Gol, as you know, is cunning for inventions. And now, when all Western film companies have revoked licenses from Russia, and one really wants to watch a good movie, domestic businessmen began to invent ways to get around the ban so that their activities would not be considered pirated.
Anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova spoke about one such method in her blog:
“Newspeak is leaking everywhere, including in film distribution. Western films can no longer be shown, so the term “film lecture hall” was invented in the spring. We did not bring a kin, we are organizing a lecture hall.
But here in Orenburg they went even further: the names of famous films are changed. "World of Yura" and "Mage Albert" are now our companions..."
Of course, Western cinema is not limited to Jurassic Park and Harry Potter alone, and therefore readers began to offer other options for circumventing sanctions:
So journalist Alexei Belyakov writes:
“Oh, this is Eldorado, Klondike. So many opportunities for intellectual exercise. "The Adventures of Windy Scarlett O'Hara", "A Decent-Size Lebowski", "The Club Where Everyone Fought, Including Brad Pitt", "Sunset Boulevard", "The Ship Sailed and Drowned" (with DiCaprio) ... "
And blogger Yekaterina Shelest recalls that a similar practice existed in Soviet times, when everything western was also banned, and I really wanted to see it:
“Film lecture halls were not invented this spring. In the 70s, this was the only way to watch either Western films that were not licensed, or something not strongly licensed at all. I watched Disney for the first time at such lecture halls! One show was in 1972 with cartoons about Donald Duck (who didn’t go to the lecture hall didn’t even know such a character; we didn’t even really know Mickey Mouse). And another time was - the shock of my 10-year life! - Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. Since it was a "lecture hall", the whole film could not be shown, and they were given without the first 3 parts. That is, from the moment when Snow White was already in the forest. I still wonder when I watch a cartoon from the beginning ... "
Grigory Naumovets recalls other, later Soviet realities:
“In the second half of the 1980s, there was a rather short period when pirate video salons were not yet allowed, but here and there various Komsomol film cafes and film clubs were already hatching, where you could watch something complete with coffee, juice, cakes and a short lecture by a film critic , which explained the meaning and significance of this film from the politically correct positions ... "
In the famous science fiction writer Mikhail Uspensky we find such a funny fragment:
“True, once we did get into ballet on a tour of the Mariinsky Theater. Since all the old performances were still banned, and new ones were just being created, the theaters resorted to unthinkable tricks. So, the ballet that we watched was called "The Dream of the Red Army Soldier Ivanov." Red Army soldier Ivanov is at his post. Then he is replaced. He dances to the barracks, takes off his overcoat and boots - and falls asleep. He has a dream: what do you think? Of course, Swan Lake. In the finale, the Red Army soldier Ivanov wakes up, puts on his overcoat and boots and dances to the post. Curtain".
So there are many ways to "import substitution" in the cinema, and there is no need to invent anything.