The new spirit in the cinema (1930)

xxx INTRODUCTION Indeed to judge by the amount of technical stuff that pours from the Press and from the international publishing houses, it seems as though writers on the Cinema have gone mad on technique, or what appears to be technique but is really guesswork. Some day nearer the milienium the men of the Cinema will recognise that the golden rule of film making is : Take care of the subject and technique will take care of itself. At the present time there is emerging, as this book shows, the foundations of a science of film making1. It is, however, not the purpose of the book to explain the " art and craft " of the Cinema from their humble and clumsy beginnings to the present stage of mechanical and aesthetic ingenuity and efficiency with yields such results as may be seen in the best films. To the unreflective mind these films are marvels indeed. But to the reflective one they are sad illustrations of the use of tricks to conceal the absence of the real miracle, the development of the Cinema as an instrument which shall appeal to the human needs of mankind everywhere and in a manner suited to each succeeding age. In brief, the limitations are those imposed by what I might term a study of cinema humanism, or the Cinema considered as a humanising, even civilising, factor. 10. Difficulties. Much might be said about difficulties. I will, however, mention but one — that of obtaining essential sociological data. To me Hollywood is the most perfect illustration of the present-day, Comte-Leplay-Geddes, three-fold theory of Place, Work and People, the theory, that is, of human 1 See " Pudovkin on Film Technique." 1929.