Chapter 17: The Former Soviet Union, 1945-Present
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. During World War II, the Soviet cinema
a. relocated its production center from Moscow to central Asia.
b. sent documentary cameramen to the front to get authentic war footage for newsreels.
c. saw regional studios assume greater importance.
d. produced morale-building films made by important Soviet directors like Eisenstein.
e. made more realistic films than at any time since the 1920s.
f. all of the above
2. Andrei Zhdanov
a. was the chief architect and enforcer of Socialist realism who banned the films of Eisenstein.
b. presided over the greatest expansion period in the history of the Soviet cinema.
c. was the most important director of the Soviet “artistic documentary” genre.
d. organized an anti-Semitic campaign that destabilized the Soviet film industry.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
3. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Soviet film production
a. stabilized, producing about fifty feature films a year for the domestic and Eastern bloc markets.
b. experienced an unprecedented growth as a result of the opening of new markets for Soviet films in
Eastern Europe.
c. contracted slightly, but Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Dovzhenko, and Trauberg all continued making
films.
d. sunk to its lowest output of feature films since the revolution.
e. first began to regain the international prestige it enjoyed in the 1920s.
f. none of the above
4. The “artistic documentary”
a. blended documentary footage with reenactment to show the beginnings of the revolution in the
Soviet Union.
b. was a genre pioneered by Dovzhenko but practiced by all the major Soviet filmmakers.
c. were docudramas exclusively about Stalin.
d. was a decisive move away from Socialist realism in that it encouraged formal experimentation.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above
5. After Stalin’s death, Khrushchev declared
a. that Stalin had been the most powerful positive influence on the Soviet cinema since the revolution.
b. that Stalin had lost touch with the reality of the country because he only knew it through the films
he himself controlled.
c. the end of Socialist realism.
d. a commitment to continue the filmmaking policies that had been in place under Stalin, including
severely limiting the graduates from VGIK.
e. an end to all censorship and government control of cinema in favor of a free market/free speech
model.
f. none of the above
6. The influential director of The Cranes Are Flying, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival
in 1958 and announced to the world a revival of the Soviet cinema, was
a. Mikhail Romm. d. Sergei Eisenstein.
b. Mikhail Kalatozov. e. Grigori Chukhrai.
c. Sergei Parajanov. f. none of the above
7. Under Khrushchev, the Soviet cinema
a. continued to be brutally repressed as it was under Stalin.
b. flourished, with production growing to over one hundred features a year.
c. became centralized in Moscow with the studios of the Republics either closing or switching to
documentary production.
d. produced films that were popular domestically but never at international festivals.
e. completely rejected the tenets of Socialist realism.
f. none of the above
8. The Khrushchev regime’s more flexible attitude toward the cinema
a. continued into the 1970s.
b. ended only when he was removed from power in 1964.
c. led to a higher number of films being produced but no real formal experimentation or social
criticism in those films.
d. ended in 1962 with a party-line attack on Kalatozov’s The Letter Never Sent.
e. ultimately resulted in the abandonment of Socialist realism as the official film style of the Soviet
Union.
f. none of the above
9. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
a. was Parajanov’s first feature film.
b. creates a strikingly realistic cinematic space.
c. features a relatively immobile camera, relying instead on composition to tell the story.
d. tells a modern story in a cinematically old-fashioned way.
e. is notable for the clarity of the narrative and clear perspective of every image.
f. none of the above
10. All of the following are stylistic characteristics of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors EXCEPT
a. a dramaturgy of color.
b. the use of sound and image to destabilize audience perception.
c. atonal electronic music, instrumental folk music, and religious chants.
d. the use of fish-eye lenses to warp perspective.
e. the construction of a traditional and logically continuous representational space.
f. All of the above are characteristics of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.
11. When Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors was released
a. it was a tremendous commercial success in the Soviet Union, where it played more widely than
any film in Soviet history.
b. it was heralded by the Soviet government as a landmark achievement in Ukranian culture.
c. Parajanov was given permission to make any films he wanted as long as they were within a certain
budget range.
d. it enjoyed greater international acclaim than any Soviet film since Battleship Potemkin.
e. only a and d
f. all of the above
12. After Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Parajanov
a. wrote ten complete screenplays based on classical and folk literature that were never approved for
production.
b. never made a film in the Soviet Union again.
c. was considered a hero in the Soviet Union and spent the next two decades as one of the countries
most lauded filmmakers.
d. was arrested on a variety of specious charges and sentenced to six years of hard labor.
e. a and d are true.
f. none of the above
13. The Soviet director whose successful debut feature Ivan’s Childhood allowed him to make the
controversial Andrei Rublev is
a. Sergei Parajanov. d. Nikita Mikhalkov.
b. Andrei Konchalovsky. e. Mikhail Romm.
c. Andrei Tarkovsky. f. none of the above
14. Tarkovsky’s films are notable for
a. having all been shot in the Soviet Union but set in foreign countries.
b. being mysterious and often narratively inaccessible.
c. their narrative economy and brisk pacing, which has made them popular with Soviet audiences.
d. their clear sense of political commitment.
e. being the only Soviet made films to succeed at the American box office.
f. none of the above
15. The Tarkovsky film that deals with the spiritual response of a small group of people on a Baltic island
to imminent nuclear holocaust is
a. Andrei Rublev. d. The Sacrifice.
b. Solaris. e. A Mirror.
c. Stalker. f. none of the above
16. Andrei Konchalovsky is relatively unique among the Soviet directors of his period because
a. he was allowed to freely work in the United States and return to the Soviet Union with the
government’s support.
b. he made small personal films with no real political content.
c. he received the enthusiastic support of the government to make any film he wanted in the Soviet
Union with no threat of censorship.
d. his films were all extremely popular with both the public and the Communist party officials who
oversaw the film industry.
e. he worked exclusively at the studios in the Kazakh and Uzbek republics but was financed by
Moscow.
f. none of the above
17. Each of the fifteen autonomous republics of the Soviet Union
a. had its own film studio, all of which produced feature films.
b. had its own film school that sent all its graduates to that republic’s studio.
c. made films in Moscow since there were no facilities to do so in the republics.
d. made films in the same language and cultural tradition.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
18. The strongest category of film among the independent Soviet republics was
a. Baltic cinema. d. Central Asian cinema.
b. Slavic cinema. e. Moldavian cinema.
c. Transcaucasian cinema. f. none of the above
19. The Lithuanian cinema first began to produce significant and distinctive work
a. during the silent era, when it was one of the strongest industries in Europe.
b. during World War II when the cinema became a vehicle for anti-Nazi sentiment.
c. in the 1960s when the first films of Vitautas appeared.
d. with the stylized films of Algimantas Puipa in the 1980s.
e. not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the rebirth of Lithuanian independence.
f. none of the above
20. Currently, Lithuania
a. has virtually no film industry and no mechanism by which to produce feature films.
b. is undergoing a major production boom as private investment is now driving the industry.
c. produces between fifteen and twenty films a year primarily for export to the other Baltic countries.
d. has a struggling film industry formally linked to Estonia and Latvia in a joint distribution venture.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
21. Is It Easy to be Young? is a film concerning the struggles of young people in which Soviet Republic?
a. Moldavia d. Armenia
b. Kazakhstan e. Latvia
c. Lithuania f. none of the above
22. The Latvian film industry
a. has failed to adapt to the market economy and the government fully subsidizes all production.
b. is essentially nonexistent with the exception of animation and documentary production.
c. is popular domestically but has never won any international recognition.
d. has a broad audience base in places like Finland, Lithuania, and Moldavia.
e. has no policy for government support of film production or film culture.
f. none of the above
23. The brief brilliance of the Moldavian cinema was destroyed when
a. the Soviets assumed control of the country, immediately attempting a program of “Russification.”
b. the Brezhnev regime instituted a campaign against “ethnic nationalism.”
c. Stalin-era Socialist realism made the mytho-poetic character of Moldavian film illegal.
d. the breakdown in state funding that came along with Perestroika left the industry bankrupt.
e. the Soviets closed the Moldavian studio in the 1970s in an act of political oppression.
f. none of the above
24. Film production in Estonia
a. is remarkably consistent given its tiny population.
b. only began after the period of Soviet domination ended.
c. is entirely privately funded and so enjoyed a remarkable expansion in the 1990s.
d. averaged an amazing ten films a year under the Soviets but collapsed after state funding ended.
e. is, and always has been, nonexistent.
f. None of the above is true.
25. The oldest and most sophisticated of the cinemas of the former Soviet republics was
a. Lithuania. d. Ukraine.
b. Armenia. e. Estonia.
c. Georgia. f. none of the above
26. The early Georgian cinema
a. did not produce its first feature film until after the coming of sound.
b. produced many feature length documentaries before WWI but no narrative features.
c. featured a collaboration between production companies and the Tblisi Theater Institute that
continues until today.
d. was held back because there were no movie theaters in Georgia prior to the Soviet era.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
27. The Georgian film that was the first in the Soviet Union to deal with the terror of the Stalinist era and
so became a turning point for openness in the Soviet cinema was
a. Mikhail Kalatozov’s Salt for Svanetia.
b. Georgi Shengelaia’s Pirosmani.
c. Mikheil Chiaureli’s The Vow.
d. Tengiz Abuladze’s Repentance.
e. Otar Iosseliani’s When Leaves Fall.
f. none of the above
28. Georgi and Eldar Shengelaia
a. always codirected their films, which they also wrote together.
b. both worked with modern material unlike an earlier generation of Georgian directors.
c. made films that encountered no problems from the Soviet authorities or censors.
d. were the first directors to make a Georgian feature film.
e. both made films that celebrated Georgian heritage and culture but in different genres.
f. none of the above
29. The films of Otar Iosseliani
a. have remained politically inoffensive, accounting for his longevity as a director.
b. have always been popular with Georgian audiences, sometimes running for a year in a single
theater.
c. have always been chosen by Soviet and Georgian authorities to represent the Georgian cinema
internationally.
d. have always received generous state support despite the films’ avant-garde qualities that have
never made them popular favorites.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
30. The first group of Georgian filmmakers to be primarily trained at the Tblisi film school rather than at
VGIK came to prominence in the
a. 1980s.
b. 1950s.
c. 1970s.
d. 1960s.
e. 1990s.
f. None of the above; most Georgian filmmakers are still trained at VGIK.
31. When Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union and Zviad Gamsakhurdia became
president of the country, the film industry
a. became completely independent of government control.
b. had the central government directly control all access to film financing.
c. almost doubled its production in the subsequent two years.
d. remained centralized with a single production unit making all films.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
32. The contemporary Georgia cinema
a. produces an average of over twenty films a year.
b. suffers from a shortage of trained directors.
c. is reliant on Western export markets for its survival.
d. is all but nonexistent with many years producing no films at all.
e. is no longer as popular on the international film festival circuit as it was in the 1990s.
f. none of the above
33. Armenian cinema
a. did not emerge until the founding of the Yerevan Studio in 1971.
b. began to be produced for the first time after Armenia joined the Soviet Union.
c. produced its first feature films during World War II to promote anti-Nazi sentiment.
d. produced its first feature film prior to joining the Soviet Union in 1922.
e. first began intensive feature film production during the Stalinist era.
f. none of the above
34. Amo Bek-Nazarov
a. was the founder of the Georgian cinema.
b. is the most internationally acclaimed director to emerge from the Kazakh cinema.
c. made the first Moldavian feature film in the 1930s.
d. was the dominant figure in the early Armenian cinema.
e. is the only internationally prominent filmmaker to emerge from the Kirghizian cinema.
f. none of the above
35. Parajanov’s Sayat Nova (also known as The Color of Pomegranates)
a. is the only film Parajanov made in Armenia.
b. was the last film Parajanov made in Georgia.
c. is told in a series of strange and complex tableaux.
d. is Parajanov’s most formally conventional film.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
36. A key source for financing Armenian films in the 1970s was
a. the Telefilm Studios of Armenia.
b. box-office revenues.
c. international coproduction.
d. private investment capital.
e. the central film bureaucracy in Moscow.
f. none of the above
37. The Armenian cinema since the 1990s
a. has depended on the activity of numerous Armenian filmmakers living outside the country.
b. underwent a sustained production boom throughout the decade that became known as the “New
Armenian Cinema.”
c. has made an average of twenty feature films a year.
d. has collapsed completely.
e. has merged with the Georgian and Azerbaijan cinemas to form a single Transcaucasian industry.
f. none of the above
38. Prior to the Soviet Revolution, the cinema of Azerbaijan was
a. nonexistent.
b. dominated by a single filmmaker, Boris Svetlov.
c. already nationalized with central government control over production and distribution.
d. the most vibrant of all the republics.
e. oriented toward the production of slapstick comedy.
f. none of the above
39. All of the following filmmakers made films in Azerbaijan EXCEPT
a. Boris Barnet. d. Amo Bek-Nazarov.
b. Nikolai Shengelaia. e. Viktor Turin.
c. Andrei Tarkovsky. f. All of the above worked in Azerbaijan.
40. The Azerbaijani cinema after World War II was mostly characterized by
a. documentaries. d. remakes of earlier Azerbaijani films.
b. musicals and comedies. e. adventure films.
c. political propaganda films. f. none of the above
41. The Uzbek silent cinema
a. did not exist, as films were not produced in Uzbekistan until after World War II.
b. was the last to develop in Central Asia.
c. produced pro-Islamic documentary films.
d. was sporadic due to the lack of strong production companies.
e. was predominantly documentaries and science films.
f. none of the above
42. The most important young VGIK-trained filmmaker to emerge in the Uzbek cinema of the 1960s was
a. Vagif Mustafayev. d. Elior Ishmukhamedov.
b. Artavazd Peleshyan. e. Larisa Shepitko.
c. Eldar Shengelaia. f. none of the above
43. Ishmukhamedov’s The Shock
a. is about government corruption and organized crime in the cotton industry.
b. was attacked by Mikhail Gorbachev as being contrary to the aims of perestroika.
c. is a love story that spans the Stalin and Gorbachev eras.
d. was a box-office failure that destroyed the director’s reputation.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
44. The first Uzbek film shot and released in the Uzbek language was
a. The Shock. d. The Muslim Woman.
b. Kiep’s Last Journey. e. White, White Storks.
c. Farewell, Green Summer. f. none of the above
45. The Uzbek cinema in the 1990s
a. collapsed as a result of the move to a market economy.
b. continued to be entirely state subsidized.
c. operated as a partnership between government and private industry.
d. once produced over twenty feature films a year and now makes only two or three.
e. both a and d
f. None of the above are true.
46. The Kazakh cinema
a. produced many distinguished silent films.
b. began when Kazakhstan joined the Soviet Union and started producing propaganda films.
c. did not produce its first film until after World War II.
d. began with the creation of the Alma-Ata documentary studio in 1937.
e. produced its first feature films in the 1950s, after the Stalinist period.
f. none of the above
47. The place where the Soviet cinema was centered during the early 1940s and where Eisenstein made
Ivan the Terrible, Part I and Part II was
a. Moscow, Russia. d. Alma-Ata, Kazakhtsan.
b. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. e. Tblisi, Georgia.
c. Yerevan, Armenia. f. none of the above
48. The impetus for the Kazakh New Wave was
a. an influx of foreign capital into the Kazakh industry.
b. a dramatic increase in government funding for Kazakh cinema.
c. the creation of the Alma-Ata documentary studio.
d. the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
e. a program for Kazakh filmmakers at the VGIK.
f. none of the above
49. The first film to emerge from the Kazakh New Wave was
a. Kiep’s Last Journey. d. The Needle.
b. Turksib. e. Pirosmani.
c. Heat. f. none of the above
50. The Kazakh cinema of the 1990s
a. was among the best equipped in the Soviet Union.
b. operated entirely without state financing.
c. saw the creation of over thirty independent production companies.
d. went for several years without producing a single feature film.
e. produces between ten and fifteen feature films a year.
f. none of the above
51. The Kazakh National Production Center
a. is an outdated studio facility in Alma-Ata.
b. is the funding source for a majority of Kazakh films of the 1990s.
c. is the only studio operating in Kazakhstan today.
d. is a government umbrella organization for all the independent production companies in
Kazakhstan.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
52. The Kirghizian film industry
a. dates back to the early silent period.
b. began in the 1930s but became extremely active during World War II.
c. produced some of the best known early sound films in the Soviet Union.
d. has the largest studios in Central Asia.
e. was begun by the Soviets immediately after the Revolution.
f. none of the above
53. Chingiz Aitmatov was
a. the first director to make a feature film in Kirghizia.
b. the famous novelist whose stories and screenplays are the basis of most Kirghiz films.
c. the Kirghizian director whose work has been most successful internationally.
d. the secretary of the Kirghiz Filmmaker’s Union who oversaw the rise of Kirghiz cinema.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above
54. All of the following are significant Kirghiz directors EXCEPT
a. Tolomush Okeyev.
b. Bolotbek Shamshiev.
c. Aktan Abdykalykov.
d. Larisa Shepitko.
e. None of the above are important Kirghiz directors.
f. All of the above are important Kirghiz directors.
55. The Kirghiz film industry
a. is too small to sustain any significant international coproduction.
b. is small but well equipped with cameras and production facilities.
c. has the smallest of all the Central Asian studios.
d. has produced no feature films since independence.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
56. The cinema of Tajikistan
a. was very active during the silent period but went into decline when sound arrived.
b. produced only a handful of films before the 1980s.
c. has never produced films that have achieved international acclaim.
d. has steadily produced between five and ten films a year for fifty years.
e. is limited only to the production of documentaries, animation, and experimental film.
f. none of the above
57. Davlat Khudonazarov
a. is not a director but does run the Tajik film industry.
b. was an important director of silent Tajik cinema.
c. is one of the few directors in the Central Asian republics to have been a supporter of the Soviet
government.
d. is an important director, most of whose films have been banned by first the Soviet then the Tajik
governments.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
58. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Tajik cinema
a. received state funding that continued unabated.
b. immediately ceased the production of feature films.
c. maintained a centralized government control over the film industry.
d. was forced to rely on coproductions in order to finance its films.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
59. The current state of the Tajik cinema is
a. nonexistent.
b. a small but steady output of four or five features a year.
c. surprisingly strong given their small domestic market.
d. such that although relatively few features are made, several have won international acclaim.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
60. The films of Hodjakuli Narliev most often concern
a. the power struggles between the Turkmen and the Iranian Kurds.
b. the role of women in Muslim society.
c. the history of Turkmenistan and its endless struggle for freedom.
d. the problems of modernization in a traditional culture.
e. radical politics.
f. none of the above
61. The Turkmen cinema is
a. technologically well-equipped but creatively impoverished.
b. nonexistent.
c. known for the high quality of its children’s films.
d. primarily supported by foreign coproduction financing.
e. well supported by a large domestic audience.
f. none of the above
62. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet cinema was encouraged by the central government to
produce
a. political propaganda films.
b. artistically significant films.
c. narrative films with hidden ideological messages.
d. entertainment films.
e. films about Soviet cultural achievements.
f. none of the above
63. The Russian bytovoy genre is
a. a musical genre.
b. an action-adventure genre.
c. films about Soviet cultural achievements.
d. a political propaganda style.
e. films about everyday life.
f. none of the above
64. Soviet filmmakers in the 1980s were able to insert political criticism into their films by
a. adding fantastic plot elements somewhat akin to science fiction.
b. using personal disillusionment as a metaphor for social problems.
c. dealing with social issues such as juvenile delinquency that were inherently critical.
d. using allusion and allegory to hide the true meaning of their films.
e. developing a sort of Socialist surrealism.
f. all of the above
65. The “Leningrad school” of the 1970s and 1980s was characterized by
a. the way it dealt with complex human problems.
b. inventive color cinematography.
c. daring stylistic flourishes.
d. their use of physical comedy.
e. both b and c
f. none of the above
66. Larisa Shepitko
a. is the only important woman director to emerge from the Russian cinema.
b. made films that incorporated the iconography of the Orthodox church.
c. was Russian but studied cinema at the Kirghiz film school where she made her first feature film.
d. made films that were both spiritual in nature but overtly critical of religion.
e. both a and c
f. none of the above
67. The important Moldavian-born director whose film Brief Encounters was banned until perestroika is
a. Dinara Asanova. d. Aida Manasarova.
b. Larisa Shepitko. e. Alla Surikova.
c. Kira Muratova. f. none of the above
68. Elem Klimov’s films are
a. subtle psychological character studies that are not overtly political.
b. fast-paced action films set in the near future.
c. stylistically restrained melodramas dealing with interpersonal relationships.
d. iconoclastic and formally inventive combining documentary, old photographs, and staged tableau.
e. “chamber films” dealing with the disillusionment of Soviet youth.
f. none of the above
69. Klimov’s film Rasputin was shelved because
a. it portrayed Rasputin and Tsar Nicholas sympathetically.
b. in the film Rasputin bore a close resemblance to Khrushchev.
c. it was so formally experimental that it seemed an insult to Russian history.
d. it failed to mention Lenin or the Bolsheviks.
e. both a and d
f. none of the above
70. Elem Klimov’s Come and See
a. was an enormous hit with the Soviet audience.
b. has no distinct sounds on the audio track after the midway point in the film.
c. is about Nazi oppression of Belorussia.
d. contains wildly experimental montage and camera movement.
e. affirms some of the central myths of the Soviet state.
f. all of the above
71. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the cinema of the Soviet Union
a. drew over fifteen million viewers for the average theatrical release.
b. was completely free to express a diversity of political perspectives.
c. was not considered an important art form since relatively few people went to the movies.
d. contracted considerably from the production boom of the 1960s.
e. moved away from centralized studio control toward more independent production.
f. none of the above
72. The Gorbachev regime changed all the following regulations concerning cinema EXCEPT
a. releasing formerly banned films.
b. abolishing the Film Workers Union.
c. encouraging coproduction with the West.
d. moving studios toward self-financing.
e. ending the freeze on ownership of VCRs.
f. none of the above
73. The Russian films often containing sex, violence, and drugs, which focused on the morbid effects of
the collapse of the Soviet Union, were called
a. Boeviki. d. “chamber films.”
b. bytovoy. e. “social fiction” films.
c. chernukha. f. none of the above
74. Aesthetically, the cinema of the Russian glasnost era
a. was entirely lacking in formal innovation or experimentation.
b. was only concerned with box-office returns and no longer interested in art cinema.
c. made films with very little political messages.
d. was dominated by directors who were formerly considered “difficult.”
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
75. The Russian “parallel cinema”
a. was a movement dedicated to soft, satirical comedies often with a romantic plot.
b. was an overtly entertainment-oriented approach to filmmaking that paralleled the American
industry.
c. was an underground movement that evolved the irreverent style of “necrorealism.”
d. was a concept circulated in film journals but never produced any significant films.
e. both a and b
f. none of the above
76. The effect on the Russian film industry of the dissolution of the Soviet Union was
a. complete collapse.
b. a substantial reduction in the number of feature films produced.
c. the move to a total free-market film economy.
d. made easier by the large domestic market.
e. both b and d
f. none of the above