The film answers back : an historical appreciation of the cinema (1939)

Page scan 000199 from The film answers back : an historical appreciation of the cinema

Record Details:

Title:
The film answers back : an historical appreciation of the cinema
Date:
1939
Publisher:
London : John Lane the Bodley Head
Volume:
The film answers back : an historical appreciation of the cinema
Leaf #:
000199
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
May 02, 2025
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XXI IN the English films we have examined, you may have noticed one outstanding peculiarity common to them all : a certain unmistakable attitude — shall we call it a certain stance ? You get the feeling of people standing on stilts or on some elevated position, and being very condescending. This attitude occurs in the majority of English films, but it becomes more apparent in films dealing with or touching upon schools, because it is more sharply defined. This posture of looking down, and 'talking down,' from an artificial height is the characteristic which distinguishes the English film from the American. Life to the Americans has always been real. Their Constitution dealt with fundamental human realities. Hence their culture did not and could not acquire the method of speaking to the people from a height. The cinema is in closer proximity to the nature of truth, life, sincerity than any other medium because of the inherent quality it possesses in common with life itself— movement. It will therefore favour that country, that social philosophy which tackles its problems with the nearest approximation to truth. The success of the American cinema derives from the truth that social life is a social process, and a film can only be truly successful if it follows the essential movement of that process, if each craftsman is prepared to put his strength into the communal effort towards achievement. The relative unsuccess of the English film is due to a 173