"I want to underline my own belief that art must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition to it—otherwise life would become impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence."
― Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time (1986)
The Cold War Cinema team is joined by guest Taylor R. Genovese to discuss Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature film, Ivan's Childhood (1962), a Soviet masterpiece about the Great Patriotic War and prime example of Thaw–era cinema.
Taylor R. Genovese is an assistant professor of philosophy at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He has also been a filmmaker and photographer for over a decade. His multimodal and transdisciplinary research focuses on Marxism, historical memory, and borderlands. He is also an editor and board member at Iskra Books, a nonprofit scholarly publisher that releases original works of revolutionary theory, history, ecology, and art.
In this episode we discuss:
- Andrei Tarkovsky's life and career
- The historical and political context of Ivan's Childhood
- Tarkovsky's aesthetic vision and theological concerns
- How the concept of "toska" shapes the sensibilities of the literary and cinematic arts in the Slavic world, including in Tarkovsky's films.
- The moving image representation of trauma and transcendence in Ivan's Childhood.
- The poetry of Andrei's father, Arseny Tarkovsky, and its influence on the filmmaker.
- The Soviet astethetics of Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928), as articulated in his book Art and the Working Class, which Genovese translated from the Russian in 2022. To purchase the book (or download a free PDF), click this link.
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We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:
Taylor recommends the films Come and See (1985, dir. Elem Klimov) and Dead Man's Letters (1986, dir. Konstantin Lopushanskiy).
Paul recommends a film and a record: Sergei Eisenstein's Strike (1925) and U2's War (1983).
Tony recommends the book Freudianism: A Marxist Critique, by Valentin Voloshinov, and the new essay "The Enchanted Biopolitics of Dark Cosmism" by our guest Taylor R. Genovese.
Jason recommends the film Kes (1969, dir. Ken Loach)
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Logo by Jason Christian
Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).
Happy listening!
