Overview

This book explores evocations of and allusions to sexual desire in Soviet cinema, 1919–1991. By deploying several lines of investigation – from the cult of the masculine, strong body in Stalinist cinema to the shifting signification of the naked body (male and female) in post-war cinema and to the display of a sexualised body in the late Soviet era – this book establishes the extent to which Soviet cinema actually did reveal sexuality. It also explores how external political and social factors impacted representation. Overall, the contributions challenge the narrative of Soviet cinema as an art form where the representation of sexuality was taboo and outline shifts in the concepts of the naked and sexualised body, of sexuality and sexual relationships. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the field of film studies, Slavic and Soviet studies, cultural studies, politics and gender studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Birgit Beumers ,  Catherine Géry ,  Eugénie Zvonkine
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.640kg
ISBN:  

9781032615325

ISBN 10:   103261532
Pages:   236
Publication Date:   18 July 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: New ventures on sexuality, nudity and body culture in Soviet cinema Part 1. Body Culture in Early Soviet and Stalinist Cinema Chapter 1. The Overcoat (1926) through a gender lens: sexual desire and desire for domination Chapter 2. The ecstatic body as image of sexual liberation: Fedor Nikitin’s roles in Fridrikh Ermler’s films of the late 1920s Chapter 3. Nina Alisova’s ‘flirtatious movements’ in Stalinist cinema Chapter 4. Towards a history of Stalinist spectatorship: bodies on display in 1930s fizkul'tura films Part 2. Bodies in Revolution Chapter 5. From icon to flesh: The pregnant body in The Commissar (1967) and The Story of Asya Kliachina, Who Loved but Did Not Marry (1966) Chapter 6. Savage youth: Documentary and desire in the cinema of Dinara Asanova Chapter 7. Adolescence as a site of lesbian desire in Soviet cinema: The case of Dubravka Part 3. Shifting Body Cultures Chapter 8. Nude comedians of the Thaw Chapter 9. Sexuality and nudity in Central Asia during Soviet times: the naked female body as surgissement in Andrei Konchalovsky’s The First Teacher Chapter 10. The image as eroticised and sexualised body in Andrei Tarkovsky’s films Chapter 11. Disturbing eroticisation of (male) bodies in Sergei Parajanov’s films: Mythological revelation of a moral impediment Part 4: Body Politics Chapter 12. The cinematic Calyptics: Screened desire in Kira Muratova’s films of the Soviet period Chapter 13. Sexy scripts? Nadezhda Kozhushanaia’s body language Chapter 14. The naked turn in perestroika cinema Chapter 15. Not all nudes are sexy: Psychoanalysis and Stalinist biopolitics in Vitalii Kanevskii’s Freeze – Die – Come to Life!

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Author Information

Birgit Beumers is Professor Emerita of Film Studies at Aberystwyth University (UK) and working on a project on Central Asian cinema at Passau University in Germany. Catherine Géry is Professor of Russian Literature and Cinema at INALCO (Paris) and Director of the Pedagogical and Scientific Council of the Cité du Genre in France. Eugénie Zvonkine is Professor of Cinema Studies at the University Paris 8 and a junior member of the French University Institute.

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