Juan Monroy — Outline: Soviet Union and Andrei Tarkovsky

1 Soviet Thaws
- 1.1 Khrushchev thaw
  - 1954–1964
- 1.2 Brezhnev thaw
  - stable and prosperous
  - consumerist goods
  - intervention in Angola and Ethiopia
  - invaded Afghanistan
- 1.3 Goskino
  - bloated bureaucracy
  - encouraged popular entertainment
    - Irony of Fate; or, Have a Good Bath (1975)
    - Siberiade (1979)
    - Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears (1980)
      - won an Academy Award
    - White Sun of the Desert (1970)
  - Tarkovksy’s cinema
    - family
    - poetry
    - religion
2 USSR stagnation
- 2.1 agricultural and industrial production
- 2.2 health and living standards
- 2.3 corruption, inefficiency, and overextended military
3 Glasnost and Perestroika
- 3.1 Mikhail Gorbachev
- 3.2 1982–1991
- 3.3 Relationship with the West
- 3.4 Critical of Stalin-era Soviet Union
- 3.5 Opened up Film Industry
  - loosened censorship
  - rejuvenated Goskino
4 Andrei Tarvosky
- 4.1 Born 1932 in Soviet Union
- 4.2 Studied at the State Institute of Cinematography (1954)
- 4.3 “Khrushchev Thaw” (c. 1956) exposed Tarkovsky to Western culture
  - European cinema
  - Italian Neorealism
  - French New Wave
  - Japanese cinema
5 Major Film Works
- 5.1 Ivan’s Childhood (1962)
- 5.2 Andrei Rublev (1965)
- 5.3 Solaris (1972)
- 5.4 The Mirror (1974)
- 5.5 Stalker (1979)
- 5.6 Nostalghia (Italy, 1982)
6 Thematic Concerns
- 6.1 spirituality
- 6.2 metaphysics
- 6.3 displacement
7 The Mirror (1974)
- 7.1 Semi-autobiographical
- 7.2 Erratic Narrative Structure
- 7.3 Manipulation of Space/Time
- 7.4 Oneiric (Dreamlike) Structure
- 7.5 Themes of Exile and Displacement
8 Combination of Footage
- 8.1 Third-person, omniscient narration
- 8.2 Subjective, internal mental states
- 8.3 “Found” Newsreel footage
9 Jumps between Time Periods
- 9.1 Pre World War II
- 9.2 World War II
- 9.3 Postwar 1960s
10 Exile and Displacement
- 10.1 What is the mirror?
- 10.2 Where does one belong a place?
- 10.3 Where does one belong in a historical moment?