The production of compilation films will undoubtedly increase towards the end of the century. It's impossible to resist the temptation to draw conclusions from the celluloid images of the whole century's films, with their effects visual immediacy and feeling of the spirit of the times. Cinema art itself, viewed from a historical perspective, represents perfect "raw" material for the conceptual games of the new generation of film directors.
We've already talked about Gosfilmofond's role in the creation of compilation films (Journal of Film Preservation n°50, March 1995). The films were Woman's Role by I. Dykhovichny and Land of the Dead by O. Kovalov. Now Gosfilmofond is participating in another experiment - the international project dedicated to the Centenary of Cinema. This project commissions film directors from the major film-producing countries to make films about their national cinematographic heritage. Sergei Selianov was chosen to represent the Russian segment of this vast cinematic panorama.
Selianov's debut film, Dukhov Den (1990) brought him to the attention of critics. Subsequent award-winning films, shot at his own film studio in St Petersburg, served to broaden his reputation among cineastes, although this growing enthusiasm has not resulted in films any more accessible or comprehensible to mainstream audiences.
Steeped in the traditions of the so-called "author's cinema", Selianov made it his mission to investigate the so-called Russian Idea. The well-known Russian critic and director Oleg Kovalov wrote a synopsis of the film which has the character of a philosophical essay inflected by Russian cinema research. This essay, coupled with Sergei Selianov's meditations serve as a starting point for consideration of the Russian Idea and its manifestations in the cinema. The following fragments of an interview with Sergei Selianov illuminate the nature of this project:
Selianov: "Russian idea is a term which refers to complex phenomena which are in some ways incompatible and yet at the same time closely connected. This idea was born during the times of Ivan the Terrible, when Moscow became known as the Third Rome. In the early part of this century, the concept was elaborated by Berdiayev and many others. One of its chief components is the notion of Heaven constructed on Earth. Both socialist and communist utopianism appear to be interpretations of this Russian Idea, which necessarily implies sacrifice. This is a basic difference between the American Dream and the Russian Idea. The American Dream is based on the ideal of personal happiness and well being. The Russian Idea is based on the sacrifice of the individual in service to the ideal of the Future. Great Russian literature often takes up the theme of sacrifice, but Soviet art reworked the concept. The desire to have Paradise, not in Heaven, but on Earth, is considered blasphemous in the traditional context of the Russian Idea. While the traditional Russian people were prepared to wait and endure until the promised Paradise came to pass, the Soviet masses were taught to fight for this Paradise. A great number of collective farm films in the 1930s as well as projects such as the Exhibition of Industrial and Agricultural Achievements are nothing less than representations of this proximate Paradise.
In general, we want to investigate the embodiment of the Russian Idea in Soviet cinema, starting from the first propaganda films made at the beginning of the Soviet regime, and extending through Russian film-making to modern developments, including the cinema of Tarkovsky."
Russian compilation films have always differed from their foreign counterparts. They continue to manifest this difference, not least because, in addition to having the last century of cinema art at their disposal, the filmmakers will also represent social and personal reactions to 70 years of Soviet experimentation in Russia.. Sergei Selianov's film will hardly be the last word in the endless conversation through in the medium of this century's film imagery.
by Natalia Jakovleva