Кинематограф в сегодняшней России (english)

THE CINEMA IN RUSSIA TODAY Cinema is one ofthe most important means of entertainment and propaganda. It is an ideologicalinstrument of the political party at power in a country. Cinema is a mirror reflectionof the county rulers and their policy. If you want to goto the cinema in Russia today you will have to face two problems. The first isto find a cinema in your locality which is still showing films and which hasnot been turned

into a disco, bar, amusement arcade or a furniture salon-shop.The second is to find a film worth seeing.The largeindustrial cities used to have five or six cinemas in the centre and aboutthirty in the suburbs. Even small towns had several cinemas. But since theadvent прибытие of television,video and perestroika, cinemas have been closing down at an alarming rate. Nowif you want to see a film there only few central cinema halls at your disposal.

There are severalreasons why the film industry is losing audiences.Many film makersput the blame on television and video, and this was certainly a major cause atthe beginning. But since television and video audience figures have now passedtheir peak, while cinema audiences continue to decline, part of the answer mustbe sought in the quality of the films now being produced.If some fifteenyears ago under the socialism, our film industry aimed to make better filmsfilled with

love, friendship, struggle for the cause of peace and justice,nowadays many of the film tycoons магнат заправила шишка воротила акула тайкун in our countryhave found the exactly opposite solution making stupid third-rate comedies andaction films about prostitutes and killers. Cinema in Russia has been graduallybecoming Americanised. Of course, Hollywood is a great film centre, but they onthe one hand try to lure the public back into

the cinema with all sorts offilms with an accent on horror and the lowest kind of pornography and on theother hand propagandise violence, promiscuity and individualism. The mostrecent box-office successes combine all features in a blend of savagery,racialism, anti-socialism, sexual degradation and violation! It works for witha certain category of cinema-lovers typically teenagers and spiritually sickpeople.Another solution tomake cinema popular again is the introduction of all kinds

of technical develop mentslike wide-screen and cinemascope, 3-D, Cinerama, Dolby surround sound,power-driven chairs, etc. but despite the advantages of improved techniques,the audiences continue to decline. It only proves that cinema-goers veryquickly get accustomed to these technological advances and they want more fromthe point of view of the film s ideological content and message. The present stateof cinema leaves me no chance of going to see a corny film in a dilapidatingbuilding

with bad sound and picture quality. I d prefer to stay in and watchthe good old Soviet Twelve Chairs or The Caucasus Prisoner . Though someoversea productions are worth seeing, too. There is only hopethat our country regains its status of the world s highly spiritual andcultural film production centre.