Focus: A Film Review (1952-1953)

instructional films, and we are all familiar with the propaganda film which was a regular feature of wartime cinema shows — showing us how to fillet a kipper or capture a Nazi spy — but I am sure that few people know, for example, that in the U.S. armies abroad alone, over 10,500,000 hours of the soldiers’ time were spent each month in seeing War Department training films. U.N.E.S.C.O. now assists the free flow of films, film personnel and film information across national boundaries and there seems the fair possibility of the creation of an adequate international film library under its aegis. The book rightly pays great attention to the role of the teacher in filmeducation and the necessity of incorporating him or her in the actual work of production. If schools are to get the maximum benefit from educational films, the teachers must observe the directions on the bottle. They must themselves learn how to use the films. Mr. Floyd F. Brooker, Chief of the Visual F.ducation Section of the I'.S. Department of Education lays down some basic rules : (1) Selecting the film in terms of a given unit of subject matter. 1 2) Previewing the film and preparing the lesson which includes it. (3) Preparing the class for the showing of the film. (4) Showing the film. (5) Examining the class for the knowledge derived from the film and the reactions to it. The book gives valuable hints to the teacher who may be called upon to project a film, such as the size of the screen in relation to the hall, the amount of projector light required, how to improve acoustics, etc. The classroom film also presents an excellent opportunity to the teacher to educate the children in film appreciation itself. Enthusiastic as one may be about the educational film, I hope the day is still far off when we shall have acquired the I'.S.S.R. approach to the cinema, where, we are told : “Going to the cinema is regarded more as a cultural experience than an evening’s entertainment. The audience stares at the screen as if attending an important lecture. Its attention seldom wanders.” It makes one think of Stalin’s words : “The cinema in the hands of the Soviet Power represents a great force.” The author recounts how he himself made films for showing to Arabian tribes, the majority of whom had never seen motor vehicles nor the sea and who thought that aeroplanes were real birds. The interesting point is that the films were fully understood by these people. We see what a great force educational films can be and what a danger if run by the wrong people. While enjoying the book and marvelling at the author’s extensive knowledge of his subject, not everyone will go as far as he in enthusiasm for educational films, nor, I think, will many be found to agree with him when he says : “I believe it (the film) will eventually prove itself it be the great educator of the world.” I have a strong suspicion that the student of 1991 will still be cramming from his text-book the night before his exams. Fr. Thaddeus Kidd, O.P'.M. Letter To The Editor Triptych and Art Films Sir, The remarks of “P. R.”. with reference to the film Triptych, are very interesting, but he is evidently unaware that this is by no means the first film to treat of the works of the great masters. There are a number of such films and the names of Luciano Emmer and Enrico Gras deserve to be remembered for having opened up this new field for the cinema. Giotto, the brothers Van Eyck, Memling, Rubens, have all been introduced to the cinemagoer in film analyses similar to that of Triptych. Emmer himself has given us fiims on the frescoes at Assisi, Guiliano Betti has given us a film on Botticelli, as well as Raphael’s Descent from the Cross. Sculpture, too, has been the subject of film treatment : the magnificent Images Gothiqucs of Maurice Cloche and Jean-B'ran^ois Noel’s Lcs Gisants are no less interesting than the camera examinations of the painters. An article in the “International Film Review”, No. 5-6, gives other titles of art films and observes that these works are “milestones along this new road of filming works of art. It is one in which sacred art can find a lesson and a hope.” Yours faithfully, J. A. V. Burke.