Memoirs of a film director

Cinema without doubt is the broadest of arts in widespread popularity in the world. And the reason for that is not merely because the films produced by different countries are shown all over the world. Rather, it is primarily because cinema, with its craftsmanship that improves day after day, and with its ever-increasing works, can establish a direct global connection through creative thought. Nevertheless, we find that only a small part of cinema's inexhaustible resources has been exploited during its first half-century. I hope you do not misunderstand what I mean. I am not talking about what has been accomplished, because much has been achieved that is truly excellent. The foremost place, in terms of the utmost potential of the content, is occupied by the forward flow of new ideas and new ideals introduced on the screen through new social ideas and modern socialist ideals. I am speaking about what could have been done, and what cinema alone can do: I mean those extraordinary things that can only be realized and created within the world of cinema itself. The problem of combining and synthesizing the arts, which is a composition that can be achieved in cinema, has not found a complete solution. At the same time, new problems arise in increasing numbers. As soon as we mastered the craft of color, we had to address issues of size and space, which the three-dimensional cinema has established for us, and which has barely left its infancy. Then there is the miracle of television — a living reality confronting us boldly, ready to erase the experience of silent and sound cinema, which has not yet fully embodied itself. For example, montage in silent and sound cinema was merely a stage (completely or in part) of the true method of the artist’s vision of events and their creative reflection through his awareness and emotions. But in television, montage becomes the method of the events themselves during their presentation and display at the very moment they occur.