Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

I36 CELLULOID workers or whether it is intended for export in the hope of attracting fresh converts to the red banner, the Soviet film has propaganda as its life and breath. Once this is grasped and assessed according to our personal attitude, we can proceed to acknowledge that the Russian cinema as a whole is one of the most, if not the most important contribution to world cinema. I have explained elsewhere at some length just how much the technical achievements of such cinematographers as Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Kuleshov and their colleagues have meant, how the scientific principles of the Soviet constructivist cinema have arisen, and how certain of the better films have succeeded in approaching nearer to the ideal film than any produced in Western Europe and America.1 If the position were as simple as I have described all would be well and there would be no reason for clashes of opinion. But unfortunately the complications attending the presentation of Soviet films outside their country of origin are various, and nowhere have they reached a more preposterous stage than in England. The factors contributing to this tangled situation are many. In the first place, Russian pictures are generally considered by the film trade to have no commercial value, and hence bookings for them at ordinary cinemas are few and far between, more especially since the advent of the talking film. Secondly, a certain section of movie writers has been at pains to praise all the products of the Soviet cinema without any discrimination between the good and the 1 Vide the chapter on Soviet films in " The Film Till Now."