Putin told directors, including Oscar-winning Nikita Mikhalkov, Vladimir Khotinenko and Karen Shakhnazarov, to learn from how Hollywood managed to take advantage of the financial crisis in the 1930s. "The Great Depression in the United States has given a very important impulse to the development of the American cinematography and made this industry super-profitable" Putin said. Despite political constraints, filmmaking thrived in the Soviet Union and a number of directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky earned renown in the West for pushing the boundaries of the genre. Full Article at France 24