Russian imperial history - films

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues and Prof Powelstock:

Perhaps Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible" ("Ivan Groznyi"),  Pt. 1 ['45] 
and Pt. 2 ['58] depicting the 16th cen., would be too early an era 
for this course?

Appx. 1937-38 a Soviet director named Vladimir Petrov made "Peter 
the Great" ("Petr Pervyi"), but it may not exist nowadays on video 
subtitled in English...

A decade or two ago,   there was a huge, multi-part dramatized 
biography made for U.S. television, "Peter the Great," starring 
Maximilian Schell.  As I recall, a goodly number of veteran British 
(and US) actors played small roles.  This Schell version does exist 
on video. 

In various film adaptations of Gogol's story "Overcoat,"   the poor 
clerk Akakii attempts,   unsuccessfully,   to deal with various early
19th-century tsarist bureaucrats and agencies.

In film adaptations of Gor'kii's novel "Mother," disaffected working-class 
folks c. 1905 come into conflict with the tsarist police state (as Gor'kii 
visualized it).

In many different film adapations of Gogol's stage play "Inspector General"
("Revizor"), the entire gang of bureaucrats --  in a fictitious small town,
to be sure --  are depicted satirically.

A French silent film dating from the 1920s, "The Chess Player," depicts 
a (factual? fictional?) chess-playing robot which allegedly became a 
Russian court favorite around the end of the 18th century.

A very "glamorous" fictionalized biography of Catherine the Great 
(Ekaterina Vtoraia) was filmed in Hollywood in 1935 under the title 
"Scarlet Empress," starring Marlene Dietrich.

Undoubtedly  other contributors   will be able to suggest plenty of 
equally ( if not more )  appropriate films....

Good hunting,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
___________________________________________________________________   

Date: Sun 2 Dec 00:36:01 CST 2007
From: <LISTSERV at BAMA.UA.EDU> 
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU> 
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 20:41:21 -0500
From: David Powelstock <pstock at BRANDEIS.EDU> 
Subject: Films for Course on Imperial Russian History? 

Dear SEELANGers, 
A friend of mine is teaching a course on imperial Russian history 
and asked me for ideas as to films she might show. There are lots 
of film adaptations of 19th-c. literary works, of course, but I'd be 
interested to know which of these SEELANGers think might be 
particularly interesting from the standpoint of imperial history 
beyond costuming. I thought of "Russian Ark," but students would 
need to be very well prepared in order to appreciate it's historical 
dimension. For late imperial I mentioned Bauer's "Child of the Big 
City." I'd be grateful for ideas that I could pass on. 

Best wishes, 
David Powelstock 
_____________________________________________________________________

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