Soviet Movies Part I: Individuation
By Bork S. Nerdrum

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The Quote:

The positive element of kitsch lies in the fact that it sets free for a moment the glimmering realization that you have wasted your life.

— Theodor Adorno, sociologist

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There are too many moments from various films to highlight each and every one of them so I have decided to break a large part into a series of articles on the essential reasons to why Soviet movies are so kitschy.

If you have read my previous articles you might wonder why I continue to bring up the Cinema of the Soviet Union and why exactly the 1950s? I will tell you why:

Because Stalin died in 1953!

It is a fact that after Stalin’s death – filmmakers were liberated to make movies that were in the interest of – not just the state – but also the audience.
The post-Stalin era in the film industry saw a boom of romanticized movies about the rural life in Russia and covers the period that I consider the golden age of Soviet Cinema.

Whether it is a couple walking under a dying sun – a man staring longingly to the horizon – or a group of people singing into the night – almost every slavic film from this period has something unshamedly pathetic about them.

I have previously written about the wedding scene from Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (1957) and I want to return to the same director and his prior film The First Echelon (1956) – which as many 1950s movies takes place on the countryside: 

The romantic conflict in this scene includes a very intimate moment with the male counterpart which represents a trend in Soviet Movies that struck me when I began to study them:

How much they focus on the individual.

Individuality is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Soviet Union but this scene does not promote a political agenda or a collective goal – the individual is confronted with his private feelings and problems. He is not – as in many modern movies – worried about humanity.

This is a rule of storytelling that ought to be law enforced!

The problem that drives a character must be primal and directly related to him or his family.
Love – sickness – hunger – fear – and so on.
Anything archetypical.

The Soviet movies obviously carry a lot of collectivism too but at the heart they display vulnerable – longing beings that find themselves alone on this earth – and I would argue that the concurrent productions of Hollywood is tipping in the opposite direction .

Still shot from the kitschy scene in The First Echelon

Still shot from the romantic conflict scene in The First Echelon. Music by the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

One thing that enhances the individual approach of the scene from The First Echelon is the exaggerated landscape.
How on earth could the sky turn that red out of nowhere? So kitsch!
At times it can be far-stretched but the scenery intensifies the mood of the story – more on that in another article!

Here is another example from a movie that deals with the civil war in Russia:

Longing is a returning feature of Soviet kitsch movies and a feature that grips me every time I see it. The clip from Our Father’s Youth (1958) literally displays nostalgia (ache for home).
Whilst dark undertones of a children’s voice sums in the background – some soldiers make jokes – others stare at the bonfire – and you are left with the feeling that these comrades will meet their end in the coming battles.
The alchemical wedding of hope and despair are here on collision course and shows the human being at its most beautiful.

I am sorry to tell you this but it never grips me when the character tells the audience he wants to save the world. I cannot relate to it and kitsch does not relate to it.

Kitsch tends to wallow in beauty – its shortcoming is not aesthetic, but ethical.
– Hermann Broch

And there you are. Kitsch is the representation of nature – nonpoliticized – and individualized.

Still image from another compelling moment in Our Father's Youth (1958).

Still image from another intimate moment in Our Father’s Youth (1958).


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