International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1931)

656 useful. These kinds certainly please children, as is proved by the interest with which they follow and discuss them. A child's interest in historical films is due to the fact that they illustrate things already known to him." " I consider historical and religious films the most suitable. The former encourage patriotic feeling, the latter uprightness of conduct. The adolescent is more susceptible to film influence than the child; great exploits leave indelible traces; dramatic and adventure films, on the contrary, are full of dangers." " The most suitable films for children are history films and films of adventure. The latter open up new horizons and make a reality of what has only existed in imagination; the former stir the feelings. The history film (and religion and politics enter into history) is of great value to the adolescent, who can learn from it something of general and particular application. Dramatic films (those, I mean, with a love interest) can do much harm. A film dealing with a more or less platonic affection cannot prove morally corrupting, but unimproving spectacles of this kind affect the sense of moral values and encourage young people to embark lightly upon amorous adventures." " Everyone knows that films which are intended to be instructive fail to interest the young; documentary films find a few admirers, while animated drawings leave the spectator cold. It is the dramatic film that really attracts. Impressions vary, of course, with age and sex: My own pupils are much too inclined to harp on types of male and female beauty, outward show, gestures and attitudes. In this country, at least, the sexual suggestion is unmistakable. From this point of view all films seem to me to contain elements of danger. More particularly, films dealing with contemporary life, for historical films illustrate a past epoch and it is better to travesty history than to falsify life." " By some mysterious process a film projected upon the screen is immediately transmitted to the spectator's mind, and makes a more or less deep impression upon his memory and his feelings. For this reason the best films for children are, in my opinion, films that reproduce acts of courage, adventurous travel, the heroism of sailors and airmen. In this way enthusiasm is stirred. Little girls should preferably be shown films with a domestic interest in which the duties of woman as wife and mother are emphasised. The light and inconstant heroines of the romantic film are bad for girls, since they should be taught to take a calm and serious view of their future. The cinema should aim at the moral and intellectual improvement of the masses." " Historical films are undoubtedly the best; the cinema is able to reconstruct the past and show life in its universal forms. " The least desirable kind of film is the adventure film, especially when it makes heroes of coarse and unscrupulous brigands and adventurers." " I prefer films to be either absolutely faithful records of life or purely fantastic. Legends and literary traditions in legend form will also serve until some creative genius of the screen succeeds in treating dramatic subjects of universal value in a manner that will raise them to the spiritual level of classical tragedy." " Films must be adopted to the different tastes of boys and girls (boys like adventurous stuff, girls respond to a more sentimental appeal) and must direct these tastes towards noble ends. Warmth of feeling is good, if it is virile and guided by reason. Films therefore for young girls should not deal exclusively with love, glorifying the sacrifice of a woman's honour. Nor should they treat of women abandoning their children or girls running away from home with some man or show amorous passion as the highest ideal in life. Maternal feeling, on the other hand, should figure largely in such films: acts of courage by wives and mothers.