World Film News and Television Progress (Apr 1936-Mar 1937)

Nazi Films — cont. a picture, and it is not surprising in view of this evasion of contemporary reality that the German finds himself more in sympathy with, and able to understand the characters of an alien film // Happened One Night, than those of Auguste der Starke, Liselotte v. dem Pfalz, or any of the others. If Dr. Goebbels' famous "points" for film producers were observed properly, and acted upon constructively, nothing but an improvement could come of them, while as a basic policy for an intelligent and artistic unit they might well be the beginning of a German film revival which would be as typical and revolutionary in its own way as the Russian film has been to the Soviet. The Staatstheaters have shown that National Socialism is not necessarily anti-artistic, and that creative, intelligent and often very beautiful work is just as possible under a Nazi government as any other. The technicians are there, the artists are there. A constructive programme and organisation to carry on the policy is all that is needed. In the meantime we must be thankful for the few films whose merits have produced satisfying and coherent result out of the prevailing welter of "no place, no time, no story" scenarios. Savoy Hotel 217 is an example of a film that has managed to emerge from these difficulties. Wagner, whose camerawork may be remembered in Dreigroschenoper,Kameradschaft, M, etc.. is one of the few stalwarts remaining from the old U.F.A. tradition, and he has distinguished this and many of the less exciting recent films by his artistry. Fahnnami Maria, a film directed by Frank Wysbar, was the only advanced film I saw in Germany. Although by no means a masterpiece, for it was often handicapped by very ordinary photography, it did try to tell its simple story by means of film, and its use of music, sound and pictorial effects was definitely imaginative. If Germany had been responsible for more films of this kind one would have a good deal more faith in the future of the progressive German cinema. Miiseimi of Modern Art Combs Europe for Films Miss Iris Barry and John E. Abbott have recently gone back to New York after a film-hunting expedition in Europe for the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art. Their object was to find films that could be used in compiling their next two years' programmes on the history of the cinema. Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Leningrad, Stockholm and London were their chief centres of exploration. Among the principal finds were several early German and Swedish films including films of Victor Seastrom and Mauritz Stiller. Among these were Gosta Berling, Phantom Chariot and a fourteen-reel version of Charles XU. An extremely interesting film they secured was a film document of the 18th century Drottningholm theatre in Stockholm. In Berlin they acquired 22 feature films including Caligari, The Love of Jeanne, Ney, The Last Laugh, Variety and some pre-war Italian films. Early Soviet films were selected for classification along with examples of the little-known pre-revolutionary Russian work. Among these were Dorian Grey, Anna Karenina and The Cloak, a film made by the directors of 77?^ Youth of Maxim and also Pudovkin's Chess Fever. From France they obtained The Beggar's Opera, Kameradschaft, M., Therese Raquin and The White Hell of Pitz Paul, as well as a very nearly complete record of the entire avant-garde movement in the French cinema : from Warsaw, Pola Negri's first film. Film excursions in London yielded unfortunately only a few of the interesting early pictures. Joyless Street, the early Garbo film, Mons and Murder were among these. The Abbotts made their chief selection of British films from the documentaries. Back in New York a 3 to 4 minute rolling title "Savoy Hotel" will be prepared for each film. This will give the grouping and the period of the film and will indicate what the student should look for. When the programmes are sent out, musical scores, either the original or a substitute, where that is unobtainable, will accompany them. One of the future labours of the Museum will be to compile a dictionary of film in movie form. This will be technical as well as historical, and if properly drawn from the rich material already available in the Film Library, should be of incalculable value. The Youth of Maxim The Youth of Maxim, a Lenfilm production, directed by Kozintzeflf and Trauberg, must rank as one of the best achievements of the Soviet Cinema during recent years. The setting is pre-1917 and the story concerns a young factory worker Maxim, who becomes associated with the underground revolutionary movement. His development from class to positive political consciousness is traced against an authentic and realistic background of the time. The film moves swiftly and introduces a strong element of action and excitement in its atmosphere of illegal activities, strikes, and battles of wits with the police, through aU of which Maxim gradually develops into the professional revolutionary. Many of the sequences, especially the burial of a worker killed in a factory accident, are poignant and moving in the extreme. Sound and photography are excellent and suggest a complete indentity of interest between the directors and the technicians concerned. World Returning to Individualism? ANDRE viGNEAU, the well-known French writer, believes that the world is returning to individualism. In a recent article he says : "The railways made us believe in the collective transport of hundreds of individuals. WTiere are we to-day? In the two-seater, in a 'tourist' car, in the private or commercial aeroplane, on the autorail or in the autocar. "The big orchestras are now heard at home, on the gramophone or on the radio. We group ourselves in the living-room around the wireless-set as we did formerly around the fire, eyes fixed on the flames, listening to the tales of the previous day. "The world to-day belongs to everyone separately . . ." Vigneau thinks that the cinema, which still appears as a type of "collective rejoicing," is revolving towards individualism at every forward step of television: "That is its most evident progress, and, in my opinion, its true route. "Everyone will take his cinema pleasure in his own home and know, moment by moment, the important events of the whole world ; the vedette will dance specially for eacii spectator, not only in the four corners of the world, but sitting alone and isolated from the rest of humanity. "Work will, however, still be a collective refuge, for it will always be necessary for hundreds of engineers and workmen to make a car and technicians and artists to make a film." 17