Documentary News Letter (1940)

16 DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER APRIL 1940 FOREIGN FILMS (All films recommended in this column are the latest continentals viewable in London, and are in our opinion suitable for Film Society showing. We are unable to indicate at what dates they will he available for hooking.) Toni. Production: Marcel Pagnol. Direction: Jean Renoir. Photography: Claude Renoir. Distribution: not fixed. FIVE YEARS old, this film presented privately by the energetic London Film Institute Society, must surely rank as one of the most successful attempts to blend fictional story, professional actors and studio sets with natural background and real people. The story, dealing in personal issues, is unimportant; the direction, treatment and acting are some of the best that have ever coijie from France. Renoir's technical ease has been admired in La Grande Illusion and La Bete Humaine, and those films also displayed his mastery of handling what one can only call "intimate" situations. In Toni there is this display, but something of a more profound character than in later Renoir films, perhaps because the workaday people in the South-East corner of France with whom the story deals are less complex and inhibited than the people of the other stories. Here is poetry of a kind seldom seen on the screen ; a use of background both in general and in particular to heighten the conflict of human feelings and behaviour. Technically, the use of visuals and sound must rank among the best. Five years in cinema is five generations in other spheres, but Renoir's film has no date. It might have been made yesterday and that in itself is a thing one can say about few films. Recommended strongly to all film societies. Canadian Government Films in Production, January, 1940 1 A Canadian epilogue to the British film The Warning, produced in Britain before the outbreak of war to instruct the public in methods of airraid defence. 2 French versions of two recently released government films — Heritage and The Royal Visit — for distribution in French speaking areas. 3 Two Youth Training films, directed by Stuart Legg, and completed only last autumn, being brought up-to-date in the light of war conditions. 4 A series of six educational films dealing with the human geography of Canada. 5 Three non-theatrical films on the economic fronts of Canada scheduled. (Timber, wheat, mining.) 6 The People of Canada, describing the various groups comprising the population of the Dominion. 7 Undefended Frontier (work'mgtitle of a picture discussing the boundary between Canada and the United States.) 8 A series on Canadian sports. 9 A film on the McKenzie River District. NEWS FROM STAFFORDSHIRE By the Secretary of the Burslem & District Industrial Co-operative Society. IN STOKE-ON-TRENT there has been organised this winter a Secondary Schools' Film Association which is open to all secondary school pupils in North Staffordshire. Eleven schools were circularised, and six responded by sending along pupils and teachers. In spite of a late and hurried beginning, the scattered nature of the area and the blackout, about 150 enthusiastic youngsters turn up each month. The difficulty of obtaining a centrally situated room that was blacked out was solved by the local Co-operative Society who generously loaned a room and most excellent projection apparatus. Among the films shown so far have been cartoons, Chaplins, Weather Forecast, Night Mail, Big Money, New Worlds for Old, The Covered Wagon and lastly and most successfully, Kameradschaft . At our next meeting Miss Mary Field is to give a lecture, while in April the programme is to consist of Shipyard, a "Popeye", Buried Treasure, Private Life of the Gannets, A. B.C. of Oil and Plan for Living. So far not much film appreciation (i.e., direct instruction how to look at and appreciate films critically: Ed.) has been indulged in, because it is believed that good films such as Kameradschaft are eloquent of themselves ; when more of these have been shown, the children will be more than anxious to learn about film appreciation. WE ARE EIGHT In 1932 Hitler was not in power. In 1932 the documentary film was in its infancy. In 1932 the first number of sight & sound was published . . . The latest issue — completing the eighth volume — is now on sale. Quite a few people have been good enough to tell us that it's well worth Sixpence. published by THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE 4 Great Russell Street WCl CINEMATOGRAPHY IS A PRODUCT OF APPLIED SCIENCE The position of the working scientist, the organisation and application of scientific research, the place of science in modern civilisation, questions of scientific education and popularisation, are discussed in THE SCIENTIFIC WORKER JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC WORKERS This paper discusses such questions in a nontechnical way from the j5oint of view of the scientist himsell. Monthly, price 3d. Annual Subscription 4$. PUBLISHED BY THE A.S.W., 30 BEDFORD ROW, W.C.I