ABSTRACT
I wrote a script called How Are You? This script is a matter of principle. Before I wrote it I asked myself a number of questions and produced answers. First question: Why do foreign films usually beat ours even in their artistic quality? Answer: Because foreign films have discovered and utilised special means of expression that derive from the very essence of cinema art and for which there are no substitutes, e.g. the train in Our Hospitality, Chaplin's transformation into a cockerel in Gold Rush, the shadow of the passing train in A Woman of Paris and so on. Second question: Why should we be for newsreel and against acted film? Answer: Because newsreel deals with real objects and facts. Third question: Why can't we stand an hour-long newsreel? Answer: Because our newsreel is composed of a random collection of shots and events. Newsreel should be organised and should organise itself. We could stand that kind of newsreel, which would be like a newspaper. We cannot live without that kind of newsreel and to discontinue it would be as stupid as closing down Izvestiya or Pravda. Fourth question: Why is A Woman in Paris so dazzling? Answer: Because, in organising simple little facts, it achieves the greatest possible emotional saturation.
