MOSFILM LAUGHS TO SURVIVE

Only recently we sincerely shared the Russians’ joy as their movie-making thrived last year, unlike what we had in Ukraine. Also, we felt glad for ourselves, because for three days we would partake of that thriving life (even if partially), watching seven films commemorating the Mosfilm Studio’s 75th anniversary. Our joy proved short-lived. The pictures turned out less than mediocre and the contrast with what we were used to expecting from Mosfilm over decades was such that even the most sympathetic viewers felt embarrassed and perplexed. This despite the fact that the seven productions were comedies. Yet the China Tea Set, Love is Cruel, Quadrille, and even Flowers for the Victors (the latter anything but a comedy, being a screen version of Erich Maria Remarque’s Three Comrades) seemed to have been made specially to cause the audience to guffaw reflexively. It was as though the authors were afraid that their viewers would fail to understand something and finally lose interest in the cinema.

Karen Shakhnazarov, president of Mosfilm, presenting the program in Kyiv told a press conference that they were, of course, trying to keep up to the mark, but that this was becoming increasingly difficult. The studios were in their tenth year of self-accounting, meaning no government subsidies and total dependence on film directors and crews leasing premises. In fact, Mosfilm needs each and every such lessee, because they bring money, but they can also use the Gorky or Belarusfilm Studios where costs are lower. In other words, Mosfilm has no levers to pull to influence the creative process. Considering that movie-making in Ukraine is in many respects based on the Russian model, although advancing at a much slower pace, we are faced with much the same danger.