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THE FRENCH FILM
in fact, lost his sense of values when he calls The Crowd the great achievement of the American cinema.
# In contrast to the cinema of the Soviets, collectivism in film production is practically unknown in France. This, it would seem is partly due to the haphazard methods of the producing companies and to the natural disinclination of the French for co-operation Nearly every film of interest which has originated from France has been the product of an individual artist-mind. This characteristic is to be found equally in the experiments of the avant-garde and in the bigger realisations of Clair, Feyder, Epstein, and Dreyer. But perhaps the basic reason for this single-mindedness is that it is the natural outcome of the painter's studio so inherent in French tradition One has but to recall the last two decades of the nineteenth century when the marble-top cafe table bred the environment in which the camaraderie of Seurat, Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the rest had its origin. This group habit, so typical of Parisian intellectualism, has . given rise to the cinematic artist and photogenic experimentalist personified in Duchamp, Chomette, Deslav, Gremillon, Man Ray' etc and which is so well instanced in their absolute cinematics,' LEtotle de Mer, Montparnasse, Fait Divers, A quoi revent les jeunes piles, and others. J
Much has been said to the detriment of the French avant-garde film, but, on the contrary, I believe that it constitutes an excellent grounding for the young film director. We know that it is the fashion tor any young man of intelligence to borrow a few hundred francs and a camera and to make an abstract, absolute film of Paris, selling it afterwards (if he is fortunate) to an advertising firm. But this is an admirable way for that young man to develop his filmic instinct, if by any chance he should possess any. In themselves, experimental films are of little significance, being mere object-lessons in cinematic values and the various uses of the resources of the cinema Thev are a testing ground for the instruments of the film, and hence should be of the utmost interest to the big scale director. In all experimental films there are to be found a dozen uses of camera devices and trick photography which, with modifications, can be employed in the commercia film. Rene Clair's Entr'acte, made in 1923, may be cited is a typical example. It was realised from a scenario in the dadaist manner by Francis Picabia, and purported to be an exposition of
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