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9780197548363

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There is nothing more difficult than writing about a past that has yet to become history. This richly-researched and truly outstanding book, written with zest and elegance, tells the story of the Lenfilm studio. Through art house Soviet cinema it immerses us in the Brezhnev era, as it opens up the door to the world of Soviet sensitivity and imagination to allow us to understand how the Soviet era was exhausted and why it ended. -- Evgeny Dobrenko, the author of Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics In the years of Stagnation, Lenfilm studio was one of the symbols of artistic freedom in the USSR - with reservations, of course. Yet, there has not been a scholarly monograph dedicated to this seminal page in the history of Soviet culture - neither in Russia, nor outside the country. Catriona Kelly's book fills this deplorable gap. But, as a genuine work of history, it covers much more than that. It is a meticulous and pioneering study of the mechanics of Soviet film production, of the cultural politics in the murky period that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Union. But first and foremost, it is a tribute to some of the best films ever produced in one of the leading filmmaking countries, and to the filmmakers with their inevitably dramatic biographies. -- Peter Bagrov, George Eastman Museum To embark on making an art house movie under Brezhnev, the author shows with the clarity and insight of someone who spent years on studying the Lenfilm studio papers, was tantamount to submitting one's creative will to a variety of whims and whipsDLinstitutional and ideological. Every chapter in Kelly's book devoted to this or that art film reads like a perilous journey that ends in a miraculous survival. -- Yuri Tsivian, University of Chicago

To embark on making an art house movie under Brezhnev, the author shows with the clarity and insight of someone who spent years on studying the Lenfilm studio papers, was tantamount to submitting one's creative will to a variety of whims and whips-institutional and ideological. Every chapter in Kelly's book devoted to this or that art film reads like a perilous journey that ends in a miraculous survival. * Yuri Tsivian, University of Chicago * In the years of Stagnation, Lenfilm studio was one of the symbols of artistic freedom in the USSR - with reservations, of course. Yet, there has not been a scholarly monograph dedicated to this seminal page in the history of Soviet culture - neither in Russia, nor outside the country. Catriona Kelly's book fills this deplorable gap. But, as a genuine work of history, it covers much more than that. It is a meticulous and pioneering study of the mechanics of Soviet film production, of the cultural politics in the murky period that would eventually lead to the collapse of the Union. But first and foremost, it is a tribute to some of the best films ever produced in one of the leading filmmaking countries, and to the filmmakers with their inevitably dramatic biographies. * Peter Bagrov, George Eastman Museum * There is nothing more difficult than writing about a past that has yet to become history. This richly-researched and truly outstanding book, written with zest and elegance, tells the story of the Lenfilm studio. Through art house Soviet cinema it immerses us in the Brezhnev era, as it opens up the door to the world of Soviet sensitivity and imagination to allow us to understand how the Soviet era was exhausted and why it ended. * Evgeny Dobrenko, the author of Late Stalinism: The Aesthetics of Politics *

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Catriona Kelly is Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford and a leading historian of Russian culture and society. She is the author of numerous books on Russian modernism, gender history, the history of childhood, national identity, and the recent history of Leningrad/St Petersburg, some of which have been translated into Russian.

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