The soul of the moving picture (1924)

70 The Soul of the Moving Picture Character and temperament — two things that cannot be learned. One can learn, however, the business of playing while facing the camera; one can learn, in this position, to control one's gestures, and to give a cautious expression of the feelings. On the legitimate stage it is quite permissible, it is indeed necessary, for the actor to express his emotions through a certain exaggeration, with the most beautiful pathos known to gesticulation. The opposite is true of the film: in it, suppression of emotions, muffling of feelings, is necessary. Why? Because in actual life feelings are after all expressed in a subdued way, behind the veil, so to speak, of that on which the interested party is to eavesdrop. Every time we notice any such emotion as ecstasy on the screen we remain cold; we become in truth disenchanted because of what we have sensed. Experience has already taught us that exaggeration has no place in the moving picture; it is ineffective. This lesson we have learned from the Italians. All good film actors are noted for a certain measure of immovability; they are cautious with and sparing of their gestures. In the good film manuscript, the feelings are not poured in a lavish way over every single scene. Over the majority of scenes there should rest a