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3 To Catch Up and Overtake Hollywood Early Talking Pictures in the Soviet Union Valérie Pozner Translated from the French by Andrée Lafontaine One generally associates Hollywood’s influence on Soviet cinema with the musical comedies directed by Grigori Alexandrov after 1934, or with the grandiose plans conceived in 1935—following Boris Shumyatsky’s trip to Hollywood —of a studio built in the Crimea, entirely outfitted with American equipment (e.g., lighting, recording, mixing), with the potential to produce six hundred films per year. Hollywood’s influence on Soviet cinema, however, did not begin in the 1930s; it goes back to the mid-1920s, when American films dominated Soviet screens. For the Soviet film industry during the second half of the 1920s, Hollywood represented, above all, a competitive branch of the industry: a modern unit bringing together all aspects of production, synonymous with efficiency and productivity. When Sovkino launched its grand project to build a new studio (at the time, still referred to as a “factory”) in 1927, the press labeled it “Red Hollywood” and “Soviet Hollywood.”1 The increasing presence of American products (e.g., automobiles, tractors, military equipment) in the world market and in the film industry in particular began to manifest itself more clearly in official Soviet discourse. With Stalin’s ascent, the Soviet Union abandoned its utopian visions of global revolution and reoriented itself toward the construction of “socialism in one country”; in this context, the United States personified both a reference and a rival, a figure simultaneously to emulate and to reject: hence the double meaning of Stalin’s 1928 slogan , to “catch up and overtake America.”2 Denounced for its capitalist ideology, the United States was nevertheless cited as a model for the efficiency of its management , productivity, technology, entrepreneurial pragmatism, product quality, To Catch Up and Overtake Hollywood | 61 the training of its managers, and perhaps above all else, for its implementation of Taylorism. In March 1928, the All-Union Party Conference on Cinema was held in Moscow , during which a new slogan was launched: “cinema for the millions.” When interpreting this instrumental moment, film historians generally emphasize the party’s takeover of the film industry and its decision to favor political education films over commercial productions, both domestic and foreign. I wish to propose a different reading: cinema for the millions also meant an increase in the number of movie theaters, in the number of films and prints produced, and an improvement of their quality and shelf life. More important, it meant a profitable cinema (“for the millions” . . . of rubles!). Galvanized by Stalin’s wish expressed at the fifteenth Party Congress, the authorities established a goal: that “cinema [take] the place of vodka as a source of revenue in the State budget.”3 The same conference saw the realization of cinema’s industrial dimension. The traditional model, wherein various studios were linked to the Commissariat of Enlightenment and were entirely dependent on foreign exports for film stock and equipment, was outdated. The development of cinema required the improvement of its “technical base.” And while Hollywood was not specifically cited as a model, its presence was evoked indirectly. Still, the conference refrained from determining which structure was best suited to facilitate the technical developments required for Soviet cinema to become competitive in the world market. It seems logical, in this context, to ask ourselves if the Hollywood model effectively served as a reference and, if so, how it was adapted in the Soviet Union. Despite the successful presentation of the German Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system in Leningrad and Moscow in January 1927, it was the Soviet media’s coverage of The Jazz Singer (dir. Crosland, 1927) in 1928 that made the transition to sound a reality. Soviet film professionals realized that Hollywood had become the leader of this global transition. With the advancement of talkies in Europe, commercial distribution officials and filmmakers were concerned about a possible decrease in Soviet film exports. The realization that Soviet cinema had really fallen behind occurred in 1929, at which point the Soviet Union had to decide whether to continue the tests that were being conducted in two laboratories since 1926–27 or whether to seek technical help from the United States. This decision fell to cinema authorities and their governing institutions and primarily affected the tests being conducted in the Soviet Union. Film professionals (e.g., producers, technicians, actors) of course had their own ideas about the coming of sound, which would...

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