International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1932)

952 silent films. In the cities like Saigon, Hanoin, Cholon and Pnompenh, the cinemas give daily performances, while in smaller centres pictures are shown only two or three times a week. At Saigon, the three largest halls are the Eden, the Majestic and the Casino. The first of these, rebuilt in 1931, is the largest in the country, and holds 1200 spectators. At Hanoin, there is the Palace with 600 seats, the Majestic and the Vanetes. At Hai-Phong there are two halls giving talking films, the Eden and the Colibri. At Phompenh there is one talking cinema hall, the Excelsior. The other halls are distributed in the smaller towns and villages. The writer comments on the public taste, which, as regards the native crowds, runs to adventure, war and documentary films, especially when they contain dramatic episodes. Chaplin's comic films are also favourites. The talking film is not especially popular with the natives for the reason that barely a quarter of the country population understands French. For the same reason the sub-titles of silent films pass unnoticed and are not understood. The pictures tell the natives the story. The foregoing is a resume of Saurel's reports. One thing is lacking which was however, outside of the writer's plan, that is to let us know something of the psychological influence exercised by Western films on Oriental peoples. The point is an important one. We have on more than one occasion referred in the pages of this review to the difficulty and delicacy of projecting before a public different from that of the country of the film's origin pictures which with their strictly Western plots and aspects of dramatic or sentimental life offer something not easily understood by Oriental peoples. The question is both a delicate and a dangerous one, for it may happen often enough that films evoke impressions not suitable for Asiatic public which may thus get an inexact idea of Western morality or its psychology, customs and manner of life. The danger arises of reciprocal misunderstanding, which is the most efficacious means for demolishing every idea of peace or good will among peoples (knowledge means understanding). The matter becomes worse when we are dealing with peoples having a different mentality from our own, who do not take account of the fact that good and evil exist all over the earth and come to judge the Western world from what they see of it in gangster films, or films portraying criminality or disordered passion. THE USE OF NON-INFLAMMABLE FILM IN PUBLIC CINEMAS The Bulletin of the French Syndical Chamber of Cinematography states in its October number that following a move taken by the President of the Syndical Chamber, the Minister of the Interior has decided to postpone until January 1 , 1 934 the enforcement of the ministerial circular of December 30, 1931 according to which the use of noninflammable film became obligatory in France as from October 1st last. In the letter informing M. Charles Delac, the president of the Syndical Chamber of the decision, the Minister of the Interior M. Chautemps recalled that the substi tution of non-inflammable film for nitrocellulose film was originally to become effective in January 1st, 1925 by ministerial order of 20 March, 1922. The enforcement of the decree was successively postponed, following requests of the Syndical Chamber, to January April and October of 1928, then to January 1930, then to October 1932, and now finally to January 1934. At first sight the considerations inspiring the recent ministerial decision may seem to interest only the French cinema industry. A certain passage in the letter of M. Chautemps to M. Delac, however, shows that