<P> <i>Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda</i> examines the aesthetics of Soviet cinema during its "golden age" of the 1920s, against a background of cultural ferment and the construction of a new socialist society. Separate chapters are devoted to the work of Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Dziga Vertov and Alexander Dovzhenko. Other major directors are also discussed at length. David Gillespie places primary focus on the text, with analysis concentrating on the artistic qualities, rather than the political implications, of each film. The result is not only a discussion of each director's contribution to the "golden age" and to world cinema but also an exploration of their own distinctive poetics.</P>