news: The Moscow Film Museum

From: Klaus Eder
To:
Nikita S. Mikhalkov
Moscow

Dear Nikita Sergejevich,

Thanks for your kind words about FIPRESCI. Indeed, we try to support film art, whenever and wherever we can, with our modest means. You know much better than we do that this has become a difficult task, in particular over the last years, where everywhere (as in Russia) cinema is dominated by commercial interests and the art film faces increasing problems (viz. the Moscow Film Museum, the topic of our correspondence). Isn't this Museum the only place where a new generation of young filmgoers can get acquainted with, for example, your early films such as the marvelous Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano ?

It goes without saying that the Moscow Film Museum deserves our sympathy and full support — as well as yours, as we can see from your letters to President Putin and to the Minister of Culture Sokolov. I happen to have known the Kino Center from its very beginning in the 1980s, where the Film Museum was an integral part, at that time under the responsibility of the Filmmakers' Union (while the commercial Kino Center Company occupied the other part of the building). It's a wonderful place, dedicated to the heritage of Russian cinema (see for example the room devoted to Mikhail Romm, a potent reminder of Russian film history). The Film Museum organizes wonderful exhibitions and, more significantly, it shows a whole range of films, presenting a treasure trove of international classic cinema. A new generation of cinephiles has learnt to love and to understand cinema there. This work is invaluable, the life blood of cinema.

Over the years, however, the Film Museum has been increasingly marginalized. Today, it is difficult to find it in the Kino Center complex. You pass a striptease location, you enter a hidden side door, there's one small lift for all the visitors of the screenings... Don't these humiliating conditions need to be changed urgently? The memory of cinema deserves better. From this perspective we can probably share your demand (as you formulated at the meeting of the Board of the Filmmakers' Union on February 15, 2005, in Moscow) that the Film Museum should, eventually, leave the Kino Center and find a new and better place — even if we do not share your demand that the Museum should quit the place "as quickly as possible". Don't you think it would be better if it stays there until a better solution has been found?

We know of course that the Film Museum is no longer under the responsibility of the Film Makers' Union but of the Ministry of Culture, and therefore enjoys the official status of a state museum. Nevertheless, the Filmmakers' Union is not completely released from its responsibility (and the board members, recognizing this, have indeed pleaded, at the same Moscow meeting of February 15, for all possible support to keep the Film Museum running).

Unfortunately, we have now to touch the domain where cultural and commercial interests overlap and contradict each other. We know that the situation around the building hosting the Kino Center Company and the Film Museum is complicated and the subject of several lawsuits. It seems that the Kino Center company owns only a part of the building and wants, for understandable commercial reasons, to utilize the whole building, while the Filmmakers' Union owns the other part (32 percent) which hosts the Film Museum. In your letter to the Minister of Culture you speak of "a forced sale" of shares (from the Filmmakers' Union to the Kino Center Company) — which means that the sale has been finalized and the Film Museum is now working in a property which no longer belongs to the Film Makers' Union but to the Kino Center Company.

Dear Nikita Sergejevich, isn't it exactly this "forced sale" which caused all the recent problems and the conflicts we're talking about, and which, moreover, involves the possibility, if not the danger, of an eviction of the Museum before an appropriate solution of a new home for it could be found? As you're a member (and even the president) of the boards of both the Kino Center Company and the Filmmakers' Union, couldn't you have foreseen this? We do not wish to involve ourselves in such a complicated matter as ownership questions of the building, and we do really appreciate your attempts to find a new home for the Film Museum, but wouldn't it have been advisable first to create a new home and then do the selling? Couldn't this have avoided all the trouble?

Fortunately, the latest news is promising. The Department of Restoration and New Buildings of the Ministry of Culture has announced that a new building for the Film Museum will be included in the projects of 2006—2010. You know as well as we do that this is a plan only, but it is also a hopeful sign. Happily, there is also a possibility that one of the State Museums can be used by the Film Museum for its exhibitions, at least for a transitional period.

Concerning the approximately half a million items collected by the Film Museum, the real memory of Russian film history, the talks and negotiations between the Ministry, the Film Museum and the Mosfilm Studios and its director Karen Shakhnazarov seem to be proceeding successfully — even if this may be contrary to your original idea of using the Gorky Film Studio (which will soon have new owners, who may or may not be interested in hosting the Museum, not to mention the other disadvantages).

There remains the important question of the permanent screenings which under no circumstance should be suspended. As far as we know, some possibilities are under discussion, without any preference by now. We're sure that your sympathy and assistance will be invaluable in helping to find a solution as well.

We're talking about two things: a future perspective of the Film Museum in an own building; and a transitional solution, spreading the Museum's activities over various places of the city. For both projects, your support is earnestly requested.

The text to which you refer in your letter and which we published on our website, was initiated by our friends from the Berlin Film Festival — International Forum of New Cinema, Erika and Ulrich Gregor and Christoph Terhechte. We're sure that they didn't have the least personal reason but aimed to draw your attention to the fact that the Film Museum needs urgent help, in particular yours. They answer in a separate letter which we attach.

With your agreement, we'll publish our correspondence on our website.

Let's try to find an appropriate way to help the Film Museum by joining forces, dear Nikita Sergejevich. We're ready to help with all our means, as modest as they may be.

Sincerely Yours
Klaus Eder
Munich, March 31, 2005

top