Le Courrier Cinématographique (May 1921)

LE COURRIER CINÉMATOGRAPHIQUE 9 The French Film World LS CB Should producers write their own seripts À difference of opinion is what makes a world. If everyone thought the same, bet on the same horse, loved the same woman, there wouldn’t be any world, so isthinking our confrere Mr. Adrian Johnson whanwe reproduce. What allows of more diversity of opinion, more discussion, more readjustment than a dramatic story dealing with a conflict of human emotion? Who can go into a cinema theatre and see a certain situation and say that is exactly what the whole world of emotional men and women would do under similar circumstances ? Thereforc, when a producer undertakes to constitute himself an arbitrary judge of how a character would conduct himself or herself in an intense human story, he proves himself a supreme egotist. When he declines to listen to the opinions of other human beings, all of whom have their emotions, their differing temperaments and characters, he proves himself unintelligent. No man can write a manuscript, produce a picture, cut and title it, unassisted. No man can possibly have a monopoly of ideas. The office boy may come in some morning With a better idea than the head producer and the scenario editor combined. Probably the greatest producer the world has ever seen walks about the studio floor, and frequently consults with property men, carpenters, and stage hands to see whether they agree with him. That is why he is a great producer. He realises the human element. He has at least twelve opinions, and then sifts them and applies his own unerring judgment. A scenario writer who agrees with a producer, feeling that the producer is radically wrong, is simply performing the services ofa stenographer. It may develop that, after expressing his opinion with due force, the writer realises the futility of further discussion, and gives the producer the manuscript he wants, but he is not doing justice to the producer, himself, or the firm. It is no satisfaction what-soever for the writer to feel that he has given the producer the continuity he wants, knowing the continuity to be wrong, and fees earned in this way will not be lasting because no dramatic presentation, no amusement enterprise, can continue to exist which is not founded on merit, on a lengthy discussion of those fine EE SA LL AR NE 7 AT SE LAMPES A INCANDESCENCE 1 WATT 1/2 WATT Lampes intensives TOUS MODÈLES TOUS VOLTAGES o o 0o GROUPES ÉLECTROGÈNES Type transportable 70 volts OOo APPAREILS DE MESURES o o 0 Tableau de distribution o © 0 SOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE DE LA “LAMPE O. M.” Siège Social : 85, Rue d'Amsterdam (8e) Télégr. : MEURISELECT-PARIS MOTEURS ÉLECTRIQUES DYNAMOS tous voltages PARIS SPÉCIALITÉ de BAL AIS a CHARBONS Téléphone : CENTRAL 64-23 LUSTRES & BRONZES ARMATURES pour EXTÉRIEURS D nn SE ER