Russian film critics - who are they?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

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World and Russian cinematography does not develop on its own, but within a certain framework. This framework is formed with the help of three main tools: film awards institutions, financial flows, and control over the mainstream media. By awarding prizes, sponsoring at the stage of filming and praising films in the press that promote the "correct" ideology in quotation marks, one can gradually form trends that will become dominant in mainstream cinema. For this reason, in the reviews of the Teach Good project, we try to reveal not only the ideological stuffing of films, which is always paramount in terms of the degree of influence on the viewer, but also highlight the listed instruments of influence, showing the reader what goals, in particular, Russian government departments are working for - the Foundation cinema and the Ministry of Culture, which films receive the main domestic and international awards, as well as which reviews of official critics are published in the central media. It is about those who today are entrusted with praising and scolding cinema from television screens, radio stations and the pages of central newspapers, and we will tell you in detail in this review.

Basic theses of modern film criticism

First, let's reveal the main thing. To make it easy for a person to manipulate with the help of cinema, to impose destructive models of behavior, false ideas and meanings on him, the following theses must be introduced into the minds of a mass audience:

• The main function of cinema is entertainment;
• Cinematography is valuable in itself, and not as a relay of certain ideas to the masses;
• In cinema, the main thing is form, not ideological filling;
• It is up to experts and professionals to rate cinema as “good” or “bad”.

The entire system of official film criticism works to popularize these theses. There are countless methods of introducing these false attitudes - from constant speculations about the acting and scenery that hide the ideological stuffing of the film, to exclamations about the inadmissibility of censorship, that "cinema simply reflects reality" and so on. On the basis of this false ideological basis, with the help of the press, it is possible to form a positive information background around openly harmful and degrading films, as well as to criticize good and instructive films.

Practical implementation

Next, we will trace how this is implemented in practice, for which we will get acquainted with one of the most popular film critics in Russia - Anton Dolin. He regularly covers and evaluates new films on radio stations Mayak and Vesti FM, maintains a separate section on Channel One in the program Vecherniy Urgant, is published in such publications as Afisha, Novaya Gazeta, Gazeta.ru, Meduza, Snob, Vedomosti, and more recently he - editor-in-chief of the Cinema Art magazine.

First, we will demonstrate the position advocated by Anton Dolin in the field of morality and politics, and then we will show how Dolin's personal views are expressed in his professional activities.

According to A. Dolin, the Law on the Prohibition of the Propaganda of Perversion Among Children is harmful, since it is necessary to engage in sexual education of children

In order to get a holistic idea of Dolin's political orientation, it is enough to know two facts: 1. He began his public career at the Echo Moskvy radio station, where he worked from 1997 to 2002. type Akhedzhakova and Zvyagintsev signed an open letter from Russian filmmakers to their Ukrainian colleagues "We are with you!"This anti-Russian orientation of Dolina's views in terms of politics and anti-people in terms of moral values is naturally reflected in the professional activities of the film critic, for which he received access to Channel One and the main radio stations of Russia. In practice, his assessments look like this. Zvyagintsev's film "Leviathan", according to Anton Dolin, is wonderful, and the Russian viewer who criticized the picture simply did not appreciate the full depth of the plot and the embedded meanings. But the film "Panfilov's 28" is sheer boredom, you shouldn't watch it.

A. Dolin: "Leviathan" is a masterpiece, "Panfilov's 28" is a bad and boring movie, traumatic for the psyche

In the Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast" in 2017, in which an openly homosexual character first appeared, according to Dolin, there is no propaganda of perversion, and the Russian authorities in vain raised the rating to 16+. Also, according to him, there is no propaganda of perversion in the film "Moonlight", which received the main Oscar in 2017, and the whole plot of which is devoted to the difficult fate of a black homosexual. Naturally, Dolin recommended both films for viewing. And similar false assessments are voiced by Dolin in relation to hundreds of different films. Andrei Zaitsev's painting "14+" or Anna Melikyan's painting "About Love", the destructiveness of which is shown in great detail in the video reviews of the Teach to Good project, in Dolin's opinion, are wonderful works. After all, they, in particular, help parents tell their children about sex. It is quite natural that the creators of such a cinema themselves are delighted with the Valley, because if it were not for such talkers as he, who calls black white, no one would need their poisonous creativity. Each medal has a flip side, and such critics today discredit not only themselves, but in general those newspapers, radio and TV channels in which they work, highlighting the real goals of these resources and exposing the whole scheme of deception. In the age of the Internet, when the monopoly on information and knowledge is gradually eroding, more and more people will stop being led to such a lie, begin to educate themselves and think with their own heads. And having lost their reputation and audience, such media will lose their ability to somehow influence social processes. That's where they go …