Slow Cinema and Soviet Staging

• In Event: Dear, Queer, and Slow: Soviet Cinema Remembered

Abstract

Was Soviet cinema a slow cinema, a precursor to the “slow cinema” of today? Western observers certainly though so, and, with the abandonment of Montage and the coming of sound, cutting and movement rates in Soviet cinema did slow down. This paper looks at the Soviet film staging to investigate whether the Soviet approach to intrashot composition differed substantially from the French and American approaches and whether the slow pacing in staging resulted from ideological or aesthetic goals.

Author

• Maria Belodubrovskaya, U of Chicago