Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

!)()( I Ml MARY I 11 \1 M Us 35 but is ,i; mi j IDtjm 'ih:\ 'In the middle of a violent dispute between wo bits of documentary, you would find that )oth sides were consulting him, even if he was ^artisan. If someone had a nervous breakdown, vas in debt, or his wife was leaving him, it was ilways Uncle Bas who was rung up to advise the )est doctor, arrange a loan, or go and get the vife back. There is no overdrawing of the strange artues of Uncle Bas,' concludes John Taylor. But this, this other observer says, was plain mough to see and why. Wright is a born artisi, )ut he was born also into a tradition of public ;ervice and, like so man) others of his kind, he las sacrificed art, which must forever be in some legree selfish, for the other and Roman order. Whether it is right to do so, anyone can speculate upon. There, I say, goes a very perfect gentle knight, as gentle as one knows. Today, Wright continues in the quiel habits of liking concerts and the ballet, and reading immensely and in the classical manner; he still persistently and impossibly digs in his 1 ssc\ claypit ; he is grey as he should not be, hut has a capacity for going dark again when he feels good ; he has stooped shoulders but will straighten himself miraculously if he finds his old fine wit flashing again: he slopes over bars ordinarily, but in Paris, of all places, lives like a monk. He is, in fact, at 40, going through the difficult period of deciding whether to grow old or young again: and one would suspect, and this for the better, that he is a little weary of well-doing. He in incidentally one of the few amongst us who can afford the luxurj ol "im orae tune to the dilemma, Wright today can have pretty well anvthing he likes on the public service side of documentary in the UN, in the British (i eminent service, or elsewhere. He has acquired ill the talents and training for the desks ol responsibflit) Oil the other hand, one suspects there was something we did not make over when we turned him into a producer If the original, and native, and highly personal talent spurts again, he would be the best directorial bet in the business. This is one bet placed that Basil Charles Wright will, after long years, be out on location again with the spring. G GRIERSON TO REVIEW BOARD (Continued from page 28) formation sheet and give that a kicking around instead? Is it maybe that you just don't like Canada or something? Forgive me if, liking Canada very much in general and Montreal in particular, I say that 'this modest little film' has a very nice music track with some pleasant snatches of French-Canadian music and not least the snatch from La Claire Fontaine. Permit me to say that whatever the blurb says — and they do, you know, everywhere in the world — the film itself is modest in tone and, except maybe for the little French-Canadian girl who grins too much, and I never liked these loving couples wandering through films anyway, it is a film which makes you feel warm about one of the warmest cities in the world. And lastly, as to Condition Improved. This, to my mind, is a good clear unpretentious report, where the film producers have quite rightly not tried to put their techniques, or whatever you call them, between their subject and the functional exposition of occupational therapy which they were asked for. It seems to me not very useful to condemn a film for not doing what it was never designed to do. It was supposed to be a general introduction to occupational therapy with a wide range of examples in the different fields of treatment, and. I think it is. with the exception of the psychiatric sequence which seems to have been butchered somewhere along the line. It is true that the material is sufficient for a dozen or more detailed films, but it is strictly as a general introduction that this film presents itself. The fact of the matter. I am assured, is that the film has done its job and has been well received by audiences of doctors, nurses and relatives of patients for whom it was intended. What all this amounts to is not that everything from Canada is good. I love Canada dearly but. in some respects, it is not good at all. I say this just to demonstrate that I can be as stuffy a character as your composite self in certain matters Canadian. I have the impression, for instance, that Canada is not very knowledgeable about political philosophy or the law, especially in the higher branches of these disciplines, though on the other hand it is enormously good at economics. It is somewhat crude in parliamentary debate and there are more cockerels crowing on local editorial dunghills than you could conceive outside I.illiput. but on the other hand, it has a remarkable Institute of International Affairs and solid groups of polir tical study in every town in the country. Its public life lacks courage and Canada is the village that voted the earth was Hat. in the denial of its size and destiny. Yet, its carelessness of distance is fantastic and its individual adventures into the Arctic, epic. Its educational standards are in many quarters grotesque and, in some quarters, subject to a species of provincial fascism which is both ignorant and vicious. Yet, the library work, the adult educational developments and the extension services of the voluntary associations are heartening and good. Canada, especially, can be a great bore when it tries to match its sophistication with the larger and deeper versions thereof. 'Sunset, and evening star and one clear call for Bill the lone fisherman.' But over and under these variations and anomalies, there is a profound element of common sense and good taste about Canada and Canadian life which is a precious thing to knowtj This the Film Board reflects and demonstrates. It is a relatively young unit. Its st^le is based on a policy of doing a large number of jobs with the money it has and they are all, except for the work of Norman McLaren's experimental unit, practical jobs fitted to a particular need and a particular audience. In its effort to do as many jobs as possible, it does not spend nearly as much money on a film as we do in Britain. Inevitably and for these reasons, its style is a reportage style which avoids the larger flights, though indeed the quality of reportage camera work, the development of editorial economy, and pace, and the creative use of music and sound represent valuable and certain pro The larger flights 1 am sure will come and all the more surely now that so mans have learned that the first thing first is to handle a narrative. I even believe, as 1 watch some of the more complex approaches to documentary, that it might be better if many others followed the Canadian example for the simple. Whatever you say of the ( .inadi.m films, i re seen evei \ where in ( anada, are put ol the life of the nation; and the people w ho make il ire happy in a sense of public service n/ed. and there is none ol that sense of frustration of which one hears so much complaint in England. It may be that, now and again, they are a trifle too simple, but suielv the exchange of personnel to and from l mope — not to mention a more thoughtful criticism on the part of DFN — would soon cure that. If you think that, out of personal affection and regard, I am prejudiced, be sure I am. But if you want to make anything of it, at least you won't find me a composite individual to go after. I am at your service. JOHN GRIERSON FILMS OF THE MONTH (Com. from page 3 1 ) relations between employee and employer, and so on — in fact the film skirts the battleground of social progress. On the whole, that criticism, while indicating a real gap in the subject-matter, would be unfair, for the film gives the appearance of being first and foremost concerned with the description of an age-old exercise of a skill, and it is some measure of its success that it manages to do this in such glowing human terms that we miss the fuller study. That it also manages to include by implication such things as a mild condemnation of the older types of furnaces which pollute the air of the towns with their belching smoke, and to invest a more progressive works like Wedgwoods with a greater air of spaciousness ami mechanical efficiency, is perhaps all we can expect from what is so much a process film. \ fairer criticism, taking the film at its facevalue, would be of a weakness in the story' of the family (centring round the son and his fiancee), which lacks precision in its later development. In their stor>. there is no compensating peak to match the careful unfolding of the pottery processes. However, a film with such a desirable accent on the human being and his acquired skill, and bearing so much of interest, merits the widest showing in cinemas and outside them; not only because it is a satisfying piece of film-making, but also because it captures in a kmdlv wav the daily work of men and women engaged in one of OUT most intriguing and famous industries VISUAL UNITS sir: Here is some information that I couldn't give Marjorie in her charming letter in your January issue. I he Visual Unil Supply in its entirety cost £6,393 to province. I he ( Ol man is now quite sure > .'ins sincerely . HI Ms I ORM vs. Films l>n im. ■•: ( ( '/