The Moving picture world (July 1925-August 1925)

August 15, 1925 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 731 I Europe Watches Independent Fight With Apprehension EUROPE is very much interested, not to say aroused, as it watches the great struggle going on in the States between what is here called "the great combination" and the "independents." Columns of space are devoted to what is described as a contest between giants. Almost unanimously the sympathies of the press seem to be with the so-called independent forces, though there are no passionate outbursts. In almost every case, however, there is an undercurrent of apprehension in the editorial comments. Nor is the fear confined to editors alone. Indeed the editors only echo the sentiments of the producers of the principal countries on the European continent. There is an uneasy feeling in France, Germany, Italy and all the former parts of the old Austrian Empire that whatever side wins in the States, or even if the great battle ends with a happy compromise, it will be Europe's turn next to feel the effects of American initiative and enterprise and learn by observation and experience what American organization can do by way of intensive selling. Of course, the Europeans do not put it just this way. In fact, even a hard-boiled optimist will try in vain to detect any note of "Welcome to our fair land" in the comments of our European friends. Quite the contrary. Listen to the lament of the Bavarian film producers, even if you have never heard of them before. These good people are plainly displeased with the present state of affairs. "The U. S.," they say, "does not absorb our films, but we take almost their entire output. The Americans want to control the German market just as they have conquered the British, Franch and Italian markets. Their ultimate object is to destroy all European film industries. The Americans intend to annihilate and exterminate the German film industry and their first step will be to establish their own exchanges throughout Germany." The Bavarian film producers take no pains to conceal their fear of the moral and artistic consequences of this threatening American victory. They flatly declare that German "kultur" will eventually disappear unless something is done in a hurry. A special tax for American films is suggested as a means of keeping back the flood. The rest of the German film producers, while expressing much the same painful prophecies for the future, have gone on record with a resolution against imposing special taxes on American films. A film industry which cannot breathe except with the aid of such artificial respiration as taxes on foreign competitors cannot live long. The apprehension in the ranks of European film producers has not been lessened by a page "ad" appearing in all the big cities seeking "immediately" suitable quarters for film exchanges. It does seem as if the statements appearing periodically in the trade press here and in the States that Europe was getting tired of Yankee films were based on nothing very substantial. The situation has not been softened by the plain and honest comments of the commercial attache of the American legation in Berlin. This gentleman, speaking of the efforts of the German government to force an exchange of German and American films as the basis By W. Stephen Bush of every permit to import our films into Germany, remarked : "To enable him to bring in as many first-class American films as possible the German producer makes as many of the cheapest possible films as he. can. The cost of the negative varies from $20,000 to $35,000. In these films generally one or at the most two sets are used." Those readers of Moving Picture World who are interested in future film events may take note of a great feature which will be released in 1931. This most unusual production is being made in France by the strangest director I ever met in a long career of writing. I am speaking of M. Abel Gance and his ambitious undertaking to produce a minute and complete screen biography of Napoleon I. The plan of M. Gance is to present the world not merely with two or three hours of entertainment, but with a work of monumental size and extraordinary quality. Films dealing with the subject of Napoleon have been common enough from the earliest days of the industry. The efforts to reproduce the great man and his life on the screen have persisted to this very minute. M. Gance has no intention of competing with any previous effort of this kind. His aim is infinitely higher. He is painting Napoleon for the screen in all his struggles with Fate and for this purpose has divided the life of the conqueror into two periods : The early period when Fate seemed to obey Napoleon and the other period when Napoleon seemed but a toy of Fate. As M. Gance himself puts it : "As General Bonaparte he skirted the edge of the maelstrom ; as emperor he was drawn into the very midst of it." Space here is too precious for a detailed account of M. Gance's labors. The director has planned everthing carefully with a view to thoroughness. There are to be seven parts of the feature, each part to take just one year. One part is half finished, Mr. Gance having commenced work on it last January. All the early scenes have been taken in Corsica around Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon. I mention this because it indicates the scale on which the enterprise is planned. Three or possibly four different actors will take the part of Napoleon as he appeared in the great phases of his career. The "Societe Abel Gance" has been founded with international capital. It its claimed that the director will have 60,000,000 francs at his disposal. One cannot help thinking of the vast advantage of advertising a film for seven long years. According to reports given out in Berlin, Paramount has not renewed its contract with the German concern which has heretofore distributed its films. It is not known what arrangements Paramount will make in the future. The agency which has until now distributed Paramount films has made a contract with Cecil de Mille's company. It is supposed to be based on a reciprocity arrangement by which at least a limited number of German-made films are to be distributed by the Producers Distributing Corp. through its exchanges in the States. These German films intended for absorption in the American market are to have the same star for the first three or four times at least. It is also intended to have American actors in the casts of these films.