Philosopher Jay
10th April 2011, 20:02
When we look at Dziga Vertov's films "Kino-Eye" (1924) and "Man With a Movie Camera," (1928) we see films celebrating the human spirit and the richness of human beings. They show how things are, and how things are created. They show the homeless and the crippled and the mad, and the musicians and the diversity of life. This is propaganda as art and art as propaganda. There are problems, serious problems, but there is not exploitation. The New Society is being dreamed and made.
"Three Songs for Lenin" (1924) is quite different. It is mystical propaganda. Backward enslaved Muslim women are suddenly freed from the veil (their veil of ignorance symbolically) and appear in schools and universities. We are told that Jesus, wait, no, Lenin has freed them. In the next part/song, we see Jesus/Lenin dead. The people cry and look sorrowful. Jesus/Lenin lives again in newsreels, walking, talking and writing the revolution. In part III, we see Electricity and planes and trains. The dream of Lenin has been fulfilled, the Soviet Union has become a modern country. A worker talks about slipping into a cement mixer and being hauled out by comrades. The worker went back to work, did not even go home that day. She was rewarded with the medal of Lenin for being an exemplary worker.
I thought Lenin died for socialism. No, this film tells us he died to modernize the Soviet Union. I thought that this was the dream of the Czars. Yes, but they only dreamed it, Lenin brought the dream of the Czars to life. I thought socialism meant that the workers work less and devote more time to themselves and their development. No, socialism means that the workers work just as hard, but they do not think of themselves while working, but work heroically under dangerous circumstances and help each other to work harder, so that great planes and railroads and electrical plants may be built.
What happened between 1929 and 1934. How and why did the goals of the Revolution change so drastically? Was it the rise of fascism in Germany that turned the revolution so upside down. Was it the Great Economic Depression? Was it the capitalist economic boycott of the Soviet Union? Was it the failure of workers in the West to rise and support the Soviet Union? Was it the concentration of power in the hands of Joseph Stalin? All of these, some of these or some others?
Note that in 1924 and even 1929, the Soviet Cinema was technologically as good as any in the world. Note how it had degenerated badly by 1934. Sound, introduced in 1928 and 1929 in the United States and Western Europe was just getting off the ground in 1934 in the Soviet Union.
"Three Songs for Lenin" (1924) is quite different. It is mystical propaganda. Backward enslaved Muslim women are suddenly freed from the veil (their veil of ignorance symbolically) and appear in schools and universities. We are told that Jesus, wait, no, Lenin has freed them. In the next part/song, we see Jesus/Lenin dead. The people cry and look sorrowful. Jesus/Lenin lives again in newsreels, walking, talking and writing the revolution. In part III, we see Electricity and planes and trains. The dream of Lenin has been fulfilled, the Soviet Union has become a modern country. A worker talks about slipping into a cement mixer and being hauled out by comrades. The worker went back to work, did not even go home that day. She was rewarded with the medal of Lenin for being an exemplary worker.
I thought Lenin died for socialism. No, this film tells us he died to modernize the Soviet Union. I thought that this was the dream of the Czars. Yes, but they only dreamed it, Lenin brought the dream of the Czars to life. I thought socialism meant that the workers work less and devote more time to themselves and their development. No, socialism means that the workers work just as hard, but they do not think of themselves while working, but work heroically under dangerous circumstances and help each other to work harder, so that great planes and railroads and electrical plants may be built.
What happened between 1929 and 1934. How and why did the goals of the Revolution change so drastically? Was it the rise of fascism in Germany that turned the revolution so upside down. Was it the Great Economic Depression? Was it the capitalist economic boycott of the Soviet Union? Was it the failure of workers in the West to rise and support the Soviet Union? Was it the concentration of power in the hands of Joseph Stalin? All of these, some of these or some others?
Note that in 1924 and even 1929, the Soviet Cinema was technologically as good as any in the world. Note how it had degenerated badly by 1934. Sound, introduced in 1928 and 1929 in the United States and Western Europe was just getting off the ground in 1934 in the Soviet Union.