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The Silver Curtain: Representations of the West in the Soviet Cold War Films
Author(s) -
Dobrynin Sergei
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00590.x
Subject(s) - decadence , iron curtain , movie theater , ambivalence , politics , cold war , ideology , commercialization , subject matter , censorship , subject (documents) , film industry , taboo , political science , shot (pellet) , aesthetics , history , law , art , art history , psychology , psychoanalysis , library science , computer science , curriculum , chemistry , organic chemistry
The image of the West in Soviet cinema is a subject suffused with ambivalence. On the one hand, most of the Soviet films with an international setting and/or foreign characters clearly had an ideological agenda. By claiming a high moral ground for the Soviet or a ‘progressive’ Western protagonist, they served as a weapon in the ongoing cultural Cold War. On the other, the subject matter presented an opportunity to attract the audiences (a major concern for the late‐Soviet film industry) with lurid depictions of Western ‘decadence’ and ‘decay’, as well as a chance to exploit the attractiveness of Western popular genres. This seemingly uneasy combination was typical of the Soviet film industry for most of its history but became especially pronounced in its later stages, during the Détente and after, as the fast‐changing political demands had to be reconciled with the growing commercialization of Soviet cinema. The resulting body of work has rarely had artistic value but remains a useful and largely untapped source for cultural historians looking for reflections of social change in the former USSR.