Variety (March 1959)

'VAjnrhra londbit attics • ST. Martin'S Pfae*, Trafalgar Squar* INTERNATIONAL Mexico Blueprints ‘City of Arts ^ To Draw Latin Talent Together Rosse Ss J S^ ek •SreTmtoT? WitbMany Members in TV, Fihn Biz Rossellini Joins Trek UlUOU Cool to Network Wage Offer Mexico City, March 17. 4 A “City of the Arts,” destined to be the Acropolis of the Amer¬ icas, is idea now being studied by the National Institute of Fine Arts. Site of project to be in this city. Celestino Gorostiza, new head of the Institute, said that, as envis¬ aged, the city will operate without undue fanfare or ballyhoo, and with no other purpose than “to elevate culture and art and to give bests opportunities for all creative talent that deserves aid.” The scope of the City of Arts is to be all embracing, from writing and painting to the theatre, films, radio and television, etc. And this is to be no flighty program for a selected coterie, of untalented as- pirerS to the arts, Gorostiza said. Aim is to create a serious project which will give opportunity to true talent, heretofore unheard. The “hangers-on” and dilettantes will be weeded out. There will be no room for drones in the Mexican Acropolis, Gorostiza said. . The Institute head is being aided by a group of collaborators allied with the arts, with initial studies now formulating the framework for the ambitious plan. Project will not be “born abruptly” but after considerable prelimi¬ naries. There is, too, the matter of obtaining* “adequate .financing” as well as gathering together of human elements necessary for such a center of culture. For the moment the Institute Intends to expand its cultural ex¬ change with South American na¬ tions. As an aid in conquering the large distances between nations, the Institute plans to acquire a plan to send troupes of actors, dancers, musicians, painters,;writ¬ ers, etc., to points south and to the United States. Yugo Director, Actor Slug Critic for Raps Belgrade, March 10. Vladimir Petrie, drama critic for a Yugoslavia monthly and film critic for bi-monthly “Film,” twice suf¬ fered physical scuffings from out¬ raged theatrical artists recently. Actor Stojan Detchezipic doused fully clothed Petrie in waters of Adriatic while later was vacation¬ ing in Dubrovnik. Petrie com¬ mented in his review of the actor’s performance in “Romeo and Juliet” that his acting prowess was con¬ fined to the art of fencing. The other incident was a fistic assault on a Belgrade main street by film director Zika Chukulic, who objected to Petrie’s diatribe of his film documentary on Yugo¬ slavian sculpture. Charges were* brought in court with actor and director penalized for payment of all court fees. The friendly status has resumed among the parties concerned, who now are seen shar¬ ing. Turkish coffee in Belgrade’s Bezistan. RUHR FESTIVAL EVENTS Include New Swiss Legit Work By Duerrenmatt Recklinghausen, March 10. Ruhr Festival Plays, held an¬ nually, will this year celebrate the Schiller birthday centennial here. The newest work by the Swiss dramatist Friedrich Duerrenmatt, “Frank V,” will also be given its German premiere during the event. 1 The Duesseldorf Playhouse will present Schiller's “William Tell” with staging by Karl-Heinz Stroux, the Berlin Schlosspark Theatre will perform Schiller’s “The Robbers.” Event, which runs for about five weeks, opens May 23. ‘Gigi’ Scores in Paris Paris, March 10. “Gigi” (MG) finally opened here • recently at Marigny Theatre after being held up for two months be¬ cause of the amazing long run of the French hit, “The Cheats.” Pie got raves and may be the- musical to break the usually low biz cycle . here for Yank musical pix. Maurice Chevalier, a* star in the pic, took over Maxim’s after the film preem for a $50 a plate benefit for the r old vaude artists' home which- he backs. He sang after the supper and collected a nice amount. San Sebastian July 11 Ban Sebastian, July 11." San Sebastian’s seventh in¬ ternational film festival will be held here July 11-20, with participating countries com¬ peting for the top prize of “Concha de Oro” in both full- length film and short divi¬ sions. Participants may enter one in each category. Films may also be entered in the information section and trade section, latter point¬ ing up technical aspects of the industry. Big Turnover Of Legit in Paris Paris, March 17. Though entering its last quar¬ ter, the legit season turnover is still big here. Seven new plays and revivals are due in this month to replace either flops or long- runs which have run their course. Harry Kurnitz’s “Reclining Fig¬ ure,” adapted by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon, replaces the unsuccess¬ ful "La Folie” at the Madeleine. Tennessee Williams’ “Orpheus De¬ scending,” adapted and mounted by Raymond Rouleau, supersedes the flop, “House of Gomez Sis¬ ters,” at the Athenee. Rene Aubert’s “La Cathedrale” replaces the longrun “Behind the Cards” at the Theatre Herbertat. A reprise of Marcel Ayme’s “Heads of Others” will take the place of the folded Maiakovsky’s “The Bed¬ bug” at the Theatre Atelier. Hit operetta “Naples” gets supplanted, after a longrun, by “Sissi,” on the life of the Austrian Empress'. ! Unlike the U.S„ some important top film directors here are begin¬ ning to turn to tele work in France. The first to do so are the widely known French and Italo directors Jean Renoir and Roberto [Rossellini, respectively. Both ex¬ plained their reasons recently for doing video work, Renoir is making a feature tv film which is a modernized ver¬ sion of “Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” called “Le Testament De Docteur Cordelier,” with Jean- Louis Barrault. Rossellini is ready¬ ing 10 short pix he made in India last year with tele in mind. Re¬ noir feels that tv has now received sufficient public following and in¬ terest (there are over 1,000,000 declared, sets in France) to accept films presented in a different way. By this he means pix with more immediacy and no longer entirely | dependent on the will of the di- j rector and the cameraman. He maintains that now the camera could produce effects by chance- j like great newsreel shots-by re-. cording what happens and letting the actions and movements of the actors govern the movement of the camera instead of vice-versa. Incidentally, Renoir is bringing in his video feature for $120,000 in 11 days using tv studios and equipment. His talk of showing it theatrically, after its tv one-shot, has the industry up in arms over it. They feel that tele is beginning to become a threat and films have enough troubles without this sort of competition. Renoir also said he was interested in tv because of | the fact that the importance of technique had vanished in. films. Rossellini said that there were hardly any creative artists left in filmmaking. Also that it was pri¬ marily a cooperative effort of a variety of artists pooling, their tal¬ ents; .... ‘Actor’ for Bayreuth Bayreuth, March 17. For the first time in the his- , tory of the famed Wagner Festival here, an actor has been hired to play in one of the operas. He’s Rudolph Schock, who takes over the role of the knight Stolzing in “The Mas ter singer from Neurnberg,” when the Fest begins in July. Weiland Wagner, grandson of Richard Wagner and with his brother the innovator of the modernized, festival, hired the actor. German Govt Ups Film Aid $590,000 Bonn, March 10. ThO German government, through various federal offices, has just de¬ cided to spend close to $500,000 for supporting German film and docu¬ mentary ventures this year. Total tab is about $460,000, an increase over last year’s $375,000. Ministry of Interior is granting about $125,000 to 40 top German docu¬ mentaries. Among those to re¬ ceive special grants of $7,500 each are “Paradise and Fiery Oven,” “Plastic 1958,” and “Aluminum— Portrait of a Metal.” About $185,000 is being given for the various German film prizes, and $75,000 is being granted to aid the International Film Festival in Berlin this year.’ The German Film Export Union gets a budget increase of $150,000 this year. HAVE P&METY- CAN TRAVEL Wonderful thing about the journal of amusements, VARIETY, pub¬ lished weekly at 154 West 46th Street, New York 36, is that this paper circulates anywhere that showmen are showing their wares. VARIETY discovered International Show Business well before World War I, opened an office in London as early as 1908* Next months VARIETY will explore, exploit and engineer the nation- to-nation situations. The 2d Annual International Film Section, now in preparation*, will be an ideal showcase for advertisers who wish "to travel." Producers, Studios, Distributors, Laboratories, Services, Stars, Directors, Writers, Technicians—whoever and whatever—have the assur¬ ance of an alert, knowing, noticing, planning audience. Space reservations can be made at any office listed below for the: INTERNATIONAL FILM NUMBER LONDON. W. C. 2 8 St; Martin 1 * Place Tr afa l ga r Square NEW YORK 36 154 W. 46th St. PARIS 28 rue de la Huchette Paris 5 HOLLYWOOD 28 6404 Sunset Blvd. ROME Stampa Estera (Foreign Press Club), Via Mercede 55 CHICAGO 11 612 N. Michigan Ave. 4- London, March 17. Because the nearly 2,000 mem¬ bers are now working in televi¬ sion and many are consequently scattered a long ways from Lon¬ don, the British film industry’s ma¬ jor labor union, the Assn, of Cine¬ matograph, Television and Allied Technicians, is holding a rules re¬ vision conference March 22 to make chdftges that will enable rep¬ resentatives to be present and vote as delegates at all future annual powwiws. An added reason for this nfooted step is the operation in Eirt^ of an ACTT branch, set up during the past year<as the result of the Ardmore Studios opening. This again represents a geographi- . cal difficulty to some members who might want to be present at the yearly get-togethers. The position of members in com¬ mercial tv enterprises was re¬ ferred to by ACTT president An- I thony Asquith at the union’s an- [ nual general meeting March 7-8. Asquith reported that the em¬ ployers’ initial offer in response to an approach for salary raises had . been a 1.86% increase, and the . webs had held that the fact they' - , had earned between them $42,000,- 000 a year should have no effect at all on the size of the increase [ to be negotiated. Said the ACTT > prexy: “We did not and never will r have the slightest intention of ac¬ cepting such an argument.'’ Tele Figures in Setup Television came into the annual ■ general meeting proceedings on a [ couple of other occasions. Asquith reasserted ACTT’s view that the ■ third channel, when eventually in¬ troduced, should be operated : neither by BBC nor the Indepen- , dent Television. Authority. < Sir Tom O’Brien, general secre- L tary of the National Assn, of Thea- ; trical and Kinematograph Em- ; ployees and chairman of the newly-formed Federation of Film Unions (guest speaker), declared that some of the money made by commercial tele should go to help : other sections of the entertainment industry hit by tv. He described the web’s profits as a “menace to the economy of Britain.” Resolution urging the govern¬ ment to develop a large and healthy British film industry were among those passed at the meeting, which marked the completion by Asquith of 21 years’ presidency. A new gen-* eral council room has been named ■ in his honor and the union has commissioned a portrait. This year alsa marks the 25th as general secretary of George Elvin, who moved an emergency resolu¬ tion deploring past government policies towards, the film industry. He also hit at recent Rank Organi¬ zation moves such as using Pine- wood studios for vidpix production and turning certain cinemas into : bowling alleys. World Film Festival Seeking New Site Mexico City, March 10. Organizers of the Review of World Film Festivals are looking for a new site this year. Acapulco is highly favored because a tour¬ ist center, possibility of a lot of cheesecake shots at local beaches of stars and starlets, and the fact that there is no price freeze at the boxoffice in the state of Guerrero. Last year’s event, held here was considered a financial failure. Pub¬ lic also did not respond too warm¬ ly to the idea because there were last-minute uncertainties about what the admission price would be until evening of inauguration of event. Then the 4 pesos (32c) max¬ imum was fixed because Mayor Ernesto P. Uruchurtu would not budge in granting a higher admis¬ sion. Author Defewls His /Room’ London, March 10. John Braine, author of “Room at the Top,” contributed last week to a correspondence in the Obser¬ ver which has followed the pubii- , cation of Caroline Lejeune’s un- i favorable review of the film. “I, too,” wrote Braine, admire the film. With the exception of ‘Odd Man Out,’ I cannot remember any other British film which has so faithfully ^interpreted a novel.” The overwhelming majority of the London crix gave it rave notices.