"Three factors have made [modern Soviet cinema] probably the most
controlled and ideologically 'directed' cinema in the world. Every movie
script must be approved by one of the State Cinema Committees set up in
each of the 15 republics. 'It is they who make the final decision on
it,' Georgian director Georgi Shengelaya explained to me recently, 'In
judging the projects suitability, they take into account its artistic
quality, its commercial potential, and its ideological content.'
"Also, the state has complete control over a movie's distribution,
deciding how wide or narrow its release will be. There are three
categories, ranging from nationwide release in big theatres to minority
club distribution, sometimes confined to Moscow alone, for films like
Tarkovsky's or Pardjanov's. Finally, the state has the option of banning
a movie completely, and of refusing to give a green light to any other
films from its maker.
"There are apologists for this system who see no significant
difference between the ideological pressures of Western cinema.
'There's no such thing as freedom in any film industry,'claims Soviet
emigre director Andrei Konchalovsky. 'Filmmaking requires an enormous
amount of money, and it doesn't matter if that money is state money or
corporate money. People who pay for the music order the tune. It's the
censorship of power or money.
"The only 'random' element is which political regime in the USSR
happens to be in power when a filmmaker wants to make or release his
film. For even if lucky enough to get the movie with a potentially
troublesome subject made, a filmmaker can still find that Soviet history
has stolen a march on him by the time he's seeking to distribute the
film."