SOVIET LOVE IN 1970s RIGA FILM STUDIO FILMS COMMISSIONED BY CENTRAL TELEVISION

Abstract

In the 1970s, Riga Film Studio (RFS) produced 18 television films, commis­sioned by the Central Television of the USSR (CT). These commissions and additional financing provided by the CT contributed to the increased quantity of films produced in the RFS, which doubled in the 1970s, and supplied more work for various film professionals working at the studio. However, the allocated budget was halved in comparison with the typical feature, and the production period was much shorter.
The process of making these films was inconsistent in the artistic as well as the professional aspects.
A popular subject matter included ideologically framed, lyrical relationship stories between men and women, set in Soviet social reality: Šūpoles (The Swing, 1970), Oļegs un Aina (Oleg and Aina, 1973), Meistars (The Master, 1973), Cāļus skaita rudenī (We’ll Count the Chickens When They Hatch, 1973), Pirmā vasara (The First Summer, 1974) Lielā jaungada nakts (The Great New Year’s Eve, 1978).
Many aspects point to the colonial character of Soviet culture, the filmmakers’ collaboration with the commissioner and accommodation to the imposed but, at the same time, accepted film production practices of the RFS.
The staged narratives, based on psychological and domestic realities of the 1970s, reveal details about the behavioural habits, moral values and daily life of the era, valuable from the aesthetic, cultural and historical point of view.