Николай Майоров
Kinopanorama Has Debut; Soviet 3-Panel System on View at Mayfair Walt Disney Fantasy of Ireland Shown
By Bosley Crowther July 1, 1959
ONE vivid impression of the Soviet Union most forcibly comes through in the Soviet’s Kinopanorama picture. “Great Is My Country,” which opened at the Mayfair yesterday: they drive automobiles like crazy in that vast and apparently prosperous land—or else they haven’t got a good roller coaster to provide their giant-screen picture with appropriate thrills.For the opening shot in this pictorial and aural excursion through Sovietland, which closely compares in its projection to the scenic entertainments we have had in our own Cinerama and Cinemiracle, is taken from an automobile racing toward Moscow along a winding macadam road, with other cars whizzing by in the opposite direction on the left and an electric train keeping thundering pace on the right.It is a startling and thrilling introduction on the wide tri-paneled screen, and it would be fine, if that were the total of automobile riding done in this ninety-minute film. But that’s the point and the trouble: it isn’t.At least thirty or forty other times, the big three-snouted battery of color cameras is mounted on automobiles or trains or airplanes or something—and propelled forward at rapid speed, while buildings and crowds and streets and scenery come racing toward you and whooshing closely past your ears, by virtue of the stereophonic-sound outlets on the sides and at the back of the theatre.There is one particular ride that is a caution. It is in an open automobile, via a long, winding road through some mountains and coming down at last to the Black Sea. You’d think the fellow driving the car was Barney Old-field, so wildly does he careen. This would be quite a thriller, if plenty of the same had not gone before.Otherwise, this Soviet “cinerama,” which is being presented here by the Soviet Ministry of Culture in conjunction with the Soviet exhibition at the Coliseum, is a generally handsome and impressive wide-screen-and-color travelogue, notably short on people and propaganda and long on spectacular views.There are some beautiful, bold scenes of Moscow, where the excursion begins, and some equally grand and objective scenes of Leningrad. There follow a stunning tour of the great steel mills at Magnitogorsk and some truly impressive views of an offshore oil “field” in the Caspian Sea at Baku.After a fifteen-minute intermission, during which the loyal members of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employes change reels in a specially constructed projection booth, the show takes us on some airplane hopping around the peaks of the Caucasus, gives us a ride on a log raft in the Carpathians and dunks us in the water at a Black Sea resort. It ends with a lot of bulging footage of the Sixth World Youth and Student Festival, held in Moscow in 1957, which is mainly flags, feet, fireworks and gay festoons.Technically, Kinopanorama is on a par with Cinemiracle. It has a lot of trouble with the match lines between the central panel and the two on the sides, and the central panel often is darker (or sometimes lighter) than the other two. But Sovcolor, the stock used, is excellent, and the nine-track stereo sound is first-rate. A good musical score, strong and jazzy, runs pretty much through the show.A device whereby the commentary is delivered by narrators, a man and a woman, speaking in English from outlets on opposite sides of the theatre, is a bit stilted and clumsy. And some of the things they say, especially the woman, are downright silly and often laughable. But what you see isn’t laughable. It is as serious as can be.
GREAT IS MY COUNTRY, a Soviet-made documentary feature introducing Kinopanorama, a wide-screen process; presented by the Soviet Ministry of Culture and produced by the Moscow Popular Science Film Studio; directed and produced by R. Karmen; commentary by E. Dolmatovsky and Mr. Karmen; narrated by C. Henkina and J. Adamov; a Sovexport film release.
At the Mayfair, Seventh Avenue and Forty-seventh Street In June, 30, 1958. Running time: ninety minutes.
Премьера в московском панорамный кинотеатра «Мир» 28 февраля 1958 года.
Фильм был выпущен во Франции 12 мая 1961 года под названием « Покорители моря» (Conquerors of the Sea)
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