Film and TV Technician (1957)

92 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN June July 1957 Not So Free Cinema FILM technicians, being cynics, will not need to be told that " Free Cinema " doesn't mean anything of the kind. In fact the British Film Institute, which on the whole does a useful job of work, deserves a smart kick in the pants for applying such a stupid generic title to films which it finances from a special fund to aid experiments in the medium which might not otherwise find financial backing. By " free ", the Institute presumably means films that are not sponsored, tied or restricted by financial or any considerations other than the pure flow of the creative spirit. This makes nonsense of the new " free cinema " programme at the National Film Theatre where the piece de resistance is a film financed by the Ford Motor Company, but more of this later. Occasional Enlightened Sponsorship There is, of course, no such thing as " free cinema ", but there is to be found occasionally, and much too occasionally, an enlightened sponsorship, whether from Ford's or the British Film Institute, which is prepared to give a relative freedom to the creative film maker, and lest there be any misunderstanding, the more this happens the better for the health of our industry. This being said, the " free " film makers must be prepared to take criticism. Unfortunately some orthodox critics, punch-drunk with years of reviewing the standard commercial product, are inclined to throw overboard any critical sense that may remain to them and shout " Hallelujah " when the " free cinema " boys come to town. This frame of mind does no good to anybody. Early British documentary which pre-dated " free cinema " by twenty years or thereabouts, fought for favourable notices but also thrived on criticism and its inheritors must learn to do the same. The new programme " Free Cinema Three — Look at Britain " features two films, Nice Time and Evert/ Dun Except Christ mux. The former is made by Claude Goretta and Alain Tanner and purports to be an impression of Piccadilly Circus on any Saturday night. It is really beyond analysis because it is so much a personal viewpoint. To anyone who recalls Ruttmann's Berlin (1927) it would seem to be a dull and uninspired exercise in peep-hole manipulation, although it has its flashes of perception as when the National Anthem of the closing cinemas is played against the giant hypnotising neon lights of Coco-Cola. " Every Day Except Christinas " The more important work of the two is Lindsay Anderson's Every Day Except Christmas, which as I mentioned earlier, was financed by Ford's, whose only condition, I believe, was that the film should involve transport. My recollection is that the old Gas Company adopted a far more " free " policy in the thirties when it financed that shattering social documentary Housing Problems without insisting that it should be a film involving gas ovens. Lindsay Anderson's film is about Covent Garden Market and within the limitations he has imposed himself on the conception and shaping of his theme, it is an impressive if much over-long exercise in a style of documentary filmmaking which was once fashionable but has recently been out of favour. Its impact owes much to the brilliant, uninhibited camera movements of Walter Lassally and it is a pity that the sound track does not have the same mastery of intention and achievement as the camera work. In the programme notes handed out at the Press Show there is a long piece by Lindsay Anderson stating what he was and was not trying to do in this film. He was not " trying to make an information film, or an instructional film or a picturesque film." He goes on to say : " I feel that at the moment it is more important for a progressive artist to make a positive affirmation than an aggressive criticism." And : " It is in the light of my belief in human values that I have endeavoured to make this film about Covent Garden Market." So his film must be judged against his intentions. Whether the film of aggressive criticism (Housing Problems again) is more important than the " positive affir mation " can be argued another time. The only positive affirmation in Every Day Except Christmas is that the workers in the Market are splendid people, warm, human, expert at their craft, the Salt of th^ Earth. Between them, Anderson and Lassally have proved this point nobly. But is it enough? Grierson and his group proved the same thing in other fields twenty years ago. often with much keener penetration. Is Lindsay Anderson satisfied with proving it all over again? Where does the film of human values go from here? When the next step can be taken, when human values can be related to the H-Bomb world we live in or may soon die in, it won't matter whether we call it free cinema or anything else because the aggressive criticism and the positive affirmation will be fused into a new kind of cinema that will be worth shouting about. I hope Lindsay Anderson will go on trying. RALPH BOND. {See also Sir Michael Balcon's letter on page 91) THE EDITORIAL SECTION invite you to join them on their Riverboat Shuffle on Friday, July 5th Depart 7.45 p.m. Westminster Tier No Passports needed! . . . Bring your own Mae West ! Dancing . . . Fully licensed Tickets 12 6 each obtainable from A.C.T.T. Head Office E.M.I. TR51A Latest portable kin. high quality TAPE RECORDER For hire from £2 10s. per day Also S.T.C. CARDIOID ami PENCIL microphones and 12 volts VIBRATOR PACK FILM PARTNERSHIP EL'Ston 5292