Cinema News and Property Gazette (1913)

3° THE CINEMA. January 15, 1913 THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRACLE ON THE CINEMATOGRAPH. D R. KARL VOLLMOELLER, the author of The Miracle, who is in England superintending the production of an Oriental play for Sir George Alexander, in the course of an interview, has given expression to his views upon cinematography. He says: — "Few people realise that mankind may never hope for a complete solution of the problem of flight unless and until the aid of the cinematograph is invoked. " The reason is very simple. The cinema and the cinema alone will be able to ' catch ' and perpetuate not only the almost inconceivably rapid movements of birds, which form the ideal of the constructors of airplanes, but also the baffling and complex motions of the aircurrents themselves — the crux of the whole flying problem. " How will this be done ? I cannot at present say, but done it will be, if necessary, by colouring the air in order to take the different streamings. " That is merely one of a host of wonderful contributions to science that may be confidently expected of the cinema in the near future. Already medical science owes a great debt to the film, which is able to demonstrate to students the growth of disease and the war in the blood in a manner hitherto impossible. " Already Government and municipal authorities are considering the vast educational possibilities of the cinema. For the study of certain phases of natural history, to give but a single illustration, the cinema stands alone " These are signs of the times significant to the discerning. " If the cinema has its limitations, as compared with the theatre, in the way of providing popular entertainment, these are offset by such marvellous possibilities as are unguessed at by the average man to-day. "In the realm of pure phantasy, pantomime", and imagination, the cinema will reign supreme. The theatre may never hope to approach it in this regard: The author who writes for the cinema may search the heights and depths of the universe, the sea-bottom, or the furthest star for his inspiration — almost anything indeed which the mind or fancy of man has ever conceived. He will obtain a realism such as the theatre may never hope to secure. "Ghosts and apparitions, fairies, miracles, accidents, and stage tricks of all kinds belong by right to the province of the cinema theatre. " One of the principal things film drama lacks to-day is dramatic imagination such as that possessed by Mr. H. G. Wells, whose 'Time Machine ' and ' War of the Worlds,' to cite only two examples, might be ' filmed ' with success, although by their very nature they are impossible for theatrical reproduction. "Authors of imagination have a new and almost limitless field of conquest stretching out before them in the cinema house, a field of unsuspected honour and glory if only the right men will study the possibilities of the film as they do those of the stage, and impose their ideas on this new form of entertainment. " Who knows, indeed, if the present century will not witness the rise of a genius who will be known to future generations as the Cinema Shakespeare, a man who will be in his way every whit as great as the immortal bard of Stratford-on-Avon ? " The cinema, far from being in its dotage, is, I am convinced, only in its infancy. It has come to stay. The trouble with the film is that its technical side has been developed enormously, while the artistic side has been woefully neglected. Alas, the cinema has no artistic tradition to live up to at all ! " This artistic side must be developed if the cinema is to become a permanent institution, as I fully believe it will. What, then, will be the first object of the cinema of the future in this regard ? It will be to help to create an ' atmosphere,' a quantity in which it is now so signally lacking. " First of all, a system of colouring each film-scene must be devised independent of the film mechanism itself, as is done by the footlights and other stage lights in a theatrical production. " I do not believe in the so-called natural colours for the cinema except for topical films. The reproduction of the colours of nature is not necessary, and nature in these circumstances is frequently ugly. It is here that art should enter. " Again, the absence of nuances, or half-lights, constitutes a serious handicap in cinema entertainment, which sooner or later will have to be removed. " Congenial actors who will study to play for the film, with its peculiar exigencies, authors who will not consider it undignified to write for the film, eminent artists who will devote their talent to the new form of instruction and entertainment — these are what are wanted to-day, remembering always the limitations of pantomime. " What, finally, can the picture palace offer to the general public that the theatre cannot ? Well, in addition to the advantages I have already indicated, it can offer a form of entertainment to tired people that the theatre is often powerless to do. Many people are too tired to give the concentration of eye, ear, and brain necessary for the appreciation of a good play."