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The Cinema Museum

The Cinema Museum collects, describes, restores and preserves documents and materials on the history of the Russian and Soviet cinema. The Museum arranges exhibitions on the basis of its fund and collections that are kept in other museums and archives. The Cinema Museum has four film facilities and regularly shows Russian and foreign classical movies, retrospective and topical film series giving the idea of the best achievements by the cinema culture of the past and the present.

The Museum has film clubs specializing in various topics, types of movies (animation, non-fiction films, movie operas) and the world’s different countries (France, Germany, Hungary, India, etc.)

Although the Musei kino (the "Cinema Museum") is one of Russia's newest museums, its history dates back almost 100 years. Between 1910 and 1919 the most progressive people in the field of cinema suggested that the creations of the 'Tenth Muse' ought to be preserved. At the end of the 1920s, a cinema museum was created under the auspices of the State Academy of Artistic Sciences ("GAKhN"). In 1932 GAKhN was disbanded and the priceless materials that had been collected by Grigorii Boltianskii (the first cinema cameras, scripts, sketches and posters) were partly dispersed amongst various archives, and partly disappeared.

In 1947, following a petition by Sergei Eisenstein, a cinema history section was set up within the Institute of the History of the Arts which was part of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1948 a film archive was established, but the creation of a cinema museum was postponed indefinitely.

In the 1960s the Administration of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR organised a museum commission headed by the film directors Leonid Trauberg and Sergei Iutkevich. The Union of Cinematographers began the construction of the Kinotsentr (the "Cinema Centre") on Krasnopresnenskaia where a cinema museum was to be located. The construction work was delayed for many years, the building project was halted many times but a cinema museum always remained part of the project.

In 1984, following a decision taken by the Union of Cinematographers, a museum group was formed within the All-Union Bureau of Propaganda of Cinema Art, a sub-department of the Union.

By March 1989 that museum group was reorganised as the Central Cinema Museum. Its formation coincided with Charlie Chaplin's centenary year. Lady Una Chaplin and the firm Bubbles presented the Cinema Museum with a print of Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). The Main Hall of the Cinema Centre opened with a screening of that film on 31 March 1989.

Archive premises, exhibition halls and a number of cinemas (in which screenings began to take place of Russian and world cinema selected according to museum principles) were housed in the completed building on Krasnopresnaia.

In 1992 the Cinema Museum became an independent, non-commercial, cultural-educational organisation. Its founders were the State Committee for Cinematography of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Confederation of Unions of Cinematographers and the Union of Cinematographers of Russia. These organisations were later joined by Sovexportfilm.

In 2001 the Cinema Museum was awarded the status of a 'state museum'.

The three main areas of the Cinema Museum's work are:

the collection, systemisation and description of documents and materials relating to the history of cinema culture (See: Collections); the organisation of archive, thematic and personal exhibitions connected with cinematography (See: Exhibitions); and the systematic screening in its cinemas of films which have become recognised masterpieces of Russian and world cinema or which have become notable events in the continuing evolution of cinema. Our educational programme - 'The Age of Cinema' acquaints viewers with the development of various artistic movements and schools in the history of cinema. Thematic cinema clubs also meet in our cinemas (See: Cinematheque).

Access to the Cinema Museum's archive premises and offices is only given to specialists and researchers.

The following are open to the general public:

Our three exhibition halls: the Thomas Edison Hall (No.1) on the first floor; the Lumiere Brothers Hall (No. 2) and Skladonovskii Brothers Hall (No. 3) on the fifth floor.

Our four cinemas on the fifth floor: 'Charlie Chaplin' (No.4) seating 120 viewers; 'Sergei Eisenstein' (No.5) seating 189 viewers; 'Marlene Dietrich' (No.6) seating 76 viewers and 'Satayajit Ray' (No.7) seating 79 viewers.

Our cinemas are equipped for all types of projection (35mm and 16mm, video-cassettes of all formats and DVD). Cinema No.5 is equipped with Dolby Stereo.

15, Druzhinnikovskaya ul.
Tel. (095) 255-90-57
www.museikino.ru
info@museikino.spb.ru
Nearest metro station: Krasnopresnenskaya

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