Editing Musical film (section)

==Soviet musical film under Stalin==
Unlike the musical films of Hollywood and Bollywood, popularly identified with escapism, the Soviet musical was first and foremost a form of propaganda. [[Vladimir Lenin]] said that cinema was "the most important of the arts". His successor, [[Joseph Stalin]], also recognized the power of cinema in efficiently spreading Communist Party doctrine. Films were widely popular in the 1920s, but it was foreign cinema that dominated the Soviet filmgoing market. Films from Germany and the U.S. proved more entertaining than Soviet director [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s historical dramas.<ref>Denise Youngblood. Movies for the Masses: Popular Cinema and Soviet Society in the 1920s (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 18</ref> By the 1930s it was clear that if the Soviet cinema was to compete with its Western counterparts, it would have to give audiences what they wanted: the glamour and fantasy they got from Hollywood.<ref>Dana Ranga. "East Side Story" (Kino International, 1997)</ref> The musical film, which emerged at that time, embodied the ideal combination of entertainment and official ideology.

A struggle between laughter for laughter's sake and entertainment with a clear ideological message would define the golden age of the Soviet musical of the 1930s and 1940s. Then-head of the film industry [[Boris Shumyatsky]] sought to emulate Hollywood's conveyor belt method of production, going so far as to suggest the establishment of a Soviet Hollywood.<ref>Richard Taylor, Derek Spring. Stalinism and Soviet Cinema (London: Routledge Inc., 1993), 75</ref>

===''The Jolly Fellows''===
In 1930, the esteemed Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein went to the United States with fellow director [[Grigori Aleksandrov]] to study Hollywood's filmmaking process. The American films greatly impacted Aleksandrov, particularly the musicals.<ref name="Ranga. East Side Story">Ranga. "East Side Story"</ref> He returned in 1932, and in 1934 directed [[Jolly Fellows (1934 film)|''The Jolly Fellows'']], the first Soviet musical. The film was light on plot and focused more on the comedy and musical numbers. Party officials at first met the film with great hostility. Aleksandrov defended his work by arguing the notion of laughter for laughter's sake.<ref>Andrew Horton. Inside Soviet Film Satire: Laughter with a Lash (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 84</ref> Finally, when Aleksandrov showed the film to Stalin, the leader decided that musicals were an effective means of spreading propaganda. Messages like the importance of collective labor and rags-to-riches stories would become the plots of most Soviet musicals.

==="Movies for the Millions"===
The success of ''The Jolly Fellows'' ensured a place in Soviet cinema for the musical format, but immediately Shumyatsky set strict guidelines to make sure the films promoted Communist values. Shumyatsky's decree "Movies for the Millions" demanded conventional plots, characters, and montage to successfully portray [[Socialist realism|Socialist Realism]] (the glorification of industry and the working class) on film.<ref>Horton. Inside Soviet Film Satire, 85</ref>

The first successful blend of a social message and entertainment was Aleksandrov's [[Circus (1936 film)|''Circus'']] (1936). It starred his wife, [[Lyubov Orlova]] (an operatic singer who had also appeared in ''The Jolly Fellows'') as an American circus performer who has to immigrate to the USSR from the U.S. because she has a mixed-race child, whom she had with a black man. Amidst the backdrop of lavish musical productions, she finally finds love and acceptance in the USSR, providing the message that racial tolerance can only be found in the Soviet Union.

The influence of [[Busby Berkeley]]'s choreography on Aleksandrov's directing can be seen in the musical number leading up to the climax. Another, more obvious reference to Hollywood is the [[Charlie Chaplin]] impersonator who provides comic relief throughout the film. Four million people in Moscow and Leningrad went to see ''Circus'' during its first month in theaters.<ref>Horton. Inside Soviet Film Satire, 92</ref>

Another of Aleksandrov's more-popular films was ''The Bright Path'' (1940). This was a reworking of the fairytale ''Cinderella,'' set in the contemporary Soviet Union. The Cinderella of the story was again Orlova, who by this time was the most popular star in the USSR.<ref>Taylor, Spring. Stalinism and Soviet Cinema, 77</ref> It was a fantasy tale, but the moral of the story was that a better life comes from hard work. Whereas in ''Circus'', the musical numbers involved dancing and spectacle, the only type of choreography in ''Bright Path'' is the movement of factory machines. The music was limited to Orlova's singing. Here, work provided the spectacle.

===Ivan Pyryev===
The other director of musical films was [[Ivan Pyryev]]. Unlike Aleksandrov, the focus of Pyryev's films was life on the collective farms. His films, ''Tractor Drivers'' (1939), ''The Swineherd and the Shepherd'' (1941), and his most famous, ''[[Cossacks of the Kuban]]'' (1949) all starred his wife, [[Marina Ladynina]]. Like in Aleksandrov's ''Bright Path'', the only choreography was the work the characters were doing on film. Even the songs were about the joys of working.

Rather than having a specific message for any of his films, Pyryev promoted Stalin's slogan "life has become better, life has become more joyous."<ref>Joseph Stalin. Speech at the Conference of Stakhonovites (1935)</ref> Sometimes this message was in stark contrast with the reality of the time. During the filming of ''Cossacks of the Kuban'', the Soviet Union was going through a postwar famine. In reality, the actors who were singing about a time of prosperity were hungry and malnourished.<ref>Elena Zubkova. Russia After the War: Hopes, Illusions, and Disappointments, 1945–1957 (armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), 35</ref> The films did, however, provide escapism and optimism for the viewing public.

===''Volga-Volga''===
[[File:Volga-volga.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Volga-Volga]]'', directed by [[Grigori Aleksandrov]]]]
The most popular film of the brief era of Stalinist musicals was Alexandrov's 1938 film ''[[Volga-Volga]]''. The star, again, was Lyubov Orlova and the film featured singing and dancing, having nothing to do with work. It is the most unusual of its type. The plot surrounds a love story between two individuals who want to play music. They are unrepresentative of Soviet values in that their focus is more on their music than their jobs. The gags poke fun at the local authorities and bureaucracy. There is no glorification of industry since it takes place in a small rural village. Work is not glorified either, since the plot revolves around a group of villagers using their vacation time to go on a trip up the [[Volga]] and [[Moscow Canal]] to perform in Moscow. The film can be seen as a glorification of Moscow canal without any hint that the canal was built by [[Gulag]] prisoners.

''Volga-Volga'' followed the aesthetic principles of Socialist Realism rather than the ideological tenets. It became Stalin's favorite film and he gave it as a gift to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] during [[WWII]]. It is another example of one of the films that claimed life is better. Released at the height of Stalin's purges, it provided escapism and a comforting illusion for the public.<ref>Svetlana Boym, ''Common Places''  (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 200-201. {{ISBN|9780674146266}}; and Birgit Beumers, ''A History of Russian Cinema'' (Oxford: Berg, 2009). {{ISBN|9781845202149}}
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