ABSTRACT
The last issue of Novyi Lei for 1927 was devoted to cinema. Like others, the Lef group felt it necessary to state their position in the light of the forthcoming Party Conference. In a published debate119 Sergei Tretyakov argued that the 'played'l'non-played' controversy was based on an oversimplification: the real issue was the contrast between fact and fiction, 'a question of the degree of deformation of the material out of which the film is composed'. Such deformation was possible in so-called documentary (he cited Shub's The Great Way as an instance) as well as in fiction films. Tretyakov stated:
I have always felt that there is every justification for the fact that the Lei cover bears the names of both Eisenstein and Vertov. These two men are working with precisely the same apparatus, but with two different methods. With Eisenstein the agitational aspect predominates and the film material is subordinated to this function. With Vertov it is the informational aspect that predominates with the accent on the material itself. Shklovsky argued that the distinction lay in the method of organising the
material: they needed to develop 'instead of the division into film documentary and "played" film, a division between narrative and non-narrative cinema'. This followed from his view of the primacy of the script and of plot in the organisation of film material.
