Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

THE PRODUCERS AND THE PUBLIC 13 giving a much publicized film a run in the provinces before bringing it to London, the big misunderstanding between the public and producers persists. The public will not stay away from bad films until after it has seen they are bad, and the producers will not learn from the success of a good film. I am repeatedly told that what the public likes in Hoxton is not liked in Kensington, and, with certain reservations, I am prepared to believe it. In fact, I am surprised that either Hoxton or Kensington like half the films they do see. But provided a film possesses a universal quality of appeal, by which I mean that its argument has a certain contemporary significance, and provided that argument is expressed with the full simplicity demanded by good film technique, I fail to see why it should not be successful in any district or country. The ever-present proof of this is apparent in all Chaplin films. Exception, of course, must be made for subjects of localized interest. The American version of The Front Page is said to be incomprehensible to the average British audience, just as Dovjenko's Zvenigora is practically meaningless to any save a Ukrainian public. But such simple themes as Clair's Sous les toils de Paris or Milestone's pacifist All Quiet on the Western Front are universally appealing, to the dock-worker or lawyer, servant-girl or headmistress. It is obvious, however, that the number of such universal major themes is limited, and that such simple stories as City Lights, Birth of a Nation, and Sunrise are not found on raspberry bushes. In other words, more complicated and perhaps more sophisticated