Screenland (May–Oct 1927)

SCREENLAND Rehearsing Means Artistic Ruin (Continued from page 24) 98 ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE BOOKS Tbe Romance and Reality of Film Life Is Reflected in the Books Listed Below ■r F you arc interested in photoplay JL writing, screen acting, directing or production, the books listed below will be of great interest. Each book is handsomely bound in gold decorated cloth cover and will be delivered anywhere in the United States at prices mentioned ; Canadian and foreign orders extra for shipment and duty. SCREEN ACTING (By Inez and Helen Elumph) Tells what the opportunities are and the training required. This work was developed through the valuable assistance and advice of Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Colleen Moore, Mae Murray, William S. Hart, and other distinguished screen stars, directors and experts. PRICE — $3.00 MOTION PICTURE DIRECTING (By Peter Milne) Of special interest to those in or intending to enter this field. 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Desk 5 49 W. 45th St., New York, N. Y. instance. That could never have been done on the stage. The screen was its only medium. Remember the scene in the shell hole with the German boy? We did not rehearse that — not even once. We did it just as it came, as we felt it, as we would had we been those people instead of ourselves. I remember that during the scene the film ran out. No one spoke. We lay there in the shell hole and waited until more film was put in the camera and we could go on. It was the same with the chewing gum scene. That was one of the longest scenes ever taken and we did not rehearse it. We simply did it as we felt it to be right. Interviewer: (Still unwilling to admit that anybody but herself can be right). But you can't prove a theory by an example. That was one time where it happened to work out right — well two times — but I can't see how it can always work. I remember seeing Bernhardt do rehearsing, weeks of study, performance after performance in order to perfect it. That tragic, pitiful death scene. (At the word "death" Gilbert's face changes. Something infinitely supreme passes across his vision. Perhaps he is contemplating death, but it is not the death that the interviewer — who, as her conversation has shown has a very trite mind — had commonly supposed to be death. There is a naive fearlessness in Gilbert's face, a universal death, neither tragic nor defiant, simply inevitable. The interviewer is impressed although she does not show it, as interviewers consider it highly unethical to be impressed at anything. She realizes, however, that here is a living example of Gilbert's theory. At a chance word he has done a real bit of acting. Spontaneously he has reacted to a word. His face mirrors death. If a camera were there a great scene might have been immortalized. He has done this without a rehearsal, without weeks of study, although the interviewer hates to admit it, being a woman as well as an interviewer. ) Gilbert: One of the greatest scenes I've ever watched was in Chaplin's "The Cold Rush". It was the opening shot. Here was this long line of men struggling up the mountain side. They carried many things on their backs. They were in an agony of struggle. At any moment a foot might turn and they might be plunged into the bottom of a precipice that lay before them. They struggled. They suffered. Immediately after this agonizing shot, along came little Charlie. He carries nothing on his back. He is whistling. He is gay. He twirls his cane. He is a symbol of humanity and its immunity to the knowledge of danger. His foot turns and he almost falls into the precipice below. A bear rounds a corner. He does not see it. In the face of all this danger he maintains a naive fearlessness. I liked that because it is a symbol and it is real. Humanity is pathetically fearless. If we could conceive of all the things that the future might hold for us we would never know a moment's peace. Interviewer: You're growing irrelevant. Gilbert: I'm not!' I'm just telling you about a spontaneous scene, something fresh and real. (The Interviewer suddenly has an idea — even if she is an interviewer. She remembers Gilbert's expression of a moment ago when she mentioned death. She will put his theory in practice. She will become a ([John Gilbert the most famous doughboy of the screen and the Pup Parade.