The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

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October 1955 CINE TECHNICIAN 153 from the tragi-comedy of the small man whose house is invaded by a bully to the brilliant character study, by de Sica himself, of a faded Neapolitan count. His observation is as fresh as ever. The United States had a partiticularly strong and well-varied entry this year. Withdrawn from Venice, Blackboard Jungle was genuinely in the Edinburgh tradition with its emphasis on social drama. The conflict between the idealistic young teacher and the wild destructive boys answered the Festival's search for " the living cinema." Add to this the stimulating experiment of East of Eden, the ballet sequences of The Glass Slipper, and the gaiety of Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and you have an impressive entry. Not Good Enough In comparison Britain's Doctor at Sea seemed inadequate. There may well be reasons why British producers are unable to arrange release dates to fit in with a Festival presentation; but it would seem unwise not to attach more importance to the upholding of our prestige on these international occasions. Overseas visitors expect more than the excellence they always find in the British short films. Here, certainly, they were not disappointed this year, with films of the quality of The Bespoke Overcoat, The New Explorers, The Rival World and We Found a Valley. The Eastern European countries were well represented. Russia's Romeo and Juliet, danced by Ulanova and the ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre, delighted an audience which included some of the Danish dancers who had given the same work on the stage during the Festival. Devotion, filmed in colour and set in contemporary Moscow, is interesting chiefly because it offers, not an incitement to revolution, but an appeal for orthodoxy in marriage and family affairs. Excellent nature and scientific films gave balance to the entry. Czechoslovakia showed one of the Festival's most impressive films in Jan Hus. This is a superbly mounted piece of work, broad in its scope and meticulous in the detail of its settings and costumes. It suggests that the Czech film industry is now one of the most accomplished in Europe. This impression was strengthened by Prehistoric Adventure, which excitingly combines fantasy and scientific knowledge of prehistory. It also demonstrates the effort which the Czechs are prepared to put into a film for children. Yugoslavia sent two feature films this year. Two Peasants is a story of a conflict of loyalties involving partisans and Chetniks during the war : a sincere but unremarkable film. The other film, The Girl and the Oak Tree, is a surprisingly mature piece of work, excitingly directed and with a other falls in love with a beautiful ghost princess. This strange film has moments of delicate pictorial beauty yet fails to penetrate the barrier it appears there must always be to Western understanding of Oriental themes. Ugetsu Monogatari received the Selznick Golden Laurel Award, made during the Festival, for the film contributing most to international understanding. It is hard Oro di Napoli " photographic brilliance unequalled in any other film at the Festival. Its evocation of the atmosphere of the bare, waterless Dalmatian heights is something I won't forget. For the first time China was a major contributor, with two sharply contrasted films. Liang Shan-Po and Chu Ying-Tai, a folk opera in colour, has all the strangeness of a novelty. The Letter with the Feathers is a vigorous story of the antiJapanese war, filmed on natural locations in North China and enlivened by a delightful performance by a small boy as the hero of the exploit it describes. From Japan came Children of Hiroshima, already well known for its moving treatment of the atom bomb theme, and Ugetsu Monogatari. This is a story of feudal war in Central Japan and particularly of two peasants, one of whom becomes a samurai and the to see on what justification. The choice of films for the award has this year been taken out of the hands of panels of critics in the various countries and the first result is not reassuring. Also made during the Festival was the Richard Winnington Award, made to Mark Donskoy for the Maxim Gorki trilogy. Special prominence was given to films for children in the third week of the Festival. A conference on Making Films for Children, run on sound practical lines, was opened by Mary Field, under Frank Hoare's chairmanship. There were contributions by Patricia Latham on scripting, Brian Salt on direction, Jan Choyce on selection, Ernest Welton on international distribution and George Singleton on exhibition. The aim was to talk about, not vague generalities on the moral effects of film-going on children, but the practical prob (Continued on page 154)