Clowns and Combines: The Musical Films of Grigorii Aleksandrov and Ivan Pyr’ev (1934-1950) (Research Brief)

My research will lead to the first book on the musical films of Aleksandrov and Pyr’ev, and will focus on several areas, including the making and reception of the films, their intersection with theoretical models of established western genres, assimilation of native and foreign genre/extrageneric influences, cultural context, narrative and stylistic systems, and cinematography. The book will examine from an historical-cultural, theoretical and stylistic perspective a defining phenomenon of Stalinist popular culture, which remains a vital part of the continuing discourse on national identity in contemporary Russia.

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Rimgaila Salys, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, was a 2001-02 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.