Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

240 Script to Screen1 by Andrew Buchanan, D.Litt., Ph.D. Andrew Buchanan’s latest book on the film : "Film-making from Script to Screen” is a completely revised and re-written version of "the book which first appeared in 1937 and has been out of print for many years. A constant demand for copies made it clear that this simple but comprehensive course in film-making had appealed to a wide public. The author has the ability to state in lucid and not too technical terms, the principles and practice of a craft which has all too often been camouflaged under excessive neologism on the one hand or vulgar ostentation on the other. Behind all that Buchanan writes about the cinema there is evident a deep concern about the misuse of film and the consequent harm that humanity can suffer from this ubiquitous instrument for diversion and the expression of ideas. Indeed one might say that his writings form the only extensive commentary at present available in English on the Film Encyclical, Vtgilanti Cura. His purpose is "to make use of the screen to help man to discover how to overcome the material forces which are reducing him to serfdom. Film-makers possess the most powerful medium in the world. Are they to remain content to employ it solely to satisfy their technical aspirations and to provide a pleasant hour for their club friends, or are they going to devote a portion of their time to shaping films which shall make some contribution to the welfare of humanity ?” Those who are familiar with the Encyclical will find this almost an echo of Pope Pius’ plea for a sane and constructive use of the cinema “to give new life to the claims of virtue and to contribute positively to the genesis of a just social order in the world”. In the volume under consideration, * "Film-making From Script to Screen.” Phoenix House, Ltd. 8/6. Buchanan outlines a complete course on simplified film-production. The fundamentals from script to screen are described and are aimed at the professional as much as at the amateur. The dedication of the book, "To the Amateur Professional and the Professional Amateur”, describes both the public for which he is writing and the objective to which, ultimately, he is tending. He is a man with a deep love of and understanding of his craft and it is his sorrow that commercialism has sullied to such an extent an art which, in the words of Pius XI, “with its magnificent power, can and must be a bearer of light and a positive guide to what is good”. A well-known art-director, a man who has been making films for nearly thirty years was my host some time ago in the restaurant of one of the big British studios. He astonished me by saying that, of the two hundred or more people dining in that room, not more than half a dozen really knew or cared much about film. If that was true, and I have no reason to doubt my host’s complete sincerity, it gives point to much that Buchanan says in this book and elsewhere. To quote again : "Since this book first appeared, film has outgrown its strength. It looks fairly robust from a distance, but suffers rather a lot with internal troubles. Wardour Street specialists have had it under observation for some time, hoping a major operation may be averted, but some of us think that the major operation should be performed on the specialists, leaving the patient free to get up and regain its strength unaided.” May I recommend this book to all those who have, so far, failed to see the significance of film as the most potent influence of our time ? In this way they may learn how to do something to "promote good motion pictures”, the key directive in the Papal Encvclical. J. A. V. B.