands what’s happening on screen.
Planet Earth Documentary, 2006
However, in films it can be a biased source of information where the character is telling the story from their perspective, purposely leaving out information from the story in order to get the viewer on their side. For example in Megamind, he tries to convince the viewers that he was wronged in order to justify his actions against Metro Man.
