International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1930)

32i — Spain, expresses similar views in an official communication to the Institute and in an article on « The Problem of the Cinema and Children » published in the « Motherhood and Infant Welfare Bulletin » of the nth November 1928. In a study of this question, Prof. Theodore of the « Ecole des hautes etudes sociales * of Paris, affirms that there is a form, of cinema nevrosis that contributes to develop morbid passions, and that valuable statistics of the so-called educative cinema might be compiled on the increase of criminal propensities; the cinema is alleged to be one of the most powerful factors of social delinquency and moral depravity of our time and doctors would do well to study the relations between the cinema and hysteria. « When we seek to combat the drug mania, drink, and vice generally », adds Signor Nelli in the above cited paper « we are wont to present dismal scenes, views of the abyss, of horrible depravity and revolting degeneracy which, far from educating and impressing themselves in a wise and helpful manner on the mind, arouse gloom, wrath and a sense of sadness that cannot easily be lifted ». And yet how delightful and good it would be for the young of our time to p.ttain to something akin to the cinegraphic life depicted in a recent film « The Princess and her Taxi » — a story of a young American millionairess of Fifth Avenue and a little Broadway shopgirl — to which the Cairo « Cine Journal)-, refers as follows in its issue of 6th January 1930: « It is so very pleasant, even in fiction, to come across people who have only happy experiences ! ». In an article appearing in « La Francaise » of the 25th January 1930, Huguette Champy speaks of the efforts made by Andre Wanda to create a film for children. Fairy stories and dream countries that give an impression of charm and beauty, as against what Andre Wanda has come across in his very young cinema life — the ever increasing number of precocious criminals and the disquieting depravity of the young. The sex problem causes special anxiety to all lovers of the educational cinema. In another part of this Review, examining the results of an enquiry carried out in Germany among a certain number of artisans and workers aged under 17 years of age, it is however pointed out that the sex question, serious and influential as it may be, is far from being the most important aspect of the problem in hand. Opinion is strictly divided on this point. To quote one among many views, Cecil B. de Mille states in Comoedia (Paris F. 33/98) that the representation of sexual problems on the screen is a question of good taste and tact. The same situation dealt with by two different scenario writers may produce diametrically opposite effects. For this reason American film producers have been well advised in laying down a strict moral code for dealing with love matters, this having led to the brilliant progress of the cinema and to the diffusion of sound and healthy ideas on the great sex problem. The question of so-called immoral films, which form the main preoccupation of all those concerned with safeguarding the young, is closely connected with the sex problem. Even before the time when Louis Jalabert launched in the review « Etudes », his article on the corrupting influence of films, later on published in pamphlet form, by the Action Populaire, the cinema was pitilessly denounced as immoral. The industry, on its side, parried the blow as best it could and has denied all the allegations brought against it. There are faults and exaggerations on both sides. On the one side there is a tendency to lay down the law in too uncompromising a spirit, to argue a priori and even per absurdum, and on the other side to deny the existence of the seamy side of the question, in lieu of any genuine effort to study it jointly and seek the remedy. According to the Publicitat of Barcelona (33-41), the Rev. Dr. Eduardo Roman, Professor at the Seminary of Garcia, gave a lecture at the Catholic Club organized by the Section of Christian Culture, on the need of improving the moral tone of the cinema. Mrs. Robins Gilmer, Secretary of the First National Motion Picture Conference, held at Chicago in February 1926, made bold to declare that 80 to 90 per cent of the crimes committed in America were attributable to impressions received at the motion