According to this article, Putin gots somethin' to say regarding movies:Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Tuesday told Russia's top directors that Russian movies were not attracting big enough foreign audiences and the domestic film industry had to
raise its game "We possess a most rich cinematographic heritage, our films traditionally receive prestigious awards at international festivals but our product does not so far have a mass foreign audience," he said.
That meant that "the goals of economic, cultural and humanitarian influence are not being reached," he told the first meeting of the recently created Council on Cinematography.
Which leads to the question of why we don't yet have a Cinematography Czar in the White House since I believe last week a Czar of Potatoes was announced (Dan Quayle). BUT, it also explains a disturbing snippet from Putin's "vacation in the mountains" recently, where he, um, posed for a sleazy romance book cover?
I don't know about you, but it's all coming together for me now. Pushing for better movies? Appearing all Conan in PR pics? I believe if we looked at Putin's bedroom wall, we might see some fan posters of a certain Austrian movie star-turned governor.
Just a wee note; this is what happens when government becomes way too involved in the country. Your president ends up talking about the movie industry. I'm just sayin'.
