Pre-Revolutionary Non-Fiction Cinematography. Image and Sign

Abstract

The article discusses characteristic features of Russian prerevolutionary non-fiction cinema, which has been little studied to date. The proposed analysis gives a fresh look at its place in the performing art of prerevolutionary Russia and determines certain specific aspects of its artistic form. Can it be considered figurative cinema or is it mostly symbolic? Does it reflect all aspects of life in Russia at that time, or does it address them selectively?
A new approach to the analysis of pre-revolutionary films and their comparison with Dziga Vertov’s post-revolutionary pictures make it possible to offer a more accurate description of the artistic techniques of the time, which is extremely relevant and timely in the light of unbiased assessments of the ongoing processes.
Dziga Vertov’s film “Kinoglaz” (1924), which has been selected for comparison is largely a staged film, which does not shy away from dramatic techniques. Georges Meyer, one of the first documentary filmmakers who worked in Russia for a long time, shot his first film “Moscow in Winter” (1908) exclusively as a piece of chronicle, as a documentary, but his second one, “Sevastopol and the Squadron in the Black Sea” (1908) is already made using staged elements.
How should we treat surviving pre-revolutionary newsreels, as images of the past or as signs referring to the past? The purely staged film “Kinoglaz” tends toward figurative language. Pre-revolutionary non-fiction cinema is largely sign-oriented, although the so-called “tsarist chronicles”, which depict the ritual of autocratic power, are therefore more figurative. The chronicle, that is, documentary approach, practiced in early films, remained a device for only a short time, soon to be supplanted by staged shots, especially since the beginning of the First World War. True, this does not apply to regularly released newsreels, where the documentary character, relying on reporting techniques, is not in question.