The Film Spectator (Mar-Dec 1928)

July 21, 1928 THE FILM SPECTATOR Page Fire and the method perfected it would cost very little more to make an extra record in any one language than it would to have the titles translated. And wouldn't the end justify the means ? * ^ * In addition to whatever other advantages the method I suggest possesses it would also permit such foreign artists as Emil Jannings to make talking pictures for the English speaking world. Should we be robbed of the art of Jannings merely because he does not speak our language? And that's that. Now, you big stiflF, go to Alaska and enjoy your vacation. I've done my bit. ROD. Feeling and Acting By IVAN LEBEDEFF IT became almost an axiom — even for the non-professionals— that the screen acting is very different from the stage acting. The stage has its different established schools and theories, classic principles and examples. The screen is too young yet, and has not had time to establish it nor time to systematize and classify. The aim of this article is only to trace what we consider the essential roots of acting generally, and screen acting especially. The author does not flatter himself with the idea to know sufficiently to attempt an academical analysis of different theories of screen acting as terra incognita with all possible deductions and details. Besides, we think that only the introduction for such a work must have much more space than this entire study. The stage has two principles — almost opposite schools. The first — ^the so-called classic school, represented by the Comedie Francaise — says (speaking synthetically) that the acting is composed by ten to twenty-five per cent of emotions (feeling) and ninety to seventy-five per cent of technic; everything else is amateurish. The second — which, at least, for the author of these lines — is represented by certain great individuals of the Russian theatre generally and the Moskow Art Theatre particularly — supposes the acting to be composed differently. Technic is important, but feeling is still much more important. "An actor" — used to say the great Russian dramatic actor, Davidoff — "must make definitely clear for himself every step, gesture, poise and modulation of voice, then go and feel and live his part as deeply and sincerely as he can. The art of an actor is not in impersonating and imitating to perfection a created by his imagination type of character, but to become for a few hours in his mind and soul the character itself, remaining always the type (it means bringing out and underlining the distinction of the type), and think and feel as the character should. He must not act, but live his part. A technically finished and polished performance without feeling, I call miserable; but a sincere performance without technical pex'fection will only be an unfinished performance." Davidoff was an educated, well read and cultured man. He could analyze his characterizations to perfection, but we have another striking example of what a power of feeling can do. An ignorant plain and illiterate man with a great soul, by the name of Edmund Kean, became a century ago one of the greatest actors of all times and UNIMPORTANT IF TRUE By K. C. B. MR. JACK Warner. A GREAT big sign. * * * * * * "PINE LODGE Hotel." HIS Studio. * * 4= MY DEAR Jack. * * * WHAT I want to tell you. OVER OUR driveway. AND STUCK it right up. * * * IS THAT your Bill Guthrie. AND THEY worked all * * * day. CAME TO Lake Arrowhead. * * * * * * AND WE enjoyed it. WITH ROSE Lederman. * * * * * * AND everything. AND RIN Tin Tin. * * * * * * AND AT 2 a. m. AND A lot of people. + * * * * * ON THE morning after. AND A lot of trucks. * * * * * * WHILE Bill and his gang. AND MY wife's mother. * * * * * * WERE sleeping soundly. HAS A house up there. « * * * * * AT YOUR expense. AND IT'S some swell house. * * * * * * IN THE Arrowhead Tavern. AND I was there. * * * * * * I WAS awakened. AND I knew Bill. * * * * * * IN MY pajamas. BACK in Washington. * * ♦ * * * BY A couple of people. AND HE came to me. * * * * * * WHO HAD seen your sign. UP AT Arrowhead. * * * * * * OVER OUR driveway. AND HE said to me. * * * * * * AND THEY wanted a room. "MAY WE use your * * ♦ house?" IN THE "Pine Lodge * * * Hotel." AND I said to him. * * * * * * AND IT'S four days now. "THE HOUSE ain't mine. * * * * * * AND BILL'S going to be "BUT I'LL see about it." here. * * * * * » AND SO I did. FOR ANOTHER two weeks. AND OF all the trucks. * * * AND SUN reflectors. * * * AND SUN burned actors. * * * I EVER did see. * * * THEY WOKE us all up. * * * AT 7 a. m. AND WHAT I want. IS JUST to ask you. * * * IF YOU'LL please send up. * * » A HOTEL night clerk. * * ♦ AND I'LL drive 'em off days. * * * * * * AND FIRST thing they did. AND HE'LL drive 'em off * * * nights. WAS UNLOAD from a * * * truck. I THANK you. shook London "on Wednesdays and Fridays" by the threeminutes agony of "Hamlet" in the last act, and by the words "And buried, gentle Tyrrel?" from Richard III "on Mondays". Now, what is the essential principle of screen acting: feeling or technic? A famous diplomat and one of the cleverest men — Charles Maurice de Perigore, known in history as Prince de Talleyrand — once remarked that the tongue is given us to conceal our thoughts. Paraphras