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THE ACTUAL
give a film an instant attraction in other countries. For this reason, Lya de Putti, Lars Hanson, Hans von Schlettow, Anna May Wong, Olga Tschechowa, Gilda Gray, and others have played in this country, but the advantage is somewhat obscure, save that it has been successful in the suppression of natural British talent.
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Analysis of the output of British studios since the war is impossible in the same way as has been done with that of other countries. Nor, on the other hand, is it proposed to give even a brief survey of the commercial development, for that has been lightly touched upon at an earlier stage. I am unable to discern a realistic, expressionistic, naturalistic, decorative, or any other phase in the development of the British cinema. Added to which, there are no tendencies to be traced, for British films do not have tendencies, unless allusion is made to the prevalence of cabaret scenes and war themes. I propose, therefore, to examine several isolated productions and the work of a few individual directors, who demand some notice.
Without hesitation, there is one production that is pre-eminent in the British cinema, Grierson's film of the herring fleet. As far as I am aware, Drifters is the only film produced in this country that reveals any real evidence of construction, montage of material, or sense of cinema as understood in these pages. Admittedly, Grierson was influenced in his work by the rhythmic construction of Eisenstein's Battleship 'Potemkin,' but, as has been pointed out elsewhere, he gave to Drifters something that was lacking in the celebrated Soviet film. As is now well-known, Grierson was connected with the preparation of the American version of the Soviet picture, and had, therefore, every opportunity to analyse the work of Eisenstein at close contact. Although Grierson failed to understand completely the construction of Battleship 'Potemkin,' he nevertheless contrived to build a film of great strength and beauty in Drifters. Like Epstein's Finis Terrce and Ford's Iron Horse, the theme of Drifters was pure in filmic texture. The ships that sailed out at night, the casting of the drifting nets, and the climactic race home to give their haul to the markets of the world was splendid film material. The film was filled with the beauty of labour and a sense of ships. It lacked, possibly, a universal idea of the sea by its concentration on detail, but it was so far in advance of normal British productions that to write unfavourably of it would be ungenerous.
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