The Presidential Library will review a history of national cinema of the 20th century: from silent films to the cult Soviet movies

In the Year of the Russian cinema the Presidential Library presented on its portal the promotional movie posters of the XX century. They can be found in the electronic collection On the Year of Russian Cinema, exposing different aspects of the development of national cinema from the beginning of the XX century.

Owing to working relation with the Russian Institute of Art History there are the electronic copies of more than 100 placards and movie posters of the early XX century on the Presidential Library website. Among them, a movie poster of A Tale of Dear Love (also known as “Still, Sadness, Still”) of Peter Chardynin, starring Vera Kholodnaya, the first domestic movie star. Romantic love story, presented in 1918, consisted of two parts. The ensemble of actors of this movie is unprecedented, featuring the real “kings of Russian cinematograph”: Vera Kholodnaya, V. A. Polonsky, V. A. Maksimov, O. I. Runich, I. N. Khudoleev, P. I. Chardynin, K. P. Khokhlov, etc. Another movie poster on the library website features the Endless Sorrow. This movie was released in 1922. Well-preserved poster invites viewers on movie screenings, promising to show the latest innovation Russian cinematography. The plot is built around a freelance university lecturer Korenev who loses his family during the famine in the Volga River basin in 1921-1922, and who is seriously ill. However, he coped with the disease, gets a better, and then goes to the lands along the Volga with a medical detachment to fight a lingering hunger. It is noteworthy that newsreel footage shot at the Volga area was mounted into the movie.

In addition, a movie poster that features one of the most significant motion pictures of the Soviet Union is also presented on the Presidential Library Internet resource. What is meant here is the Battleship Potemkin. This is the story of the sailors’ riot, which has grown into the real armed uprising. The feature film was created for the 20th anniversary of the first Russian revolution. Spectators were able to see a silent film in January 1926. Among black and white films of the time this movie is standing out with a small but very significant detail - the waving flag of a bright red color. In the twenties of the last century it was a breakthrough. The secret was simple. A regular white fabric was used on the film shoots, and during mounting a film was manually tinted. The work of film director of “Battleship Potemkin” Sergei Eisenstein has highly contributed into the formation and development of the world culture. Scene with a rolling carriage during a shooting the crowd on the Potemkin Stairs has been used by many directors around the world.

The Lenfilm Studios significantly contributed into preparing the movie collection of the Presidential Library. About 100 digitized at the Presidential Library movie posters presenting the Lenfilm’s best feature films are courtesy of the studios with the century-long history. In open access there are the electronic copies of the movie posters for the silent films of the 1920s Ferris Wheel and The New Babylon by Gregory Kozintsev, the posters for the movie of the 1930s Peter I by Vladimir Petrov. Anyone can see what imagery was used for release on the big screen of Chapaev by Sergei and Georgy Vasilyevs, A Man with a Gun by Sergei Yutkevich, The Teacher and Komsomolsk by Sergei Gerasimov, the famous Valery Chkalov by Mikhail Kalatozov among the movies about the war, and many others.

Among the gems of the collection On the Year of Russian Cinema are the posters of famous movies - the “Cinderella” movie-tale by Nadezhda Kosheverova, comedy “Striped Trip” by Vladimir Fetin, which became a leader of the Soviet film distribution in 1961, the “Old Man Hottabych” children's movie by Gennady Kazansky, the “Wedding in Malinovka” musical comedy by Andrew Tutyshkin. These and other posters of well-known Soviet movies are available to everyone who is interested through the electronic reading room and the centers of access to the resources of the Presidential Library.

Today the collection On the Year of Russian Cinema has more than 500 electronic copies of the official documents, studies, various graphic materials (posters, event ads, postcards, etc.), dedicated to the beginning of the era of national cinema and its development, as well as representing the movies and the particular actors of Russian and Soviet cinema. A work on putting together the cinematic collection of the Presidential Library will continue.