Monday, May 24, 2010

Russian State-Owned MosFilm Opens its Movies to the World


By Yuri Pushkin

Mosfilm, the leading state-owned film studio, has launched an online service that will eventually offer 2,500 old and new movies. Thirty films with English subtitles will go up on the site in the next few weeks as the movie studio hopes to attract an international audience.

“We never sold out film rights to anyone, and now we can offer all our movies in a new media to new generations,” said Mosfilm’s international affairs and projects coordinator, Sergei Simagin.

“War and Peace,” “Walking in the Streets of Moscow,” “Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia” and “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation” are among the classic films that will go up with English subtitles.

The service is accessible at www.cinema.mosfilm.ru, with the current catalogue featuring 142 movies ready to be viewed and downloaded. Another 150 films will be available by July with the rest to follow.

Created in 1920 through the nationalization of two private film studios, Mosfilm is the oldest film company in Europe. It played host to some of the biggest Russian and Soviet-era film directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky. His internationally acclaimed “Ivan’s Childhood” is already available for download.

Movies available on the studio’s web site can be accessed for free on a daily timetable, similar to that at a movie theater, or can be watched online at one’s discretion for 25 rubles (90 cents). Users can also download movies to keep forever for 65 rubles ($2.20) apiece.

Mosfilm say they are trying to stay ahead of the pirates by keeping prices “lower than those of street vendors with the quality much better.” (Pushkin's news story continues here.)

Related stories: "Мосфильм" on-line (izvestia.ru)


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