Jazz in Soviet Cinema. The Experience of Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

The article is devoted to representation of domestic jazz in the Soviet feature silent and sound cinema in the period from 1926 to 1990. The author notes that jazz was becoming part of the plot of documentaries and feature films since its emergence in the USSR, but the accents in its image changed, and the genre nature of the movies evolved. There was a traceable shift from musical comedy to satirical pamphlet, from lyrical comedy to melodrama. Based on several dozens of examples of films where jazz sounds, the article shows the relationship between the ideological course of the Soviet state, the perception of the jazz performance specifics at different historical milestones, and the nature of its reflection on the screen. Thus, in the 1930s, jazz was synonymous with popular music and had a clear shade of humour and entertainment; in the late 1940s, it symbolized the ideological opponents of the country; and after the Khrushchev Thaw, it was considered an art, a kind of intellectual activity. In addition to the periodization of jazz cinema, the article provides a typology of films about jazz. The author presents a classification based on a set of qualities, such as maximum or minimum correlation of the plot of the film with jazz, participation of jazz musicians in it, and presence of a jazz soundtrack.

Keywords

• soviet jazz
• feature films
• musical films
• jazz history
• cinema music