The Smile of Stalin, or How to Come to Like Socialist Realism
Abstract
Shot in 1934, that is exactly when the doctrine of Socialist Realism was proclaimed in the Soviet Union, the film The Jolly Fellows was a debut film by 31-year old Grigoriy Vasilyevich Aleksandrov (correctly Mormonyenko). The film had all the qualities of a daring debut. All its distinctness, eccentricities and a long list of thoroughly discussed borrowings make it one of the flagship examples of the cinema of Socialist Realism. It was also Aleksandrov’s greatest achievement in his long career as a film director. Hendrykowski makes a detailed analysis of both the conditions in which the film was made and first viewers’ receptions. He shows that it was nearly interpreted as a politically incorrect film, which would have probably ended in tragedy for the film director.
Keywords:
socialist realism, Grigoriy Vasilyevich Aleksandrov, Soviet cinemaReferences
Nie dotyczy / Not applicable
Google Scholar
Authors
Marek Hendrykowskikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Poland
Historyk i teoretyk filmu, wykłada na Uniwersytecie im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Autor książek m.in. Historia filmowego Oscara (1988, 1993), Słownik terminów filmowych (1994).
Statistics
Abstract views: 956PDF downloads: 276
License
Copyright (c) 2003 Marek Hendrykowski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Marek Hendrykowski, Sound on the Screen: Sound Breakthrough in Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 44 (2003): Sound, Music, Word in Film
- Marek Hendrykowski, Song in the Polish Film of the Socialist Era , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
- Marek Hendrykowski, The Child Runs Deep in Albert: Study on Albert Lamorisse’s “The Red Balloon” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 81 (2013): Child in Film
- Marek Hendrykowski, Universalism and Ethnocentrism in Polish Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 95 (2016): Transnational Dimension of Polish Cinema
- Marek Hendrykowski, A Crook: A Study in Genealogy of Poland’s Popular Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 56 (2006): Homo Ludens
- Marek Hendrykowski, Biographism in Contemporary Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 59 (2007): Author in Film (part I)
- Marek Hendrykowski, Experiment in Film and in the Art of the Moving Image , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 82 (2013): Experiment: Film and Audiovisual Arts
- Marek Hendrykowski, Topos of Human Body in Julien Bryan’s “Siege” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 83-84 (2013): Body in Film
- Marek Hendrykowski, Reymont, Isms and Cinema , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 43 (2003): Polish Cinema Then and Now
- Marek Hendrykowski, The Temple of New Faith: Film Images of Building of the Palace of Culture 1952-1955 , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 92 (2015): Polish Cinema and Politics
