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18 IN PRAISE OF THEORY
WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT TAUGHT TO APPRECIATE FILMS?
Nowadays social considerations are taken into account in the cultural sphere no less than in others. Nevertheless, the aesthetics of the film are nowhere included in the official teaching of art appreciation. Our academies have sections for literature and every established art, but none for the new art of our day — the film. It was not until 1947 that the first film-maker was elected to the French Academie. At our universities there are chairs for literature and all arts except that of the film. The first Art Academy which included the theory of film art in its curriculum was opened in Prague in 1947. The text-books used in our secondary schools discuss the other arts but say nothing of the film. Millions hear about the aesthetics of literature and painting who will never make use of such knowledge because they read no books and look at no pictures. But the millions who frequent the movies are left without guidance — no one teaches them to appreciate film art.
NEED FOR GENERAL CULTURE
There are numerous film schools in the world and no one denies that there may be need of a theory of the film — for specialists. In Paris, in London, and elsewhere, film institutes and scientific film societies have been formed to study the 'science' of the film. But what is needed is not specialized knowledge: it is a general level of culture. No one who had not the faintest conception of literature or music would be considered well educated. A man who had never heard of Beethoven or Michelangelo would be out of place among people of culture. But if he has not the faintest idea of the rudiments of film art and had never heard of Asta Nielsen or David Wark Griffith, he might still pass for a well-educated, cultured person, even on the highest level. The most important art of our time is that about which one need know nothing whatever. And yet it is an urgent need that we should cultivate enough discrimination to influence the art which shapes the popular taste in the highest degree. Until there is a chapter on film art