The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

152 CINE TECHNICIAN October 1955 " Jan Hus," one of Festival's Most Impressive Films EDINBURGH IN REVIEW IT would not be possible to write of Edinburgh, as someone did of one of the Continental film festivals the other day, that " no one appeared to be very interested in the films." At Edinburgh the films still matter more than exhibitionism. More than one observer from overseas has commented on the genuine interest of the audiences in the films and in the film-makers who have introduced them. As one of them put it, they " charge the auditorium air with critical expectancy. It gives the pictures that flow across the screen a moment of intense significance." I mention this initially because the nature of the Edinburgh Film Festival appears to have been misunderstood by one or two writers visiting it for the first time this year. Showmanship is not and never has been the measure of the Edinburgh intention. The performances are primarily for those who want to see the films, not to be titillated by glimpses of more or less glamorous stars. Showmanship surely loses its meaning when it is regarded as of more importance than the film it is supposed to be serving. On the other hand, when a film is introduced, as happened so often in Edinburgh this year, by the man mainly responsible for its produc By FORSYTH HARDY tion, the occasion gains at once for those who are genuinely interested in film-making. To hear Carl Dreyer talk about his long-standing ambition to make Ordet; to have an analysis of the crisis in neo-realism in Italy from Vittorio de Sica; to see a demonstration of the art of clowning from Jacques Tati — these are experiences which would enrich any performance. I would not like to see these disappear from the Edinburgh programme. De Sica, the Edinburgh president this year, and Tati were in the city together, and it was a privilege to spend several hours in their company. The Italian's serious interest in his art does not subdue his natural gaiety. I thought it typical of his understanding reception in Edinburgh that a reference to his difficulties over Umberto D should have brought the warmest round of applause from the audience. Jacques Tati enjoyed his sojourn in Edinburgh. He said that the further north he travelled, the better the emotional climate for the kind of clowning he preferred. He hinted he would like to return and make a film on the Festival theme. In a characteristically modest way Carl Dreyer made his mark on the Festival. His film was one of its main talking points, both before and after it was shown. He told us on his arrival from Venice that newspaper reports of the audience walking out on the film because of its brutality were greatly exaggerated. Certainly when we saw Ordet it seemed hard to believe that the childbirth scene was sufficient to upset an audience in this way. With its emphasis on the power of faith to work miracles, Dreyer's new film is in the tradition of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath. It reaches its climax with tremendous power and gains greatly through its faithfully observed setting in a Jutland peasant community. After Dreyer's film I was most impressed by de Sica's Oro di Napoli. The version shown at Edinburgh included the controversial funeral sequence, the most deeply moving of the six episodes which comprise the film. The others in this highly individual impression of life in Naples range