Theoretical Concepts of Film Studies in Cinema Art Journal: 1956-1968

An analysis of film studies concepts (in the context of the sociocultural and political situation, etc.) in the existence of the Cinema Art journal during the Thaw (1956-1968) showed that theoretical works on cinematic subjects during this period can be divided into the following types:-theoretical articles written in support of the Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on culture (including cinematography), "thaw" trends, but still defending the inviolability of socialist realism, Communist Party in cinematography (A. Anikst, E. Gromov, A. Karaganov, L. Kogan, N. Lebedev, G. Nedoshivin, D. Pisarevsky, V. Razumny, L. Stolovich, V. Tolstykh, E. Weitsman, R. Yurenev, M. Zak, A. Zis and others);-theoretical articles opposing bourgeois influences, contrasting them with communist ideology and class approaches (N. Abramov, V. Bozhovich, S. Ginzburg, I. Katsev, G. Kunitsyn, A. Mikhalevich, V. Murian, G. Nedoshivin, A. Novogrudski, L. Pogozheva, N. Semenov, L. Stolovich, Y. Sher, V. Shcherbina, I. Weisfeld, E. Weitzman, A. Zis, etc.)-theoretical articles devoted mainly to professional problems: an analysis of the theoretical heritage of the classics of Soviet cinema, directing, film dramaturgy, genres, the specifics of television, etc. (S. Asenin, E. Bagirov, J. Bereznitsky, M. Bleiman, S. Freilikh, S. Ginzburg, E. Dobin, I. Dolinsky, L. Kozlov, V. Kolodyazhnaya, A. Macheret, S. Muratov, E. Plazhevsky, M. Romm, A. Svobodin, A. Tarkovsky, A. Vartanov, I. Weisfeld, R. Yurenev, S. Yutkevich, V. Zhdan, etc.);-theoretical articles balancing ideological and professional approaches to cinema (S. Gerasimov, I. Weisfeld, R. Yurenev, etc.); -theoretical articles calling on the authorities to ensure an organizational transformation that would encourage the intensive development of film studies as a science, and the sociology of cinema (N. Lebedev, H. Khersonsky, R. Yurenev).In general, the course toward de-Stalinization taken by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party resulted in a noticeable updating of the content of the Cinema Art journal: its articles contained fewer dogmatic approaches, it generated lively discussion material, and the former harsh criticisms of the "formalistic" theories of S. Eisenstein, L. Kuleshov, V. Pudovkin and D. Vertov were revised. The journal began to actively support the most artistically brilliant Soviet Thaw films. The rude attacks on certain figures of Soviet cinematography that had been characteristic of the journal in the 1930s and 1940s almost completely disappeared.At the same time, our content analysis of the Cinema Art from 1956 to 1968 showed that after N. Khrushchev was ousted from power, support for the "thaw" tendencies in the journal gradually decreased, and a series of articles against the revisionism of socialist ideas and the harmful foreign influence on Soviet filmmakers was published in connection with the Czechoslovak events of 1968.At the same time, the support of a number of artistically significant Soviet films that did not receive notable approval from the authorities and a rather diverse panorama of cinematic life of foreign countries in the pages of the Cinema Art journal eventually led to initiated "from above" strongly critical articles directed against it (in the Ogonyok magazine) and eventually to the removal of the editor-in-chief L. Pogozheva.