Two Books on Soviet Cinema de [Soviet Cinema] Lunacharsky, Anatoly. (1875–1933)

Used; Like New/Used; Like New. Pair of books published in Soviet Russia regarding the art of cinema.  The first, Кино на западе и у нас ("Cinema in the West and Our Country"), was written by Anatoly Lunacharsky, a Marxist revolutionary and the first People's Commissar of Education.  8vo.  Softcover in protective mylar.  80 pp.  Teakinopechat, Moscow, 1928.  Plates throughout from films including Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ and Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush.  Unnumbered edition of 4,000.  Cover by Soviet artist Boris Titov (1897–1951).  Light wear to edges of cover, overall in fine condition.  Together with a booklet related to the 1935 Soviet film Три товарища ("Three Comrades"), directed by Semyon Timoshenko.  16mo.  Softcover.  8 pp.  No publication information.  Half-inch tear to lower spine, else in fine condition.

Appointed the first People's Commissar of Education in 1917, Lunacharsky played an important role in the early history of Soviet film, overseeing the implementation of censorship systems and regulating the industry.  He emphasized that films must be entertaining in order for their role as propaganda to be effective.  In a speech to film workers in January of 1928, he said "The cinema public often wants something that it finds especially interesting and if you do not produce a sensation to provide this interest it will not want to eat the dish you offer and will push it away or, if it does eat it, it will only do it very unwillingly...Many of our people do not understand that our film production must whet the public appetite, that, if the public is not interested in a picture that we produce, it will become boring agitation and we shall become boring agitators."