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Italy through Russian eyes: Italy’s evolving imagined geography in Russian cinema
- Source: Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, Volume 11, Issue Intersections between Italian and Slavic Cinemas, Jun 2023, p. 453 - 469
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- 29 Jun 2022
- 07 Oct 2022
- 07 Jun 2023
Abstract
Italy has long been a source of fascination and inspiration for Russian writers, artists and filmmakers due to its extensive cultural heritage. Russian filmmakers have played with how Russians view Italy, and they offer viewers the opportunity to see Italy through Russian eyes. Whether in collaboration with Italian filmmakers or on their own, Russian directors have sought to explore Italy: both its real geography and its imagined one. Imagined geography gives us a new way to examine Russian–Italian film collaboration. By examining the imagined geography of Italy in Ryazanov’s Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia (1974), Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia (1983), Mikhailkov’s Dark Eyes (1987), Kravchuk’s The Italian (2005) and Konchalovsky’s Sin (2021), this article proposes that Russian directors map similarity and inspiration onto Italy to establish an affinity towards Italy that exists beyond the boundaries of the film collaborations.