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Het Linn en Venster, C. J. Graadt van Roffen (W. L. and J. Brusse). Ca, c'est du Cinema, Georges Altman (Les Revues). L' Art Cinematographique (Vol. 7) (Alcan).
" The discovery of the film has had numberless consequences which have become perceptible in the most divergent spheres of man's activity, in art and science, economy and education, legislation and government, religion and politics." Thus the introductory sentence of the introductory volume to a new series of monographs by Dutch cineastes which are to deal among other subjects with the films of a particular country (Russia, Holland, France, Germany, America) or of a particular type (absolute film, comic film). Like Close Up, the books will approach the film as an art, and if they are all as fully and effectively illustrated as this one (the stills occupy almost as much space as the text, and, most excellent idea, are employed to illustrate it) they should prove well worth acquiring even by those who claim they do not know a word of Dutch (a claim which they could never establish).
Het Linnen Venster has no other purpose than to introduce the series, and we cannot complain if in the first pages we have to follow the interactions of the art, the industry, and the public (this is the least admirable part of the book), or learn once more to observe the distinguishing marks of the various art forms, particularlv as the lesson lias been more carefully prepared than usual and brought up to date. As we read on we find that the author possesses a sure sense of values and the ability to cope with his unwieldly (because so vast) material, which moreover he treats with a freshness and sincerity generally lacking in film literature.
The material of the cineaste lies everywhere. He can take it as he finds it, he can arrange it for his purposes or he can make it himself (cartoon film). But when he has photographed events, he has got no further than mixing his colours or collecting his stones. What remains to be done? " Montage, the magic word was found and the ice broken." And so once more to the narrative montage of Pudovkin and Eisenstein's conflictmontage.
The actor is ONLY material. This follows from the nature of the film itself, and the argument is pressed to its logical conclusion with disastrous consequences for the later Jannings and the star system in general. He mentions elsewhere Chaplin, Bancroft and Garbo as examples of " the unrivalled artists " who work at Hollywood. (It is, of course, not the artists, but the use to which they are put which is to be condemned.) The comic film was the first to treat man as material, not so much that the film demanded this, but because the nature of the comic required it, and thus the comic film was the first real film-form. But with the introduction of montage, the comic film no longer stood alone in this respect.