Circus

I really liked this film and it did a good job promoting socialist realism in Russia for its time. The cinematography was also good. I felt like I could have been watching a modern movie with the techniques used, such as the camera angles and length of each scene. At first, I thought this movie was just going to be a story about a woman from America who makes travels to Russia and becomes famous. However, there were a lot of underlying themes to the film that were solely there for propaganda purposes.

For example, the first one I noticed was that Marion had a son that was racially mixed. This was a reason why she fled the America in the first place. When Von Kneishitz discovers her son, he is very judgmental and says she can never integrate into white society with her child. He then proceeds to show him to the audience at a performance in hopes of getting a nasty reply. The fact everyone was very accepting of Marion and her son son suggested the socialist way of thinking; everyone is the same.

Another theme I thought was important was the way Marion's way of thinking was progressively changing throughout the movie. The longer she stayed in Russia, the more she began to feel comfortable there. She knew that she could have a good life in Russia with her son and she wouldn't be persecuted for her past. This was apparent towards the end of the movie when Marion, Petrovich, and Raya march in a Russian parade. I think the audience must have loved this scene because it depicted an American choosing Russian ideologies over the U.S.'s way of thinking.

After reflecting on the film, I think the directors did a bad job representing Americans the way they really are. The first time we see Americans in a group is in the beginning of the film. They are formed as an angry mob chasing Marion out of the circus grounds where she works and onto a train. The only thing this does is make the American public seem like antagonists and a problem in society. Despite this, I felt the plot was good in terms of Russian cinema. It's a great film to support Russian propaganda during its time period, but it's probably not a movie I would watch on a lazy Sunday.