ABSTRACT
The genre of melodramatic, Russian-themed films was very popular during the late 1920s and 1930s, in both Europe and the US. Many of the films display a fascination with the Tsarist period, which provided settings that can be linked to an ambivalent desire to come to terms with the upheaval of the Bolshevik Revolution and its aftermath. The number of films on Russian themes produced in this period is a significant indicator of a cultural preoccupation with the Soviet Union and anxieties about competitive militarism on the eve of the Second World War. In Germany the ‘Russenfilme’, often produced with input from Russian émigrés such as directors Viktor Tourjansky or Alexander Volkoff, or designers such as Andre Andreiev, constituted an important generic trend. It included films such as the Franco-German co-production Michel Strogoff/Der Kurier des Zaren (1925/26), Der weisse Teufel (The White Devil, 1929), and Manolescu (1929), the latter starring popular German film star Brigitte Helm alongside the Russian screen idol Ivan Mosjoukine. 1 In addition, it has been estimated that over thirty-five films on Russian themes were made in France in the 1930s, often directed by Russian émigrés including Fédor Ozep and Alexis Granowsky. 2 The list of films includes Volga en flammes (1933), L’Enfant du Carnaval (1934), Puits en flammes (1936), and Nostalgie (1937). 3 There are also significant British examples which will be discussed in this chapter, while Hollywood also contributed to the trend with films including The Fall of the Romanovs (1918), Love (1928), starring Greta Garbo, and its sound film remake Anna Karenina (1935), The Last Command (1928), and We Live Again (1934). Indeed, it is notable that a number of directors and set designers working in the popular cinemas of Europe and Hollywood were attracted to Russian themes, which constituted a significant sub-genre of the historical film melodrama.
