Amateur Cine World (July 1934)

Here are two production stills from the London Amateur Film Club studio. seen on the right. understand the sequence of pictures, that sequence is equally understandable to one who is a stranger to the plot. Furthermore, the plot is one which, although it is intensely dramatic and effective when told in words, 1s hardly suitable for cinematic interpretation except in the hands of the real expert. This is because there is a lot of mental impression stuff in it, and the thoughts are those of several persons, so that we have an inextricable mixture of flashbacks and actualities, and no special pains has been taken to stylise the lapse into “ thought ” so that it is easily recognisable. The characters are a tramway driver and his wife, and the wife’s lover and his wife, a janitor, a reporter and a chemist. We are shown a domestic breakfast scene at the tram driver’s home, clandestine relations between the lovers, the tram driver exclaiming how pleased he is that the day’s work is over—apparently two seconds after he has started, the purchase by the lover of rat poison, the lover in tram, a woman crying, and a series of titles 1929, 30, 31, 32, 33: Imaginative Camera Work. Breakfast and the same woman crying. Wife of tram driver greeting the other man and kissing him. The reporter in tram. The couple dead in the flat, with the rat poison between, reporter ‘phoning to his paper (the Editor of which is apparently a telephone fancier judging from the forest of phones on his desk) reporter entering pub, reporter in tram, a series of shots of about one foot each (or thereabouts) recapitulating the previous part of the film, then the title ‘‘ Contact ” superimposed over the tram, the occupants of which are the protagonists. The tram recedes into the distance. The film has a number of irritating little mistakes in it. For example, we are shown the lover entering the flat door in long shot, and then in close shot he unlocks the door which we have already seen him open. There is a clock shot to show the time, but it is not legible enough to read. After a title, ‘‘ You look all excited,” we are shown the wife looking the very reverse. The kissing is unconvincing and not in character with the parts or the situation. In one sequence the dress of the two women is almost identical and difficult to distinguish apart. 17 meeeanle Another still from this film will be found in our ‘‘ What the Societies are Doing’’ pages. and ‘‘ The Baron’ from ‘“‘ Panshine Pansy,’ are The camera is used imaginatively and throughout the film there is evidence of the imaginative mind, but Rhos should choose a simpler story more suited to cinema, spend much more time on preparation before starting shooting, get someone to write the script who thinks in pictures and not in words, and let the film be edited by a person who has had little or nothing to do with’ the taking of the film, and can therefore bring a fresh mind to it. A PEEP AT THE PROFESSIONALS. PART 1.By INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIOS, HUEL.. :(16.mm.) Only the first reel of this film was submitted. We should like to see the rest. ‘‘A Peep at the Professionals” is in effect an excellent industrial type of film showing the working of a professional cinema projection box from early morning to late at night. Not only is it capably composed, but all the technical tricks have been used, e.g., trolly shots, dissolves and a_ particularly effective method of changing from shot to shot in one sequence with short but swift panorama. There was also an ingenious method of getting over the main and credit titles by inscribing these on a number of film tins and taking these tins one by one from a transit case. But allied to all this was a set of really bad sub-titles, black on white, photographed so that the lettering “ leaked ”’ off the screen at one side, and with no sense of arrangement. In our opinion nothing justifies the retention of these titles in the film, and but for them we would have been inclined to award a Leader. We invite the makers to retitle the film, and send both halves in for further examination. THE BREAK. ByA.J. ALAND. (16 mm.). This film came in backwards on the reel, but as the author mentions that it has been out on loan a good deal, perhaps we had better blame the last borrower. We do, however, ask readers to avoid sending films in this way. ‘The Break ’’ is a story film which concerns a struggling artist—who also struggles with a ukulele sometimes (Continued on page 185) 9 2)