The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

THE CINE-TECHNICIAN The Journal of The Association of Cine-Technicians Editorial and Publishing Office: 145, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON, W.l. Telephone: GERRARD 2366. Advertisement Office: 5 and 6, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON. W.C.I . Telephone: HOLBORN 4972. Volume Four: Number Twenty MARCH — APRIL, 1939 Price Ninepence JEAN RENOIR discusses his past, present and future On Friday, January 27th, at a meeting organised jointly by A.C.T. and the British Film Institute, members had the opportunity of meeting Jean Renoir, the well known French film director. Son of the great painter, Pierre Renoir, and brother of the actor, Pierre Renoir, he is a forceful, bulky man of middle age with a forthright manner of speech which impresses with its honesty and good sense. Reels from "La Chienne," "Toni," and "La Grande Illusion" were shown, and introduced by M. Renoir, as follows: — FIRST of all, I must say how sorry 1 am that I have to address you hi French, but the truth is that I do not know a single word of English. The reason for this is that when I was about 12 I used to play tennis a good deal with some young fellows who made a great deal of the fact that they knew English and would speak nothing else. If I said "Comment ca va?" they would pretend not to understand. From this I got the idea that to know English was a sure sign of snobbery and affectation, so I've remained ignorant of it to this day. You are going shortly to see some reels of my film "La Chienne" (The Fitch), so I'll tell you how I came to make it. I must explain that I'd made a good many silent films and gained some reputation for making them. Well, when talkies came along, it was found that the only qualification necessary to direct a talkie was never to have made a silent film. This, of course, left me in a hole, and I spent a long time going from one producer's office to the next Occupying the luxurious armchairs of their waiting-rooms. Finally an inexperienced producer, who cannot have beard of the rule that no silent film director could make a talkie, approached m< — with some diffidence, as be was afraid the subject of the film was a hit crude for me. Naturrlly I was ready to accept anything, and I may say that the film never bad any trouble with the censors anywhere. For a perfectly simple reason. Its subject was the most filthy, disgusting, lavatory-minded sewage that it was possible for the wit of man to devise. In this film I brought off a coup. I recorded with all the care and resources of Western Electric the sound of a lavatory chain being pulled and cut it in over one scene. It is impossible to imagine the resounding success of this masterly stroke. Producers went wild about it. The manager of Western Electric bad the film run through in the theatre to him time and time again, simply to get the full savour of this magnificent recording of the sound of a lavatory chain. My name as a talkie director was made! Then I was given "La Chienne" to make, and after that I made a film, a reel of which you will also see ("Toni"). This was a very cheap production made with very little money and very few technical facilities, but the subject was much more sympathetic to me. So when you see this film I should like you to allow for its technical failings and think more of it as a step in the direction I should like to go. Finally, with "La Grande Illusion" (The Great Illusion), a reel from which you are going to see, I have been asked whether it represents my actual wartime experience. Well, I was never captured and in a prison camp during the war myself, but the story is a true ex