Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

26 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER Documentary in Denmark (continued from page 25) destructive: Karl Roos' and S0ren Melson's beautifully directed and photographed film on cattle — Koen — degenerates into a sort of ballet of slaughter-houses, meat, offal and heaven alone knows what besides. On the other hand, Bjarne Henning-Jensen's Sukker (Sugar) uses crosscutting effectively to give a sense of people and their relation to the fields and factories in which they work. One other quality in Danish films deserves attention — a kind of light-heartedness in the direct propaganda films which makes them particularly effective: at their best, they leave most British efforts in this direction behind. Indeed, perhaps the best of all the films made in Denmark is Kornet er i Fare (The Corn is in Danger) — a plea to the public to take precautions against the corn weevil and to call in the local pest officer. This sort of film subject has faced nearly every director in Britain. (Is there anyone who has not been asked at one time or another to make a film to persuade people to exterminate rats?) Yet no one has tackled such subjects with the gusto and imagination that this film displays. The corn weevils are given a collective evil personality which will send every cinema-goer hurrying to his larder, his corn bin or his barn after the performance. Imaginative scripting, clear direction, fine music and slick editing have been combined to produce a completely satisfying effect. Finally, one must mention Theodor Chris tensen's masterly impressionist feature length study of Boumeister and Wain, the firm of ship builders, and Carl Dreyer's moving and finely directed Modrehjaelpe (Mother Help — a film on maternal welfare) which, with Kornet er i Fare and Sukker is undoubtedly one of the three best films yet made in Denmark. Denmark is one of the only countries in Europe, other than Britain and Russia, whose film makers and creators have been harnessed by the Government to serve the national purpose. For this reason, Danish documentary is firmly rooted and can give Denmark a place in the world of cinema which may be denied to larger, richer and more powerful countries which have not mobilised their film talent. The strength of her film school is its technical facility, its humour, its humanity, and its directness. Its weakness lies in the fact that the films have sometimes tended to play with surface values only, and to substitute technical virtuosity for the more solid qualities of exposition. Such weaknesses are mainly the product of the invasion. The practical problems of public information which the Danish directors are now tackling are bringing their own correctives with them. It is certain that the Henning-Jensens, the Hasselbalchs, Christensen, Skot-Hansen, Melson, the Roos', Dreyer, Rosenberg, Palsbo and anumberof others have between them a splendid range of talent. It seems likely that Denmark has a place assured for her in world documentary. SIGHT & SOUND Spring 1946 Published May i Returns to its pre-war, fully illustrated size with articles by Eisenstein, Andrew Buchanan, Roger Manvell and many others. Owing to paper control, however, we regret that no new subscribers can be accepted. The Independent, Authoritative Film Journal published by: The British Film Institute, 4 Gt. Russell Street, W.C.I FILM TITLING by Barnet Freedman producers and directors of films are not to be expected to know about type, lettering and display design, for this is a highly specialised activity. Its application to the film has not received a great deal of study in the past. In this country the experiments made, judging by the achievements, have been negligible, and although an insistent vulgarity pervades American productions in this sphere, they have at least gone to a fair amount of trouble and obvious expense to obtain their results. Even if a high level of taste and scholarship has not been achieved, some startling and novel effects are certainly to be observed. Movement and "filmic" texture, colour and arabesque are used with considerable ingenuity, and the resultant vitality often contributes to the general liveliness of otherwise pedestrian films. A close study of American work in this department of film making reveals that they possess highly expert technical men and machines engaged solely on the production of film titles. In England this work is either on a level with Comic Cuts or else it is over "refined" and bloodless. The dead hand of someone with a little knowledge is often discernible. A few firms exist who carry out instructions slavishly and without imagination, firms employing highly skilled craftsmen, who could if they were required to do so, produce work of a very fine technical standard. In fact, their work lacks character, is often vulgar, and there is little evidence of any attempt to exploit a field which offers immense opportunities to an imaginative designer. The work is obviously ordered to satisfy a producer who is generally ignorant in matters concerning type and display, who is himself too overwrought with the larger aspects of film making to give the matter much attention, and who is often unable to state his requirements until the last moment. The manufacturing firms have then to hurry and rush through the titles at the eleventh hour; experiments and alterations cannot be made; what is done has to be "good enough". The crux of the whole matter is that the perfectly efficient and fine lettering craftsmen, employed by the title manufacturing firms, require independent and expert direction and guidance. This they do not receive. An artist who has proved himself to be firstclass as a designer of lettering and display work, a man who has not only scholarship and taste, but great technical ability too. should be asked to study the subject. He should be afforded all the technical help and advice that can be procured. In the course of two years he should be requested to design and produce various sets of titles, which would exploit all the film is capable of in this branch of the art. (Continued on page 29)