International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1931)

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37« Influence varies according to age and sex, and kind of film. " The influence of the screen is relative owing to the inevitable diversity of film subjects. Nor is any systematic continuity desirable in the interests of either the industry or the young. The cinema can help in permanently strengthening the fundamental principles of individual and social conduct implanted in the child by the family and the school. The different ages demand a more or less wide extension of cinematographic spectacles proceeding from synthesis to analysis. Sex is a less important factor than age, since, in practice, sex difference facilitates the choice of subjects." " The cinema's influence varies with the film. These must be carefully selected, for children and adolescents, being ignorant of life, are easily impressed by pictures made more vivid by the plastic effects of light." " The cinema is capable of exercising great influence for good and evil on the development of character. It can help to create soft as well as gentle characters, just as it can develop in girls traits of feminism as well as of womanliness." " The factors which determine the formation of character are so many and varied that they elude the most careful psychological study. Their influence is slow, but sure and derives sustenance from circumstances and events as well as from reading and recreation. The influence of the cinema is certainly considerable, not so much, I think, in the case of regular cinema-goers as in the case of the more occasional visitor. The latter is a more interested spectator with a mind more open to impressions. Naturally, films leave deeper traces upon simple or weak minds." " The screen can influence character-formation provided it is directed to that end. The Greeks found in Homer and Plutarch the basis of their civil and moral evolution; the Romans derived solid gain from Vergil's Aeneid and from Livy the historian. In our times the cinema could become a great character-forming asset by skilfully reproducing human life throughout the ages in a definitely educational sense. " The magnitude and effects of screen influence vary according to the temperament, sex, age, social circumstances and education of the spectator. A healthy temperament and a sound education are the best protection against the ill-effects of the cinema." " Just as a bad book can poison the mind of the adolescent, so a film in which worthless characters trample upon every human sentiment to gain their ends sets a bad example that may do harm." " The cinema exercises especial influence upon children, whose minds receive an indelible impression. Boys and girls alike unconsciously imitate what they see enacted. How often have we grown-ups not been moved by scenes in a film! Imagine then the disturbance within the mind of a child who sees such scenes for the first time, especially children who are at the age of puberty." " The cinema may exercise influence. When boys and girls first begin to distinguish between good and evil, the beautiful and the ugly, justice and injustice, they feel called upon to follow the one principle or the other. The character is subjected to a certain influence and given a definite bias. Although the contributory causes may seem simple the effects are life-long." " Although my pupils unanimously maintain that films have no influence upon them, I myself am of a contrary opinion. I consider that the screen's subtle and persuasive charm has a very strong influence over them. It acts imperceptibly and, for that very reason, has greater power over young people, especially girls, who are more impressionable and observant."