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WILLIAM C. dcNIlLLE is one of our sanest directors. He has made for the screen some pictures that reflect real art. His views are not sent broadcast on the publicity sheets, the reason being. \vc take it. that he doesn't care for that sort of publicity. But because of his fine mental poise, we asked him to talk to the readers of Photoplay. His little message is so typical of his mental operations and his vision that we are giving it a full page and consider the space well spent.
A Message of H ope
By
WILLIAM C. deMlLLE
GREAT Picture PublicDo not be discouraged because such a large proportion of motion pictures are bad. This condition is inex'itable, because the motion picture is the only art which has not been allowed to develop slowly. All the older arts ha\ e taken centuries to grow from the first crude forms in which they ai)peared to the perfection of beauty they now hold. The motion picture alone was so needed by the mass of people that, from the moment it became a form of entertainment, the demand for it was so great, the pressure e.xerted by the peojile was so insistent, that our craft was forced to expand rapidly into the stature of a giant before its brain had time to outgrow the weakness of a child. So that today, the brain, the soul of the new art. is strix ing to catch up with the enormous body.
Artists cannot be forced into existence. For a craft to l)ecomc an art, time is necessary; men and women must labor gropingly to e\"oIve a new art which shall not be a mere imitation of an older art but a new thing, complete in itself. A new form of literature.
This development is taking jjlace, but for .the most part it is so hidden in the midst of the the rush and turmoil of the industry that only the expert is aware of the little groups of earnest, thoughtful workers, who here and there are laboring as pioneers — cutting the roads into the
wilderness and showing the way to those who will follow. And among those who follow will be the first really great masters of the screen. The leaders of today are men and women who ha\ e translated themseh es from the older arts in order to do the necessary work of prejiaration.
Unless Marlowe had prepared the art form of the drama, Shakespeare would ha\e found no such instrument ready to his hand. And those of us today who are seriously stri\ing to make an art form for the photo-drama are merely making tools for the master craftsmen and jioets who must follow us.
We are learning a new language. ha\"ing first spoken the mother tongue of an older art. The masters of the future will be those born to speak first the language of the screen, who will find their first art exf)ression upon the screen, to whom the screen itself will be the mother tongue of their genius.
So be patient, Great Public, for the masters are e\en now born and it is for you to recognize them as the>' apiiear. and encourage them by your response to the trutli and beauty of their work.
The signs of real ad\-ancement are not lacking, and you may today see a great promise of the future art beneath the surface of the far too numerous and much abused "Movie."