Eleanor Rees: Authenticity and Set Design in Early Russian and Soviet Fiction Film

 

During the 1910s and 1920s, Russian film-makers and critics regularly commented on films in terms of their ‘authenticity’ (podlinnost’) of design. But how can designed sets, which are essentially artificial, be authentic? Discussions about authenticity at this time seem to go beyond cinema’s photographic nature and its capacity to represent reality mimetically. In this seminar, I will explore different interpretations of the notion of authenticity in relation to film design. I will examine how this concept was associated with ideas of historical accuracy, psychological realism, medium specificity and materiality.