The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the perception ofItalian cinema by different types of viewers in the Soviet cinema discourse of the 1960s-1980s. The emergence of the possibility of differentiating the audiences of mass and elite foreign cinema in the years of the «thaw» is highlighted, the causes and consequences of this division within the formerly unified group of Soviet movie audience are analyzed. Using the example of Italian cinema, which was popular during the studied period, we consider the audience of Italian mass movies — comedies, melodramas, adventure movies. A feature of the author ’s approach to the topic is an attempt to identify an active viewer of foreign movies in the USSR. It is suggested that this type of viewer associates going to the cinema not only with recreation, but also with intellectual activity that requires reflection on the plots and images seen on the screen. The comparison of the positions of the active Soviet moviegoers and the choice of a wide audience is carried out by analyzing static data on the attendance of Italian paintings in the USSR in different decades, comparing the most popular foreign paintings of the Soviet screen and the leaders of the movie distribution, as well as materials from sociological research on the opinion of readers of the «Soviet Screen» about the best movies and actors. The empirical basis of our research was statistical data collected by movie critic A. V. Fedorov, materials of the Soviet mass media devoted to Italian cinema.