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THE CINEMA IN INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL LIFE
BY
Egizio de Luca.
FROM its modest beginnings the cinema has grown and developed until it is now called upon to carry out an important intellectual and social function.
It occupies an increasingly larger place in the educational field, as witness its growing use in schools and universities. This is an additional proof that the cinema is the best didactic means we have.
The human mind tends to pass from the concrete to the abstract, especially in the field of experimental science. The working out of scientific laws comes from a long, minute observation of facts, that is to say, of the phenomena that may be perceived by our senses. It is these latter, in fact, which enable us to search for the relation between cause and effect and to establish, consequently, the relations on which such laws depend.
All the most important discoveries are due to these observations, carried out with patient perseverance. The method adopted by certain schools, which teach children the laws governing the various sciences without first making them acquainted with the works that led to the discovery of these laws, is therefore open to criticism. Experience has shown, over and over again, that the best results are to be obtained by personal observation of the manifestations of nature, and that it is only when a child has carefully observed the objects of which we are speaking, that it can gain an exact idea of the laws we are trying to teach it. It is obvious, therefore, that the first appeal of the teacher should be, not to the memory, but to the intelligence.
It is well known that the object itself makes a more direct appeal to the mind that a
mere description of it. It is difficult to forget a thing once seen, whereas nothing is easier than to forget a thing we have known only vaguely by reading a description of it. That is why most writers of children's books illustrate their works with a lot of simple and easily understood drawings, which help young minds to a better understanding of the text. The cinema, therefore, which shows to children the thing itself instead of giving a more or less abstract description of it, is undoubtedly the best possible teaching means that could be used in school programmes.
Many European universities make use of the cinema, but it is still not nearly so extensively used as it should be. This fact should be brought to the attention of the principals of all educational institutions, that they may realize the marvellous possibilities offered by the cinema. It would be of great use, especially in elementary classes, to replace simple drawings by the film, and to give children, instead of the frequently heavy and pedantic explanations of the master, a vision of life itself.
What is the function of the cinema in intellectual life?
This is a problem that interests every branch of science and industry, without distinction; they are fields in which the cinema has right to intervene, since it can give the most valuable aid.
For instance, at the Conferences and Congresses organized for the study and solution of scientific problems and the study of geographical problems, the cinema would fill a very definite need, if only it were made use of.