RUSSIAN FILMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN FILMS

BANNED IN EUROPE i U.F.A. CHIEF IN AUCKLAND “No one can disagree with the artistry of such a picture as j ‘Count Propotkin,’ for the Russian actor is always an artist, but as for its sentiments—oh, that is a j very different matter.” Baron Gronicka, the special representative of TJ.F.A., who was in Auckland earlier in the week on his way to Sydney to watch the interests of

his firm there, drew attention to the extensive movie pr- paganda of the Soviet Government. The baron, who has the tall, slim figure of the typical cavalry officer, has to thank the Soviet for his introduction to the film business. Forced to fly from Riga, where brutalities unparalleled even in Russia were systematically carried out, Baron Gronicka set to work to learn the film business in Germany. This film, he explained, had been prohibited in Poland, Italy and France, and was only permitted in certain areas in Germany. While the picture was screened in Berlin, for instance, Munich would have none of it. Baron Gronicka comes from the old Baltic aristocracy, a caste which suffered a loss of a third as a result of Bolshevik tyranny. Consequently, he has little sympathy for the .Marxian doctrines. Of late he has been in charge of the U.F.A. organisation at Warsaw. He declares that the Continent is becoming tired of American films and that there is aincreasing demand for European productions.