Slot: 30B-2 Dec. 30, 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Panel: Russian and East European Expatriates
in Film, Theatre, Music
Chair: Olia Prokopenko, Temple University
Title: Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) on Berlin's
Screen, 1922-23
Author: Steven P Hill, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
The ups and downs of the M.A.T. at home
and on tour abroad during the early Soviet period (1918-24) have been discussed
in many publications, in the West and in Russia by Stanislavskii, Bertensson,
Slonim, Nemirovich, Shverubovich, and others. In the West, much has been published about the
German-Austrian film experimenter, director Robert Wiene, and his all-time
classic Kabinett des Doktors Caligari (1919-20).
But little has
been published anywhere, about Wiene's creative meeting with the M.A.T., which
occurred in Berlin in 1922-23. And
which resulted in two ambitious, semi-avant-garde silent films based on
Dostoevskii and on Tolstoi, respectively: "Raskolnikow" (Prestuplenie
i nakazanie, Crime and
Punishment) and "Die Macht der Finsternis" (Vlast′ t′my, Power of Darkness). Both these
"staged" adaptations, previously performed by M.A.T. at home and on
tour, were transposed to the screen by Robert Wiene and his brother Konrad for
their Berlin film studio. Both
films were cast almost entirely with Russian-speaking actors from the M.A.T.'s
"B Team" (i.e., the "Kachalov Group"). Kachalov's "B
Team" toured outside the USSR from 1920, and several of them decided to
emigrate permanently -- and thus became "personae non gratae" to
Soviet theatre historians. Exception, of course, was made for those returning
eventually to the USSR ( e.g., Tarasova, Kachalov himself ).
The leading film
"star" of the Berlin-M.A.T. team was Grigorii Khmara
("Chmara"), who played Raskol'nikov. Other Russians hired for the Wiene brothers'
"Russian" films were designer Andreev (Andrejew) and actors Vyrubov,
Germanova, Zhilinskii, Kryzhanovskaia, Pavlov, Serov, Skul'skaia, Tarasova,
Tarkhanov, Toma, Sharov (sometimes misspelled Zharov), and, arguably, Bersenev
(unconfirmed). Since the two
Berlin "Russian" films were photographed silent (no sound tracks to
record speech in the 20s), the actors could communicate with each other in
Russian, not German.
The MAT-Wiene
films were long supposed lost, but fortunately a Dutch copy of
"Raskolnikow" was recently found. The Dutch restorers of
"Raskolnikow" focussed on the Wiene angle, and did not identify
almost all the Russian expatriate thespians, even Porfirii Petrovich and Sonia.
It has taken some years and the cooperative efforts of several researchers
(including this author) to identify finally almost all those Russian actors on
the screen. The presentation will
include an "identified" showing of 1 or 2 video exerpts from this
rare, restored film.
Title: Cinema and the Synthesis of Arts: An
Illustrated Presentation
Author: Vera Zubarev, University of Pennsylvania
The goal of this presentation is to familiarize
the audience with a movement called the “Synthesis of the Arts,” and the ways
my project introduces it to cinema.
The concept of “synthesis,” in the Russian context, goes back, at least,
to creative individuals like Kuzmin and Eisenstein, but, of course, connects up
with similar concepts in other languages and cultures, as well (e.g., Wagner in
Germany). I will briefly explain
the concept of “Synthesis of Arts” in general and in the Russian context. I
will clarify how, from my point of view, it differs from a simple combination
of arts. I will show that in the
“Synthesis of Arts,” each art or medium plays an independent role, thus
enriching the spectators’ perception of the cumulative whole. This differs significantly from a
combination of arts, where the art or medium chosen as the main one
subordinates the others and loses much of the desired cumulative impact upon
the audience. Then I will
illustration my statements by showing some excerpts from my recent video
(2006), that is a synthesis of poetry, choreography, music and cinematography.
Title: Toward Defining Ayn Rand's
Cine-Aesthetics
Author: Elizabeth Blake, Independent Scholar
Briefly as an actress and most notably as
a screenwriter, the Russian Emigré Ayn Rand (née Alissa Rosenbaum) witnessed
first-hand many of the developments in the American film industry over the
course of the twentieth century.
She was critical of both the studio system and the move toward unionization
of the industry, as both interfered with her ability to produce feature films
in accord with her political aesthetics.
This dissatisfaction with the politics of Hollywood, although apparent
in her writings, is most striking in her 1947 testimony before the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in which she details her opposition to
Gregory Ratoff's 1944 war propaganda film Song of Russia.
My presentation
will begin with an examination of Ayn Rand's writings on Hollywood predating
her 1926 emigration as well as her scriptwriting experience in the 1920s and
1940s in order to describe her early understanding of cine-aesthetics. Then, I will focus on a thorough
analysis of Rand's testimony as a means of underscoring the political nature of
her cine-aesthetics. A comparison
of her testimony with that of other friendly witnesses before the commission
will show how her identity both as a political exile from Soviet Russia and as
a member of the film industry informs her harsh criticism of Song of Russia.
Finally, a brief discussion of her 1949 film adaptation of her novel The
Fountainhead, with Gary
Cooper (another friendly witness before HUAC) in the starring role, will reveal
how she remains conscious of the political, even propagandistic, nature of the
film medium and, much in the manner of prominent directors from the Golden Age
of Soviet film, consciously employs it in an effort to disseminate a particular
political philosophy.