World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

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BOOK REVIEWS FOOTNOTES TO THE FILM, edited by Charles Davy. With 32 illustrations. (Lovat Dickson, 18s.) ""How much I like films I like — but I could like films better. I like being distracted, flattered, tickled, even rather upset — but I should not mind something more ; I should like something serious. I should like to be changed by more films, as art can change one: I should like something to happen when I go to the cinema." So ends Elizabeth Bowen's no-brow expression of why she goes to the cinema, what she likes and what she would like to have the opportunity of liking. And what she would like to like, the film makers who contribute to this book would, with one accord, like to be allowed to give her. They too would like something to happen to the cinema. Hitchcock would like to be allowed, just for once, to finish a film the way he conceived it, make a film that was too terrifying for some audiences, meet to-morrow half a dozen people who could write good stories for British films. Donat, Graham Greene and Basil Dean, too, diagnose this lack as one of the prime causes of our present discontents. Additional to the individual interest of the several contributions to this book is the agreement— sometimes expressed in almost identical phrases — between the authors, although so far as one can judge, they were not attempting to write to a common theme. Between Hitchcock, Wright and Betjeman on the use of the camera and its relation to the settings and the actors. Between them and Donat and Basil Dean on the relation of cinema to the stage. Between these five and Jaubert and Paul Nash, writing on the proper use of music and colour. Between all of these and Grierson, producer and director, Graham Greene, story writer and critic, and Bernstein, exhibitor, on the proper subject matter of the cinemaand the insane neglect by the modern cinema as a whole, and most of all in the British film studios, of "fresh air and real people." That something could happen in the cinema these writers would almost persuade us. That such "somethings" have happened they remind us. Chaplin. Griffith, Clair and Disney have been; we have seen Nanook, Caligari, Mr. Deeds, Pasteur, Night Mail and The March of Time. These and others, from Lumiere who was in the beginning to The Good Earth, have shown how the cinema might become, as Charles Davy puts it, "an art realistic, poetic and popular — realistic in its subject-matter, poetic in its final utterance and popular in its range of appeal." But Lord Tyrrell says "No controversy" and Big Business says, "lt*s not Box-OfTice." What is to break the power of the "artifices, inhibitions, inferiorities, snobberies, censorships, alien controls and misguided party-political interventions" which cramp the development of the British cinema today? It might be Korda if his visions and good intentions were tempered with that practical sense which Maurice Kami says Hollywood has and Shepherd's Bush lacked. It might be the film critics if they were as free from inhibitions, cant and corruption as Alistair Cooke would have them. It might be the public itself if censorship could be circumvented, if only as Cavalcanti suggests in comedies, if Film Societies had the 48 freedom Forsyth Hardy claims for them; if every exhibitor tried as hard as Bernstein to understand and serve his patrons. One hope above all others there should be — in the schools and educational institutions throughout Great Britain. There by the use of educational films and by placing film appreciation on a level with dramatic, literary and musical appreciation, could be trained the desire for realism, truth, and beauty which would make worth while films commercially worth while. But when you read R. S. Lambert's account of the present neglect of this opportunity you may still wonder if you will live to see the day when something happens when you go to the cinema. This book should and ought to be widely read and enjoyed. It is a pity that its price should suggest that its contents are for the few. William Farr ELEPHANT DANCE, by Frances Flaherty. (Faber and Faber, 12s. 6d. net). The letterpress of this book consists chiefly of a series of epistles from Mrs. Flaherty to her children during the production of Elephant Boy in India. The intimacy of the style will please some and embarrass others, but the information given is frequently of extreme interest, and never more so than when descriptions are given of such things as the filming of the keddah, or the madness of Kala Nag. Most people, however, will value the book for its seventy superb illustrations from the camera of Mrs. Flaherty or her daughter. These have the genuine quality of India, and most of them are masterly examples of camera technique. The book is well got up and the reproduction values excellent. CM. AMATEUR MOVIES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM, by Alex Strasser (The Studio, 7s. 6d.). In a series of How To Do It books published by The Studio, there has been issued recently a book telling amateurs how to make films. In this delightfully illustrated book, Mr. Strasser touches on all the problems facing amateurs when they begin to use a camera. Along technical lines nothing is missed. Detailed explanations of how and what to do are given on all subjects from lenses and filters, to gauzes and colour photography. Fine pictures illustrate the points made by Mr. Strasser, the difference between a two-inch and three-inch lens, for instance, and the various circles of interest within any given subject. Any amateur who really studies this book should surely avoid wastage of film and time, and many disappointments. E.S. THE COMPLETE PROJECTIONIST (Odham's Technical Press, 5s. 4d. post free). In this second and revised edition of The Complete Projectionist, by R. H. Cricks, F.R.P.S., the amateur cinematographer has a wealth of valuable information. Some twenty-two chapters deal with every phase of the reproduction side of cinematography from simple optical principals to television. Colour films, stereoscopic kinematography, amplifiers, projectors and projection, are a few of the subjects so well and clearly explained in simple language for the uninitiated. H.C. JUST PUBLISHED AN IMPORTANT SURVEY OF THE CINEMA AS ART & INDUSTRY Footnotes to The Film Edited by CHARLES DAVY Film Critic of "The London Mercury" and "The Yorkshire Post" Fully illustrated Demy 8vo 185 net The cinema never stands still, but it has now behind it some forty years of achievement and ten years have passed since its methods were revolutionised by the coming of sound. The moment is ripe to attempt a survey of its record up-to-date — its successes, failures, difficulties and ambitions. This book covers more varied ground, and represents a wider range of personal view-points, than any previous book of its kind. It is unusually well illustrated with 32 collotype plates and a number of halftones — a companion volume to the very successful Footnotes to The Ballet (now in its third edition). CONTENTS PART I STUDIO WORK: HOW A FILM IS MADE Direction Alfred hitchcock Film Acting Robert donat Handling the Camera basil wright part 11 SCREEN MATERIAL: HELP FROM OTHER ARTS Subjects and Stories graham greene Comedies and Cartoons alberto cavalcanti Settings, Costumes, Backgrounds john betjeman Music on the Screen maurice jaubert The Colour Film paul nash part III FILM INDUSTRY PROBLEMS The Course of Realism john grierson British Films: To-day and To-morrow ALEXANDER KORDA The Future of Screen and Stage basil dean Hollywood and Britain: Three Thousand Miles Apart maurice kann part IV FILMS AND THE PUBLIC Why I Go to the Cinema Elizabeth bowen Walk Up, Walk Up, Please! Sidney l. bernstein The Critic in Film History alistair cooke Censorship and Film Societies forsyth hardy The Film in Education r. s. lambert Conclusion: Are Films Worth While? CHARLES DAVY Illustrated Prospectus post free from the Publishers LOVAT DICKSON LTD. 38 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.i