“I’M FROM THE AGE OF MOSCOW SEWING TRUSTS...”: CITY DWELLER’S APPEARANCE IN SOVIET MOVIES OF THE 1920–1930s | |||
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Year | 2016 | Number | 3(52) |
Pages | 89-99 | Type | scientific article |
UDC | 94(470):791.1”1920-1930” | BBK | 63.3(2)614+85.373 |
Authors | Lebina Natalia B. Terekhova Maria V. |
Topic | CITY AND ITS PEOPLE |
Summary | The article is an attempt to use 1920–1930-s movies for the reconstruction of the appearance and costume details of the Soviet urban population during the said historical period. A comprehensive comparative analysis enabled the author to identify some strong parallels between the real dress practices and fashion trends and their reflection in the movies. Examples from popular films were compared with the relevant extracts from personal sources, media publications and official documents. In addition, while discussing the appropriateness of using cinematographic materials as a valid source for the study and reconstruction of the contemporaries’ appearance the author relied extensively on specialized film research literature. Despite the obvious ideologically loaded content the Soviet movies of the 1920s provided a detailed depiction of various realities of the time related to dress and urban vestment practices, often responding to the relevant historical events even quicker and more convincingly than the official media. At the turn of the 1920-s–1930-s in the process of comprehensive reorganization of film-making industry within the context of the Stalin’s “Great Turn” the relationship between the real appearance of the population and the cinematographic costume changed significantly. Cinema as the key element of “grand style” in art shaped and translated the mythologized images of model personages. The appearance of the movie heroes in this case was used as a powerful expressive means for building a screen image. The “grand style” movie costume was no longer a reflection of everyday real dress code, but a visual projection of a normalizing imperative discourse in the area of shaping the corporality canons for the “ideal” Soviet citizen. | ||
Keywords | Сinema products, New Economic Policy, “grand style”, cinema autarchy, Soviet costume, film costume, social mimicry | ||
References |
Венявкин И. «Небогатое оформление»: «Ложь» Александра Афиногенова и сталинская культурная политика 1930-х годов // Новое Литературное Обозрение, 2011.№108. URL: http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2011/108/ve13.html. |
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