The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

76 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July-August, 1952 a holiday at the sea or the mountains. Holidays are part of the general welfare organised very well by the Trade Unions, but up to the present the film workers' Trade Union has not concerned itself directly with working conditions. The general policy of the studio is discussed, however, at mass meetings of the studio workers. The enthusiasm and sense of ownership of the industry by the employees themselves sometimes leads them to accept conditions which are not as good as those in this country, but of course allowance must be made for the difference in customs and ways of life. The technicians with whom I worked were usually recruited from enthusiasts. Some of them had experience of the theatre but very few of them had previously worked with films. Some of them had gone from school or university to get some training in Czechoslovakia, but there was a general lack of information and much use of obsolete and inefficient methods. The academic standard is high, and with no other criterion, there is a tendency to give too much credit to holders of degrees and diplomas. In Belgrade, particularly, the principal person in a production is the " Regisseur." He acts as Producer, Director, Art Director, Editor and often many other grades. This is partly due to a lack of experienced assistance. The need for more specialisation and the encouragement of more individual responsibility in all technical grades is one of the objects of the new reorganisation. Art Direction has been done partly by the Regisseur, and partly by orthodox architects who are only slowly learning the special needs of studio building. Cameramen are now becoming more confident, and are demanding sets built to suit their cameras. I often watched a worried cameraman trying to do something with a beautiful but almost useless set. During our stay in Yugoslavia we took every opportunity to visit cinemas to find out what the public attitude was to films, and to see the conditions under which they were shown. All Yugoslav cinemas were nationalised in April 1948, and film distribution is done by a state department. There are no continuous performances in the cinemas but there are five or six complete shows daily. Some cinemas have two auditoriums and have a show starting every hour. Each performance consists of the feature, preceded by a newsreel or other short film. Admission is not allowed during the performance. All seats are bookable and there is a period allocated during the morning for the reservation of seats by Trade Unions. It is quite usual to obtain tickets at the place where you work. Normally, booking is done during the hour before the time of a performance, but there is always a continual demand for unwanted tickets by a hopeful crowd outside the cinema. So great is the demand for more films that according to box office returns it is not unusual to find, that during the run of a popular film in Belgrade, the total attendance is nearly twice the whole population of the city. Throughout the country there has been an increase of over ten million in the number of attendances each year since the war. The number of cinemas has more than doubled, but there are no luxury cinemas of the kind we find in Britain. Most exhibition is under very primitive conditions except in the large towns. Even there, screens are small and there is no elaborate lighting or use of drapes. The quality of sound and projection varies a great deal, but a fairly high standard is maintained in the better cinemas. Projectors of all kinds are used and one is now being manufactured at the Iskra factory in Slovenia. Since the break with the Cominform countries there has been a change in the ratio of foreign films shown. In October 1948 the first 25 American films were bought after an almost total ban. Today, American musical films in particular are very popular, but control of exhibition material is held firmly by the Yugoslavs. All foreign films are selected by a council and are purchased outright. A representative selection of world production as a whole is aimed at. In 1948, which was the last year of Cominform influence, the proportions of films shown were as follows: Soviet, 49.75 ; Yugoslav, 29.57%; French, 10.09%; Czech, 6.10%; American, 2.39%; British, 1.17%; Polish, .46 ; German, .46%. but in 1950 the proportions were as follows: American, 55.2%; British, 19.7%; Yugoslav, 10.7%; Italian, 9.1 ; French, 3.5%; German, 1.8 . An even higher proportion of British films was shown in 1949. The film crisis in Britain is being felt even in the remote parts of Europe. I found that the reputation of the British film industry is still very high, even though less films are available. Hamlet is still being shown at intervals, and many times I have been told that Brief Encounter was considered one of the best films they have ever had. All foreign films are shown with sub-titles which sometimes have an unfortunate effect on their dialogue. Kind Hearts and Coronets was not a very good " thriller " when shown in Belgrade with sub-titles.