The Cinema of Yakov Protazanov

"Protazanov is that rare exception of a filmmaker, who made the transition from pre-Revolutionary to Soviet cinema, and who in-between those phases spent several years abroad, in France and Germany; therefore, he does not fit easily within the temporalities of film history. Moreover, his work across various genres, his popularity, and his unflinching professionalism in the face of diverse political regimes has made him fall from the radar of scholarship focused largely on the Soviet avant-garde. Booth Wilson's book fills this gap with an in-depth study of Protazanov's career and a fine analysis of his films, drawing on a wealth of sources for this portrait of Soviet cinema's maybe most popular filmmaker."


  ~Birgit Beumers, Professor of film studies at the University of Aberystwyth, Wales, and editor of the journals KinoKultura and Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema.

“Cinema is an anywhere art. Lubitsch did well in Germany, and even better in Hollywood. Max Ophüls' creative itinerary includes Germany, Hollywood, and France. Protazanov's boomeranged: Imperial Russia, France, and back to Russia, this time Soviet. An indifferent artisan? A promiscuous shapeshifter? Not so fast. As we learn from Wilson's perceptive and penetrating study, the more Protazanov changed, the more he stayed himself—a genuine anywhere artist.” ~Yuri Tsivian, author of Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twenties