Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

its importance is lower than formerly. VistaVision does not mean much in exploitation of a picture. El Theatre del Este has been equipped for Cinerama and is enjoying a moderate success. Italian pictures are losing their strong appeal in favor of French films in the bigger situations. On the whole, American films usually gross about 200 per cent more than average European films. Mexican pictures maintain a' steady level in Caracas and especially in the interior, but do little business in first runs. TURKEY by PHEDON NAZLOGLOU in Istanbul Business generally has been good here in the current year. Although the number of domestic productions declined by about 25 percent, the quality of the pictures was substantially better. Action pictures still are the most popular with Turkish audiences, the most popular being from the United States, followed by Italy, France and Great Britain. In the last several years, imports from India have had an increasing success. Despite the fact that five theatres closed during the year, the total of 450 throughout the country registered approximately the same business this year as last. YUGOSLAVIA by STOJAN BRALOVIC in Belgrade Motion pictures remain very popular here and the business outlook is good if not spectacular. Total attendances for the first eight months of the year were approximately 68,125,000. The government’s film program for next year envisions the production of 20 features and 200 short subjects, including 52 newsreels, 30 educational films and the rest documentaries, children’s films, travel and cultural subjects, all in black and white. The plan is based on the one for this year which called for the production of 16 features and 180 shorts. Producers here — all state-controlled — made several successful co-productions during the year with French, German and English producers. Such arrangements are becoming very popular, since the foreign participants can supply the various technical skills which are lacking in the domestic industry. The favorite fare of local patrons are musical films, followed by westerns and dramas. The big, spectacular color productions, especially those of American origin, are particularly popular. Although none of the new projection techniques has yet been shown here, the feeling is that they will arrive in the not too distant future. VENEZUELA by MONA LONDON CALDWELL in Caracas Attendance has increased about five per SPAIN: Suevia Films' "Main Street" was exhibited at the Venice Festival. It stars American Betsy Blair, French Dora Doll, and Spanish Jose Suarez. It is in French and Spanish. SWITZERLAND: Nellie Borgeaud and Hannes Schmidhauser in Praesens Productions' "The Story of a Swiss Guard in Rome," a title which in export will probably be changed. THE OUTLOOK ( Continued from page 24) houses closing down. Not all of them are doing capacity business, but all of them are doing nicely. The neighbourhood theatre is decidedly on the way out. Today a theatre needs good films to make money. Although TV is steadily getting bigger and better, there is as yet no visible inroad into theatre business. In building new theatres there is a noticeable tendency towards smaller houses and longer runs. Three Swiss films have been produced during the year, “Oberstadtgass” (“A Little Street Uptown”) after a very successful radio series, “ ’s Waisechind vo Engelberg” (“The Orphan of Engelberg”) and, still in production, “The Story of A Swiss Guard in Rome”, a film of high promise. The total of 35,000,000 attendances in 1955 is expected to reach approximately 36,000,000 for 1956. cent in the last year and is expected to maintain this level during 1957. Actual attendance figures are not available at this time. Sixteen new theatres were built in Venezuela during 1956, but those of most importance are the Carlotta in Caracas and the Lid in Valencia. The Urdaneta theatre, Maracaibo, has been completely rebuilt. A new first run theatre, Las Colinas, will be finished in Caracas by March, 1957, and in Maracaibo the Avila will be ready in January. Tiuna Films plans production of three films for 1957 which will be distributed by Tropical Films. Heretofore Tiuna Films has produced only newsreels and advertising shorts. Bolivar Films also continues this type of production. Advertising shorts are shown here in all theatres, including first runs. CinemaScope is a special attraction but 26 WORLD MARKET