the cinema of ALEXANDER SOKUROV
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the cinema of
ALEXANDER SOKUROV
figures of paradox
Jeremi Szaniawski
WALLFLOWER PRESS LONDON & NEW YORK
A Wallflower Press Book
Published by
Columbia University Press
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cup.columbia.edu
Copyright Jeremi Szaniawski 2014
All rights reserved
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E-ISBN 978-0-231-16735-2
A complete CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-231-16734-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-16735-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-85052-0 (e-book)
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Cover image of Alexander Sokurov courtesy of the Kobal Collection
CONTENTS
A great number of people made this book possible, in a variety of ways and capacities, and I will try to acknowledge all of them here.
First and foremost, I must thank my parents, Maria Kozinska and Marek Szaniawski, for their love and unflinching moral support throughout the process of writing this book. I must also point out the remarkable financial help they have provided in order for me to be able to finalise the writing process. They have shown that it is always those who have the least who are the most generous. I must also thank my parents for the gift of gratitude.
Thanks must also be rendered to Alexander Sokurov himself. For his oeuvre, as well as for the time he generously gave me on two occasions. We first met at his St. Petersburg apartment in the summer of 2005. Lyubov Arkus (whom I met at Pittsburgh University through Nancy Condee and Vladimir Padunov) arranged and facilitated the first meeting and offered copies of some of Sokurovs rarest films, as well as insight into his art and life. She also generously offered me a visit of the (now sadly defunct) Lenfilm studio, and presented me with a copy of her seminal book on the director and several issues of her film journal, SEANS. The second meeting, in September 2013 in Brussels, was arranged thanks to the invaluable help of Thomas Campbell and Marina Koreneva, and with the logistical assistance of Alexei Jankowski.
In the academic field, I owe a very special debt to Fredric Jameson, who was instrumental in helping me publish my interview with Sokurov alongside an article of his on the director in Critical Inquiry. I must also thank Fred and his wife Susan Willis for the many hours of fascinating discussions spent in the garden of their lovely home in Killingworth, Connecticut.
The dissertation from which this book originates would never have moved past the stage of infancy without the generous and perceptive feedback of my advisor, John MacKay, as well as readers Dudley Andrew, Katerina Clark, and Brigitte Peucker.
Amanda Bermudez, Marcelline Block, Matthew Lindauer and Patrick Hanrahan diligently helped copy-editing parts of the text or its entirety at the dissertation level.
Michael Cramer, John Pitseys and Maja Nemere provided extremely helpful feedback on various chapters of this book.
The final stages of the writing were made possible with the help of my friend and colleague Michael Jay Anderson, who procured guidance and editorial feedback, often going above and beyond the call of duty in the very late stages of the writing and proofing processes. Edward Lybeer copy-edited the preface, post-script, conclusion and post-face, as well as the present acknowledgments.
Whatever flaws remain in the pages that follow are due to the clumsiness, stubbornness, and laziness of the author, which (alas) even these outstanding academics remarks could not help set straight.
Many other friends and mentors should be thanked here, many of whom I am no doubt forgetting, something I hope they will not hold against me. Among those whose names I cannot omit, I would like to thank here, in no particular order, for their guidance, help, and support: Alexander Nemerov, Emile Boulpaep, Adolphe Nysenholc, Claude Laperches, Karine Alaverdian, Naoki Yamamoto, Tatyana Kupriyanova, Aaron Gerow, Michael Kerbel, Lee Faulkner, David Glenn, Nora Gortcheva, Rebecca McKenna, Angela dalle Vacche, Ronald Gregg, Sasha Raikhlina, Mihaela Mihailova, Charline Lancel, Christine Deloyer, Franois Albera, Yuli Koltun and Tanya Venetsyanova, Lia Rusinova, Rea Amit and Aura Young.
