RUSSIAN FILMS

Evening Star, Issue 23093, 20 October 1938, Page 8

RUSSIAN FILMS

W.E.A. LECTURE “Soviet Films” was the subject of Mrs F. R. Thompson’s last lecture to her W.E.A. class on “ Film Criticism.” She pointed out that these films had won such enthusiasm that they were often over-rated. The British Board of Film Censors banned them for so long for public exhibition that the banned productions, officially discountenanced, assumed gigantic importance as works of art, in the minds of the British “ intelligentsia.” “All Soviet films were hailed as the supreme examples of modern kinema: all Soviet directors as filmic geniuses, with the result that the cult for Soyiet films has become slightly hysterical and more than a little tedious m its parrot-like cry.” Soviet films should really be received with the strictest reservation and severest criticism, because they were born of remarkable circumstances during a span of 12 eventful and restless years. The Soviet kinema was immensely powerful. It had social and political content expressed so emotionally and with such a degree of technical perfection that the content could be swallowed in the temporary admiration of the method. “In hasty admiration of perfect technique it is easy to accept content, theme, and meaning without thought as to their full intention.”

In 1917 the Soviet put the kinema. the theatre, the press and literature under the guidance of the State for the purpose of propaganda. The initial aim of the Soviet film was to reflect and interpret a new social civilisation .in the making as conceived by Marx and realised by Lenin. Lenin declared “of all the arts, the most important for Russia is, to my mind, the kinema.” Its importance to a population with a high percentage of illiterates is obvious, Because of all the arts the kinema has the simplest and most universal appeal. By 1919 the complete control of film production and distribution passed into the hands of the Government, and the*kinema began its development along lines suggested by Lenin, Films were then produced according to carefully-laid plans, with certain types of films for' ,certain audiences to show to them the general policy of the Government—a policy of construction and creation. All the profits went towards the making of other productions.

Soviet directors employed visual images to express the spirit and heart of mankind, while in other countries they were used to convey mere thrilling episodes. In Russia a film was considered worthless unless it elucidated some new idea for the stimulation of mass thought. Every film presented a problem or a theory definitely connected with the everyday life of the persons for whom it was made. Numerous films depicted life ,under the Czarist regime presented to suit the purposes of Soviet propaganda. All these films were designed to instruct, to develop, and to connect up the thought and conditions of the outlying villages with that of the big towns, so that every man, woman and child in every district should be made aware of the social, scientific, industrial, and political progress of the State. Travelling kinemas visited about 20 villages a month in outlying, thinly populated districts. Distribution was almost entirely in the h<mds of the Government, Different films were sent to different parts according to the State’s calculation of the needs of the populace in each district. The Soviet kinema developed a wonderful technique for expressing themes with the greatest emotional effect on the simple minds of the masses. Satires, comedies and dramas were made dealing with life before, during, and after the revolution. Their aim was to show the tyranny and oppression of the Czarist regime and the benefits of Soviet control. Famous films of this tyoe were “ October ” and “ The Battleship Potemkin.” These showed the masses challenging old established authority Mrs Thompson read to her class a detailed ceount of the plot of “ The Battleship Potemkin,” which dealt, with a mutiny on board a warship stationed near Odessa in the early years of the twentieth century. Other important films were “ Turksib ” and “ The Eleventh Year,” which showed the commercial and social development of the Ukraine under 10 years of Soviet control.

Educational, scientific and cultural films were also made. There were special films for technicaJ instruction of engineers and electricians and for officers and men of the Red army. Newsreels were made as in other countries to show the news of the week, and were used to popularise the leaders of the oroletariat. Special films for children were also made. ' A central bureau decided on the themes for the srear’s5 r ear’s output.

In 1919 the Moscow State School of Kinematography was founded for the intensive training of workers in all branches of the industry Other schools were established throughout the country, in Leningrad and the Ukraine. All producing firms had to give a certain number of positions in their studios to graduates from the State schools Every section of film production was included, so that before entering a studio a worker had some knowledge of film technique, acting psychology dramatic literature make-up. acrobatics, dancing, as well as his specialised skill in his own particular job. The Leks group at Leningrad was founded for trie sole purpose of experiment and avant-garde work. All the State schools were regularly visited by the betterknown directors and technicians, who lectured and instructed on the theory and their own practical experience of production work. According to Paul Rotha said Mrs Thompson, the Soviet film director was as much impeded in his selfdevelopment as was his confrere in Hollywood, who was bound by the capitalistic ideas of box-office appeal and by the star system. Neither was free to develop his knowledge of the kinema along a natural instinctive course. Rotha later modified this opinion because he came to regard the freedom from box-office appeal as so important. The W.E.A Film Criticism Class will meet for the last time on Monday week, at the University when members will submit short written criticisms of- films they have seen recently.