Page 233 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

214 INSIDE THE FILM FACTORY
‘un-American’ activities, Cecil B.DeMille, G.W.Pabst and Erich von Stroheim, and
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watched Charles Laughton filming for Mutiny on the Bounty) and London.
Ermler and Nilsen then went on to Berlin, where they toured the UFA studios, but
Shumyatsky, for reasons of prudence, returned directly to Moscow. 98
The Shumyatsky Commission concluded that ‘The entire Soviet cinema is
today producing fewer films than one Hollywood studio’.“The reason for this was,
in their view, quite simple:

When they make a film our directors are achieving a synthesis of various
authors (the dramatist, the composer, the designer, etc.) but they are
overburdened with administrative and organisational functions and this turns
them into ‘Jacks of all trades’ without proper conditions and qualifications.
This situation hinders the creative development of the director and similarly
obstructs the development of the other co-authors of the film, subjugating
them in administrative terms to the director. 100

As we have seen, this was the opposite of what Shumyatsky wanted. Drastic
measures were called for:

Setting ourselves the task of producing in the first instance 300 films a year,
with a subsequent expansion to 800, we conclude that there is an
inescapable need to build a single cinema centre in the southern and
sunniest part of the Soviet Union, near the sea and the mountains. 101

This project became popularly known as sovetskii Gollivud–the ‘Soviet
Hollywood’–and officially known as Kinogorod or ‘Cine-City’. 102
The full details of the ‘Soviet Hollywood’ are properly the subject for another
essay. Suffice it to say here that the Shumyatsky Commission was impressed by
the efficiency of Hollywood’s production methods and recommended their
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adoption by and adaptation to Soviet cinema. Above all, they were impressed by
the facilities afforded to American film-makers by the climate and location of
Hollywood. The decisive factor in favour of the eventual choice for a ‘Soviet
Hollywood’–the south-western corner of the Crimea–against competition from
what we might nowadays describe as the rest of the USSR’s ‘sunbelt’ was that it
provided the closest approximation to conditions in the original Hollywood and the
surroundings of Los Angeles. 104
The relatively balmy climate of the Crimea would make location shooting possible
throughout the year and liberate Soviet cinema from the rigours of the northern
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winter, which limited outdoor work to four or five months a year. The location,
the wide variety of the surrounding scenery and the opportunity to construct
permanent sets that could be used over and over again for different films would
obviate the need for costly filming expeditions to remoter parts of the Soviet Union
and lead to an overall reduction in production costs. 106