I.

Introduction

Russian Cinema, historical development of the cinema in Russia. The first demonstration of the Lumière Cinématographe in Russia, in 1896, prompted Maksim Gorky to write the most famous of all first reactions to film: 'Last night I was in the Kingdom of the Shadows...A world without colour and sound...Grey rays of sunlight in a grey sky, grey eyes in a grey face, leaves as grey as cinder. Not life, but the shadows of life.' Despite such misgivings moving pictures soon became fashionable, with Tsar Nikolay and his court taking an interest, as well as famous writers such as Leo Tolstoy and Aleksandr Blok, and composers such as Aleksandr Glazunov. All films were imported or made by foreigners before 1907, when the St Petersburg photographer Aleksandr Drankov attempted to film Boris Godunov by Aleksandr Pushkin. His next effort, Stenka Razin (1908), is the earliest surviving Russian fiction film.

Russian production over the next ten years was dominated by Drankov and his rival Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. Historical and literary subjects were soon outnumbered by sensational bandit tales and harrowing melodramas. The leading directors, Iakov Protazanov, Vladimir Gardin, and Yevgeni Bauer, developed a slow, pictorial style that allowed such stars as Ivan Mozzhukhin and Vera Kholodnaya to project a tragic intensity. Although Russian audiences generally preferred unhappy endings, bawdy comedy also flourished, until World War I gave Russian cinema a new patriotic theme.