The Film Renter and Moving Picture News (Jan-Feb 1923)

January 1, 1923. THE FILM RENTER & MOVING PICTURE NEWS. iii. A SEND-OFF FOR. 1923. “Twenty Club's” Value to the Film Trade. (By SIR CHARLES HIGHAM.) of the film trade, and who believes that in many respects it is. still] in its infancy, I see, during the past year, a tendency for closer co-operation of the various interests concerned, which is undoubtedly a hopeful sign for the future. S one who has always taken an intense interest in the development The most vital thing for the film industry to do is to stand together as a whole: I fully realise how difficult: this is, but until the producing companies, particularly the British producing companies, the renters, and the showmen, have a common purpose to help each other, they will be hurting each other. : The inauguration of the ‘‘ Twenty Club,”’ of which the chairman of THE Fium Renter is the president, has been a distinctive feature of the film world during 1922, and I hope will fulfil an even more useful purpose during. 1928. If it has done nothing else it has brought men outside the film industry in contact with those within its circle, and has given prominent men in finance, politics, and business a better understanding of the film industry. _ I am an admirer of your paper because of its courageous point of view. and its frankness in expressing itself. The film industry needs the best trade Press it can get, and you certainly help to give it that. I have been asked to give my. help to an All-British Film Week, and I am ready to do so, providing all of the interests concerned will get together and come to a common understanding, so that the week shall be an unqualified success, but there is much to be done. It can only be done by the goodwill and the co-operation of everyone concerned. I hope that 1923 will be a more prosperous year than 1922, and that any misunderstandings of the past year will pass away during the next twelvemonth. (Continued from previous: page.) solely to releases, if there were not a strong reason against it. That reason is simply that until now the films actually released have not represented the last word in the making of films. From my own point of view I am more interested in dealing with the general esthetics of the art of film-making than with isolated pictures. I have been trying for three years to interest my many readers in moving pictures as an art. I could not have done that from criticising releases only. They have not represented fully what has been done. I will mention only one instance. Some time ago I saw at a trade show a poignant and most artistic film, ‘* The Wonderful Story,’’ produced by Graham Cutts. Now, unless I had seen that film I could not have had a clear idea of what can be accomplished on the screen by a simple story of human nature when acted me extraordinary vividness. Readers’ Interest in Film Criticism. When films Are. released almost as soon as they are made there. will, be ‘no reason for the lay Press to attend trade shows,. except for convenience in their work. That convenience will have to be studied by renters and Sir Cartes HIGHAM. . | an ‘exhibitors. They must. give us special Press shovgs, for no paper can keep a sufficient staff-to cover actual exhibitions in the kinema theatres. As to the interest of our readers in trade, shows I would point out that as a film is shown to a full house at the London Pavilion, for: instance, and is afterwards trade shown in all our large provincial towns the trade show is, to that extent, a news story. . It is absurd to suppose that dramatic and musical criticism only interests those who have seen the play or heard the music criticisms. The correspondence I receive at ‘‘ The Daily News ”’ has -proved to me and my éditor that a very large public is interested in criticisms of films that are not publicly exhibited. I do not think any big principles are involved. At present it is convenient to write about films before they are released, because the art of moving pictures is changing day by day and a critic can keep his finger on the pulse of achievement. If he wrote only from releases he would be, on the average, a year behind the times. Gradually the months that elapse between the making of a film and itg release will become fewer, and the necessity of trade shows to the lay critic will disappear. ' At present he could not adequately criticise the art with out attending them.