Designing Russian Cinema

Eleanor Rees received her PhD in January 2020 from University College London (UCL), UK, and has a BA and MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK. Her doctoral research was funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Design History Society. She has written ‘Comfort and the Domestic Interior in Early-Soviet Cinema of the 1920s’ in Pat Kirkham and Sarah Lichtman (eds), Interiors: Film and Television (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

Introduction
1. The Early-Russian Production Artist: Design, Creativity and Technology
I. Professional Backgrounds and Artistic Training
II. Collaborative Partnerships and Studio Practices
III. Roles and Responsibilities: From the Film Decorator to the Film Architect
2. The Rural Provinces
I. The Russian Landscape and the Search for a Native Cinema
II. Ethnographic Authenticity in late-Imperial Cinema
III. Transforming the Rural Environment: The Enchantment of Infrastructure and Technology in early Soviet Cinema
3. The Domestic Interior
I. The House as Entrapment: The Domestic Interiors of Boris Mikhin and Evgenii Bauer
II. The House as Ornament: Objects and the Desiring Gaze in late-Imperial Cinema
III. The House as Shelter: Material and Psychological Comfort in 1920s Soviet Cinema
4. The Workplace
I. The Private Study in Evgenii Bauer’s Films: Individual Desire and Power Relations
II. Fantasy and the Everyday Reality of Labour: Aelita (1924) and The Overcoat (1926)
III. Cinematic Expressivity and Pleasure in the Industrial Workplace, from Engineer Prait’s Project
(1918) to Golden Mountains (1931)
5. In the Studio and on the Stage
I. The Painter’s Atelier
II. Cinema Studios and Auditoriums
III. The Circus Arena
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Filmography
Appendix