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[FULL RUN OF STEPANOVA ISSUES] Sovetskoe kino [i.e. Soviet Cinema] #1-3, 4/5, 6/7, 8 for 1926, #1-4, 5/6, 7, 8/9 for 1927, #1,2/3 for 1928. Overall 15 issues

Item #2372

Moscow: Tea-kinopechat’, 1926–1927. 35x26 cm. In two contemporary cloth bindings; all original constructivist wrappers preserved. Very good internally.

The set is important as it includes all the issues, that were produced in large format under the design supervision of Varvara Stapanova. First six issues of 1925 didn’t have any design significance and were focused on cinema statistics.

This well-illustrated monthly became a true guide to early Soviet cinematography. It was published in 1925–1928, as the organ of the Artistic Council for Cinema. Its editor was a theatrical and art critic Osip Beskin.

Covers of the first two issues of 1926 were created by poster designer Konstantin Vialov (1900–1976). He studied under A. Lentulov, V. Kandinsky, V. Tatlin and D. Shterenberg. Since the 1920s, he gained fame for film and propaganda posters.

Most of the issues were designed by eminent constructivist designer Varvara Stepanova. She created a photomontage cover design for issue no. 6/7 (1926) mixing images from four films. Her front cover of issue No.1 for 1927 features no montages: it is focused on the only person and shows how Mikhail Kaufman is shooting while going on roller skates.
In all, the periodical included reviews on films by famous Soviet directors of those years – Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Dziga Vertov, Mikhail Kaufman, Esfir Shub, Lev Kuleshov, et al. – as well as foreign films starring well-known actors. In particular, one of the issues contains a review of the first Pudovkin’s film, “Mechanics of the Brain” (1926) promoting Pavlovian conditioning.

One of the major topics was cinematography as a tool of propaganda and enlightenment. Since issue No. 1 of 1926, the periodical tells how the Soviet cinematography turned to villagers, for their
entertainment and benefit, and how peasants were shown in contemporary films. Primarily, propaganda moving pictures of a low running time were projected by mobile cinemas in villages. To engage illiterate people, lectures were replaced with series of satirical propaganda pictures displaying caricatures of well-known Russian Civil War participants. Contributors to the magazine summed up statistics on early 1920s movie making and outlined common topics of contemporary films. The edition introduced various film studios that emerged in Soviet republics and portrayed film directors and actors.

Among others, the issues feature frames with the montage work from the films by Kaufman brothers and a Rodchenko’s poster to their silent film “Kino-Eye” (1924). Apart from posters, Rodchenko’s photographs were included in the section “Photography in Films”.

In all, a valuable source on early Soviet filmmaking complemented with designs by constructivist masters.

Worldcat doesn’t track paper copies of this periodical.

Status: On Hold