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TŌHŌ MOTION PICTURE COMPANY

Tōhō Motion Picture Company is a leading Japanese motion-picture studio.

The company was founded in 1936 by Kobayashi Ichizō, a former businessman who was the creator of an all-girl «opera troupe.» In 1932 he had organized the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre Corporation, subsequently acquiring several established theatres and building new and larger ones. His structures housed three or more separate theatres, a model that is still followed in Japan. In 1935 he gained control of two small companies, the PCL, a studio that had first used modern production methods, and the JO, a company that produced advertising films. The next year the Tōhō Motion Picture Distribution Corporation was formed to distribute films produced by these two studios. Famed director Kurosawa Akira was one of the company's earliest employees.

Tōhō was the foremost Japanese filmmaker during World War II. After the war, however, it experienced severe labour difficulties over unionization. By 1948 Tōhō had ended production and was acting as a distributor for the films of the Shintōhō Motion Picture Company, which had been financed by Tōhō in 1947. The studio reopened and in the 1950s introduced the first successful Japanese-developed wide-screen process, Tohoscope, similar to the American CinemaScope technique.

Notes:

1.to house – размещать;

2.to acquire –приобретать, покупать;

3.to experience severe labour difficulties – испытывать серьезные труд-

ности.

MOSFILM

Mosfilm does not need a special presentation because it is a film industry association, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the world-known Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein (commonly considered the greatest Soviet directors), to the Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production «Dersu Uzala» and the epic «War and Peace».

Today Mosfilm is the biggest and most well-equipped production studio. Film direction and camera and lighting equipment, actor catalogues and

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unique information archives, pyrotechnics and weapons, make-up and hair pastiche, collections of retro motor-cars and costumes, up-to-the-minute sound recording studios and editing rooms, post-production studios and the film processing laboratory – all the components make up a single unique and powerful structure which is called Mosfilm with its productive capacity of more than 100 films a year.

Mosfilm produces and distributes cinema, TV and video production, as well as renders services on the entire cycle of film production – from writing the literary script to printing ready film copies.

Russian films produced in Mosfilm take part in film festivals, both in Russia and abroad. First-rate professional awards and their success with the public are undoubtedly evidences of high level of these films both from artistic and technical points of view; they are also competitive in the world cinema market.

The history of this huge film town which is situated on the Sparrow Hills began in the remote 1920. Exactly that year two film factories which belonged to prominent film producers of the early years of the twentieth century A. A. Khanzhonkov and I. N. Jermol'ev were nationalized and handed over under the authority of the All-Russia photo-and-film department. In December 1922 this department was transformed in Goskino, and film studios of Khanzhonkov and Jermol'ev which were under its authority got new names: the «First factory» and the «Third factory» of Goskino correspondingly. Mosfilm was founded on the base of these factories in November 1923. The first full-length film «Up on the Wings» (director Boris Mikhin) was released onto screens of the country in January 1924. Since then Mosfilm which got its present name in 1935 has been producing films regularly.

During the World War II the film studio was evacuated to Alma-Ata (August 1941) and merged with other Soviet film studios into the Central United Film Studio. The Mosfilm returned to Moscow at the end of 1943.

The famous emblem – the sculpture «Worker and Peasant Woman» by V. Mukhina in front of the Spasskaya tower – appeared for the first time in 1947 in the film «Spring» by Grigoriy Alexandrov.

Many buildings are situated on the Mosfilm area, and they reflect typical features of architecture and construction of the epoch when they were built.

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In 1948 the project of so-called «Greater Mosfilm» was adopted. It included several blocks of motion-picture stages, office premises, the special department of setting construction and other buildings. They are examples of the architecture of the Stalin times what reflected especially in the spirit of pomposity and a sort of heaviness.

Another demonstrative example is the building of the Staging Facilities complex. It was erected with the use of large panels; its geometrical configurations are simple and devoid of any decoration. The building is completely meets the new industrial architectural style «out of glass and concrete» prevailed in the late sixties–the seventies.

One of the last buildings raised on the Mosfilm area is the block of the New Sound Studio. It demonstrates typical features of the architecture of the eighties. The building front is faced with yellow bricks and decorated with the arched entrance in the large lobby. This studio was designed by the wellknown English architect Tom Hidly, a recognized master just acoustical design. Here it is possible to work even with the big symphony orchestra together with a choir of 100 singers and to carry out high quality records of their performance!

In the course of their activity Mosfilm studios produced more than 2500 films and several generations of native and foreign spectators were brought up with these films. A great deal of them are included into the world treasury of cinematography and won prizes of many festivals in our country and abroad.

Some of these film classics granted international awards at various film festivals are:

•A war drama «The Cranes Are Flying» (1957) directed by Mikhail Kalatozov – a winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958; Летят журавли

•A war film «Ballad of a Soldier» (1959) directed by Grigori Chukhrai – a winner of Special jury prize of Cannes Film Festival in 1959 and a nominee for Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 1961; Баллада о солдате

•A war film «My Name is Ivan» (1962) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky –

a winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1962; Иваново детство

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•Historical «War and Peace» (1968) directed by Sergei Bondarchuk – a winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968;

Война и мир

•Historical «The Brothers Karamazov» (1969) – a nominee of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1969; Братья Карамазовы

•Historical «Dersu Uzala» (Soviet-Japanese joint production) directed by Akira Kurosawa (1975) – a winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975; Дерзу Узала

•Melodrama «Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears» (1980) – a winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980; Москва слезам не верит

•Drama «Private Life» (1981) directed by Yuli Raizman – a nominee of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981. Частная

жизнь

Now our studios also tend to follow their creative traditions and keep up the image of the biggest film association in Europe.

Notes:

1.pomposity – помпезность;

2.treasury of cinematography – сокровищница кинематографии;

3.heaviness – массивность.

GORKY FILM STUDIO

Gorky Film Studio is a film studio in Moscow, Russian Federation. By the end of the Soviet Union, Gorky Film Studio had produced more than 1, 000 films. Many film classics were filmed at the Gorky Film Studio throughout its history and some of these were granted international awards at various film festivals.

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In 1915, Mikhail Semenovich Trofimov, a merchant from Kostroma, established the Rus' film production unit with studio facilities. In 1936, the studio was transferred to Butyrskaya Street in Moscow. The Rus' studio, employing many actors from Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre, specialized in film adaptations of Russian classics.

In 1924, the Rus' studio was renamed into the International Workers Relief agency abbreviated as Mezhrabpom-Rus'.

The first Soviet science-fiction film, «Aelita», was filmed at this studio in 1924.

Four years later, the studio was renamed Mezhrabpomfilm, changing its name once again in 1936 to Soyuzdetfilm, the world's first film studio which specialized in films for children. The first soviet sound film, «Ticket for Life», was made there in 1931. Five years later, the first soviet color film, «Grunya Kurnakova», followed.

During World War II the film studio was evacuated to Dushanbe and merged with Tadjikfilm. Upon returning to Moscow, the studio was given the name of Maxim Gorky (in 1948). Between 1963 and 2004 its full name was Maxim Gorky Central Film Studio for Children and Youth.

Since the 1950s, the Gorky Film Studio has been involved into dubbing foreign features. A humorous «film-magazine» for children, «Yeralash», has been filmed at this studio since 1975. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, the Gorky Studio had a branch in Yalta. The studio survived the disintegration of the USSR; it is now a private venture.

Selected films produced at this studio are a silent science-fiction film «Aelita» (1924), directed by Yakov Protazanov; first soviet sound film «Voucher to Life» (1931); first soviet color film «Grunya Kornakova» (1936, another title «Solovej-solovushko»); a fantasy film «Jack Frost» (1964); a war film «Seventeen Moments of Spring» (1973, directed by Tatiana Lioznova); children science-fiction «Guest from the Future» (1985).

Notes:

1.The Rus' studio – «Киноателье «Русь»;

2.Mezhrabpom-Rus' – Межрабпром-Русь;

3.Mezhrabpomfilm – Международная рабочая помощь (Межрабпом);

4.Soyuzdetfilm – Союздетфильм;

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5.Maxim Gorky Central Film Studio for Children and Youth – Цент-

ральная киностудия детских и юношеских фильмов им. М. Горького;

6.to survive the disintegration – пережить распад.

LENFILM

Film studio «Lenfilm» is a production unit of the Russian film industry, with its own film studio, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, formerly Leningrad.

The territory of Lenfilm was originally in the private ownership of the Aquarium garden, which belonged to the merchant Georgy Alexandrov, who managed a restaurant, a public garden and a theatre on the same site. The composer Peter Tchaikovsky came to what was then the Aquarium theatre as a guest to the 1893 performance of the overture to his «The Nutcracker» ballet. Famous Russian bass singer Feodor Chaliapin performed here in the 1910s and the early 1920s. Stars of the Soviet era also gave performances here, such as Isaak Dunaevsky, and Leonid Utyosov with his jazz-band during the 1920s and 1930s.

The facilities and land of the Leningrad film studio were nationalized in 1918 and it was established as a Soviet State-financed film industry. Within just a few years it bore several different names, such as «Petrograd Cinema Committee» and «SevZapKino» among various others. During 1924–1926 it was temporarily named Leningrad Film Factory Goskino and eventually changed its name several times during the 1920s and 1930s. Since 1934 the studio has been named Lenfilm.

At that time many notable filmmakers, writers, and actors were active at the studio, such as Yevgeni Zamyatin, Grigori Kozintsev, Iosif Kheifets, Sergei Eisenstein, Sergei Yutkevich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikolai Akimov, Yuri Tynyanov, Veniamin Kaverin, Viktor Shklovsky, and the writers of Serapion Brothers, as well as many other figures of Russian and Soviet culture.

During the Soviet era Lenfilm was the second largest (after Mosfilm) production branch of the Soviet film industry, which incorporated more than 30 film-studios located across the former Soviet Union.

During the World War II and the Siege of Leningrad very few cinematographers remained active in the besieged Leningrad and made film docu-

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mentaries about the heroic fight against the Nazis. At the same time, most personnel and production units of the Lenfilm studio were evacuated to cities in Central Asia, such as Alma-Ata (1942) and Samarkand. There «Lenfilm» temporarily merged with other Soviet film studios. The Lenfilm returned to Leningrad in 1944.

By the end of the Soviet Union era, Lenfilm had produced about 1,500 films. Many film classics were produced at Lenfilm throughout its history and some of these were granted international awards at various film festivals.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Lenfilm became a quasiprivate film production company of Russia, retaining its name in spite of renaming of the city of Leningrad to St. Petersburg. Lenfilm is a place that is closely connected with the world celebrities, such as Jane Fonda, Maximilian Schell, Marina Vlady, Julia Ormond, Michael Caine, William Hurt, Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Sandrine Bonnaire, Gerard Philipe, and with many great Russians, such as: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Ney, Kirill Lavrov, Daniil Granin, Pavel Kadochnikov, Aleksandr Demyanenko, and many others.

Some films from filmography of Lenfilm are: 1934: cult film «Chapaev», directed by Brothers Vasilyev.

1956: Children film «Aka. The Flying Carpet», directed by Gennadi Kazansky.

1962: Film adaptation «The Amphibian Man», directed by Gennadi Kazansky. 1963: Film adaptation «Kain XVIII», directed by Erast Garin. Каин XVIII 1964: Drama «Hamlet», directed by Grigori Kozintsev, the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1962 nominated and a winner of Special Jury Prize.

1968: Spy film «Dead Season», directed by Savva Kulish.

1976: Film adaptation «The Blue Bird», directed by George Cukor.

1981: Film adaptation «The Hound of the Baskervilles», directed by Igor Maslennikov.

1996: Drama «Anna Karenina», directed by Bernard Rose.

Notes:

1.quasi-private film company – почти частная кинокомпания;

2.to retain one’s name – сохранять имя;

3.temporarily – временно;

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4.to grant international awards – присуждать международные награды (премии).

FILM FESTIVALS

Film festivals are held, usually annual, for the purpose of evaluating new or outstanding motion pictures. Sponsored by national or local governments, industry, service organizations, experimental film groups, or individual promoters, the festivals provide an opportunity for filmmakers, distributors, critics, and other interested persons to attend film showings and meet to discuss current artistic developments in film. The films may be of recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include international releases as well as films produced by the organisers' domestic film industry. Sometimes there is a focus on a specific film-maker or genre (e. g., film noir). At the festivals distributors can purchase films that they think can be marketed successfully in their own countries.

The first festival was held in Venice in 1932. It remained unique until after World War II, when the festival at Cannes, France, was founded. Since 1947, people interested in films have gathered in that small resort town to attend official and unofficial showings of films. One more festival, The Edinburgh International Film Festival in the UK, was established in 1947 and it is the longest continually running film festival in the world. Other important festivals were initiated at Berlin, Moscow, Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia), London, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Hong Kong.

The first North American film festival was the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as The Chris Awards, held in 1953. According to the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, «The Chris Awards is one of the most prestigious documentary, educational, business and informational competitions in the U. S; it is the oldest of its kind in North America».

Some festivals feature films of one country, and since the late 1960s there have been special festivals for student filmmakers. Others are highly specialized, such as those that feature only underwater photography or those that deal with specific subjects, such as mountain climbing. New festivals in Telluride (Colorado, USA) and Park City (Utah, USA) took a pivotal role in the success of independent films since the 1970s. Short subjects and documentary receive special attention at gatherings in Edinburgh (Scotland), Mannheim (Germany).

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