Page 253 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

234 INSIDE THE FILM FACTORY
[Cinema in Russia (1896—1926)] (Leningrad: 1927). See also: Arlazorov, who reports
that the box-office receipts were ‘insane’, pp. 47—8; and ‘Protazanov o sebe’, YaP, p.
299. Aleinikov rather obviously disapproves of the film and stresses that Protazanov
adapted classics as well; see ‘Zasluzhennyi master’, YaP, p. 16.
19 See: J.Brooks, When Russia Learned to Read (Princeton, NJ: 1985), e.g. his
comments on Verbitskaya’s readership, pp. 158—60.
20 Satan Triumphant, described by Leyda, p. 88, does not fit the image that Soviet
scholars have painstakingly crafted of Protazanov as maker of healthy entertainment
pictures. The movie is, however, included in the apparently complete filmography
which appears in YaP, pp. 387—412.
21 Aleinikov, ‘Zasluzhennyi master’, YaP, p. 17, and Arlazorov, p. 60.
22 The information comes from Arlazorov, pp. 72—3.
23 Aleinikov calls Father Sergius a pre-Revolutionary film, giving its date of release as
1917, although the filmography contradicts this. This can probably be explained by
confusion between production and release dates. See: ‘Zasluzhennyi master’, YaP, p.
26.
24 Arlazorov, pp. 80—2, making reference to Frida Protazanova’s diaries. No date is
given for the departure from Moscow, nor have I been able to find it in any other
source. Protazanov himself is completely silent on this subject.
25 The reason for Protazanov’s sudden move to Berlin remains a mystery; even
Arlazorov refuses to speculate, p. 90.
26 As Lev Kuleshov’s ruined career only too convincingly demonstrates, however,
efficiency was not necessarily a saving grace.
27 Thiemann & Reinhardt’s ‘Golden Series’, to which Protazanov had been the chief
contributor (as everyone well knew), was frequently used as an epithet in the 1920s.
See, e.g.: I.Fal’bert, ‘Zolotaya seriya (Medvezh’ya svad’ba)’ [The Golden Series (The
Bear’s Wedding)], Kino, no. 6 (1926), p. 2.
28 These aesthetic controversies are discussed in detail in Youngblood, pp. 63—80 and
133—44.
29 V.Kepley, Jr and B.Kepley, ‘Foreign Films on Soviet Screens, 1922—31’, Quarterly
Review of Film Studies, vol. 4, no. 4 (Fall 1979), pp. 429—50.
30 The Petrov-Bytov/Piotrovsky debate of 1929 summarises this issue well; FF, pp.
259—64.
31 Movies scripted by Lunacharsky or based on his plays include: The Locksmith and
the Chancellor [Slesar’ i kantsler, 1924], The Bear’s Wedding [1925], Poison [Yad,
1927] and The Salamander [Salamandra, 1928]. He also wrote Kino na zapade i u
nas [Cinema in the West and at Home] (Leningrad: 1928).
32 V.Kepley, Jr, ‘The Workers’ International Relief and the Cinema of the Left, 1921—
1935’, Cinema Journal, vol. 23, no. 1 (Fall 1983), pp. 7—23. ‘Mezhrabpom’ was the
Russian acronym for the WIR.
33 Aelita. Kino-lenta na temu romana A.N.Tolstogo [Aelita. A Film Based on
A.N.Tolstoi’s Novel] (1924), p. 45.
34 Information on casts and crews for all films discussed is drawn from SKhF, vol. 1;
Kinoslovar’ [Cinema Dictionary] (2 vols, Moscow: 1966—70); and Kino.
Entsiklopedicheskii slovar’, cited in n. 3 above. I have seen all ten of Protazanov’s
Soviet silents, plus Father Sergius and Without a Dowry, information on content
comes from my viewing notes, unless otherwise indicated.
35 ‘Po SSSR’ [Around the USSR], Kinonedelya [Cine-Week], no. 1 (1925), p. 25.