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THE VARIOUS FORMS OF CINEMA
(/) The Epic Film
Like fantasy, the power of the epic film is still but partially exploited, and, again, where experiments have been made in this direction they have been remarkably successful. The film is capable of showing the movement of masses better than any other medium, but it is necessary to differentiate between the epic and the mere spectacle film. By the film's control of space and time, it is possible to portray by massed movement the feelings and psychological reactions of a race. The epic film conceives collective life as an end in itself or with, perhaps, an individual of more than ordinary significance emerging from the crowded background.
The greatest examples of the epic mass film were the worldfamous Battleship lPotemkiny and October by S. M. Eisenstein. It seems incredible that a person drawn from any class or any part of the civilised world could witness these films without obtaining a full realisation of the spirit of the Russian people. They were political in that portions of them dealt with political events; they were propaganda in the same way that the The King of Kings (that essence of hypocritical nonsense) was propaganda for the Christian religion. On the score of their epic quality as apart from their propagandist intention they deserve to be shown freely throughout the world.
Contrasted with these mass productions, Pudovkin's The End of St. Petersburg, which dealt roughly with the same events as October, was an example of individuals moving against a crowded background, of an epic theme seen through individuals. By circumstance of the scenario narrative a peasant boy was made to project from the masses, but was suggestive only of their mental state.
It is necessary also to include such films as Grass in this category and to a very much lesser extent Martin Luther, which was, or should have been, epic in conception, as well as Abel Gance's vast picture Napoleon.
(g) The Documentary or Interest Film, including the Scientific, Cultural and Sociological Film
This type of cinema has been recently explored with great success
on the Continent and especially in Soviet Russia, where the interest
picture has been made in great numbers. Films on how this thing
is made and how that functions are often to be found in the average
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