Реферат: The cinema in Russia today
<span Arial",«sans-serif»; mso-bidi-font-family:«Times New Roman»;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">THE CINEMA IN RUSSIATODAY
Cinema is one of the most important means of entertainment andpropaganda. It is an ideological instrument of the political party at power ina country. Cinema is a mirror reflection of the county rulers and their policy.
If you want to go to the cinema in Russia today you will have to facetwo problems. The first is to find a cinema in your locality which is stillshowing films and which has not been turned into a disco, bar, amusement arcadeor a furniture salon-shop. The second is to find a film worth seeing.
The large industrial cities used to have five or six cinemas in thecentre and about thirty in the suburbs. Even small towns had several cinemas.But since the advent (прибытие) of television, videoand perestroika, cinemas have been closing down at an alarming rate. Now if youwant to see a film there only few central cinema halls at your disposal.
There are several reasons why the film industry is losing audiences.
Many film makers put the blame on television and video, and this wascertainly a major cause at the beginning. But since television and video audiencefigures have now passed their peak, while cinema audiences continue to decline,part of the answer must be sought in the quality of the films now beingproduced.
If some fifteen years ago under the socialism, our film industry aimedto make better films filled with love, friendship, struggle for the cause ofpeace and justice, nowadays many of the film tycoons (магнат;заправила; шишка; воротила; «акула»; тайкун) inour country have found the exactly opposite solution making stupid third-ratecomedies and action films about prostitutes and killers. Cinema in Russia hasbeen gradually becoming Americanised. Of course, Hollywood is a great filmcentre, but they on the one hand try to lure the public back into the cinemawith all sorts of films with an accent on horror and the lowest kind ofpornography and on the other hand propagandise violence, promiscuity and individualism.The most recent box-office successes combine all features in a blend ofsavagery, racialism, anti-socialism, sexual degradation and violation! It worksfor with a certain category of cinema-lovers typically teenagers and spirituallysick people.
Another solution to make cinema popular again is the introduction of allkinds of technical developments like wide-screen and cinemascope, 3-D, Cinerama,Dolby surround sound, power-driven chairs, etc.; but despite the advantages ofimproved techniques, the audiences continue to decline. It only proves thatcinema-goers very quickly get accustomed to these technological advances andthey want more from the point of view of the film’s ideological content andmessage.
The present state of cinema leaves me no chance of going to see a corny filmin a dilapidating building with bad sound and picture quality. I’d prefer tostay in and watch the good old Soviet “Twelve Chairs” or “The Caucasus Prisoner”.Though some oversea productions are worth seeing, too.
There is only hope that our country regains its status of the world’shighly spiritual and cultural film production centre.