Universal Filmlexikon (1932)

individual countries were placed at an ex■cessively high figure in the preliminary cal•culation. Although these preliminary calculations were in the majority of cases made in good faith, they were based on the insufficient experience of an industry that was still in its infancy, and led to a very considerable loss of ■capital. In Order to develop film production to an industry on an equal footing with other in•dustries in the German economic system, it was necessary, as a first step, to form an accurate idea of the extent of the potential markets. Even during the last years of the silent film it was possible to estimate the probable proceeds of a film with a fair amonnt of certainty, though they depended to a very considerable degree on the available supply of films, particularly of American origin, the extent of which could not always be accurately ascertained. The Americans who were as a rule in a Position to recover the production costs of their films in their home market were able to compete with the German film both in its country of origin and abroad. America itself may be said, in spite of the few films that have been shown on the other side of the Atlantic, to have been closed to the German film through the action of the producers who also controlled the cinemas. Thus the German film could only prevail both at home and abroad by surpassing the American product as regards quality. And the German film did, in the days of the silent screen, establish itself both in and outside Germany. Since the introduction of the talking film, the German film has benefited, firstly by the possibility of making a more accurate forecast as to the proceeds of a particular production in the countries for which it is suitable, and, secondly through gaining a wider market. The niain danger of the American film had consisted in the character of its "language". The film was then silent, and its language was the gesture, which could very easily be interpreted, where necessary, by a few words in any idiom in the World. This colossal power of the mute language was at one blow destroyed by the talking film. Grown up in an age of revolutions, the film itself has experienced many revolutions, but none of them has been so much like the building of the tower of Babel and its consequences than the moment of transition to the talking film, when, at one sudden stroke. the tumult of foreign tongues broke loose, clamouring to be heard. The value of gesture feil in favour of the spoken word. At the beginning no one was able to say where it was all leading to. But the new movement organized itself and cleared a path for itself with amazing rapidity. It was soon found that France and Germany, the two old countries with their centuries of tradition in the art of speech on the stage, were in spite of all their political differences linked together by strong cultural bonds, while on the other band the two Anglo-Saxon countries were in that direction in close contact with each other. As a result of this relationship as regards the art of speech on the stage, Germany succeeded in having films with German plots re-produced with French actors in such a way that France became an interested buyer of such productions. To-day we know with certainty in what countries films recorded in German are saleable and know exactly what countries may be relied upon to purchase the French or other foreign versions of our films. In addition, we also know that the field for the expansion of the American film is limited and that even the competition of the German versions of films made in America can never become, owing to their mentality and presentation. dangerous to the German film in those countries which. even if their language is different. are in close cultural relationship with Germany. With an accurate knowledge of the economic possibilities of a particular film and the realization that the jiroduction costs of a film must be in proportion to the anticipated financial results, and in view of the fact that there is a demand for German films far beyond Germanv s boundaries. the way is now clear for the development of German film production into a great industry that will occupy a worthy place among the other important industries. 20