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THE FILM ABROAD
FRENCH MOVIE TO-DAY
D. F. TAYLOR
The influence of the stage lies heavy on French movie. In no country, save perhaps Japan, are the traditions and practice of the stage so deeply embedded in the producer's mind. With what gusto they announce an actor who is from the Comedie Francaise ! The musichall also has a considerable influence, and the Leslie Fuller and Ernest Lotinga tradition is very closely paralleled in the French programme picture. Technically, however, they are far behind Britain. Cutting is even less appreciated at Joinville than at Elstree. The tempo of films is dull and demonstrates a lack of movie sense. The stage has had its influence in a superabundance of dialogue. A shot of five hundred feet, in which the confines of the screen become the sides of a stage, is not uncommon. But in set design, and costume they excel, and though the stories are bad and the method of telling them crude, there is very rarely anything offensive to eye or ear. The French have a greater sensibility than any other nation. Certainly their artistic sense is much better developed. Perhaps the roots of this can be found in the higher standard of education.
The experimental cinema that was such a vital and interesting part of French movie has almost passed away. The men who thrilled the days of our film adolescence with The Fall of the House of Usher , En Rade, La Petite Lise, Jeanne d'Arc, Le chien Andalou — where are they now? . . . The ci-devant intellectuals have sold their souls down the Champs Elysees. Cavalcanti, Dreville, Feyder, Epstein, L'Herbier, are all working in the factories at Joinville turning out the programme picture. The only one who has carried any of his virtues to Joinville is Epstein, the erstwhile protagonist of French documentary. His last film shown publicly, Hispano, did show some feeling for people and a nice sense of timing. He managed to obtrude a lighthouse to give it the Epstein signature. Cavalcanti is making Coralle et Cie, in
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