The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

44 T HE CINE-TECHNICIA N July-August, 1989 LUISE RAINER in London (Interviewed by SIDNEY COLE) LUISE RAINEB tucked her feet under her on the chintz-covered sofa which blended with her flowered dressing-gown. The cross-examination began. "Would I rather work in the theatre than in the movies? For me the movies are always more important. You reach a vaster audience, millions of people to whom you can give your interpretation of a part. But I feel that for me contact from time to time with the theatre is useful, even essential, because the feeling of creating a part afresh every night and directly to a living audience gives new vitality to the artist. Is it wrong lor an actor to play in the studios during the day and in the theatre at night'.' I would not like to say it is wrong. For me it would be impossible — the strain would be too much. Hut for some actors it may be possible. The main thing for the artist is to feel again the inspiration of direct creation to an audience. " "Why did you choose your present play. "Behold the Bride." for London, especially as it has already been filmed in Hollywood as "Sat/ it in French"? "About it's having been made into film, 1 did not know until recently." (Was there a note of vexation in that reply?). "As to why I chose a light farce — I think it is better, for me at any rate, to play in something which is light and which does not pretend to deal with anything serious, but in which I can make people laugh and feel happy, than to play in something very weighty and serious which deals with very tragic human things and yet gives all the wrong answers. I bad got tired of the parts 1 had been playing recently in Hollywood. They lacked contact with real things, with humanity. I would like to play in parts that have humanity about them, yes; but believe me, since I have been in England I have read hundreds of plays, really hundreds" — a graceful gesture of a longfingered hand, recalling in miniature the charm of the screen Luise Eainer — "and among them not five" — the hand emphasised the point with startling vehemence on her knee — "yes, not five were right in that way ! And in these days when people are so worried, with all the threats of war and all their other troubles, it is better for them to laugh at something unpretentious than to add to their troubles." "But do you think that artists should concern themselves with matters in the world outside?" "But of course! I cannot say for others, and after all there are good actors and actresses who do not need such outside contact — but for me this interest is neces sary, in what is happening outside, people's worries and troubles and hopes and desires." "Would you say then that we need films, for example, that express the idea of democracy, such as 'Confesxiom of a .\ a:i Spy. ? "I would not sa\ it for mysell in that way. Words like democracy are lor the politicians. For myself 1 prefer to sa,\ humanity. Anything that is human, that has an understanding ol people's lives." (Hut, however you phrase it, it's still democracy. Luise Rainer's work as a member of the .Motion Picture Committee oi the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League enters for her a plea of guiltj to the charge of being a democrat. And I'm SUI3 (lie's not ashamed of the accusation). Paul Muni and Luise Rainer in "The Good Earth" "Would it be a good guess, from that, that your favourite part was O-lan, the wife in 'The Good Earth"!" "Yes." "And would it be true to say also that you were able to create that part so well because of your feeling for the Chinese people?" "Not because of the sufferings of the Chinese people in war, because after all 'The Good Earth' is three years ago and there was at that time no war, so that it would not be true to say that." An over-scruplulous reply. I thought. Underlying the playing of that part in "The Good Earth" was cer