Documentary News Letter (1940)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER MARCH 1940 15 FILM SOCIETY NEWS LONDON. The London Scientific Film Society gave its second performance on February 18th. Among other subjects, films on lubrication, telephony, crystals and various agricultural subjects were shown. From now on the subscription for the rest of the season has been halved. Meantime, to the obvious pleasure of a crowded audience, the London Film Institute Film Society opened up again with a bumper programme, including a new Len Lye and Ivens' longawaited Chinese epic, 400 Million. (Reviews of these are on pages 6 and 7.) The secretary. Miss Olwen Vaughan, is arranging further shows, and particulars can be obtained from her at 4 Great Russell Street, W.C.I. It now only remains for the Film Society itself — that doyen of us all — to start up again, and London Sunday afternoons will be back to their peace-time splendour. THE PROVINCES. From all quarters come reports of increasing activity, of which one of the most striking is from the Ayrshire Film Society. Writes the secretary : — "We started the season with a membership reduced from 500 to slightly under 300, and changed our meeting-time from the evening to the afternoon. During the second half-season we decided to form a branch of the Society in North Ayrshire, and are now running meetings on Sunday evenings at the Broadway, Prestwick, and in the afternoons at the Regal, Saltcoats. The membership at Saltcoats is so far small, but it is hoped that this will be increased to 100 by the end of the season. Although the Saltcoats venture was probably a risk at a time like the present, my Council felt that it was the duty of all organisations of a cultural nature to endeavour rather to increase the Society's scope in war-time, despite the difficulties, than to close down until better days." Films shown have included Mart du Cygne, The Thirteen, If I Had a Million, The Londoners, and The City. Dundee and St Andrews report a record season in spite of the cancellation of the afternoon shows at St Andrews due to the action of the local magistrates (see DNL, January). Membership has been so large that the afternoon shows have been transferred to Dundee itself, in addition to the regular evening performances. Moreover, the number of shows has been increased from six to nine. Features so far shown include Les Disparus de St Agil, Mayerling, and Hostages (this the most popular, says the secretary). Dundee is yet another proof that enterjprising societies may reap greater rather than less prosperity in war-time, despite transport and black-out difficulties. Lochaber (see also DNL, February) has recently shown Ruby Grierson's Zoo and You and Duvivier's La Bandera. Part of the programme note on the latter may be of interest to other societies : — "Two warnings are perhaps necessary. One j for the admirers of Annabella, and the other "if for the anything-but-admirers of General Franco. Annabella is almost unrecognisable in a not too happy part. As for General Franco, the film is dedicated to him as the then Commander of the Spanish Foreign Legion, but as it was made before he emerged from this comparative obscurity the dedication has no political significance." Bryanston is well known as the public school which is run on a unique and highly successful development of the Dalton Plan. Here, on alternate Sunday afternoons, the boys can attend complete film performances. The programmes are well planned and very catholic in their choice, for they include the March of Time, documentaries like Night Mail and the Nutrition Film, cartoons, nature films, and features which range from foreign successes to films like Hitchcock's Young and Innocent or Jack Hulbert's The Camels are Coming. An admission charge keeps the performances on a paying basis. This school film society should be an encouragement to all secretaries, for they can look forward to a new generation of members who have learnt both how to enjoy good films and how to exercise their critical faculties. It would be interesting to know how many other schools run film societies on a similar scale. For its sixth performance of the season the Edinburgh Film Guild showed the March of Time's " History of the Movies" and the Soviet film comedy The Rich Bride. The Oban Film Society is another Scottish body which has courageously decided to carry on, and the first of its four performances of the season was held on February 16th. Turning to Northern Ireland we find that the Belfast Film Institute Film Society, unable to get a cinema, has started repertory shows in the Grosvenor Hall. Despite a frank warning from the secretary (". . . members who desire physical comforts are encouraged to bring cushions or rugs, as in the early Spartan days of the Society . . .") an audience of over 500 turned up to the first show, which included two G.P.O. films and Hostages. The monthly bulletin issued by this Society is lively and stimulating ; it covers, among other things, all releases in Belfast cinemas for the current month. Manchester and Salford report that their membership is expected shortly to reach the 900 mark. Herbert Hodge's lecture on "Movies and the Millions" was a great success; films soon to be shown include Men in Danger, Education de Prince, and Drame de Shanghai. The Scottish Film Festival In previous years this festival has been notable for the high quality of amateur work which it has attracted. It is good news that the Scottish Film Council has decided to keep it going in spite of the war. The final adjudication and public performance will be on April 27 in the Lyric Theatre, Glasgow; the last date for entries is March 30 and the last date for sending in films April 6. The adjudicators are Oliver Bell, Director of the British Film Institute (the Scottish Film Council's parent body) ; H. Forsyth Hardy, film critic of The Scotsman; William Jeffrey, film critic of The Glasgow Herald; and C. A. Oakley, chairman of the Glasgow Film Society. There will be five classes. Non-fiction (documentary, instructional); fiction (story-films, photoplays); colour; Scottish (Scottish competitors only), and a section for novices who have not previously won a prize in any film competition. Further information and entry forms may be obtained from A. Russell Borland, Secretary, Scottish Film Council, 2 Newton Place, Glasgow, C.3, or from the British Film Institute, 4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. NEW FOREIGN FILMS i {All films recommended in this column are the latest continentals viewable in London, and are in our opinion suitable for Film Society showing. We are unable to indicate at what dates they will be available for booking.) Remontons les Champs Elysees. Director: Guitry. Actors: Sacha Guitry. Distributors: Unity Ltd. THIS IS A short history of France, told by Sacha Guitry, acted by Sacha Guitry, and altered to suit Sacha Guitry. It is impossible to count the number of parts he plays in the film, and the joke is a good one — up to a point. But the film lacks the lightness of touch of Le Roman d'un Tricheur. The English translation is good. Les Rois du Sport. Director: Colombier. Actors: Raimu, Fernandel. Distributors: Curzon Ltd. COMEDY. The best part Fernandel has had since Le Rosier de Mme Husson. The plot centres round the fact that circumstances compel him, a waiter, to be in succession a goalkeeper, a racing motorist and a champion boxer. Outstanding sequences are the waiters' race in the beginning. which Raimu wins by bringing down the opposition with banana skins ; the football match, with Fernandel limbering up his gawky legs, and explaining his inefficiency as part of his strategy ; and the final fight, when Fernandel, looking like a runaway ostrich, makes circles round his drugged opponent. Pieges. Director: Siodmak. Actors: Maurice Chevalier, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Renoir, Marie Dea. Distributors: Cinephone Ltd. PSYCHOLOGICAL murdcr story. Treatment is French in the emphasis on detail and the humanisation of the characters, slightly Fritz Lang in the handling of the police and the murderer, with a touch of Hollywood in the glamorisation of Marie Dea and the design of the sets. Maurice Chevalier has two songs, but the rest of his part is straight, and he plays it with a fair measure of feeling. Marie Dea is worth seeing in the part of the sensitive but self-assured dance hostess whom the police employ to trap the murderer. Erich von Stroheim has a small part which he plays stiffly and awkwardly.