Foreign films editing in USSR as cultural-historical phenomenon

The powers of Soviet film editing extended not only to the sphere of creating domestic films, but also to such
areas as the selection and distribution of foreign films. The topic of the article is ideological and aesthetic criteria
by which a foreign picture received the right to be shown in the USSR. Editor’s work affected all the elements of
the cinema process: from the «little things in life» to the fundamental issues of confronting social systems. The
rental of a foreign – especially «capitalist» films, sometimes of the most innocent content, nevertheless assumed
the presence of a certain ideological message (even if it was not originally intended). One way or another, an idea
should have formed in the viewer’s mind: the bourgeois “foreign land” is inevitably inferior to the advantages of
living in the country of “triumphant socialism”. The film background of analysis is mainly the work of leading
capitalist cinematographies: USA, France, Italy, Germany and Japan. The directions of editorial work related to the
adaptation of foreign paintings for the Soviet screen are considered: “political” and “aesthetic” remounting; practice
of the names and “renaming” of the film; the reasons why the contents were cut; culture of Soviet film dubbing; the
history of «shelf» foreign films in the USSR.