The Cine Technician (1943 - 1945)

28 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN May — June, 1944 FROM PERSIA TO ITALY By Sergeant P. Hopkinson, A.F.P.U. SINCE my last letter much film has flowed through the camera in a variety of places. After Persia I spent four months in the Western Desert, from September to December 1942, one of the many cameramen whose material became Desert Victory. I can only endorse other people's opinion that the desert doesn't make the happiest background for pictures. The only possible style that to me could represent the weird contrasts of its life is surrealism, many landscapes with their utterly incongruous relics of human habitation recalling forcibly paintings by Dali. An illustration of this. Driving along one day, nothing in sight on any side, my attention was caught by something white in the sand. It turned out to be the complete works of Oscar Wilde. The tirsi four months of 1943 I passed in Cairo, which possesses at least four studios with varying degrees of efficiency, so I felt quite at home. The best equipped is the Misr, out by the Pyramids, where the equipment is very good — N. i Mitchells, the latest Bardwell spots, an-! several Tobis Channels. They produce the Arab prestige pictures, the most lavish of which costs F. 10,000. After two _years of intensive showing in the Arabic world they hope for F.5,000 clear profit. One of the independent producers told me that with the low cost of production (a lighting cameraman is lucky if he gets F.15 a week) and the huge market, Arabic production is a paying game. I noticed all the way from Persia to Egypl that every small town possesses one or two theatres specialising in these films, which seem to run indefinitely. An Arabic version of Aida ran in Cairo for months, and only gave way to even more ornate Cleopatra. The technical standard is surprisingly high, but the tempo of the pictures is terribly slow to our standards, the Arab mind liking !<> take its time over entertainment. I borrowed .i battery of lamps from one of these everobliging studios and lit an instructional film in an ordnance factory. This we succeeded in turning upside down ; and having converted one of its trolleya into a makeshift dolly, changed its atmosphere completely into that of -a studio. Using its overhead galleries as lamp gantries, and tracking merrily up and down amongst the Palestinian A.T.S. working there, I could almost feel that I was back on a stage, a very7 welcome change from the everlasting sun. From the pleasant life of Cairo, superficially very remote from the war, I flew to Algiers for the end of the African campaign. In the hope of an Axis Dunkirk I spent my time with the Navy, but as the Germans did not co-operate, all I got was bouts of seasickness. The atmosphere of Algiers was very different from that of Cairo, one definitely felt that one was in France, with little trace of Africa in evidence. Francoise Rosay was there then, and with many new Vichy-inspired films showing alongside a series of Marcel Pagnol revivals and the evergreen Cornet du Bal, the atmosphere of the French cinema was much in evidence. Then followed a lull, broken by the King's visit, and the preparations for the invasion of Sicily. From the very beginning, the loading of men and equipment into the fleet of landing-craft, I covered this campaign very fully. I operated this time as a free-lance, a more productive method ot working than being attached to any oe formation. The invasion fleet at sea. absolutely unmolested li\ the enemy, was a terrific sight. A fascinating country to work in, as rich in possibilities for the camera as one could wish. The people were grand, only too willing to help. They received the news of Mussolini's eclipse with scenes of great delight, for Fascism quite obviously meant nothing to the Sicilian. One finds a modern cinema, very well designed and built, existing in a town in which the houses of the people, are the last word in dirt and poverty, a fitting symbol ul the benefits of Fascism. Their obvious delight in our arrival, bringing with it the freedom for which they have always yearned, must really bring home to the ordinary soldier just what this war is really all about. As one of the arrested Fascists was being driven away to captivity, he said to the Sicilian policeman " Move over and let me be comfortable." ' You've been comfortable tor 21 years,"' was the reply. ' I hope you'll lie uncomfortable foi just as long."