Page 24 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

INTRODUCTION: ENTERING THE FILM FACTORY 5
period, and that in turn might throw up new continuities for us to consider.
Similarly very little is known of the role played by such ‘enabling’ figures from the
studios as Adrian Piotrovsky or Moisei Aleinikov, or by a historian and teacher
like Venyamin Vishnevsky.
But cinema history cannot, of course, be merely the history of individuals: it must
also be the history of the context within which those individuals were active. This
has to include a consideration of the changing audience, its expectations and its
reactions, and that leads us on to examine the role played by film critics and
historians in the development of Soviet cinema. It also involves an examination of
the relationship between that cinema and its audience and, more specifically, the
reception of the films that were actually produced. Lastly, it must also include a
study of the studio system and its implications and of the overall political context
within which Soviet cinema has developed.
Inside the Film Factory is therefore only one step along the road, although we
naturally hope that it will be a significant one. The need now is for a more
concerted effort to extract more information and to make more sophisticated use of
it. As the Soviet Union rejoins the world community, contact between Soviet and
Western scholars proliferates. This provides us with an unparalleled opportunity to
combine the methodologies that have been developed over the decades by
Western scholars and critics–many originally deriving from Soviet sources–with
the information that is more easily accessible to Soviet scholars in their archives
and libraries. As more blank pages are filled, so others will appear: such is the
nature of historical research, but collaboration in the future will bring us closer to
the elusive goal of historical truth than have confrontation and all-too-frequently
wilful misrepresentation–on both sides–in the past. If Inside the Film Factory and
the series that it inaugurates help to promote that collaboration, they will have served
their purpose.
We enter the film factory with trepidation, but not entirely without hope.