Suggestions for Russian Lit into Film course?

[Melissa Smith]

Dear David:

I would recommend a comparative approach, using multiple film 
adaptations of the same literary work. I've never done this in an 
entire course, but in different contexts.

1) Hamlet - Grigorii Kozintsev vs. Kenneth Branaugh, Mel Gibson. It is 
interesting to note that the subtitles are Shakespeare's, the text is 
Pasternak's translation, with particular emphases. Kozintsev's King 
Lear could work, too, but I'm not aware of English-language variations 

2) Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in Andrei Konchalovsky's version vs. "Vanya 
on 42nd Street"

3) Chekhov's "Lady with a Dog" - classic black and white with Ia Savina 
vs. Mikhailkov's "Dark Eyes" 

4) Mikhailkov's "A few Days in the Life of I.I. Oblomov" as polemical 
interpretation to Dobroliuobov's essay "What is Oblomovitis?"

5) "Anna Karenina" in Soviet version vs. Greta Garbo, vs. Vivian Leigh 

6) Soviet-era "Crime and Punishment" vs. Alexander Sokurov's 
"Whispering Pages" (Tixie stranitsy). As possible contrasts - 
Hitchcock's "Rope" and Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors."

7) Brothers Karamazov - especially in recent Czech-Polish adaptation 
"Karamazovy" (I saw it last spring at Cleveland International Film 
Festival and was really impressed. A cotemporary Czech acting troupe 
goes to Poland to rehearse Brothers K in the factory where Lech Walesa 
got his start)

I'm sure there are other combinations, but these are theones that 
spring to mind.

Melissa Smith

>Dorogie seelangtsy,
>
>
>I have been asked to teach a Literature into Film course
>through an English dept., based on works of literature that have been 
adapted
>into films.  I am trying to develop it as
>a Russian Literature into Film course, but all the literature and film 
must be
>a) worthy of study and b) available in English (subtitles or dubbing is
>acceptable).
>
>
>I have been assembling my own list of literature/films, but
>I’m very interested in what suggestions the members of the list might
>have, especially literature/films successfully taught in tandem like 
this.  Obscurity or rarity is discouraged,
>accessibility to undergraduates/general education relevance are
>encouraged.  A compiled list will be
>gratefully shared with the list.
>
>
>Yours sincerely,
>
>David Borgmeyer
>
> 		 	   		  
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------------------------------------
Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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