European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 22, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes sunday december 22, 1985 an automobile Mechanic from Moscow tight a contract to rent a video Cattett. York times photo hey Comrade can i borrow your rambo tape by Philip Taubman new York times t he russian Host a nonconformist Wylor nipped on his television slipped a cassette Inlo the japanese video player and pressed the play Button. The first frames of the Good the dad and the ugly an Early Clint Eastwood Western flickered on the screen. These opening scenes Are  the Host said with Anticipatory pleasure As he settled into an armchair video recorders which made their entry on the soviet scene in the late 1970s As novelties that Only the Elile could Lind or afford have started to become a mass phenomenon. Although the number of owners remains tar smaller and the Cost is still Lar higher than in the West increasing numbers of russians Are watching movies at Home according to newspaper reports and muscovites. Most of the films they watch were made in the West and Are officially banned in the soviet Union the russians said. The growth in video usage has forced the government to rethink its initial response to video players a heavy handed Effort to prevent their introduction and discourage their use. Apparently persuaded that this approach Only forced the business underground the government is now trying to control the Trade by embracing it. In recent months the soviet Union has started mass producing video players made available a limited but growing selection of ideologically sate films and opened video stores that like their counterparts in the United states rent movies overnight. Despite the efforts the soviet authorities have had a hard time keeping Home video viewing within acceptable political limits. Pornographic films which were popular when video recorders made their debut. Have been supplanted by More serious movies that pose a greater threat to political orthodoxy. One of the most popular movies in Moscow this fall according to russians has been Man Oltron. A polish film by the director Andrzej Wajda that sympathetically chronicles labor unrest in Gdansk the Birthplace of the Solidarity labor Union movement. The films of Ingmar Bergman. Federico Fellini. Milos Forman and Bernardo Bem Olucci circulate widely in Moscow olten in copies that Bear English subtitles but Are also dubbed in russian. Amadeus Forman s Academy award winning movie about Mozart and Antonio Valieri. Is among the holiest video properties in the capital according to muscovites. Films like Bertolucci s last tango in pans and Bergman s Fanny and Alexander Are very popular. Muscovites said Sylvester Stallone s first Ramoo movie has attracted a Large following. Video owners said they were eager to see rambo first blood Purl ii one of Stallone s later features. In Many Wayo the video business remains a primitive and costly one compared with the business in the West. The going rate for having a movie dubbed into russian is about 30 rubles. A Ruble is $1.20 Al the official Exchange rate and the average soviet worker earns about 190 rubles a month. But russians said this was a vast improvement Over the first efforts to translate films which involved hiring someone to do a simultaneous translation while a movie was shown. Blank tapes Are particularly expensive. A tape that costs $5 in the United states Sells for the equivalent of $60 to $70 on the Black Market in Moscow. Prices however have fallen in recent years As the availability of video players and movies has increased. Japanese and other foreign made video players sell Lor about 2,500 rubles in Moscow Al commission  second hand goods outlets run by the government. Two years ago the Cost in Moscow was 3.500 rubles. Copies of Western movies available Only on the Black Market May sell for 200 or 250 rubles in Moscow. Western movies Are brought into the country by tourists by russians who travel abroad and by some diplomats whose Luggage is not checked at customs. Soviet video players and television sets Are not compatible with american japanese or most Western european models. The soviet equipment however can be converted to handle movies recorded for other video systems and a prospering underground business has developed to do just that according to muscovites. They said it costs about 400 rubles to have a soviet color television converted. The soviet video player the Elek Trolka pm costs 1,200 rubles. In october As part of a new drive to increase the availability of consumer goods the government announced that it planned to produce 60.000 video players a year by 1990 and 120,000 a year by 2000. By Intorn standards the goal is Small. Millions of video players Are sold every year in the United Stales. But for the soviet Union the totals were considered less important than the last that the government had decided to mass produce a product that until recently it considered decadent and politically dangerous. There Are no official figures available Lor the number of video players sold annually in past years or the number of households with video machines. The first video rental store called a vide Oteka opened in May in Voronezh a City about 300 Miles South of Moscow. Since then other outlets have opened around the soviet Union. There Are two rental outlets in Moscow. One is in the basement of a movie theater near the Central Farmer s Market. The decor is drab and unlike american video stores there Are no cassette covers lined up along the Wall to advertise the selection of movies. Andrei g. Tkachenko a salesmen said the store has a Library of 270 films. The movies All of which were made in the soviet Union or the soviet bloc with the exception of a Lew made in India Range from historical epics such As Sergei Eisenstein s Ivan the terrible to current comedies and children s films. The movies rent for iwo or three rubles a Day