F0308 Looking at Politics through the Lenses: Cinema in Totalitarian Regimes

The seminar will focus on the interrelations between politics and culture in the interwar period. We will be dealing with three states in particular: Germany, Italy and The USSR. In each of these countries the visual arts were used as a tool in the process of mobilization of the masses and served in order to strengthen the legitimation of the regime.Looking at films that were created during and after the dictatorships period, will enable us to learn more about the different types of commitment expressed by the artists. In each of those countries there were artists who rejected the demand made by the regime for complete commitment and used their creation in order to express their discomfort and opposition to the regime. Others were opportunistic and followed the regimes demands. Another group was forced to exile and in their exile countries they have suffered from the inability to create or did their best to use art as a weapon against their homeland.In order to illustrate the different orientations of the creators, we will examine the style and contents of the works of art. Questions like what makes a movie committed to the regime will be in the core of our inquiries, and we will try to figure out whether the artists used a particular style. We will also try to understand how did the artists reflect their point of view through the contents they choose for their movies.