Suggestions for Russian Lit into Film course?

[Furman, Yelena]

Dear David,
I don't know if you're just looking for Russian films, but if not, I would like to add to all the Chekhov suggestions The Sisters (dir. Arthur Allan Seidelman).  It's from 2005 (I think), with people like Maria Bello, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Eric McCormack, and it's a very good, and very inventive, take on Three Sisters.  I'm showing excerpts from it in my class later on this quarter, so unfortunately at this point I can't tell you how it goes over with students, but I have high hopes.
Best, Yelena 

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Melissa Smith
Sent: Mon 9/28/2009 7:27 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Suggestions for Russian Lit into Film course?



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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