International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

60 THE CINEMA IN TEACHING frequency. This is all the more true when the subject is predisposed by hereditary nervous taint. Conclusion. We must take care of the boy and young person. We must concern ourselves also with the case of the adult who in certain ways and in certain things is no less a child than the child in years. What is wanted then is an intelligent not a fanatical propaganda on the one hand to persuade the big public that too much cinema is bad, just like too much wine, or too much tobacco. It is strange to hears people sometimes boast of going to the cinema every evening after the labours of the day — just to rest themselves, they say. We need also an energetic work by those charged with watching over public shows to control still better, not only the quality but the duration of the performances. Cinemas, even the best ones, ought not to be allowed to offer two entire film programmes for some trifling charge in an entertainment lasting three hours. Three continuous hours of the cinema, with few or no intervals, is a complete negation of the most elementary rules of hygiene. As to the desired regular commercial production of educational films, I do not wish to see the pedagogues become over anxious about it. If it does not come to the establishment of motion picture firms for the production of educational films, no great harm will be done. It is something like the case of educational books written expressly for children, which rarely turn out to be real works of art. In Italy, apart from Pinocchio and Cuore, we have no examples. What we should do is to choose among existing works of art those, which — though not written expressly for children — are the best suited to their mental and moral development. The world cinema production offers a large choice. For example, I remember the picture Nagana, which has plenty of instructive material (the tse-tse-fly and sleeping sickness, the methods used by doctors for neutralizing the effect of a microbe). The educational element was also present (a Japanese doctor sacrifices himself for science ; another places duty before love). With all this matter the picture was a success in the cinematographic sense, that is, it was vivid, alive, and without any too obvious pedagogic intent to render it heavy. I do not think it would be difficult to sketch out other films that should be instructive and educative without setting out to be so specially. This is the best type of educational film. Many animated cartoons are small masterpieces of humour. A little joyous serenity flavoured with the comic is always an excellent educational factor. Just as there are papers for children which grown-up people do not disdain to read, so it should not be difficult today to create a cinema for children in every city. Children's Cinema, which should not be in a school, should be a place where every father and mother could take their children lightheartedly, certain to be all amused, without running any risk of harming the minds of their offspring with unsuitable pictures and scenes. Such shows should be short, gay, serene, and all passions and evil thoughts or actions should be inexorably excluded from them. This should be the rule up to a certain age, until which no child should ever be allowed to enter a cinema for adults. To sum up : The cinema with all its drawbacks is essential to civilized life today. To suppress it or prohibit it, is unthinkable. Nevertheless, the cinema has drawbacks and disadvantages, among which we may mention as one of the worst, the cerebral excitement and strain in the nervous system which it can cause. We must therefore use extreme care when we show a child a motion picture. In the schools, little or no cinema. Preference should be given to other didactic means, which are often as modern as the cinema itself, and assist calm activity and the child's natural creative instinct much better.