Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

FOCUS Organ of the Catholic ♦ ♦ A FILM REVIEW Film Institute Vol. IV September 1951 No. 9 Film Controversy Recently I was forced into a controversy about films, with a man who is interested in the arts and who would describe himself as a good Christian. He has a poor opinion of the cinema as a medium of expressing ideas, particularly religious ideas. He churned up the old heresy about the cinema being a mechanical device which materially minded magnets use to get rich quickly by exploiting the emotions of the masses. He thinks that the Church should mind its own business and allow the cinema enough rope to hang itself. He seems to have a special grudge against films with religious themes and told me that he feels less embarrassed when he sees a naughty film than when he sees a religious film. He would not even concede a point to Monsieur Vincent and that splendid film. Triptych. When I asked him whether he was embarrassed by the religious themes expressed by Raphael, Michelangelo, Mozart and other famous artists in other mediums he paused and said: “Er . . . no . . . but, that’s different”. He made the point that a painter like Raphael had the power to spiritualise his subjects to such a degree that we are able to accept them as real and derive inspiration from them; whereas a film such as Monsieur Vincent lacks integrity because no man who has not experienced sanctity can portray it. He said that such films disturb rather than inspire. To allow six of the arts the right to express religious ideas and to deny this right to the seventh and the youngest of the arts, which is the cinema, is illogical and not very helpful. All young things, whether they are plants or people, must grow slowly, silently and imperceptibly. The cinema is still in its youth. Who can say what spiritual masterpieces it will produce when it grows to maturity? Editor.