Course Description

Instructor: Elizabeth Deschenes, MA

This class is a fun way to explore Russian history covering a thousand years via the film medium. This class is sure to fascinate and entertain as you will be exposed to aspects of history that you may not have been exposed to in previous studies. Weekly reading assignments will be provided to enhance your enjoyment of the subject matter. We will use Russian film (with English captions) starting in the year 980 with Vladimir the Great and the great Viking expansion into Russia. We will proceed to the Mongol invasion, venture into the Time of Troubles, examine the Romanov dynasty, The Revolution of 1917 and Civil War, study the Soviet era and view the post- Soviet era. We will explore different film genres such as Soviet comedy, musicals, the exotic Red Westerns or Soviet Easterns and the renowned Soviet Sci-Fi thrillers. We will discuss elements of propaganda throughout the course and look at the films from award winning directors Sergei Eisenstein, an early pioneer in the art of montage. Other directors previewed in the course include Dziga Vertov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Fyodor Bondarchuk to name a few. Time permitting, we will have a film expert guest speaker.