The Soviet Cinema is a vanguard, or specific film style, created when the USSR was founded, and that accompanied the growth and development of the Soviet Union until it was dismantled.
The Soviet Cinema, along with German Expressionism, follows a line of thought that gives an answer to an ontological question that exists since the beginning of cinema: is cinema just a representation of the real, that encapsulates in itself other forms of art, or is it an independent art form, that allows free artistic expression?
According to this vanguard, cinema is a form of art that is based on a transfiguration of the real. More than just a simple technique that puts image in motion, cinema is a way of creating and transmitting a specific vision of the world, and it’s this characteristic that gives cinema its artistic component.
The Soviet Cinema is mainly characterized by its work “in between shots”, and it uses specific editing processes to emphasize that cinema is more than just a representation of the real. Sergei Eisenstein, one of the most important soviet film maker and theorist, developed the “montage theory”, in which this process is divided into five levels that are combined at every moment of the film, in order to create a final product that appears as a manipulated reality to the eyes of the spectator. This manipulation of the image is a key factor in the Soviet Cinema, and the more evident it is, the stronger the artistic strand of the movie. This technique of edition creates the main foundation of this movement, and had a great impact in cinema worldwide.
On the other hand, the influence of the formalism is evident across all soviet films, mainly in the clear structuration of all movements, with special emphasis on the form portrayed and the symbolism conveyed. Besides this notorious will of using experimental techniques, along with the fact that all movies were silent, which allowed the images to be the only way of expressing emotions in the films, the political and economic conjuncture had also a decisive paper in the development of the Soviet Cinema; the Russian Revolution in 1917 brought to the USSR an urge of change and affirmation. The political power and the people demanded for a new society, a new vision for the whole country, and cinema was seen as the best way to fulfil this demands. Lenine itself even affirmed “that of all the arts the most important for us is the cinema”; the Government recognized the potential cinema had in swaying the population, and there were granted multiple funds to the production of movies.
This way, with film makers advocating for the creation of a new way of creating films, and with the society coming together as a “new” one, the Soviet Cinema had a solid and favorable environment for its development.
Regarding the themes, Russian propaganda was a constant presence in most of the moves produced at the time, given that stories that enhanced the bravery and independence of the Soviet people were greatly financed by the Government.
Films like “Battleship Potemkin” (1925), “Ivan, the Terrible” (1945), both directed by Eisenstein, or “Man with a Movie Camera” (1929), by Dziga Vertov, are still considered very innovative and daring productions, being the most common examples of the Soviet Cinema aesthetics.
This vanguard also allowed great film makers and theorists to become very well-known worldwide, like Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov or Andrei Tarkóvski, and their contribute to the history of cinema is unmatched, given their theoretical and practical legacies in terms of innovative ideas and new perspectives on the art of creating films.
