International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1930)

3o8 The Living Corpse and War and Peace from the similarly named books by Leo Tolstoy, besides others. The latest films and those in course of elaboration claim attention. Amongst them we note : The Last Pilot, a figure who is disappearing from the sea owing to modern developments in navigation. This film is directed by Kordun and the actor Sadovsky plays a very striking part in it ; Suburban Districts mostly photographed at Umana. The film shows, against a national background, the eternal conflict between parents and children. The principal part, that of the Jewish girl, Dora, who, against her parents' wishes marries a Ukrainian, is taken by Nata Vanciadze ; The Soil, by N. Dorjenko, is to be synchronized. This shows the antiquated and modern ways of life amongst the peasants, the modern method triumphing ; The Blue Fox directed by P. Malikhoff, The Two Keys by Mikkin, The Three Reviews by A. A. Aravsky, intended to illustrate historicaldramatic episodes of the Crimean Republic, Zuordukay, with photographs from the Far East, under the direction of Beknaroff ; Elisso by the Georgian Goskinprom Co., a sound film which has had a great success at the cinematographic exhibition at Stuttgart, under the title « Caucasian Love » ; The Tragic End of an Alpinist, with photographs from, life taken during climbs made by members of the Georgian Geographical Society ; The Circus with a scenario by Tretjakoff ; Drop by Drop, which shows dramatically the part taken by peasants in the civil war and gives splendid views of the Kuban territory ; Rasseya (Russia) a political propaganda film ; The Vanguard, with a scenario by Kataeff, recently approved in a plenary sitting of the literary section of the Mejrabpom ; The Song on the function of art in the community ; Crime and Punishment, illustrating modern Russian penal systems of moral re-education. Yet others : Life is Sweet, already mentioned, directed by Pudvokin, with a somewhat Bohemian setting, in which the cast lead a careless life, cheerfully, without excesses, but with the one object of enjoying the passing hour ; The Way of the World by Spiess, which shows the development of class con sciousness in contemporary working-men, and indicates how the new type of workman is being formed by the influence of the economic and historical environment. There is to follow a whole series from the workshops of the Sovkino : A Great Bore, an antialcoholic satire, in which the children try to correct their parents, The Unknown, in which the scene is one of the ports of the Volga ; The Life of Enthusiasts, the life of the working classes who have attained power ; The Flying Islands, The Don, synchronized films; The First Girl, and Judas, the scene of which is laid in an old monastery set in beautiful southern country. There is a priest, a sincere believer, who, upset by the new ideas, feels compelled to follow the current of the life that surrounds him. Our Ultimatum depicting, like one of the above mentioned films, the educational influence which children can exert on old-fashioned parents ; The Path of Lenin produced under the direction of Savitzky. For this film the path that Lenin followed to eastern Siberia has been photographed ; beginning with the remand prison in Petrograd, then Moscow, the Urals, the prison at Krasnoyarsk, the road by the Yennissey and Chuchenskaye, the place of deportation of the creator of the Russian revolution. Photographs have been taken of those people who were witnesses of his imprisonment and of his exile in Siberia ; the new schools and charitable institutions erected in memory of the political exile V. I. Ulianoff are also shown. The social importance of the film in the U. S. S. R. grows day by day. Although the organization of production seems to be divided between a certain number of indipendent firms, this is not really so, it being in fact controlled and centralized by State institutions which ensure reciprocal help between the different producers and prevent the possibility of an economic collapse or of any competition. Technique. An interesting technical item is mentioned by the Association for Cultural Relations in its Bulletin for January of the present year. The working council of the Sovkino has examined the suggestion of the workman Karpoff, regarding the substitution of wood paving blocks, more particularly for use in