SOVIET FILM INDUSTRY'S PROGRESS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 67, 11 December 1937, Page 10

SOVIET FILM INDUSTRY'S PROGRESS

There are studios in ten cities in the Soviet Union for the production of "Art" or "story" films, and this number in cluden two studios for the production of films for children, it is stated in a report on the Russian film industry, publisl.od in the British Association of Gine-Teehnicians' journal. Cinemas number 28,600 as against 1095 in 1917, and though there is a tendency in cities where alternativc entertainment is provided to support the theatre in preference to the cinema, the expansion of the Russian film industry is steadily proceeding. In 1936 attendances in cinemas throughout the Soviet Union numbered 650,000,000. , Moseow has two studios, Kiev tv/o, Leningrad one, and the rc-mainder are pituatc.l at Odessa, Yalta, Tiflis, Erivan, Haku, Tashkent, Askbad and Stalinbad. A large group of studios is now being built in the Caueasus, and when this is completcd all tlie more iniportant Soviet films will be made lliore, the site having been chosen for its excellent weather conditions and varied scenery. The Soviet film industry is at present too small to be. able to maintain players ,on a full-time contract, or to train them exelusively for the cinema. All regular players, tlierefore, divide their time between the stage and the screen, their salaries being regulated by ability, and not by demand. Playing in studios by day and on the stage at night is (ascouraged, Leading players, writers and directors earn up to 2000 roubles a month. The plan to produce by 1938 an annual quantity of 1,000,000^000 feet of film stock will certainly not be fulfiled, the report adds, but "it is safe to say that by now the Soviet Union is able to produce sufficient stoek for its cwn requirements. In ; general, the quality has not reqched the highest standard achieved abroad, and th.e leading Soviet cameranien. are allowed to use European and American stocks when the subjccts chosen demand delicate or exacting pictorial effects." Clifford Heatjierley, portly comedian of many British pictures, died of heartfailure last month. His last appearance was as the baronet in Max Miiler '3 "Don't Get Me Wrong."