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

BOOKING GUIDE TO SHORT FILMS For Film Societies Most Film Society secretaries find it a hard job to provide four or five first-class shorts for eveo' one of their programmes during the season. There is a tendency to rely too much on the shorts imported by the London Film Society, not all of which are for various reasons suitable for some provincial audiences as secretaries have sometimes found to their cost ! Secretaries could select from the following list with reasonable confidence. A further list v,i\\ be published next month. Title. Director or Subject. The Bells of Belgium The Mascot The Ringmaster Shipyard This was EnglamI The Face of Britain Citizens of the Future Progress Great Cargoes Industrial Britain Secrets of Life The Fortress of Peace Enough to Eat? Key to Scotland And so to Work Gentlemen in Top Hals Nigh! Mail Weather Forecast 6.30 Collection All Baba Colour-box Rainbow Dance Joie de Vivre Fox Hunt Disney Cartoons Bluebottles L'Hippocampe The Bridge Rain Mor V'ran Night on the Bare Mountain Soap Bubbles Carmen Little Chimney Sweep Papageno The Stolen Heart Harlequin Private Life of the Gannets Wharves and Strays Nursery Island Cover to Cover Chapter and Verse Way to the Sea Death on the Road The Mine Medieval Village For All Eternity Beside the Seaside Heart of the Empire Rooftops of London Statue Parade Contact Coalface B.B.C.— Voice of Britain Lobsters Storck Starevitch Starevitch Rotha Field Rotha Taylor Bower Rotha Flaherty Field Mt. St. Michel Anstey Grierson Massingham Historical Wright & Watt Spice Watt Pal Len Lye Len Lye Gross Gross Disney Montagu Painleve Ivens Ivens Epstein Alexieff Dudow Reiniger Reiniger Reiniger Reiniger Reiniger Huxley Brown Field Shaw Hawes Holmes Rotha Holmes Field M. Grierson M. Grierson M. Grierson Keene & Bumford Keene & Bumford Rotha Cavalcanti Grierson Moholy-Nagy & Counlr>' of Origin. Belgium France France Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain France Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Sweden Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain France Great Britain Great Britain France Great Britain America Great Britain France Holland Holland France France Germany Germany Germany Germany Germany Germany Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain Approximate Length. 1,240 feet 2.000 feet 1.134 feel 2.233 feet 1 ,844 feet 1.730 feet 1.913 feet 1,667 feet 2,000 feet 1.916 feet 850 feet 1 .400 feet 2.018 feet 1 ,300 feet 1 .500 feet 1,000 feet 2,200 feet 1,500 feet 1,500 feet 1,100 feet 500 feet 500 feet 1,100 feet 800 feet 800 feet 2,300 feet 1 ,500 feet 1 ,000 feet 1,000 feet 2,400 feet 900 feet 3,153 feet 1,000 feet 1,416 feet 1,000 feet 1.100 feet 2,500 feet 1 .500 feet 1 .500 feet 1.800 feet 1.750 feet 2,500 feet 1,500 feet 800 feet 1,500 feet 1,500 feet 1,800 feet 2,000 feet 750 feet 1.250 feet 1,250 feet 3.000 feet 1. 100 feet 5.000 feet 1,250 feet Renter. Butchers Butchers Butchers Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Kinograph Kinograph Kinograph Kinograph A.B.F.D. A.B.F.D. A.B.F.D. A.B.F.D. G.P.O. Film Unit G.P.O. Film Unit Film Society United Artists United Artists Film Society New Realm Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society Film Society United Artists United Artists Gaumont-British A.B.F.D. N.B.C. A.B.F.D. Gaumont-British Gaumont-British Gaumont-British M.G.M. Kinograph M.G.M. M.G.M. M.G.M. Wardour A.B.F.D. A.B.F.D. A.B.F.D. Mathias ADDRESSES OF RENTERS REFERRED TO ABOV'E. Butchers Film Service Ltd., 175 Wardour Street, W.l : Gaumont-British Distributors, Ltd., Film House, Wardour Street, W.l ; A.B.F.D., A.T.P. House, Oxford Street, W.l : Kinograph Distributors Ltd., 191 Wardour Street, W.l ; G.P.O. Film Unit, 21 Soho Square, W.l ; Film Society Ltd.. 56 Manchester Street, W.l ; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Ltd., 19 Great Tower Street, W.C.2; New Realm Pictures Ltd., 167 Wardour Street, W.l ; National Book Council, 3 Henrietta Street, W.C.2 ; United .Artists Corpo ration Ltd. .Film House, Wardour Street, W.l ; Wardour Films Ltd., Film House, Wardour Streci.W .1 44 Broadcast of Christophe Colomb (Claudel and Milhaiid) The quest of Christophe Colomb is for wholeness and the conquest of the Invisible. So says Paul Claudel of his work. And indeed he has made us feel this "wholeness" and this "Invisible" — by the most powerful imagery, by a spirit at once intimate and revelatory. The musician has come into line with these terrific concepts. The two must never again be parted. I believe that is the highest praise which could be given to Milhaud. Christophe Colomb will not surprise those who have found the fine worth of this musician amid the confusion of post-War music. It will not surprise those who realised how far he was from that "art for art's sake" which so long seemed the only sure gain of modern times. They will find there the same inimitable melodic curves, giving a fresh twist to some popular song. They will find the same freedom of language, at one moment naive in its simplicity, at the next enriched by a whole complex of harmony and rhythm. These things have characterised the art of Milhaud from the beginning. They are on familiar ground. But for those who have not yet discovered Milhaud, the mere size of this work — its ambition, its touch of pathos, bring to light a musical personality of the first order. How many modern works have brought home so strongly or to so many sympathetic hearers, a "different" music? This is a music of our own time. It does not rest, even secretly, on well-tried traditions, or on canons of art now held false. "Christophe Colomb" brings us this "different" music. It has a frank, disturbing newness, especially in the opening scenes, and in the second part in scenes like "La conscience de Christophe Colomb " and "le Paradise de LTdee." It is there, I think, that we must look for the core of the work. It is there that we see its newness which is rather human than musical. The composer, like his hero, is up against himself. He is up against music — against "his" music. The more directly dramatic scenes, "Le Recrutement des caravelles." "ChristopheColomb et les marins," are more superficial, but no less striking. Their use of the spoken chorus opens up a new field of sound. True, here and there the argument wavers through a loss of sense of proportion. True, the composer sells cheap some of the raw materials of his art (1 am thinking of his cruel treatment of the human voice). True, there is occasionally a carelessness in the handling of harmony and orchestration, which tends to become aimless. But need vse stress these things? In this work we are already far ahead of the merely formal ideal, which seemed till recently the only aim for art. It is on just that inhuman perfection that Milhaud is turning his back. The man speaks in his work, and will not be stifled by the musician. If we are ever to find this "new humanism" which is hailed on all sides, the honour is to Milhaud for showing us the way. MAURICE JAUBERT