Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIALOGUE FILM 21 able effects at the London presentation of All Quiet on the Western Front. Conversely, the contraction of the screen-area for lending emphasis is capable of interesting results, already suggested in the use of iris-in and iris-out movements employed just after the War. When at last the showmen are nonplussed because their box-of-tricks is exhausted, then perhaps the cinema will have an opportunity to come into its own. To a large extent it is because the medium is so prolific in the variety of its technical devices that films to-day seldom achieve a state of unified composition. There are few directors who have a complete mastery over their medium, who employ the many technical attributes of the cinema to gain the right effect at the right moment. Milestone is one. Clair and Pabst are two others. Only Grierson in England has an appreciation of his instruments. But this is apart from the argument of appeal that occupies the producers day in and day out. They are not concerned with the limits or scope of their medium. They will issue instructions for any new effect or sensation to be used if they think that public interest can be retained in this way. In the film studio, whether in America, England, Germany or France, it is the box-office — or at least the producer's idea of box-office — that controls the technique of the film. Statistics show that cinema audiences in 1930 failed to maintain the big business created by the great talking boom of 1929. Figures reveal that attendances have dropped to the average levels of the pre-dialogue period. The winter season of 1930-31 showed that box-office receipts in England had fallen by an average of thirty