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THE EUROPEAN CINEMA
watching in the future; if economic obstacles can be overcome, it has an optimistic future ahead. The tenacity of its old company Nordisk to keep in production despite all setbacks and difficulties is something quite remarkable in the erratic history of European cinema.
Another country to take film production very seriously since the war has been Czechoslovakia, where the industry, both production and exhibition, was the first to be nationalised after the Liberation. The traditions of Czech cinema, however, stretch back to before the first World War but production in the twenties was very spasmodic. After the coming of the sound-film, more strenuous efforts were made to produce in dialogue in order to meet the home-market, but production still remained haphazard. Perhaps the only Czech film of the period to achieve a reputation (or should one say a notoriety?) outside its country of origin was Gustav Machaty's extraordinary Extasc (1933), which unhappily became known more for its shots of Hedy Kiessler (now Hedy Lamarr) in the nude than for its very real qualities of good film-making. ' Reseen recently ' (writes Rotha), ' it reveals a powerful yet deeply sensitive approach to the psychological study of a sexfrustrated young wife. With much of its action shot in natural surroundings, Machaty's direction was as good as anything being made in Europe in the thirties. His use of editing to build up moments of high tension, such as the automobile drive to the level-crossing, his sense of movement and symbolism, and his very delicate handling of situations that could easily have become laughable, put him with the best directors of the period. It is peculiar that he has done nothing outstanding since, but is believed to be in the United States. Extase is a film which deserves restudy and re-evaluation, now that its appeal to the lascivious has had time to wear off, but it should be seen in its original full version. Its attempt to create a sound track which would be easily translatable for international
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