Circus

Circus is the second socialist film that I have seen, the first being Chapaev. Circus was much more in your face about the views of the director. Particularly at the ending. For one there was the song sung to the baby in many different languages by people dressed in their native attire. Second the parade at the end with large banners of Stalin and Lenin beaming proudly on the people in the Red Square. As a non-Russian, that was nearly the funniest part of the movie for me. I found it interesting that throughout the whole movie, only the Germans were ever made fun of. This movie was made around the time when a lot of changes were being made in Germany; perhaps the film represented the correct political situation at the time. For all of America's problems with race, I don't recall film as being one of the ways the government tried to quell the issue. Of course our government has considerably less control over the film industry than the Russians did in the early 1900's.
This is not to say that the government limited the creative abilities of the film industry. I would argue that the limitations imposed on the directors and producers would drive them to be more creative. It is as if the work must be done under the pressures of society. Directors today even, American or not, can't make what they want always. Movie making is still a business, if someone doesn't buy into it, then the common man has just as much say in the production of movies as any government. Circus was an entertaining movie under the socialist pressures, though not very comedic. On the movie triangle discussed in class, I would place Circus in the corner with propaganda first, and entertainment second. This was not much of art film.