There were two cultural revolutions taking place at the same time: sound film and Socialist Realism. The introduction of sound film lead people to believe movies would become bourgeois again, and that they needed to work hard to ensure it remained in the realm of the everyday person. There was an argument made that Soviet film needed to surpass the purely aesthetic films made by the West. This created the idea of ‘cinema for the millions’, or making the films “useful, intelligible, and familiar to the millions”. In response, the All-Union Creative Conference on Cinema Affairs laid out a set of rules for films to hold on to Socialist Realism ideals, much like the Congress of Soviet Writers did for literature.
Soviet cinema became a crucial aspect in creating and spreading the idea of a mass utopia as well as other Socialist Realism ideals. The enjoyable and relatable scenes in movies became an effective propaganda tool, much like novels such as How The Steel Was Tempered. The invention of sound film lead to the ability to create more accessible, relatable cinema that was able to spread propaganda more effectively than ever before.
Do you think that movies would have been an effective propaganda tool if they did not have sound film technology in the Soviet Union?
This is a great question! I think that sound is something that can make a film more impactful, but films can still get the point across without sound. “Metropolis” is a 20s German film that tells an interesting story without having a single sound as the visuals speak for themselves. There is a greater experience with the addition of sound, the article mentions the sounds of factories being used in films. Hearing the sounds of industrialization and progress would draw great emotion from the people that are literally experiencing them in action. Sound helps to immerse yourself in the situation and the closer you are – visually and auditorily – the better the propaganda will stick.