The proper development of the Soviet film industry, the report continues, will be handicapped so long as the present policy remains unchanged. "The present vigilance will in time have to be relaxed in {ryowr of a regular exchange of ideas and product with the world outside. "Natalka Poltaba, based on the Ukrainian opera of the same name, was made, for instance, by craftsmen who had no knowledge of what had been done outside Russia in the matter of filming opera.
"Hollywood, and {o a smaller extent England, has in the past learned a great deal from the best Russian silent films. "All Quiet on the Western Front" was made after a close and sympathetic study of the Soviet masterpieces. The ar of reality, the judicious use of non-actors, the social consciousness of the Russian film have all encouraged the development of the leading phase of British film production, the documentary film, unconcerned as it is with the production and exhibition problems of the commercial story"
The average cinema, the report says, has seats for 300 people, and travelling cinemas seats for 120. In both Moscow and Leningrad there are about half a dozen cinemas which present only new films. The single feature programme is universal though in some instances a newsreel is shown as well In these cities performances in the more important cinemas last from noon till midnight, with a short interval between each programme. The two newsreel cinemas. in Moscow seat about. 250 people each and give a performance every half hour from 11 am. till midnight. Most of the cinemas are of the utmost simplicity in design, bare of any kind of decoration.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.