Though He is Clever and Handsome

Petersburg’s atmosphere seems to create in movie critics and cinema scientists the wish to show directors how real films must be made – not only in theoretical articles but on the set. Following O.Kovalov (The Gardens of the Scorpion, Island of the Dead), another Russian film critic in St-Peterburg – Y.Pavlov – has decided to try his hand at directing.

Pavlov’s philosophical The Creation of Adam can be regarded as you please, but to my mind it has one great advantage. The film is beautifully made. In its world are yellow sandhills, the play of Baltic waves, the deserted streets of Petersburg’s outskirts, the fashionable costumes of the main characters… shots that seem to belong in a picture gallery.

Unfortunately, for me, this is the only attractive aspect of the film, because the story – of a handsome, 30-year-old homosexual who finds clarity in life and love after meeting an effeminate guardian angel – left me indifferent. The fashionable Gay theme evoked only weak surprise because the characters didn’t invite a sharing of emotions with them, while the slow development of action reminded me of Wim Wenders’ late films and brought boredom. I can watch the “slow” films of Michelangelo Antonioni for hours, charmed again and again by the silent pauses of L’Avventura, La Notte or L’Eclisse, so my dislike of The Creation of Adam is not due to its pace and cautionary plot, but to a serious discrepancy between its author’s perception of film and the aesthetic preferences of this spectator.

It happens sometimes in life: you meet a man who is dressed with taste and seems to be clever, but it’s boring to speak with him. Antipathy arises in a moment… sometimes at first sight. The same holds true for films; you watch some with pleasure, you can’t wait for others to end.

It was bad luck for me to see The Creation of Adam. This is not my cinema, this is the cinema of Y.Pavlov, corresponding to his ideas of how stylish directors’ films should look.

Red Riding Hood & Bluebeard

Despite its trendy modern-Mafia story, A.Chechulin film A Wife for the Maitre d’Hotel is in fact a free fantasy on the theme of two famous fairytales by Charles Perrot.

A young, really naïve beauty (A.Nemolyaeva), though foolishness and the effects of alcohol, finds herself in the room of a professional maitre d’hotel – a University graduate who knows eight languages. He spends the night with her and, untrue to stereotype, proposes to her. That’s the point where the story of Red Riding Hood being eaten by the wolf turns into the story of Bluebeard. Showering his wife with presents, luxurious outfits and awesome travel tours, the intellectual maitre demands only one thing: that she not interfere with his criminal deeds. But, of course, the temptation is too powerful, and she has secret affairs with her husband’s best friends – a gangster and cop – whom he cold-bloodedly kills when he learns the truth.

You say in the original tales Bluebeard killed non his wives’s lovers, but the overly curious ladies themselves? But that’s Chechulin’s fantasy, modernizing Perrot. His finale follows suit: disappointed in her husband, our heroine returns to her mother’s house and… becomes a prostitute.

So it’s better to go into the streets than to live with a loveless husband! If only this idea had been presented to us as humorous parody. But Chechulin just retells Perrot’s story using the language of Emile Zola.

The Time Has Passed

V.Bogachev’s Dark Alleys is based on the novels of Ivan Bunin, classic of Russian literature. The best thing about the film is the duet of actors O.Bogacheva and D.Lubshin – she with the slightly mocking eyes, he with the shyness of a tutor-student, both in their days of transient happiness, all shown with appropriate respect for the Nobel Laureate’s work and a will to re-create the atmosphere of Russia at the beginning of the 20^th century.

Episodes framing the dramatic story, however, turn out badly. Roughly naturalistic, reformed with extreme theatricality, they resemble the tricks of a roving street circus. You don’t believe these characters could be related to the Russian elite of Nikolai II’s epoch.

It’s hard for today’s filmmakers to get rid of the post-Soviet outlook and create anything slightly resembling the images of Bunin’s heroes. Dark Alleys is another unrealized attempt to relinquish the Russian “cinema of gloom” for the beautiful world of passionate love evoked by classic literature.

How to Shoot the “True” Film About Russia (Ironical instruction for Western cineastes)

As a member of the Union of Russian Cineastes, I've worked up a set of brief instructions for Western producers, writers and directors who want to make «true film about Russian life»:

1. Say you're basing your movie on a Russian story.

2. Give the leading male positive role to an actor with a «manly» appearance.

3. To show his endless attraction to Russian nature, church and children. Have him mouth deep psychological thoughts about «the essence of being».

4.  Make the principal Bad Guy look nasty with uncommon eyebrows and a curly black wig. His residence must have foreign posters on its flat-painted walls and Cosmopolitan magazine on the table. He should show an eager desire to run off over the border, visit underground clubs, make fun of Russian boldness and - the main thing - have an affair with another's Slavic wife.

5.  It's necessary for the heroine not only to show a bright Russian manner but wardrobe to match... such as big «sarafan»(a female costume in old Russia). She can have her weaknesses, certainly, as does everyone. Even commit adultery. None of it is her fault, however; she is simply a victim of the Mafia.

6. Between the Bad and Good Guys of a True Film about Russia you can't omit the «intermediate link»: one hesitating character - an alcoholic doctor, for example - who is torn between Good and Evil.

7.For the creation of action tension it's okay to use: explosion of secret laboratory; a car accident; stripteases in rock club, and location footage in Paris.

8.  Photographically, a Fine Arts representation must be made through poetic contrast: milky fog drifting over green fields and a pensive cow will definitely underline the alienation evoked in the Russian soul by your images of the cold shine of Western skyscrapers, luxurious shops and bottles of White horse (more suggestive of deceitful, negative characters than Stolichnaya vodka).

9.  If, seeing the end result, critics and some spectators are indignant over the primitive drama, dialogue and performances, and the director's pretentious amateurism, they should be rebutted by special advertisements in the mass newspapers and TV-channels.

10.  If that doesn't work, than the last advice is simple as everything that's brilliant: declare publicly (preferably on TV) that your film can be understood and appreciated only by True Lovers of True Russian Culture.

9.10. The Program of Media Education Course for University Students

This work was supported by the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Support Foundation, grant N 18/2000

Abstract

The realization of the theoretically and methodically grounded system of the Media education on the material of the audiovisual arts, promotes not only the forming of the aesthetic acknowledgement and individual creative thinking of the student youth, but also prepares it for the conduct of the circles and optional lessons, special courses on the problems of media screen arts.

The object of course - the theoretical and practical activity of the students, who acquire the aesthetic knowledges with the help of the cinema, television and video, develop their creative and moral potential, the individual thinking, the independence of the analytic judgment, study to teach the pupils on audiovisual basis.

The subject of the course is the artistic and pedagogical opportunities for using the screen arts in the educational process. The goals of course is at first, to define the place and role of the screen arts in the sphere of the artistic interests of the students, the psychological and pedagogical conditions of the development of the student's individuality by the means of the cinema, TV, video. Secondly, the aim is to elaborate the effective system of the formation of the aesthetic consciousness /on the basis of the perception of the audiovisual time-space reality in the cinema this perception unites the experience of the apprehension of the traditional arts/, to develop the individual thinking and creative potential of the students, to prepare the future teachers for the Media education and training of the pupils on the audiovisual material.

The General characteristics.

The realization of the theoretically and methodically grounded system of the Media education on the material of the audiovisual arts, promotes not only the forming of the aesthetic acknowledgement and individual creative thinking of the student youth, but also prepares it for the conduct of the circles and optional lessons, special courses on the problems of media screen arts.

The object of course - the theoretical and practical activity of the students, who acquire the aesthetic knowledges with the help of the cinema, television and video, develop their creative and moral potential, the individual thinking, the independence of the analytic judgment, study to teach the pupils on audiovisual basis.

The subject of the course is the artistic and pedagogical opportunities for using the screen arts in the educational process. The goals of course is at first, to define the place and role of the screen arts in the sphere of the artistic interests of the students, the psychological and pedagogical conditions of the development of the student's individuality by the means of the cinema, TV, video. Secondly, the aim is to elaborate the effective system of the formation of the aesthetic consciousness /on the basis of the perception of the audiovisual time-space reality in the cinema this perception unites the experience of the apprehension of the traditional arts/, to develop the individual thinking and creative potential of the students, to prepare the future teachers for the Media education and training of the pupils on the audiovisual material. It's assumed that the training of students for the Media education of the pupils on the basis of cinema, TV and video may become the effective method of the development of the aesthetic acknowledgement /the perception, taste, the skill of the artistic analysis and so on/, the creative faculties / through the practical mastering of the audiovisual language, the theatrical and situative games and so on/, the individual thinking of the audience, with the condition of the maximum use of the potential opportunities of the cinema, TV, video with the help of the Pedagogical model.

This model includes: the mastering of the creative skill by the students on the basis of cinema, TV and video, the forming of the apprehension of the artistic structure of the screen arts' works / by the method of the emotional and meaningful correlation of the units of the cinema narration/; the ability of their analysis, the acquaintance with the main milestones in the history of the cinema, TV and video, with the modern social and cultural situation; the studying of the methods and forms of the Media education and training of the pupils on the material of the screen arts; the use of the obtained knowledges and skill in the process of pedagogical practical work in the secondary school establishments.

The present model foresees the method of the lessons, based on the problematic, in the form of the game and others. These forms of education develop the individuality of the student, the independence of his thinking, stimulate his creative abilities thanks to the direct involvement into the artistic and creative activity, the perception, interpretation and analysis of the audiovisual structure of the narration, the adoption of the aesthetic knowledges.

The following basic forms of activity are distinguished:

1. The mastering of the principles of the creative skills on the basis of the films, TV programmes /the writing of the small scripts, the work on the «ad posters», the amateur video shooting/.

2. The forming of the aesthetic perception, interpretation and appraisal of the productions of cinema, TV and video, rising to the identification with the author, that is to the comprehension of the complex of the audiovisual artistic images, individual creative mentality.

3. The obtaining of the knowledges about the history of the screen arts about their role and place in the social and cultural life.

4. The study acquirement and practical use of the method and program of the Media education of the pupils on the basis of the screen arts.

The game's method and the problematic method of the leading of the collective films' and telecasts' discussions.

The directions on the aesthetic perception: the collective seeing a film; post communicative stage: the discussion of the film seen by the above-mentioned discussions of the screen art' works in the student audience. In the capacity of the basic criterion of the students' faculty for the artistic analysis of the audiovisual, space-and-time structure of the screen's works the skill of the comprehension of the varied figurative world of the film is distinguished. The skill of the comprehension of the logic of the sight and sound, plastic development of the author's thoughts is also very important in the complex unit of the various means of the organization of the sight and sound.

According to the worked out system, the program of my special course foresees the study of the parts «The Basic Stages of the Screen Art's History» and «The Training of Students for the Media Education of Pupils on the Basis of the Screen arts».

During the realization of the program of the last part, the following stages were foreseen:

the acquaintance of the future pedagogues with the problems of media-education and training of the pupils by the means of the screen arts in the Russian and foreign pedagogic, with the forms and kinds of the present education;

the study of the method of the Media education of the pupils on the material of the cinematograph, TV, video in the system of the humanities, optional lessons, cinema-video clubs for the pupils;

the use of the obtained knowledges and skills during the student pedagogical practical work /the leading of the clubs and optional lessons by the future teachers, the discussion of the control lessons etc./.

In the process of the forming experiment, the future teachers mastered the creative point of view in the work with the pupils, with the help of the games in roles, the tasks of the creative nature, the attitude to the pupils, proceeding from their individuality, differentiated attitude to the pupils, proceeding from their individuality, cultural development. The attention of the audience was drawn to the aesthetic education of the pupils by the screen arts' means: the purposeful selection of the works of art, the definition of the main tasks, organizational and methodical principles, best conditions forms and methods /the persuasion, stimulation, the organization of the problem situations etc./ of the lessons with the pupils. Such lessons must be corresponding to the process of the formation of the pupil's creative individuality, aesthetic perception of the films and TV programmes, including the concrete practical tasks, the use of the technical means control and appraisal of pupils' work.

The tasks include: the writing ones /the working out of the plan-summary of the lesson, conversations, the opening words before the collective seeing, competitions, the choice of the themes and the ground of the plans of the course's and diploma's works on the problems of the pupils' education by the means of the screen arts/, the «theatrically-situation's» /the business-like games «The Lesson», «The Conversation with the pupils» on the audiovisual basis, the theatricalized sketches on the themes of the study of the cinema-video-club for the pupils etc./.

The criterions of the fulfillment of the present studies /as ones of the control lessons during the pedagogical practical work are: the skill of the future teachers to draw up the plans and choose the subjects of the different kinds of works with the pupils theoretically grounded and methodically literately, to lead the studies of the clubs and optional lessons on the audiovisual material.

In the result of the realization of the formative experiment, the standards /levels/ of the criterions of the professional readiness of the aesthetic education of the pupils on the basis of the screen arts rose. Thus I got the evidences of not only the effective work of the worked out system /the resultant aspect/, but the proofs of the necessity of the maximum development of the knowledges and skills, corresponding to the worked out criterions of the professional readiness for the aesthetic education of the pupils by the means of the cinema, TV and video.

THEMATIC PLAN OF THE PROGRAMME OF COLLEGE /UNIVERSITY/ COURSE

"THE TRAINING OF STUDENTS FOR MEDIA EDUCATION OF PUPILS ON THE BASIS

OF THE SCREEN ARTS /CINEMA, TV, VIDEO/".

Part 1. The Development of Students' Aesthetic Perception & Ability for Analysis of the Screen Arts' Works.

Part 2. The Basic Stages of Screen Arts' History and Peculiarities of Modern Sociocultural Situation.

Part 3. The Training of Students for Media Education of Pupils on the Basis of the Screen Arts.

THE PROGRAM OF COURSE "THE TRAINING OF STUDENTS FOR MEDIA EDUCATION OF PUPILS ON THE BASIS OF SCREEN ARTS (CINEMA, TELEVISION , VIDEO"

Part 1. Development of students' Aesthetic Perception and Ability for the Analysis of the Screen Arts' Works.

Theme 1. The first test for students.

Results this test give insight into the artistic preferences of the concrete auditorium in the field of screen arts (the most popular genres, themes, functions, heroes, other motives of perception of the works of cinema, television, video), what is allowed for teacher at the realization of the all complex of training course. 

Theme 2. The first students' experience of the screen arts' review.

The students’ reviews let to bring out the initial levels of aesthetic perception and capacity for the artistic analysis of the works of screen arts, characteristic for this auditorium.

Theme 3. The problem of the aesthetic perception of screen arts.

 Installation on perception. The process of artistic perception (picturesque generalization, the synthesis of elements audiovisual and space-temporary narrative, the conditions of perception). Levels and types the artistic perception of screen arts («primary identification», «secondary identification», «complex identification»). Ages, social, professional, national and another peculiarities of the perception of the works of screen arts. The phenomenon of the mass-scale success; of video different types and genres. Technical types cinema, television, and video: absence colors (color, or black-and-white image), of sound (silent, sound, etc.), by the peculiarities of the format of image (habitual, cinemascope, etc.), volume of images (ordinary, stereo, etc.).

Documentary screen arts, cinema-TV-equipment, reportage, essay, portrait, interview, the application of archival audiovisual materials and etc.), their purpose, tasks, functions. Scientifically popular cinema and television: the popularization of the scientific ideas by means of screen arts. Instructive and knowledge function of the scientifically popular films and telecasts. Instructional films and telecasts: absence of popularization, calculation on vocational Feature screen arts (films, telecasts, music-videos, their specific, thematically diversities, etc.). Documentary in the feature films and artistic television. Animation screen arts, their role, tasks, functions. Ties and the screen arts. Music videos how the characteristic example of the amalgamation of the several types of screen arts, their peculiarity.

Connection of the cinema genres and artistic television with the genre of literature and theater. Specific of the genre of screen arts (tragedy, drama, melodrama, comedy, detective, thriller, musical, etc.). Conception of mass-culture genre. Synthesis of the genres - the characteristic phenomenon of contemporary screen arts.

The process of the creation of the works of screen arts. Students' receipt of creative abilities on material cinema, television, video, computer games and interactive programs, the seeing and the discussions about the works of screen arts.

The main causes of the popularity of the works of screen arts (folklore bases, mass-culture genre, author's intuition, system «emotional switching», use of the function of compensation, recreation, etc.). 

Theme 4. The aesthetic analysis of screen arts' works. 

The consideration of the contents of the episodes of the works of screen arts, the detecting of the brightest characteristic regularities of the film or telecast on the whole. Attempt is parsed in the logic of author's thinking: in the development of conflicts, of characters, of ideas, of sound-plastic world, etc. Detection of author's concept and the expression of students' personal position about the Media screen work.

 Theme 5. The test for students: The Results of first part of Media Education.

 Students’ answer of questionnaires, of identical themes, what were used at the beginning of studies of training course. Received results are compared with results initial tests in controlling students' groups. Thus, graphically manifests effectiveness carried out callings.

Theme 6. The students' screen arts' reviews as the results of the first part of Media education.

Comparison of the initial and the final works of students allowing to infer about that, how was changed their level of artistic perception and capacity for the artistic analysis of the works of screen arts.

Part 2. The basic stages of screen arts' history and the peculiarities of modern sociocultural situation.

Theme 1. «Great Silent» (1895 - 1930).

From photograph to the cinema. Creation the first films. Cinema began centuries: it principal items and genres. American Silent cinema. Impressionism in French movies. Expressionism in German movies. Surrealism. Russian Silent cinema (1915-1918). The creative flow of Russian cinema 1920-1930.

Theme 2. Stage of Sound Cinema (1926- Present)

The first sound movies. Development American and English Mass-culture cinema (comedy, detective, western, thriller, musical, horrors, etc.). The French cinema of the epoch of democracy (30-th years) and German occupation (1940-1944), the first post-war year old «Poetic», «romantic» and «black» cinema. Entertainment French cinema.

Totalitarian tendencies in Russian and German cinema: themes, problems, ideas, and heroes. The mass-culture Russian cinema 30-40-s. Neorealism in Italian movies: problems, tendencies, social roots, and subject area, stylistics. Significance of Neorealism for the development of world art. American cinema 30-60-s. American Star system. Decline of neorealism and «pink neorealism» in Italian movies. Entertainment cinema the epochs of «Italian miracle».

French «new wave»: problems, the type of hero, quest shaped. Entertainment French cinema 50- 60-s).

German cinema west and east zone: thematically and artistic differences.

Spanish cinema epochs Franco. Swedish and Norwegian cinema. «The thaw» in Russian cinema of second half 50-s. «Poetic cinema» and the theory of the «flood of life», «picturesque cinema» and another flow. The Russian «author's» and entertainment cinema 60-s. The Russian reinforcement of antidemocratic tendencies with reference to movies into second half 60-s: causes and consequences.

Cinema of East Europe: «polish school», Czechoslovak cinema 60-s, Yugoslavian and Hungary cinema. Japan cinema. Triumph of American entertainment cinema of 70--90-s years. European cinema 60-90-s. Censorship and the creative complexities of realization of Russian author's ideas in contemporary theme. Russian 70-s - of 80-s years. The change of Russian sociocultural situation (second half 80-s), the abolition of censoring, emergence on screen previously banned films. Opening new thematically, problematical and genres possibilities Russian cinema. The further reinforcement of tendencies computerization American mass-culture cinema. The problems of hiring out and the blunt drop of attendance in the circumstances market, developments cable, and satellite television. The fundamental change of situation in East Europe cinema on the whole (in connection with the ruin of authoritarian political regimes, by the corporation of Germany, by the breakdown of Soviet union, etc.). 

Theme 3. The development of Television (1935- Present)

The first tests of creation electronic TV in the mid of 30-s the years of XX century. Basic principles TV. Television canals and standards. Black-and-white and color television. The American artistic television of 40-s years: genres and themes. The first artistic television 50-s. Priority direct television of 50-60-s years. Color television. TV 60- 70-s years devoted to literature, to theater, to music, painting, to architecture, choreography, to circus, photographs, and cinema and to other types arts. Entertainment programs of world television 70- 80-s years. Priority video. Top TV masters 60 - 80-s. Phenomenon of serial. TV-theater and it tradition. The effect of sociocultural situation on the change of character, areas and forms artistic TV. Computer technician and television. FX. Tutorial television. The main tendencies of world television 50- 80-s years.

Contemporary telecasts devoted to art: genres, themes, problems, image top, and the contact with auditorium. Television cinema. Cable and satellite television. The main tendencies of the world television of 90s years.

 Theme 4. Development of video (1970- Present).

Video 70-s: the first attempts of creation home video. Contemporary video: VCR, video camera, etc. video-cinema and music videos. Possibilities video and it significance for artistic upbringing by the facilities of screen arts. The outlooks of development video.

Theme 5. The role of screen arts in modern sociocultural situations. Specific and the relationship of screen arts, their connection with other arts in the context of contemporary sociocultural situation. The role of audiovisual culture of screen arts in the living of contemporary man. The peculiarities of contemporary sociocultural situation (the intensive development of the audiovisual facilities of information, computer technology, cinema-video-market, ordinary, cable, satellite television and etc.). Specific communication of the Media contact and role in this process of phenomenon mass-popular cultures. The outlooks of screen arts in the plan of the improving of pedagogical process in schools, Universities. 

Chapter 3. The Training of Students for the Media Education of Pupils on the Basis of the Screen Arts.

Theme 1. Problems of Media Education in the Modern Science.

 Media and Media Education: the problems of terminology. The contemporary state of the pedagogical cadres of from the point of view preparing for Media education and to artistic upbringing of pupils on the material of screen arts. Role of Media education, of artistic upbringing on material of cinema, television, video in contemporary pedagogical process. The synopsis of theoretical proceedings and examinations devoted to problem of Media education and artistic upbringing by the film and TV. Dignities and blemishes, the choice of the most effective ways.

Theme 2. The kinds & forms of Media Education on the Basis of Screen arts. 

Programs by Media Education, the facilities cinema and television. Media Education on the material of screen arts in the context of school disciplines. Lectures. The evenings devoted to screen arts. Expositions and amateur press about the problems cinema, of television, video. The Media education lessons. Cinema-video-clubs. Amateur cinema-video-studios. Reproductive, heuristics, playful, problems lessons of Media education. The development of full-value artistic pupils' perception of screen arts (model, methods, etc.), the criteria of the aesthetic development of the auditorium in the field of screen arts. Scientifically pedagogical activity the most known media teachers. Media Education Programs of UNESCO, programs of European Union. 

Theme 3. The use of screen arts in the system of school 's subjects. 

The application of screen arts in the process of the teaching of literature, of music, of pictorial art, histories and other disciplines.

Theme 4. The methods of Media (Screen Arts) Education's Studies.

 The common model (the levels of artistic development and the perception of the works of screen arts; the development of audiovisual perception and the abilities of the artistic analysis of works cinema, television, video; the formation of creative abilities on the material of screen arts), program and methods the principles of lessons for pupils as to the bases of screen arts. The facilities of Media Education on screen arts (lectures, conversations, of written paper - reviews screenplay, «adaptation», narrative on behalf of the film's hero, telecasts; cadrages, collages, cinema-video-shooting etc.; heuristics, playful study - competitions, etc.; discussions, conference on various themes bound with video; excursions, meetings with men of screen arts. The methodology of the arranging of the sociologic examination of the artistic preferences of pupils in the field screen arts. Theme 5. The methods of cinema-video-club's studies for the pupils. Discussion cinema-video-clubs, it task and functions. The methodology of arranging this clubs (opening address, reviewing of the film, telecasts, collective debate). The possibilities of organization of video club in schools, at the cinema-theaters, the houses of culture, in the establishments of complementary education.

Theme 6. The use of the Knowledge and Skills in the Process of Students' pedagogical practice.

Media Education, artistic upbringing taught on the material of screen arts in the process of the pedagogical practice of students in schools, the establishments of complementary education (the centers of aesthetic upbringing, clubs), boarding-schools, children's houses, summer centers: main methodical principles and shaped works. Practical application received knowledges during arranging current study with pupils. 

Theme 7. The Final Test of Students.

This tests sums up to all curriculum, gives insight into that, how deeply are internalized by students received knowledges and abilities, what changes in artistic perception and the development of students' audience.

9.11.The special course “The mass and individual terror in the mirror of the Russian cinema-art (The feature films of the sound period)”

This work was supported by the grant of Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary: International Higher Educational Support Program, Course Development Competition (HESP – CDC, 1998).

I. Introduction

a) Locating the content of the course within the discipline

This special course is connected with the big discipline of 'Organization of Culture Activities on the Material of screen Arts', including 'History of Cinema and Media Education'.

Proceeding from the research that was devoted to different aspects of the Theory and History of Cinema-Art, as one of the branches of the Theory and History of Art, we can make a conclusion: the analysis of the theme of terror and terrorism in the Russian cinema remains uncharted; no existing school book, monographs or thesis contain a chapter devoted to this vital question.

At present the Theory and History of Art, Cinema art lacks researches, monographs, devoted to the theme of mass & individual terror in Russian cinema of the sound period (1930s-'90s). The researches of Russian specialists in the Theory and History of Arts were until now devoted to such traditional themes as 'historically-revolutional', 'heroic-patriotic', war, etc. In this theme context films of '30s-'40s were viewed, in this or that degree concerning our topic, for example, works by I. Dolinsky, S. Ginsbourg, N. Lebedev, A. Groshev, V. Zhdan, N. Tumanova, L. Belova, etc. The theme of terror as a separate theme was not regarded in the published works analyzing films of the '50s-'90s either (N. Zorkaja, L. Annensky, Y. Bogomolov, V. Demin, I. Waisfeld, G. Kapralov, M. Turovskaja, K. Raslogov, etc.). Therefore, no Russian research claimed to have a special analysis of the theme of mass and individual terror in the Russian cinema art.

Thus, the problem of the course is, for the first time in the Theory & History of Art, to study, analyze and make it a system of evolution of the interpretations of the themes of terror and terrorism in Russian cinema-art of the XXth century, taking into consideration the social & cultural, political & ideological context, types of plot schemes and characters, basic authors' concepts of the themes of mass & individual terror, peculiarities of the artistic style. The chronological framework: the sound period of the Russian cinema-art /since 1931/ till the present day.

The general social & cultural context, within the limits of which the problem is, is the following: Mass and individual terror is one of the most dreadful crimes of the XXth century. During its biggest part of existence, the Russian cinema-art touched upon the theme of terrorism. In different years the interpretations of the terrorists' action were not only different, but quite opposite too. For instance, in the early '30s-'70s the activity of Russian Communists Special police (V.C.K.) was interpreted positively, in the end of '80s & '90s V.C.K. was shown as the organization that headed the mass terror. In the films made in the '60s (SOFIA PEROVSKAYA by Leo Arnshtam, etc.) about individual revolutionary terror, the main characters were treated sympathetically, while in the films of the '90s (screen versions of the novels by Boris Savinkov, etc.) individual terror is unequivocally turned down.

No doubt, the terrorism theme was never a leading one in Russian cinema art, despite the fact that for some political, economic, and military reasons in the Russian society of the '90s, terrorism began to increase threateningly. Cinema in different genres (drama, thriller, detective story or a comedy and parody) began to turn to the problem of this course more and more often.

b) Locating the course within the curriculum.

This special advanced course is connected with the curriculum of Pedagogical Institute. This curriculum includes other Art and History disciplines: 'World Art Culture', 'World History' and 'History of Russia', 'Aesthetics', 'History of Cinema and Screen Arts' and 'Media Education'.

c) Student's assumed knowledge basis for course participation

1. the main stages of World History;

2. the main stages of Russian History;

3. the main stages of World Art's History;

4. the main aesthetic conceptions;

5. the main stages of World Screen Art's History;

6. the main stages of History of Russian Cinema-Art