Movie Makers (Jan-May 1928)

CINETORIALS New Year's Resolution and a Challenge for 1928 THE way of us — we, ye, them — editors is hard! (This high-hat plural always did spell trouble, because we are essentially democratic and simple.) There have come to our ears rumblings, all too plain, of discontent about what we have been saying here. We have been accused of "plugging" for League memberships in this page which is supposed to be devoted to higher things. / J .' Well — in the first place, we do believe in League memberships and we are even a member ourselves (isn't this plural absurd; the more you get tangled up with it!). But, we are a good sport. We make new resolutions. I J I I We strongly advise you not to join the Amateur Cinema League if you want to stand by that New Year resolution to keep firmly away from anything pleasant and enjoyable. If you are going to strictly discipline yourself, and if you want to "cleave to the dime and let the dollars mature while they may" you are going to take your old five dollars and put it out at interest and have a nice new nickle next Christmas. But — and this is not "plugging," it's just what "we" really think — we bet you'll lose that nickle down a sidewalk grating. Of course, we hope you don't, but — We Mount Pegasus NOW, our conscience is clear about this and we have turned over a new leaf and advised you all not to join the League and us are all happy; let's away to more lofty sentiments. Cine'Salon TPHE Club Editor has asked us to "plug" a bit for •*■ his pet idea. He is one of those single-track enthusiasts and he believes that these United States will, before long, be thrilled from Lake Mompolaboggog to Santa Iznyriaga by the first Cine-Salon. He explains that a cine-salon is an exhibition of the best amateur films of the world, of the year — further genitive phrases fail us. And why not? There is a new art in films. This art is finally in the hands of individuals. Let us drag out the work of these individuals from the seclusion of their modesty and let the world see what a motion picture really is. What Is It? MOW, you ask one! We have been driven out of ■L^ three clubs, five bridge parties and one and a half dinners because we insisted on asking everyone present whether the motion picture is an independent art or whether it isn't. We are collecting our ideas and we promise an explosion in a few more months. This is an invitation to the slaughter. If you have any ideas, we crave their exposition. We Drop the 'Wire Curtain HPHIS is not safe but the stage manager said he'd ■*■ drop the vegetable net quickly. We hazard the statement that the amateur has not yet analyzed the motion picture and arrived at any definite conclusions as to just what constitutes the heart of cinematics. There are many earnest amateurs who are working toward this goal, but we cannot help feeling their work which we have seen reveals that many have strayed into the by-paths of the "arty," and become bogged in the cinematic morass of half or very nearly still pictures, expressed with a mechanism intended for motion. That, we believe, is the crux of the problem. There is a very real danger of the seeker for cinematic truth overlooking the basic thesis that the cinema must have motion first and foremost. And secondly the truly cinematic must be that which cannot be so well done in any other artistic medium. The motion picture is capable of eliminating time and space, it can mirror the inmost convolutions of the human brain, its miracles are endless in their potentiality. But how much of this has yet been demonstrated by those best in the position to experiment and create — the amateurs? No, we must still wait for an amateur reel that will be cinematic throughout. But speaking of vegetables, we particularly resent rutabagas. Page the Professional THOK that matter, we still wait for a professional ■*■ short subject or complete photoplay that is wholly cinematic. The carefully maneuvered replica of a very "arty" still photograph with just enough motion to keep it from being completely static intrudes into the best of the professional short subjects. It's art but not cinema. And in the photoplay, when the unlimited possibilities of the camera could express all that is going on in the minds and hearts of the character, we find suave and prettily groomed closeups of the beautiful screen star, registering everything from the first pains of appendicitis to a grouch because her ensemble, just come home from the modiste's, does not match her latest hair, and of the manly hero expressing desire under the rubber tree in the palatial sanatorium. Why Crab? \y/E dodder. It's unsafe for an editorial writer to ^* have opinions. But, if this page does not bring in enough protests for us to write six others on the dissenting opinions about it, we shall propose a Grouch Contest to the editorial board. We were a cheerful writer when we could sing the virtues of League membership. It's plain to be seen that, shorn of that right, we languish glumly in our sanctum. Yea, we languish — And How! Eleven