In the city of the eccentrics: Glumov, Mr West and Oktiabrina

ABSTRACT

In its cinematographic dimension, Soviet Constructivism turns the city into a stage upon which amazing deeds, burlesque situations and acrobatics are performed. The circus, music-hall and variety shows are the new genres that are incorporated first into the theatre, advocated by the Left Front of the Arts (LEF), and shortly afterwards into the cinema. At the same time, the urban space becomes the epitome of the technology propelled by the Soviet state, which drove the industrialisation of the country: factories, machines and engines, road traffic, telecommunications and, of course, the cinema. The present paper addresses these questions – the ‘technification’ and the eccentric view of the city of the Soviet cinema-makers – through the analysis of three period-defining works. The first of these is Glumov's Diary (S. M. Eisenstein, 1923), a satirical short film integrated in the mise-en-scene of Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man, a play by Aleksander Ostrovski; the second is The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Lev Kuleshov, 1924); and the third work studied is The Adventures of Oktiabrina (Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, 1924), the first film by the FEKS group.

KEYWORDS:

• Constructivism
• city
• excentrism
• FEKS
• L. Kuleshov
• S. M. Eisenstein

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The expressions ‘attraction number’ and ‘eccentric American comedians’ only appear in the Shershenevich edition (Marinetti, 1914b, p. 75), more complete than the Engelgardt edition (Marinetti, 1914a).

2 The components of the FEKS could also learn about it through Yuri Annenkov's programmatic article ‘Teatr do konca’ [Theatre to the Very End], Dom iskusstv, 2 (1921), pp. 59–73, where Marinetti's text is widely quoted.

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Notes on contributors

Alfonso Puyal

Alfonso Puyal is Associate Professor in Audiovisual Communication at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Author of The Mechanical Procedure: Spanish Painters in the Cinema Age (2021), Cinema and Aesthetic Renovation in the Spanish Avant-Garde (2018), Cinema and New Art (2003), and Art and Radiovision (2009). Visiting professor at Oregon State University, University of Arizona, and the universities of Heidelberg, Marburg and Puebla (Mexico). His research interest is focused on art and media, as well as cinema and intellectual life in the Silver Age of Spanish culture.