Theory of the film : (character and growth of a new art) (1952)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN SOUND A TRAGIC PROPHECY Being a prophet is a hard fate. At times a prophet can go on living and working only if he does not believe in his own prophecies. When the technique of the sound film struck the first blow at the art of the silent film, I said that it would destroy the already highly developed culture of the silent film. I added that this would be only temporary, until expression by means of sound would have developed to a higher level. I said that what had happened was a catastrophe, the like of which had never occurred before in the history of any other art. But I also said that a return to the silent film was impossible, for the evolution of technique is the evolution of the productive forces of mankind and the dangers it brings in its train cannot be averted by hampering its development. That would be senseless machine-wrecking. We cannot protect people from impending suffering by killing them. When nearly two decades ago the first attempts at a sound film were shown, I wrote in my book Der Geist des Films that sound was not yet a gain for the film, but merely a task which would be an immense gain once it was fulfilled. This would be when film sound would be as docile and adaptable a medium as the film picture already was; when the sound strip will have turned from a technique of reproduction to a creative art, as the picture strip had already done. Now, two decades later, I must repeat word for word the relevant chapter from Der Geist des Films. What I then foretold as a threat, is now already accomplished fact. On the other hand what we hoped and expected from the sound film has not been fulfilled. The art of the silent film is dead, but its place was taken by the mere technique of the sound film 194