Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

201 no longer be kept as a backdrop to set a mood, for the mind does not react to colours \tfith the same unanimity of interpretation as it does to light and shade. The red that to one is joy, to another war, and, to yet another, shame, cannot be used as common coin with a universally known value. Similarly to compose with “masses” in their natural colouring is clearly almost impossible, when the slightest movement of the camera or an actor may cause even a small spot of colour, by fresh juxtaposition, to strengthen or weaken a large mass to the point at which its apparent weight is altered. Speeding up of shots and deliberate blurring of definition are also made largely ineffective by natural colour, for the eye is too distracted by irrelevant background colour to catch the emotional linking thread with the first device, while in the second case though the shapes of the objects seen are fused into a lulling and sensuous rhythm their colours may still clash or disturb just as much as when sharply defined and will annoy doubly because they suggest objects which they do not clearly define. Finally the effect of the close-tip as a heightener of emotion is largely annulled when, not only does the background distract in this manner, but the spectator’s interest is diffused over a number of different coloured planes of flesh and clothing instead of being focused on the centre of one mass — the head. Of course the alternative to using natural colour is to create endless “sets” on a theatrical pattern and use colour as an element of fantasy rather than realism. This is the technique of the Disney cartoon, The Red Shoes and many of the best musicals, and it is in this direction that the future of colour would seem to lie. At the other end of the scale, also, where mere pictorial fact is required, as in newsreels and nature films, colour can add notably to the effect produced. But the “realism” of colour in the feature film is a myth and we would do well to recognise it before the art that blackand-white film has created is abandoned. It is easy to mistake greater factual accuracy for greater realism, but cutting the dancing out of a realist ballet and performing it against a three dimensional slum background does not make it more real ; it merely destroys it as a work of art. Perhaps a new art will be evolved from the use of colour. Possibly, as at the introduction of sound, an old one will be lost. Perhaps colour will even take us back to the world of the silent film with its emphasis on fantasy, action and larger-than-life acting. One thing is certain and that is that, with an increasing range of accurate colour tone registered on the film, the art director’s efforts to highlight his characters’ emotions against the rainbow riot of natural backgrounds will soon, manifestly, be a lost cause. If the colour film is to progress as an art form it must either scrap nature or scrap its efforts to show the subtler feelings and thoughts of man as parts of an artistic pattern. Catholic Theatre Guild A meeting was held at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London, W.C., and afterwards at the Charing Cross Hotel, on Sunday, June 10th; to inaugurate the resurrected Catholic Theatre Guild. Over a hundred member of the stage, screen, radio, variety and other allied professions were present. At the suggestion of Father O’Hare, Chaplain to the Guild, the Temporary Committee, with Mr. Ted Kavanagh as Chairman, was re-elected en bloc until such time as a larger and more representative gathering has had time to consider the revised Constitution which the Temporary Committee has been working on. Mr. Michael Brennan, Mr. John O’Sullivan, Mr. George Baker and Miss Mary Pilgrim were co-opted on to the Temporary Committee to represent the interests of film players, technicians, music and the student actors of the R.A.D.A. and other similar academies. The next meeting will be at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London, W.C., on Sunday, July 1st, at 5 p.m. In the meantime all Catholic members of the allied professions are urged to become members of the Catholic Theatre Guild. All information from The Secretary, The Catholic Theatre Guild, Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, London, W.C.