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THE FILM SINCE THEN
' accurate industrial observation ', that coming to grips with actual problems here and now, which seemed to Western sympathisers the first duty of the Soviet cinema in the immediate circumstances of the polity. Perhaps Central Committees are not always the best judges of their interest in areas remote from their immediate field of action? However that may be, the concept of documentary observation of contemporary Russia and its problems has never taken deep root in the Soviet film. Instructional films, in the classroom sense, are made in their hundreds. But the * dramatisation of actuality ' proceeds in terms of the traditions of fiction and the theatre. Who can say whether this represents conscious choice, or whether it indicates an aesthetic-propagandist immaturity reflecting a more portentous political immaturity ?
Who, indeed, can make any final judgement upon the matter? The above account of the fluctuating fortunes of this faction and that is made in full knowledge of the fact that all factions, and all individuals, concerned are wholeheartedly devoted to the Soviet ideology. So great is this devotion that even a considerable perusal of Soviet film ' self-criticism ' is scarcely enlightening. Everyone acknowledges his errors but always in terms of the greater understanding of an opponent's correctness. The general impression is not so much that of a directed verdict as of a continuing flux of ideas in which all are bewildered, commissars and craftsmen alike. The final blame, if that is the word, must nevertheless fall upon the craftsmen, for they are in a special position to which they have never before attained in the history of civilisation. They have, for the first time, the opportunity consciously to serve the highest interests of the community. The opportunity consists in clothing policy in flesh and bone. Merely to take orders is not enough.
Eisenstein's course during the remainder of his life is significant of the changed situation. He buried himself in the library, emerging from time to time to announce and
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