A beneficiary of the pioneering incorporation of sound and synchronicity into cinema, the Hollywood musical became the most popular film genre in America’s thirties and forties. Its eastward migration resulted in a barrage of Polish screen musicals that relied on the country’s famous cabaret stars, while in the Soviet Union it inspired the audience-pleasing kolkhoz musicals of Ivan Pyr’ev and their urban counterpart, directed by Grigorii Aleksandrov. Like Stalin, Slavic moviegoers delectated tuneful melodies, mobile bodies in choreographed dance numbers, colorful costumes, and the notion that “all’s well that ends well.” Yet Slavic versions of the musical elaborated scenarios that differed from the Hollywood model. This volume examines the vagaries of this genre in both countries, from its early instantiations to its contemporary variations almost a century after its dramatic birth.
Helena Goscilo’s current research resides in the domains of celebrity studies and film: namely, an edited collection titled Starlight and Stargazers: Slavic Screen Celebrities and a monograph on current Polish women film directors, Film's Feisty Femmes: Current Polish Directors. Down the line are a co-written book on the multimedia Anna Karenina and resumption of work on a study of graphics from Stalin to Yeltsin.
"This volume will excite scholars looking for novel scholarly work on the history, aesthetics, and culture of the film musical in general and Polish-Russian-Soviet film in particular." — A. J. DeBlasio, Dickinson College, CHOICE
“In Singing a Different Tune: The Slavic Film Musical in a Transnational Context, Goscilo as editor works the magic that only the best directors can achieve: all her contributors give outstanding performances, covering material from two different countries and multiple time periods while never missing a step. The essays in this volume confirm what Busby Berkeley showed his audiences in Gold Diggers of 1933: tough times can make for great musicals.” — Eliot Borenstein, Professor & Chair, Russian & Slavic Studies, New York University
“Singing a Different Tune brings Polish and Soviet film musicals into conversation with each other and with their well-known American counterparts. The result is an engaging, interesting, and uniformly excellent collection of essays. Written by leading film scholars, the chapters explore the popular Polish film musicals of the interwar era, reinterpret the Stalinist kolkhoz musicals of Ivan Py'rev and the carnivalesque Thaw-era films that followed, analyze the seminal 1967 Polish musical A Marriage of Convenience, and situate the rise of pop divas such as Alla Pugacheva within late Soviet celebrity culture. Three chapters take the story up to the present day in order to understand the continued popularity of the genre in contemporary Poland and Russia. Singing a Different Tune succeeds in showing how Slavic filmmakers have adapted the film musical in creative ways.” — Stephen M. Norris, Miami University (OH)
“Rich with historical detail and cinematic examples, this collection traces unusual biographies of Polish and Russian musicals over the last hundred years. While being inspired by Hollywood classics, Slavic musicals managed to retain their own specifics by rooting their narratives and performances in the local traditions of cabaret, operetta, vaudeville, circus, and even balagan. Prominently focusing on the relationships between genre and gender, Singing a Different Tune is a welcome addition to the critical studies of entertainment and popular culture.” — Serguei Alex. Oushakine, Princeton University
