Overview

Oriental dancers, ballerinas, actresses and opera singers the figure of the female performer is ubiquitous in the cinema of pre-Revolutionary Russia. From the first feature film, Romashkov's Stenka Razin (1908), through the sophisticated melodramas of the 1910s, to Viskovsky's The Last Tango (1918), made shortly before the pre-Revolutionary film industry was dismantled by the new Soviet government, the female performer remains central. In this groundbreaking new study, Rachel Morley argues that early Russian film-makers used the character of the female performer to explore key contemporary concerns from changing conceptions of femininity and the emergence of the so-called New Woman, to broader questions concerning gender identity. Morley also reveals that the film-makers repeatedly used this archetype of femininity to experiment with cinematic technology and develop a specific cinematic language.""

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9781784531591

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Reviews

'Rachel Morley's carefully researched and convincingly argued study re-examines the transformation of the female from performing object to performing subject in pre-revolutionary Russian silent cinema. Her work is skilfully interdisciplinary: cutting across cinema studies, dance and performance studies, as well as feminist and gender studies, and more.' - Vladimir Padunov, University of Pittsburgh, USA, 'Nuanced in its attention to cinematographic technique, sensitive in the application of theoretical models, and firmly grounded in historical context, this elegantly written book represents a major contribution to the study not only of early cinema, but of women's history in Russia.' - Emma Widdis, University of Cambridge, 'Rachel Morley's illuminating study is a uniquely detailed exploration of gender relations in early Russian cinema that also conveys much of importance about the culture of the era more generally.' - Catriona Kelly, University of Oxford, 'Looking at the relatively under-researched period of 1908-1918, Rachel Morley's study demonstrates a fine attention to the social significance of Russian films from the era, and how the aesthetic and technological approaches of cinema at the time impacted representations of the female performer. This is a fine piece of scholarship and an important addition to the field.' - Jamie Miller, author of Soviet Cinema: Politics and Persuasion under Stalin

Meticulously researched, elegantly written, and bristling with fascinating insights into pre-revolutionary Russian cinema and Russian women's history, Rachel Morley's excellent book joins the many seminal studies from I.B. Tauris's authoritative Kino series ... Offers useful insights for scholars and students investigating Russian cultural history, film, and gender studies. * Slavic Review *

Author Information

Dr Rachel Morley is Lecturer in Russian Cinema and Culture at University College London. She has published widely and presented papers on Russian film. From 1999 to 2009 she taught in the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, University of London, and she has also taught modules in Russian film at the University of Cambridge.

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