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FILMS OF THE QUARTER
FACT OR FICTION?
FORSYTH HARDY
After Henry VIII, the deluge. The remarkable and unexpected success of Korda's spectacular experiment with history has sent his fellow-producers scurrying to their text-books, there to search for romantic heroes and heroines with traits of character sufficiently and suitably startling to make the story of their lives attractive on the screen. The search is taking the course we expected, and in addition to four versions of the life of Mary Queen of Scots (!), we are to have Charles II, Louis XVI and Napoleon, Queen Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette and Nell Gwynn. The list is representative rather than complete, and does not include the less credible rumours : Clive Brook as Julius Caesar and Frederic March as Antony.
It ought to be recognised that this sudden interest in historical characters does not have its source in a disinterested desire among the film producers to educate the movie millions about the events of the past. Enviously watching the success of Henry VIII, they have realised that history, made to measure for the screen, can be attractive romantic material; and that the public will come, in crowds and uncritically, to see the stars as kings and queens and princes. As with all but the exceptional film in the cinema as we know it, the aim is entertainment: it is not to revive documentary evidence or to provide illustrations for the history text-books.
Has the film, then, no responsibility towards history? Complete and exact historical accuracy, though preferable when possible, is not to be pursued as an end in itself. "There is nothing more futile," Korda has written, "than to attempt to satisfy the painstaking exactitude of the expert." An example of an unreasonable demand for accuracy came recently from a critic who protested that only one of the characters in Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, bore any recognisable resemblance to her original. But it is patently ridiculous to expect a film producer to secure a cast exactly similar in face and physique to the historical characters being represented. Nor is complete historical accuracy always possible. It has been pointed out, for example, that the historical facts and recorded dialogue in connection with the encounter between Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves would not pass any censor in the world.
Of real importance, however, are the distinctive spirit of the character and the general atmosphere of the period. The accurate
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