Films of Aleksandr Rou

Deborah Allison is a London-based cinema programmer and an associate research fellow at De Montfort University’s Cinema and Television History Research Institute. Her previous books include Film Title Sequences: A Critical Anthology (2021), The Cinema of Michael Winterbottom (2012) and the co-authored The Phoenix Picturehouse: 100 Years of Oxford Cinema Memories (2013).

• AcknowledgementsNote on Translation and TransliterationIntroduction: The Storyteller A Cinema for the Millions: The Pre-War Fairy Tales and Socialist RealismThe Magic Fish (1938)Vasilisa the Beautiful (1939)The Little Humpback Horse (1941)The War Years and ‘The Enemy’Fighting Film-Collection No. 7 (1941)Kashchei the Immortal (1945)The Film Famine and After: Exile from FairylandThe Tale of Tsar Saltan (uncompleted)The Documentaries: Artek (1949), A Day of Wonderful Impressions (1949) and in the Crimea (1950)May Night (1952)Secret of the Mountain Lake (1954)A Precious Gift (1956)Fairy Tales, Folklore and Fantasy as Modern Texts in the ThawNew Adventures of Puss in Boots (1958)The Magic Weaver (1959)Cinderella (1960)The Night before Christmas (1961)The Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors (1963)Late-Career Fairy Tales: The ‘Storyteller’ QuartetJack Frost (1964)Through Fire, Water and … Brass Pipes (1968)Barbara the Fair with the Silken Hair (1969)Golden Horns (1972)Epilogue: Rou’s LegacyA Posthumous Production: Finist – The Bright Falcon (1975)The People’s ArtistFilmographyBibliography

'[The Films of Aleksandr Rou] does not just give us a detailed critical biography; it also implicitly argues for Rou’s significance as a director based on his ability to create aesthetically beautiful self-contained magical worlds and to innovate using trick shots and special effects. Moreover, in Western contexts, Soviet cinema has long been dominated by high-brow figures such as Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, leaving little room for directors whose work engaged with popular audiences. Such films are often dismissed as propaganda, whereas here Allison shows how Rou – like the arthouse directors mentioned above – was able to navigate the complexities of Soviet politics, ultimately creating a body of work that satisfied the state without feeling didactic to audiences.The Films of Aleksandr Rou: Father of Soviet Fairy Tale Cinema makes a convincing case that the director should be regarded as a major figure in film history, and the book is also notable for combining scholarly rigour with Allison’s evident passion and personal admiration for Rou’s artistry.'