Page 256 - Inside the Film Factory New Approaches to Russian and Soviet Cinema

NOTES 237
55 S.Eizenshtein, ‘Za “rabochii boevik’”, Revolyutsiya i kul’tura, no. 3/4 (1928), p. 54;
ESW 1, p. 110.
56 For an in-depth discussion of these issues, see: Youngblood, chs 5—6.
57 As examples of the extremely negative reviews of this film, see in Kino (1927):
P.Neznamov, ‘Chekhov–Krupnym planom’ [Chekhov in Close-Up], no. 34, p. 4;
M.Shneider, ‘Po tu storonu 17-go goda: Chelovek iz restorana’ [Beyond 1917: The
Man from the Restaurant], no. 36, p. 3; R.Pikel’, ‘Ideologiya i kommertsiya’ [Ideology
and Commerce], no. 41, p. 2. See also: K.Fel’dman, ‘Itogi goda v Mezhrabpom-fil’me’
[The Year’s Results at Mezhrabpom-Film], Sovetskii ekran, no. 42 (1928), and V.
Kirshon, Na kino-postu [On Cinema Guard] (Moscow: 1928), p. 12.
58 See: ‘Lef i kino: Stenogramma soveshchaniya’ [LEF and Cinema: Minutes of a
Conference], Novyi Lef, no. 11—12 (1927), p. 54, for Tretyakov’s remarks. These
were echoed by Osip Brik, pp. 63—4. Vladimir Korolevich had earlier defined
Khanzhonkovshchina as ‘boyar style and the good old days’ in: ‘Dlya Ars i Arsikov
[For Ars and Arsists], Sovetskii ekran, no. 5—6 (1927), p. 11.
59 D.MacDonald, ‘Eisenstein, Pudovkin and Others’, Miscellany (March 1931), pp. 145—
6.
60 See: P.A.Blyakhin, ‘K itogam kino-sezona 1927—28 goda’ [On the Results of the 1927—
8 Season], Kino i kul’tura [Cinema & Culture], no. 2 (1929), p. 10; A.Piotrovskii,
Khudozhestvennye techeniya v sovetskom kino [Artistic Currents in Soviet Cinema]
(Leningrad: 1930), p. 14; I.Sokolov, ‘Prichiny poslednikh neudach’ [The Causes of the
Latest Failures], Kino, no. 46 (1928), pp. 4—5; L.Averbakh, ‘Eshche o reshitel’nom’
[Once More on What is Decisive], Kino, no. 45 (1928), p. 3. With the exception of
Averbakh, who headed RAPP, these men were well-established critics. Blyakhin and
Sokolov liked ‘entertainment’ films, while Piotrovsky thought of film as ‘art’ and was
attacked as a ‘Formalist’.
61 See, for instance: Prim, ‘General’naya liniya Mezhrabpomfil’ma’ [Mezhrabpomfilm’s
General Line], Sovetskii ekran, no. 20 (1929), p. 6; and ‘Kino’ [Cinema], Na
literaturnom postu, no. 2 (1930), p. 65.
62 Sovetskoe kino and Kino-Front were liquidated at the end of 1928. Sovetskii ekran was
purged and retitled Kino i zhizn’ [Cinema and Life]. Kino also underwent
‘restructuring’ at this time.
63 See: Youngblood, ch. 8; and P.Kenez, ‘The Cultural Revolution in Cinema’, Slavic
Review, vol. 47, no. 2 (Fall 1988), pp. 414—33.
64 Kh.Khersonskii, ‘Chiny i lyudi’ [Ranks and People], Kino, no. 40 (1929), p. 5; A.V.,
‘Prazdnik sv. Iorgena’ [The Feast of St Jorgen], Kino, no. 51 (1930), p. 4.
65 At the time of writing little is known about audience reactions and box-office receipts
in the late 1920s; research currently under way in the USSR may alter this picture
substantially.
66 B.Alpers, ‘Prazdnik sv. Iorgena’ [The Feast of St Jorgen], Kino i zhizn’, no. 25 (1930),
pp. 7—8.
67 V.B.Shklovskii, Za sorok let [For Forty Years] (Moscow: 1965), p. 94, from Ikh
nastoyashchee [Their Reality] (1927); A. Piotrovskii, Teatr, kino, zhizn’ [Theatre,
Cinema, Life] (Leningrad: 1969), p. 236, from Khudozhestvennye techeniya v
sovetskom kino (1930); A.V.Lunacharskii, p. 76.
68 G.V.Aleksandrov, ‘Protazanov–komediograf [Protazanov, Comic Film-Maker], in:
YaP, pp. 162—94.