"From the History of Cinema" by Margarita Shmarina, summary Automatic translate

Margarita Shmarina and Andrei Tikhomirov’s work is a historical and technical overview of the formation and development of cinema as an art form and industry. Drawing on encyclopedic data from the mid-20th century and contemporary historical chronicles, the text covers the period from the first experiments with "moving pictures" in the late 19th century to the heyday of the Soviet film industry in the pre-war years. Films described in the book, such as "Battleship Potemkin" and "Chapayev," are recognized masterpieces of world art, repeatedly acclaimed by critics and audiences worldwide.

Technical background and invention of the movie camera

Cinema, whose name derives from the Greek words meaning movement and recording, arose not as a single discovery but as a result of the synthesis of several technologies. The key processes that made cinema possible were chronophotography, which allows for the recording of phases of movement, image projection onto a flat surface, and the mechanism for intermittent film movement. In the 1880s and 1890s, engineers from various countries worked simultaneously on the creation of similar devices. Notable among these were the "photo gun" of the French physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey, Thomas Edison’s "kinetograph," and the developments of Russian inventors such as V. A. Dubuc and I. Yanovsky.

A crucial milestone was the development of flexible light-sensitive film. A non-flammable version was proposed by the Russian filmmaker I. V. Boldyrev, and a flammable celluloid film by the American George Eastman. Simultaneously, projection systems were being refined, from Anschütz’s "tachyscope" to Émile Reynaud’s "optical theater." A special contribution was made by the Russian mechanic I. A. Timchenko, who developed the "snail"-type intermittent mechanism necessary for the intermittent movement of frames.

Although cinematography had many predecessors, including Latham’s "panopticon" and Demeny’s "chronophotograph," history credits the Lumière brothers in France with creating a device that combined all the necessary elements. Similar devices appeared almost simultaneously in Germany (Skladanovsky), England (Pole), and Russia (Samarsky, Akimov).

The first steps of world cinema

The public history of cinema began with paid screenings. Max Skladanovsky presented his invention in Berlin in November 1895, but it was the Lumière brothers’ screening in Paris on December 28, 1895, that is considered the defining moment of the new era. Their emissaries quickly spread the "cinemagraph" throughout the world. The hallmark of early cinema was the film "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station." Less than a minute long, showing a train stopping and passengers, it gave rise to the so-called "tramp film," which directors around the world copied at their own stations.

However, technically, the very first film is considered to be Louis Le Prince’s "Scenes in Roundhay Garden," shot on paper film before Lumière’s triumph. The scene lasts just 1.66 seconds and captures a family outing.

Technological advances never stood still. Attempts to record sound were made as early as the dawn of the film era: Edison and Dixon created the kinetophonograph, and Léon Gaumont attempted to synchronize Lumière’s apparatus with a phonograph. For a long time, these experiments remained unsuccessful due to poor synchronization and low sound quality. Only competition from radio forced the industry to accelerate the adoption of sound.

The search for color was ongoing. Hand-coloring frames was practiced by the Lumières, but the first true color film found in the archives was Georges Méliès’s "A Trip to the Moon" (1901–1902). Méliès used three film overlays (blue, red, and green). Later, in 1912, Herbert Calamus founded the Technicolor company, which released its first film by 1917 and achieved success in 1922 with "Victims of the Sea," using a four-color palette. The official birth of color cinema is considered to be 1935, with the release of Rouben Mamoulian’s "Becky Sharp."

Cinema in pre-revolutionary Russia

In the Russian Empire, despite the presence of talented inventors, domestic film production began late due to a weak technical and economic base. The first domestic filming took place in 1896 and was a documentary: Kharkiv photographer A.K. Fedetsky and Muscovite V.A. Sashin captured local events. A key historical moment was the coronation of Nicholas II, filmed by Lumière’s cinematographer Camille Cerf (or, according to other sources, Francis Doublier). This event marked the beginning of the "tsarist chronicle" genre.

The first feature film was "The Lowland Freebooters" ("Stenka Razin"), released by Alexander Drankov’s studio in 1908. In the following years, Russian cinemas were filled with adaptations of classics and historical films, although their quality often suffered from home-made production and dependence on imported materials. Censorship limited the subject matter, favoring melodramas and adventure films.

Nevertheless, by the 1910s, Russian cinema had acquired its identity. Film production peaked during World War I, reaching 500 films in 1916. Crime dramas about "Sonka the Golden Hand" and psychological tragedies exploring social inequality were popular. Leading directors of the time — Yakov Protazanov, Vladimir Gardin, and Yevgeny Bauer — created artistically significant works such as "The Queen of Spades" and "A Nest of the Gentry," drawing on the traditions of Russian theater and literature.

Goncharov and Khanzhonkov’s 1911 film "The Defense of Sevastopol" deserves special mention. It was the first Russian full-length film (one hour and 40 minutes) and was a reconstruction of the events of the Crimean War. Actual troops and battle veterans participated in the filming, and the battle scenes were shot for the first time using panning and changing camera angles.

The development of Soviet cinema

After the October Revolution, cinema underwent radical changes. In August 1919, the film industry was nationalized and transferred to the People’s Commissariat of Education. Vladimir Lenin defined cinema as the most important of the arts, emphasizing its role in educating the masses. That same year, the State School of Cinematography (the future VGIK), founded by Gardin and Kuleshov, opened in Moscow.

During the Civil War, newsreels and propaganda films — short films on topical political issues — dominated. Propaganda trains and steamships equipped with film projections were used to spread the ideas of the revolution. An example of this type of work is the propaganda train in the Orenburg region, where film screenings were combined with rallies and literature distribution.

With the transition to peace, the cinema network began to be rebuilt and national studios were established in the republics (Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia). In 1923, the adventure film "Red Devils" was released, gaining immense popularity. Lev Kuleshov’s experimental studio became a breeding ground for the new cinema, nurturing such masters as Pudovkin and Barnet.

The mid-1920s saw the emergence of world-class masterpieces. Sergei Eisenstein, in his film "Strike" (1925), and later in the legendary "Battleship Potemkin," demonstrated innovative editing techniques and the use of mass heroes. "Potemkin," with its revolutionary pathos and visual power, became a benchmark for political cinema. Concurrently, Vsevolod Pudovkin adapted Gorky’s "Mother" (1926) and "The End of St. Petersburg" (1927), refracting historical events through the lives of individuals.

By the end of the decade, Soviet cinema had achieved not only artistic but also economic success: box office revenues for domestic films exceeded those from foreign ones, and film exports reached more than 50 countries. The genre palette expanded: from historical revolutionary dramas (Esfiry Shub’s "The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty") to domestic comedies (Protazanov’s "Don Diego and Pelageya") and documentaries about building a new life (Turksib).

The Sound Era and Socialist Realism

With the advent of the 1930s, Soviet cinema entered the era of sound. This necessitated a rethinking of artistic means: words became the most important tool for revealing the character’s psychology, and music and song became an integral part of dramaturgy. Composers of the caliber of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Dunaevsky began actively working for film.

The pinnacle of 1930s cinema was the Vasilyev brothers’ film "Chapayev" (1934). The film combined the epic scale of the civil war with the profound humanity of its characters. Boris Babochkin’s performance as Chapayev became iconic, and the film itself earned national acclaim.

The historical-revolutionary theme was developed in the Maxim trilogy by directors Kozintsev and Trauberg, as well as in Mikhail Romm’s films about Lenin ("Lenin in October," "Lenin in 1918"). These works shaped the mythology of the revolution, creating monumental yet vivid images of leaders and ordinary fighters for the people’s happiness.

Musical comedy occupied a special place. Grigory Alexandrov, collaborating with composer Dunaevsky and actress Lyubov Orlova, created the genre of cheerful Soviet comedy (Jolly Fellows, Volga-Volga, and The Bright Path). Ivan Pyryev, meanwhile, focused on poeticizing collective farm labor (Tractor Drivers, The Pig-Herder and the Shepherd), presenting an idealized yet inspiring picture of the new village.

Before the war, large-scale historical films were released, intended to bolster patriotic spirit: "Peter the Great" (directed by Petrov), "Alexander Nevsky" (directed by Eisenstein), and "Suvorov" (directed by Pudovkin). The performances of Nikolai Cherkasov, Nikolai Simonov, and Mikhail Zharov in these films became classics of the Soviet acting school.

By the late 1930s, the USSR boasted a robust, technologically independent film industry. The number of projection units had increased exponentially, film print runs numbered in the thousands, and annual audiences reached a billion viewers. The domestic industry fully supplied studios with equipment and film, and color filming techniques were being successfully mastered.

"Old films are an artistic legacy, carrying with them great value and the experience of generations. We mustn’t forget that progress in cinematography only became possible after the first complex discoveries."