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Despite the crisis of the US economy in the 1930s, the American cinematography of this period experienced the highest rise and prosperity - its "golden age". The viewer wanted to watch movies more than ever. This unexpected, at first glance, situation was explained quite simply. Along with exquisite elitist paintings by J. Ford (1895-1974) "The Grapes of Wrath", "Young Mr. Lincoln", W. Wyler (1902-1981) "The Dead Corner", "The Foxes", O. Wells (1915-1985) " Citizen Kane", which admired for its innovation in the field of drama, in the system of expressive means, stunned with its psychological depth and social significance, commercial genres are becoming widespread: gangster films, horror films, melodramas, musicals, westerns, etc. So, American cinema of the 1930s performed a certain compensatory function, distracting the viewer from life's problems.

Some sections are frankly polemical in nature. The authors reserve the right to the original interpretation of classical works, although sometimes their interpretations seem too paradoxical. This can be said about the essays written by O. Musienko and O. Sydor-Ghibelinda.

Cinematography of the Soviet period of the 30s of the XX century. became a kind of mirror of the totalitarian era, because all cinematographic genres of that time fulfilled certain "social orders". A vivid example of this was the historian-revolutionary film presented by M. Romm's dilogy - "Lengn in October" and "Lenin in 1918"; trilogy by H. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg - "Maxim's Youth", "Maxim's Return" and "Vyborzka Side"; paintings by S. Yutkevich - "Man with a gun", the Vasiliev brothers - "Chapaev"; O. Dovzhenka - Shchors.