Nanook of the North: Directed by Robert Flaherty, Nanook of the North (1922) is one of the most famous travel films, or “scenics,” of all time. Flaherty spent years in Canada learning the culture of the Inuit (eskimo) people there. What makes this story so captivating is that it is presented as more of a drama than a documentary. Flaherty staged many scenes to portray Nanook as a protagonist, and the harsh snowy environment as the antagonist. The way the footage was edited together helped make the film interesting, since many of the sequences by themselves are boring. After being turned down by many distribution companies, Flaherty eventually was able to get his film in theaters, where it became a huge success, even so much as to become a staple of pop culture of the time. Over time, the film has come to represent the eternal struggle between man and nature.
“Agitki”: At the dawn of the USSR, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed: “Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.” Lenin believed this because cinema was the easiest way to spread propaganda at the time. Much of the people living in the Russian countryside were impoverished and illiterate. By sending out propaganda films, called “agitki,” Lenin found the perfect method of educating the rural masses on the new state of their government. This type of propaganda was meant to agitate and enthuse audiences. They were typically very short, but also effective in spreading news to the uneducated rural masses. In addition
The purpose of this essay is to explain how some out of the many propaganda techniques that are used in the novel Brave New World, and in parties like the Communist Party in Russia. Propaganda was a very important weapon in the Communist party in Russia. Propaganda was used to share information, educate, and lead people to the standard purpose. The Communist party of Russia took control of many communication tools, art, film, radio, theatre, music, books, posters, as propaganda. Those were the best way to reach out to a wider audience about the Communist party of Russia. The novel Brave New World also uses propaganda techniques to influence people. Propaganda was also very important in this novel, without it the people in the novel would not
Stalin used propaganda to rise to power and build a totalitarian state in the 1920's and 30's. The use of propaganda helped Stalin gain followers and make him look better to the public so they would want to follow him and help him rise to power. Propaganda helped with building of a totalitarian state by helping convince the public of whatever Stalin wanted them to
Making its debut 1982, The Dark Crystal, created and directed by puppeteers Jim Henson and Frank Oz, was a fantasy film that involved intricate puppeteers and animatronics. Aside from The Muppets and Sesame Street, which involves more comedic skits to relay their message to its viewers, The Dark Crystal was a different kind of muppet movie because it used fantasy, fiction and action to tell its story. With this change in Jim Henson’s usual way of story telling, the fantasy aspect of the movie becomes associated with the narrative patterns and functions of Propp. As the story line progresses throughout the film, some of the 31
Propaganda is used everywhere in life and books. It has such a complex meaning under what the people or it is saying. In Animal Farm, The Wave, and Night propaganda is used to describe what life was like for all the people in that time and how crucial survival was and how to not get outcasted.
Soviet Montage is a movement driven by “Marxist [politics]” and an “economic philosophy” developed in Soviet Russia at the time of revolution. Lenin himself considered film, as an art form as the “most influential of all arts” as it not only entertained but could be used to “[mould] and reinforce values.”( Mast, G. & Kawin, B. F.) Sergei Eisenstein, himself a Marxist, is no exception to this and not only are his films are full of political propaganda, but he is also considered “the greatest master of montage.” .”( Mast, G. & Kawin, B. F.) His film October, called Ten Days That Shook The World in the Western world at the time and butchered due to its content, has always been considered problematic for audiences and critics alike and the standard critique of the film soon became “The Film as a whole is difficult and incoherent.” (Sperbur) Although if analysed properly, you can see that it has powerful political and social messages to convey and comprises of film form that Eisenstein himself called “intellectual film.”
During Russia’s transition to communism in the early 20th century, conflict and unease permeated every part of life. Nothing was stable and very little of what the Bolsheviks had fought for had come to fruition by the time the USSR disbanded in 1991. The “classless society”, which was to work together for the prosperity of everyone, never became a reality. In the end, the majority of Russia’s 20th century was an utter failure on a grand scale. However, there were many amazing products of the system do to the great importance of education in Russian culture. Priceless novels were written, timeless movies were made, and great scientific endeavors were realized despite the rigid control placed upon Russian persons by the government. In
Soviet cinema has a significant contribution to the world’s film history. The years after the October Revolution in 1917 bring many economic difficulties and political changes to the newly formed USSR, which also affected film production. The nationalization of the film industry, Kuleshov experiments, and the support from the government mark some of the most important phases that influenced the progress and development of the Soviet film. Even though used as medium of propaganda, the cinema popularity
by the Soviet government to make a film commemorating the historical uprising of the revolution in 1905,
Propaganda tends to be known as someone or something that’s publicized to state or show someone’s point of view (Dictionary). A novella called Animal Farm by George Orwell is about animals getting upset from the harsh treatment and realizing they deserve better. Where they have Napoleon and Snowball , who are representing Stalin and Trotsky step up and begin a Rebellion along with the rest of the animals with the humans. Which tends to get them freedom for a couple of months and just fails and leads them back to how they started. Orwell displays propaganda has both a positive and negative effect to whom it’s coming from. This theme is revealed throughout the climax
In “Battleship Potemkin,” released in 1925, opposition and comparison were used to idealize Russia as well. Any film that was not propaganda was seen to be against Soviet Russia. Montage was used to effectively transmit a certain political
Soviet artists and intellectuals were ordered to create propaganda material that portrayed this idea of a weak and inferior western world. The soviets official ideology was that they needed to gain complete control of all aspects of communication. Lenin embraced the idea of agitative propaganda that was introduced earlier by Georgi Plekhanov. Since the Soviet union was founded in 1920 there was an official department of agitprop. This department worked directly through schools, publications and the broadcast media. (Encyclopedia of propaganda 17)
Media played a major role during the cold war; it was used as a form of propaganda used both by the USSR and by America as a form to antagonise each other. Media was the predominant form of communication, primarily consisting of print, film, radio, and Television (source C being an example of this). The initial role the media was to motivate the post-WW2 occupants into reaffirming and defending their national political and allegiances. While the private-owned Western media was helpful in the defence of Western economic and military interests, the state-censored soviet media was just as ready to defend their own. All media succeeded in the production of public support for their government’s actions against the foreign enemy.
Battleship Potemkin is a movie produced by Eisenstein in 1925. A film about the Soviet Union soldiers' life on the battleship and how they disobey their authoritative generals. In addition, how they are welcomed by their families and the people, but get turned down by the governmental army by shooting down the crowd from the stairs. Therefore, this story was expressed by the cuts from frame to frame with sensitivity and anguish feelings.
Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov are among the most identifiable names in early Soviet film. Their contributions to film, in the areas of montage and documentary film respectively, have helped to structure film, as we know it today. However, apart from their theoretical contributions to the field, both directors played an imperative role in Soviet film during the 1920s and 1930s. This paper examines historical revisionism within their film, how their theories of montage influenced the revisionism, and how they were persistent in the use montage throughout their careers as filmmakers to assert themselves as artists.
A great change came during WW1 and WW2. War images were not the only way war was portrayed, but motion pictures also came along. The motion pictures gave a whole new perspective on war to the American people. Thus, by seeing this influence, many powerful leaders saw an advantage. They saw, “the tremendous potential of movies for propaganda and