Did the USSR influence a lot of art in the States?

[RadioRaheem84]

Looking back at Soviet films, propaganda, cartoons, I cannot believe that their stuff was seen as controversial in the States?

A lot of their cartoons for children targeted racism and wealth excess. The propaganda stuff was so well made with some of the most beautiful camera techniques that put American pre-70s cinema to shame.

A lot of it would be seen as liberal stuff today. So this makes me wonder if there was actually Communist infiltration in Hollywood or if people in Hollywood got some ideas from either Soviet cinema or European left cinema?

[aristos]

As far as cinema goes, early Soviet film-makers in the 20s were themselves strongly influenced by Griffith. However, when Eisenstein rose to prominence, many in Hollywood took notice. For what it's worth much of the raw material from his Zapata epic was later anonymously reused in subsequent Hollywood productions. His montage theory, however, remained contrary to both ideological and aesthetic demands of American cinema. It was "rediscovered" when music videos took off.

(For what it's worth his theory was also quickly rejected in the USSR proper, so that after he, Vertov, Kuleshov and Pudovkin stopped doing films nobody ever attempted such style again)

Soviet graphical and architectural design had influence on US artists via Bauhaus emigrés.

[RadioRaheem84]

A lot of the animation from the early 70s just reminds me of the style used in Waltz with Bashir.

[aristos]

I don't know how much cue American animators take from Soviet animation, but interestingly enough amid the generally pedestrian style of Soviet post-constructivist art (especially cinema) animation was the only outlet where avant-garde was not only permitted, but even encouraged. If you were to watch many soviet cartoons from the 70s and 80s you would find that practically no single cartoon is alike - the animators really tried their best to experiment with graphical styles. The pinnacle being the works of Yuri Norstein.

A bit off-topic, but what most people don't know, is that amidst the terrible wreckage known as Perestroika - one positive thing emerged. Soviet cinema experienced a renaissance of sorts, somewhat similar to the unprecedented artistic outburst in the wake of the October revolution. You had a whole slew of talented young film makers who started to push cinema into previously uncharted (in the SU) experimental territory, combining it with very beautiful, inventive cinematography and narrative techniques.
Needless to say this was yet another thing cut short by the fall of the USSR. Most of those films never saw the light of day (at least until long after), as distribution chains were either disrupted or over-saturated by imported US productions.

[RadioRaheem84]

Recommend any films?

[thriller]

Einstein's use of montage in 'Battleship Potemkin' was very influential on filmmakers in the US. Not sure about cartoons, but the SU had a lot of inspiring film directors.

[Per Levy]

The pinnacle being the works of Yuri Norstein.

thanks for the tip, i just watched this:

smDlBmeeWck

because of it, and it was really nice expierence, and very well done.

[RED DAVE]

Check out the scenes of the Wicked Witch of the West's marching, mustachioed guards The Wizard of Oz and compare them to scenes in Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Part I.

RED DAVE

[MustCrushCapitalism]

Anyone here have any good Soviet movie suggestions, by any chance?

[Iron Felix]

Anyone here have any good Soviet movie suggestions, by any chance?
Anything by Tarkovsky, my favorite is Stalker (http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5158063/%5B1979%5D_Stalker_-_Andrei_Tarkovsky), Mirror (http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6167730/The_Mirror_%5B1975%5D_Rus)is also good(all of his films are brilliant). There are tons of brilliant Soviet films but my favorite movie is Eiseintein's Ivan Grozny(Part 1 (http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3415383/Ivan_the_Terrible__Part_I_%28Sergei_M._Eisenstein_ _1944%29), Part 2 (http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3415875/Ivan_the_Terrible__Part_II_%28Sergei_M._Eisenstein __1958%29)). Subtitles are included in of these torrents I believe(Stalker, which you should watch first, also has German, Italian, French, Spanish, etc...)

[SemperFidelis]

Heh a lot of Soviet influenced art is pretty depressing.

[Arlekino]

Is good selection of Soviet Films with English subtitles.
I would highly recommend

http://www.youtube.com/user/kinorussia#g/c/6712E6FC5A8C2C41
Meeting place cannot be changed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDlm84gSRv4
Seventeen movements of the spring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQfYzamr-hM

[tanklv]

Soviet graphical and architectural design had influence on US artists via Bauhaus emigrés.

Umm - NO - the Bauhaus was GERMAN, so if anything, the US was influenced by GERMAN, not Soviet artists.

And to an equal extent, Soviet architecture was influenced by the German Bauhaus architects/artists.

Soviets "art" had almost no influence in American architecture at all...in fact, it was quite hideous. If anything, the American Art Deco style influenced Soviet, and world, design.

In fact, Corbusier, Mies and Walter Gropius influenced much architecture in the early 20th century, as Louis Sullivan, HH Richardson and others influenced them prior to that, along with their British counterparts...

Soviet "architecture" had almost NO influence in any world architeture...

[A Marxist Historian]

Anyone here have any good Soviet movie suggestions, by any chance?

"Come and See." Best anti-Nazi-atrocity film ever, set in what is now Belarus. The murderous Germans are *real and believable,* not the usual stick caricatures, which makes them even more horrible. Available in English I think, came out in the '60s.

Lots and lots of great Soviet WWII movies, usually better than the Hollywood ones. The one that sticks in my mind at the moment, whose name I can't recall, was about the "Night Witches," the female Soviet fighter pilots, who scared the pants off of the Luftwaffe they were so deadly.

Also I'll mention the best *post Soviet* movie, "Friend of the Deceased," done in Ukraine in 1996. Effectively a "Soviet movie," by a director pretty well known in Soviet days. Brilliant depiction of just how awful things have gotten since the USSR collapsed.

-M.H.-

[DaringMehring]

Aelita Queen of Mars (1924) -- the first full-length sci-fi film ever made. A group of people live in post-Civil War USSR and eventually go to Mars and help a revolution there. The film is interesting because 1) avante-garde sets way ahead of their time, 2) shows how the early Soviet period feared a Bonaparte betrayer (just look at how the Mars revolution goes), whereas such a message would have later not been allowed.

Battleship Potemkin (1925) -- Eisenstein's best in my opinion.

Chess Fever (1927) -- 20 minute short by Pudovkin. Humorous and also good if you like chess.

The End of St. Petersburg (1927) -- the veterans of the revolution considered this the best film made about it in the 10th anniversary year. Follows the perspective of proletarians rather than party tops; typical Bildung plot where main characters develop a revolutionary consciousness as the film goes on.

The First Teacher (1966) -- about a post-revolution communist teacher sent to a rural area in some place like Tadjikstan or Uzbekistan. He faces many challenges in introducing the advances of the revolution to a rigid and traditional society.

There are many more...

Of the animations, someone already mentioned Norstein. There is a good short against the Vietnam war (I forget the name) with a Vietnamese girl with a doll. China in Flames is great, from the 20s, especially love the last part with the Internationale / other revolutionary song medley, as Karakhan goes to China to negotiate the treaty (fuck you Stalin for murdering him). Budem Zorki aka "we'll keep our eyes peeled" is a pretty good agitprop from the tail end of the NEP era, during the war-scare after Curzon's Ultimatum. It uses a well-known revolutionary melody (eg Matrosen von Kronstadt, Capitalism Oppresses Us).