Thursdays at 7 pm; Mary Eddy and Fred Jones Auditorium

Working Under Foreign Conditions: 

Russians Making Movies in Other Lands

Asked about his first experience working in the West, the great Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky responded, “This is not only the first time I make a film abroad, it is also the first time I work under foreign conditions. I suppose it is difficult to make a film wherever you go in the world, but I notice that the nature of the difficulties vary a great deal from place to place.” From Tsarist times to the present, Russia has produced an extraordinary cultural diaspora of thinkers and artists. Whether fleeing persecution or simply seeking economic or cultural opportunities unavailable at home, these Russian émigrés have had a huge impact on many aspects of modern culture.  Among these émigrés have been men and women involved in all aspects of filmmaking, from producing to directing, writing to acting, composing to editing.  This series will survey the work of many of these filmmakers, including, among others, great directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Konchalovsky, Rouben Mamoulian, and Maya Deren, the art director Lazare Meerson, the songwriter Irving Berlin, the producer Val Lewton, and the cinematographer Boris Kaufman.

Aug 28      Othello (1922/dir. by Dimitri Buchowetski) 80 minutes.

Sept 4        A Nous La Liberté! [Freedom For Us!]
                   (1931/prod. design by Lazare Meerson) 97 minutes.
 
Sept 11      Love Me Tonight (1932/dir. by Rouben Mamoulian) 88 minutes
 
Sept 18      Zero De Conduite [Zero For Conduct]
                    (1933/cinematography by Boris Kaufman) 41 minutes
 
Sept 25      I Walked With A Zombie (1943/produced by Val Lewton) 69 minutes and
                   Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943/dir. by Maya Deren) 18 minutes

Oct 2          The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946/ dir. by Lewis Milestone) 116 minutes
 
Oct 9          The Snake Pit (1948/dir. by Anatole Litvak) 108 minutes
 
Oct 16        No FredFilm

Oct 23        Easter Parade (1948/music by Irving Berlin) 107 minutes
 
Oct 30        The Fountainhead (1949/screenplay by Ayn Rand) 114 minutes
 
Nov 6         No FredFilm

Nov 13       Soy Cuba [I Am Cuba] (1964/dir. by Mikhail Kalatozov) 141 minutes

Nov 20        Runaway Train (1985/dir. by Andrei Konchalovsky) 111 minutes

Nov 27        No FredFilm

Dec 4          The Sacrifice (1986/dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky) 95 minutes

Dec 11        Yana's Friends (2000/dir. by Arik Kaplun) 90 minutes
 
Dec 18        Day Night Day Night (2006/dir. by Julia Loktev) 94 minutes