Artkino Pictures

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Artkino Pictures
legal form
founding March 12, 1940
Seat New York City
management Nicola Napoli (until 1962)
Rosa Madell (1962 to 1970)
Sam Madell (from 1970)
Branch Film rental

The Artkino Pictures or simply Artkino was a company for the distribution of Soviet films in America.

history

Soviet films in the USA

Soviet films have been distributed exclusively through organizations in the Soviet Union since the 1930s. For the market on the American continent, but especially in the United States , US companies were used. The first such company was Amkino since 1926 . In 1940 Amkino was dissolved for economic reasons. This has been attributed by observers to the German-Soviet non-aggression pact , the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, and the winter war , which greatly reduced the interest in Soviet films in the United States.

Artkino was founded and rose during World War II

Just a month later, Nicola Napoli and Rosa Madell, two former Amkino employees , founded the Artkino company , which took over Amkino's role. Napoli, Madell and Michael Resnick acted as directors; Nicola Napoli was the president until his death in 1962. Artkino had a poor first year. It was not until the beginning of the German-Soviet War on June 22, 1941 that interest in Soviet films rose again in the United States, even if there were still bans on Soviet films in Pennsylvania because they were propaganda films and a “tendency to raise public morale corrupt ”. Artkino took legal action against it. Audience interest continued to rise after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and the trial ended when Pennsylvania decided the Soviet Union was now an ally and the films no longer endangered public morals.

Monopoly in the post-war period

Artkino was the only company selling Soviet films in the United States at the time. While sales Artkino not only Soviet films, but the films that the Soviet film distribution company Sovexportfilm had on offer. This included, for example, Razzia , the first DEFA film to be shown in the USA (in June 1948). Another seven DEFA films, including Wozzeck , Irgendwo in Berlin , The Strange Adventures of Mr Fridolin B. , No Place for Love , Chemistry and Love and Street Acquaintance , were announced in Variety for 1949 . However, none of these films appear to have actually been shown in the USA, presumably because Sovexportfilm had returned the distribution rights to DEFA on November 1, 1948 .

Until about 1960 Artkino had a kind of monopoly on Soviet films in the USA. In the first years after the war , however, Soviet cinema experienced a creative crisis, so that Ivan the Terrible I by Sergei Eisenstein initially remained the only notable film on Artkino's offer . It was not until around 1955 that more successful films such as A Large Family , My Wife , The Rumyantsev Case , The Last Shot , Carnival Night , The House I Live In or Ivan the Terrible II made it to American cinemas via Artkino .

Disintegration of the monopoly and slow decline

As early as 1955, Romeo and Juliet was a Soviet film that was not distributed through Artkino in the USA (although the Internet Movie Database lists Artkino as the distributor for Argentina ). At the end of the 1950s, a film exchange was agreed between the USA and the USSR, in which Artkino was not involved. The direct consequence of the project, which started in November 1959, was that the big Hollywood studios could choose the best films and Artkino had to be content with the less well-regarded Soviet films.

The exchange films, including The Cranes Pulling , Don Quixote and The Silent Don ( Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 ), had only moderate success in American cinemas. This was attributed to a lack of commitment from the studios. The synchronization in particular was very bad. Disappointed about this, the Soviet distributors turned to Artkino again . That is why the company remained successful in the early 1960s, for example with films such as The First Day of Peace , A Letter That Never Arrived , Nine Days of a Year , Adult Children , Stepchildren and The Road Roller and the Violin . As a side effect of the exchange project, other independent distributors were also given the opportunity to purchase and resell Soviet films. In this way, The Snow Queen and The Soldier's Ballade came onto the American market as early as 1960 . As a result, this did not happen often, but especially with the more prestigious films, with the result that Artkino could no longer get good films. Artkino therefore began to focus on re- showing older films. When Nicola Napoli died in 1962, Rosa Madell took over the management of the company until her death on March 1, 1970. Her husband Sam Madell then took over, who remained president until the end of the company.

In 1979, Sovexportfilm signed an exclusive contract for the exploitation of around 100 older films with another distribution company, which is why Artkino was also forced out of this business. Sometime between 1985 and 1990 Artkino ceased to exist.

Others

In 1975 the then chairman of Artkino , Sam Madell, donated the company's archive to the Museum of Modern Art . In 2002, his son Tom gave further documents to the Pacific Film Archive .

Artkino was the first point that Saville Sax turned to in 1944 to establish contact with the KGB for the later spy Theodore Alvin Hall so that they could report on the Manhattan Project . Nicola Napoli sent him to Sergei Kurnakov, who finally brokered the connection.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Reds See New Film Market Here Now That the Soviet Is an 'Ally' . In: Motion Picture Herald . July 5, 1941, p.  13 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  2. ↑ art cinema, Russian outlet . In: Variety . August 7, 1940, p.  12 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  3. ^ No 'Appeasement' for the Reds in Pennsylvania; Film Ban Stands . In: Motion Picture Herald . August 2, 1941, p.  15 ( online in Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Russia Will Have Show Window on Broadway . In: Motion Picture Herald . August 21, 1943, p.  21 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  5. ↑ 'Red Army' Film Now OK in Pennsy, Won't 'Corrupt Public Morals' . In: Variety . September 2, 1942, p.  3 (English, online at Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  6. ^ The Screen . In: The New York Times . June 14, 1948 (English, online [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Artkino to Distribute 7 DEFA Russ Pix it in 1949 . In: Variety . January 12, 1949, p.  15 ( online in Archive.org [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  8. ^ DEFA chronicle for the year 1948. In: DEFA Foundation. Retrieved February 18, 2018 (see November 1 ).
  9. ^ The Last Dance of Romeo and Juliet (1955) Company Credits. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved February 18, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Mrs. Rosa Madell . In: The New York Times . March 3, 1970, p.  41 (English, partly online [accessed February 18, 2018]).
  11. ↑ Joseph Albright, Marcia Kunstel: “Mlad” and “Star” . In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . January / February, 1998, p. 48–52 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed February 18, 2018] reprinted from 1997's Bombshell book , ISBN 978-0-8129-2861-7 ).
  12. ^ The 14th Academy Awards 1942. In: oscars.org. Retrieved February 18, 2018 .
  1. ↑ pp. 2–3.
  2. ↑ a b c d p. 3.
  3. ↑ p. 4.
  4. ↑ p. 6.
  5. ↑ pp. 4–5.
  6. ↑ a b pp. 6-7.
  7. ↑ pp. 10-11.
  8. ↑ pp. 12-13.
  9. ↑ p. 14.
  10. ↑ p. 15.
  11. ↑ pp. 15-16.
  12. ↑ p. 16.

Web links