In Not According to Plan, Maria Belodubrovskaya reveals the limits on the power of even the most repressive totalitarian regimes to create and control propaganda. Belodubrovskaya's revisionist account of Soviet filmmaking between 1930 and 1953 highlights the extent to which the Soviet film industry remained stubbornly artisanal in its methods, especially in contrast to the more industrial approach of the Hollywood studio system. Not According to Plan shows that even though Josef Stalin recognized cinema as a "mighty instrument of mass agitation and propaganda" and strove to harness the Soviet film industry to serve the state, directors such as Eisenstein, Alexandrov, and Pudovkin had far more creative control than did party-appointed executives and censors.
Maria Belodubrovskaya is Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.
Table of Contents
Terms and Abbreviations Note on Transliteration Introduction 1. Quantity vs. Quality 2. Templan 3. The Masters 4. Screenwriting 5. Censorship Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendixes Bibliography Index
What People are Saying About This
Yuri Tsivian
Rich, thoughtful, and information-packed, Not According to Plan will be widely used in academia and beyond. It’s a wonderfully detailed, faultlessly argued, groundbreaking book whose potential impact stretches above the field of film history.
Vladimir Padunov
Maria Belodubrovskaya provides a compelling argument that runs counter to received wisdom concerning the repeated failures of the Stalinist cinema industry in meeting the goals mandated by the state organizations overseeing film production. Instead of focusing on the top-down organizational structures of the industry, Belodubrovskaya convincingly locates the source in a bottom-up paradigm that stresses the industry’s failure in developing professional and efficient middle management, on the one hand, and the power of individual director-masters in controlling the entire production process, on the other.
