Before the Fall: Soviet Cinema in the Gorbachev Years

Anna Lawton

Jun 2010 · New Academia Publishing, LLC

About this ebook

This is an expanded edition of Kinoglasnost: Soviet Cinema in Our Time Cambridge University Press). The book examines the fascinating world of Soviet cinema during the years of glasnost and perestroika-the 1980s. It shows how the reforms that shook the foundations of the Bolshevik state and affected economic and social structures have been reflected in the film industry.A new added chapter provides a commentary on the dramatic changes that marked the beginning of democracy in Russia. This book will be widely read by students and specialists of Soviet/Russian history, culture and society, and film studies, as well as by anyone with an interest in the transformations of Russian society.Reviews"What makes Kinoglasnost pre-eminent among current studies of the subject is that sustained attention Lawton pays to changes in the formal organization of Soviet cinema and in the cinema industry."- Julian Graffy, Sight and Sound, vol. 3 (July 1993). "Lawton's book now stands as a valuable work of history on one aspect of a collapsed system...This remains as a testimony of a fateful moment that has changed the course of history."- Louis Menashe, The Russian Review, vol.53, No.4 (October 1994). "The author constructs a complex, multilayered narrative of a steady and significant movement toward radical change in Soviet society, an account of the growing anxiety and the hope experienced by Russian filmmakers and the intelligentsia."- Ludmila Z. Pruner, Slavic and East European Journal, vol.38, No.4 (Winter 1994).