Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

88 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMS Instruments of the Orchestra. Crown for Ministry of Education. Producer: Alexander Shaw. Director: Muir Mathieson. Photography: F. Gamage. Music: Benjamin Britten: played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Malcolm Sargent. Distribution: M.G.M. (Theatrical) and C.F.I. (Non-theatrical). 21 mins. There has been much controversy about this film which belongs to the Ministry of Education's experimental series of visual units. Instruments of the Orchestra sets out to explain to children the various instruments, the contribution each makes to the ensemble, and the way in which the various sounds created are integrated into one harmonious whole by the composer and conductor. Crown Film Unit has enlisted for this purpose the aid of Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra, on the very proper assumption that only the best is good enough for children. Some people have quibbled about the expensiveness of this production and have claimed that as much, or more, could have been taught for half the cost. It is true that this production has a certain luxurious pace about it and that is far removed from many of the over-earnest and unimaginative classroom efforts we have seen. It is equally true that other means might have been used. For example, we might have had a solemn film in which each instrument was much more painstakingly explained and illustrated, after which one might feel certain that no reasonably intelligent child could possibly confuse a piccolo with an oboe. Nobody would claim such results for Instruments of the Orchestra. Does that mean that this film is a failure — or that perhaps it had a larger purpose? It must be assumed that the other media in the visual unit will stress the individual characteristics of the instruments and perhaps show something of the technique of scoring. The sound film, which is the highspot of the visual unit, should integrate this knowledge and consolidate it in the mind of the child by the combined impact of aural and visual illustration. (Care must be taken, however, to ensure that a high quality of sound reproduction is achieved in the 16 mm. version.) The film does in fact do its job of integration superbly, and in so doing brings to the forefront the implied motive behind the visual unit — the development of the aesthetic senses of the children. They can now see what all this study is really about — the creation of beauty and expression of ideas. Here Benjamin Britten achieves a triumph. His fifteen variations and fugue have everything required; charm, melody and, above all, simplicity. And Malcolm Sargent deserves special mention, too, for his introduction of the instruments in terms of unpatronizing homeliness, though it would have been happier if he could have been introduced and his function briefly explained as conductor. Instruments oj the Orchestra has received commercial distribution and this raises certain questions regarding the Ministry of Education films. In this case it would seem a sensible decision, for the film has much to offer adult audiences and should be popular. However, it would be an undesirable development if classroom films were made with an eye to theatrical distribution, however tempting this might be from a financial point of view. Return to Work. Merlin Films for C.O.I, in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour. Producer: Michael Hankinson. Director: Gilbert Gunn. Photography: Cyril Bristow. S/orv: Robert Waithman. Composer: Norman Fulton. Musical Direction: Dr. Hubert Clifford. Distribution: C.F.L. and theatrical. 18 mins. The purpose of this film is to show how the Ministry of Labour trains disabled men so that they can resume their place in industry. After periods of training at special rehabilitation centres even the most apparently hopeless cases gain sufficient confidence and skill to earn their living in jobs most suited to them. The subject is an absorbing one but, unfortunately, the presentation leaves much to be desired. The film has at times a most objectionably patronizing tone, particularly when an instructor lectures the disabled men on the necessity for them to cultivate the qualities of conscientiousness and honesty. Casting, too, is careless and, at the cinema where the reviewer saw the film, the audience was convulsed with laughter at the antics and mannerisms of one of the Ministry interviewing officers. Apart from the photography the film is technically poor. The inordinate use of fades give it the appearance of a succession of isolated episodes; the spectator is constantly reaching for his hat under the mistaken impression that he's had it. In view of the resistance within the trade to the showing of documentaries in the cinemas, it is to be hoped that both C.O.I, and the producing companies will devote more time, care and skill to their films than is evidenced in this one. A City Speaks. Films of Fact for the Manchester Corporation. Producer: Paul Rotha. Associate Director: Francis Gysin. Photography: Harold Young and Cyril Arapoff. Music: William Alwyn played by the Halle Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli. Maps and Charts: Isotype Institute. Distribution: Not yet announced. 65 mins. There is a beautiful reel in this film in which Rotha and his team take Wagner and the Valkyries for a ride in a big way. The music is provided by Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra. The visuals, cut perfectly to the music, are of Manchester at play — football, dance halls, fun-fair switchbacks, speedway-racing, wrestling and the rest. This sequence has a big punch, and it comes at the right moment — the moment indeed when you are beginning to wonder if you aren't going to be slowly smothered (perhaps not unpleasantly) in lsotypes and civic consciousness. The skill of Rotha and his associate Francis Gysin is indeed notable throughout the film in that the didactic or the tendentious is never allowed to overbalance the human interest for too long. Faced with the not entirely enviable task of cramming all Manchester into a little over an hour, they have devised a system of cross-sectioning the different aspects — organizational, historical, sociological, personal — in blocks, rather than attempting an impressionistic synthesis. While this method inevitably leads to lengthiness as far as the film's total structure is concerned, it does make for a clear presentation of the basic argument. This argument is that any citizen — as it might be you or me — considering the community in which he lives, must look at it from not one, but a series of points of view; only by doing so can he get a clear understanding of the overall situation and problems at any given moment. The film is so devised as to be a 70-minuter for Manchester and other interested cities of the Midlands, and, by eliminating the centre reels, a 45-minuter for general circulation. This ingenious approach gets rid of what otherwise might have been a major criticism, that the trend of the film is too parochial. The reels dealing intimately with Manchester's more particular problems can be taken out without destroying the main purpose of the opus, which is to delineate the principles of local government (in big city terms) as a whole. Photographically it is superb, with credits to Hal Young and Cyril Arapoff. William Alwyn contributes what is quite certainly his best score since The True Glory. The editing — quite clearly by Rotha himself — is brilliant, although certain sequences, particularly early in the film, could lose a fair amount of footage. Apart from the later reels, this film lacks some of the emotional impact of World of Plenty and Land of Promise. Whether its expositional values make up for this is something which only public reaction can decide. In the meantime one may salute a sincerely made film of major dimensions which breaks no new ground but certainly builds surely on a proven basis. Cotton Comeback. Data for C.O.I. Producer: Jack Holmes. Director: Donald Alexander. Photography: Suschitsky. Distribution: Non-T. C.F.L. 25 mins. Few directors would envy Donald Alexander the task of presenting a constructive and optimistic picture of Britain's cotton industry. Now that mining is on its way to becoming an efficient and productive enterprise, cotton probably merits the dubious distinction of being our most chaotic, out-moded and unproductive industry. In the words of the recent Working Party Report: 'The time has come when all concerned must make up their minds that they must move towards a major transformation . . . unless they are willing to see the industry drift into a period of prolonged trouble and eventually shrink down to the size of a minor British industry." This is the challenge that Cotton Comeback puts on the screen. The film centres around a Lancashire working class familv ot'w hich the father has left the cotton industry after vears of unemployment to work in engineering. His two daughters have gone to work in a modern and well-equipped null and are anxious to persuade him to join them. The young man of one of the daughters shortly to be demobbed, brings the problem of his future career into the familv discussion. A Town Meeting on the future of cotton provides the focal point for the thrashing out of these problems. It is difficult not to compare this film with The li\i\ I) < Live. In both cases one sees a family group grappling with an important social issue. But there the similarity ends. These are real cotton