Mosfilm Studio, Russia
When looking for the oldest studio, or the most famous studio, or perhaps the studio which has been responsible for most of our favourite films we naturally turn inward towards our own country. Brits may look to Pinewood and James Bond, Indians to Bollywood and Americans to Hollywood but we’re not the only film-making countries in the world.
Russia has several of the oldest film studios – if not in the world – then at least in Europe so
The Original Mosfilm Logo
why are we not more aware of them? The obvious answer is that films made in the Russian language just do not travel well to English speaking countries but is this really true? We’re probably aware of more Russian films than we think.
Mosfilm is the studio we’re going to look at today and up until around 1990 it has produced more than 3000 films. Based in Moscow, it was founded in 1920 by Alexandr Khanzhonkov and ready for production by 1923. Its first film was On The Wings Skyward, completed in the same year and directed by Boris Mikhin.
In 1926 Sergei Eisenstein produced must what still rank as one of Mosfilm’s most famous films ever. It was the silent movie The Battleship Potemkin and any fan or student of film will be aware of the significance of this production. It’s based on true events and deals with the rebellion on-board the Potemkin by the crew against the officers representing the Tsarist regime. Made in 1905 it was a stunning piece of anti-Tsarist propoganda and includes some famous and influential scenes – most notably the massacre of Odessan civilians by Tsarist soldiers on a the infamous staircase. Here’s a clip:
Mosfilm has a filmography to long to list here but it has produced several version of Russian classics. War and Peace was produced by Sergei Bondarchuk in 1968 and won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
It’s still a prolific producer of films nowadays and also includes all the pre- and post-production facilities necessary to complete films on-site.