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[SOVIET UNION AGAINST THE HOLLYWOOD] Amerikanskiye kino-rezhissery [i.e. American Film Directors]

Oganesov, K.

Item #2533

Moscow; Leningrad: Kinopechat’, 1926. 32 pp.: ill. 17,5x12,5 cm. In original publisher’s constructivist wrappers. Very good. Soviet private library label on the title page. Several pages loose.

Scarce. First edition. Text in Russian. Constructivist wrapper design by the Soviet artist Konstantin Vialov (1900-1976). Vialov studied textile design at the Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry, Russia from 1914 to 1917. After the Russian Revolution, he continued his studies at the state art and technical schools Svomas and Vkhutemas, studying under Wassily Kandinsky and Vladimir Tatlin. Vialov joined the Artists' Union of the USSR in 1932, the year of its founding, and from 1941 to 1945 he designed a series of posters for the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS).
A severe Soviet critique of the American film industry authored by K. Oganesov and published by Kinopechat’ in 1926, at the peak of the Hollywood craze in the USSR.
In the 1920s, as foreign films dominated the Soviet market, Hollywood quickly took over Soviet screens. The craze was reinforced by the state publishing house Kinopechat’ [Cinema Press], which issued a series of booklets on celebrated foreign film stars. By 1926, however, attention began turning toward the domestic industry, with Kinopechat’ promoting Soviet productions in line with changing audience tastes. Oganesov’s work was likely among the publisher’s earliest efforts to undermine Hollywood’s image and elevate Soviet cinema in the public eye.
The book provides a detailed account of the methods and working conditions of American film directors in the early 20th century. In the text, the author insightfully observes: “It must be admitted that American directors are, for the most part, routine craftsmen; only a few true innovators can be found among them. Many of these directors, after making two hundred poor films, suddenly release one good picture by chance—and are immediately hailed as talented.” Oganesov also offers intriguing details about directors’ salaries in the 1920s and the distribution of financial investments in the American film industry. The central section of the book presents concise notes on the most prominent American directors of the era—Cecil B. DeMille, Rex Ingram, Allan Dwan, Maurice Tourneur, Fred Niblo, Erich von Stroheim, D. W. Griffith, James Cruze, and Ernst Lubitsch. DeMille, in particular, is sharply criticized as “one of those unwilling to give way to younger and more talented filmmakers.”
The book is enriched with portraits of these directors and rare photographs of them at work on set.
Worldcat shows 3 copies of the edition at the British Library, Yale University Library, and Johns Hopkins University.

Price: $750.00