Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS I I I II K 93 BOOK REVIEWS Film. Roger Munvell. Penguin Books (New Edition). Price Is. Twenty Years of British Film 1925-1945. Michael Balcon, Ernest Lindgren. Forsyth Hardy, Roger Man veil. Contemporary Cinema. Published in association, with the Church of England Films Commission and the Film World. Editor, The Rev. G. L. Wheeler, 'Contemporary Cinema", The Vicarage, Thornton-le-Fylde, Blackpool, Lanes. Monthly, price 6d. The new edition of Manvell's Film is welcome for two special reasons. It should go some way towards satisfying the enormous demand for the book aroused by earlier editions and — for the critical reader of the original work — there is much satisfaction to be derived from the manifold changes which have been made in the text. In documentary news letter's review of the first edition our reviewer dealt somewhat harshly with a book full of the best intentions towards documentary. He found a spate of textual inaccuracies and an over-intellectual attitude towards the functions of the factual film. But in his new edition Dr. Manvell has made handsome amends. The chapter on documentary has been completely rewritten with the assistance of new material which has lately become available and now presents a first-rate account of this section of the film field. The new stills are good and the only major criticism is the abbreviation of the indices of film titles and names. Surely, for the sake of a few extra pages, a full index would have more than justified itself as a guide to the exploration of what is now — amongst many other entertaining things — a valuable work of reference. Twenty Years of British Film is a beautifully produced book from the Falcon Press. There are a hundred excellently reproduced stills, many of them being refreshingly new scenes from the old familiar films (the 'stock' still has become something of a menace in the cinema's critical works). Unfortunately, the text scarcely reaches the level of the rest of the book. Michael Balcon, Ernest Lindgren, Forsyth Hardy and Roger Manvell are over-conscious of their weary passage over old ground. Only the last-named attempts something more than unadorned, uninterpreted history. You may not accept his analysis of the special characteristics of the modern British feature film and it may well be over-optimistic to talk about 'a cinematic poetry peculiar to British films'. But many of Manvell's observations on the wide variety of subject-matter and treatment emanating from British studios were well worth making. It may be that we are insufficiently conscious of the flexibility which the medium has found in British hands. Contemporary Cinema makes a modest start with tacts and opinions (in part from Michael Balcon) on the relationship between the cinema and the church. This new maga/me will need courage if it is to probe fearlesslv into the question of what each of these two 'mass media' has to offer the other. But the job must be done some day and there has ne\er been a better time than the present. Contemporary Cinema will regularly contain reviews of feature and documentary films contributed by Roger Manvell. The Factual Film. {Oxford University Press, lis. bd.) In its own restrained way this is rather a frightening work. To begin with it looks so darn cold and official. The careful blue of its impeccably laid out cover, the quiet type and the wording, 'The Arts Enquiry. The Factual Film. A Survey. Oxford University Press', could, except for the terrible vulgarity of the word Film, grace a report on further discoveries at Knossos or the incidence of left-handedness among the PreRaphaelites. The book sets out to report on the factual film and this job it docs admirably, but what it also docs is to show you that you can never be too careful ; a maxim more suitable for a nineteenth century copy-book than for a documentary film maker's credo. Maybe Grierson knew he was starting something that would one day be the subject of 'A Survey', but it is doubtful if all the people who followed him with De Vry and Newman Sinclair thought that one day their work would result in an Arts Enquiry. It is probably just as well that they did not; the coming e\ent might have cast a rather ponderous shadow over the rushes. The documentary or, if you will, the factual film movement is still a living thing and what this valuable work does is to freeze it for a moment so that those who wish may have a look at it. If, in this pose of unaccustomed immobility, it looks at times faintly ridiculous so also does a still shot of Wooderson running or a once lively salmon stuffed on the parlour wall. But if you wish for information about the factual film, here it is. Its subject index ranges from the Aberdeen Film Society to Lady Yule, evidence that its interests are wide, and its film index takes us from one war to another via A. B.C. A. and Zeebrugge. Between its covers you can find information about the factual film in war, in education and in the cinemas. There are sections on the news film and on the international use of film and among the four appendices there is a useful section on the British Film Industry as a whole. It must be admitted that the work suffers a little from the fact that it went to press in October, 1945, and was not published until January of this year. Many things happened in this fourteen-month period and of necessity some of its contents are a little out of date while some of its recommendations (conceivably because of their private circulation before publication) have already been put into practice. It is, also, a little difficult to understand whj 'the group of experts' who are the authors of the report are quite so coy about then names being attached to it. The I oreword savs that, "As some have held official or semi-official positions it was agreed that members of the group should remain anonymous'. Now why this hiding of lights, this reluctance to admit parenthood? ^s" reporl is ever quite unbiased and it is only right that the reader should have some chance <>i assessing the value of the more controversial paragraphs In knowing the names of the people who wrote them. It is silly to look as though you are trying to burv the body when in fact you are only feeling terribly modest. \pirt from this //., Factual film is a most useful work and, indeed, one of great value. But no documentary film maker should be allowed idit, Making history, on whatever scale, and wining about it aie two \ery different things and present day factual films will be none the worse for their makers being unconscious of the tact tliat one day their titles may appear in the index of a chastely produced book. 16 Mil. Film User. Published monthly by Current Affairs Ltd. Edited b) Bernard Dolmar. I. v. This little monthly is an excellent publication filling a gap between the popular film magazine and the trade paper. It caters for the needs and interests of all 16 mm. users whether as individuals or in clubs, schools, or churches. Well classified lists of reviews are given and there are valuable articles on the actual technique of projection and on various developments in the realm of the 16 mm. film. The writing of the articles and the choice of the subjects are on a high level and each issue contains a very catholic selection of material. Apart from the cover pages the layout is pleasant and the illustrations are chosen for their instructional value rather than simply as pictures. In fact, 16 Mil. Film User,\n spite of its ghastlyname, is a really useful publication w ith the additional factor (and how important a factor) of making quite good reading. CORRESPONDENCE— continued from p. 94 sir: MARG: A Magazine of Architecture and Art, Bombay, carries an interesting 300-word note under the above heading in Vol. 1, No. 1. Kalpuna is the first film of Uday Shankar, and is in production now at the Gemini Studios, Madras. Many people will remember Uday Shankar's London season, when he and his company performed so brilliantly in the Karthak and Karthakali dance idioms, dispensing almost entirely with stage-properties, their imaginary presences and uses being intimated through the use of an expressive mimicry. This makes particularly interesting Marg's note, which includes: Shankar has evolved a brilliant and original technique of his own, which will be something startling and revolutionary in the film world In interpreting Ins story, he depends more on the delineation of every shade o\ feeling and emotion through facial expressions and gestures than on dialogues, which are reduced to the minimum. A great part of the story is interpreted through a \aricty of dances which number as many as 80— represerujeg all the oiassical and folk forms. The masterly way in which they have been photographed, with a skilful manipulation of light ami shade, gives them a three dimensional effect, with a realistic background .'t beautiful and varied landscape's, which makes one forget that the) have been shot within the lour walls of the Gemini Studio. The classical dance-forms of India would seem to be particularly suited to the making of such a film as Kalpana, which is intended to be a vehicle of Shankar's 'ideals of life and art', since the) involve expression through the whole '• of the dancer: a stvli/ed code of mannerisms and gestures, not difficult to understand, bl experience within the grasp of the Indian dancer that remain wholly alien (continu, /. 2)