PARIS IN PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 104, 1 May 1920, Page 17

PARIS IN PEACE.

A SORDID CROP. I , (Special to "Star.") i _ t PARTS, February S. 1 DANCING BETWEEN* TWO STORMS. J A phenomenon, which might be < described ac an after-war shock, is \ undoubtedly at the present moment common in London, and perhaps worse in Berlin. It can be translated in prosaic J language as a general craving for ] pleasure at any cost and of any quality. , The coarser the better. The very threat , of darker days to come soon and their < great shadows preceding them are only q a further incentive to this hysterical j revelry. Nor are there omens wanting ] in France. Coal is rapidly failing, and , thereby all motor power. Once more the pneumatic clocks of the capital have ( stopped, with their hands pointing this time, not 'o eight o'clock as in the last ' case, but to the fateful hour of twelve — mid-day for illusions, and midnight for realities. Th e lighting , up of the streets has been reduced by two-thirds; consequently the police forces are outdone by the ruffians, and the thoroughfares are no longer safe after sunset; finally, the vital pulse of the nation —its credit — 1 as never beaten co feebly, even in thfe dir; days of the war. A French franc as compared to the Swiss franc isj' worfh exactly fourpence halfpenny. But I 1 the frolicky public has found a solution:' to all these disasters. Dancing is oncei 1 more in full swing everywhere, and since j the Archbishop of Paris has prohibited' the "Tango" hk pagan flock has , rechristened it the "Habanera. -, " CHAOS IX ART. This disrupture of mental equilibriums also tells on the higher expression of the ' social mind. Bolehevik '"Cubism" is tlier I great victor in Paris, as it is in Petro-jj [ grad and Moscow. The annual exhibit j lof the "Independents" has been inflicted i ! upon Uβ this month for the first time;' since >I!>l4—one of our three great: artistic corporation?, as you know, whichi j differentiates itself by the absence of ; •aiiv jury. Anything, by anybody, that ; ! stands for a picture or sculpture is ad-_ imitted and exhibited. Eleven nun-^' idred artist.? have invaded tins "no man* , j land" by nay of a. compact offensive. ' ! That there arc signs of talent, hints of j genius, and evidence of life in tins pande- i [moniutn 1 do not question; but *o were ( I there germs of life, and, indeed, of all , i life and of the higher life in the pre-. i solar neiiuia also. ] J Art, which implies style by honesty j :of purpose anJ di-scipJine of means, is i ■ here totally nb-eiit. If ti)e ghost of poor old Ritekin were io visit this ! "nonentity Fair,' , or, indeed, any other I person with a sensitive nervous system ■ and an approximate <.oncopt:on of art, ■ I should advise that person to put on a I "'gas mask" and a oteel helmet, and, if i possible, to get wheeled round the^rooms \in a "tank." After such an ordeal forj the common mortal there is a blissful refreshment, 1 a-stsure you, in taking a! ■ stroll through the good old-fashioned I art galleries of the Louvre?, which have also been re-opened to the pubiic, enriched by the acquisitions by the .State during the war, and totally transformed in their appearance. There is' not another art gallery in Europe to-day j !to compete with our Louvree for fche j magnificence of its. contents or the 1 j tas'tefulness of their presentation. When' Ithe French care to do a thing well they can, and rank first. The ■miechi<-f i≤ they jmidoui do.

INTELLECTUAL DEGENERACY. The intellectual degeneracy is also making itself felt' in the French theatres. *_I. Bataille has suddenly decided to quit the alcove for th e forum, and is now playing up to the Bolsheviki in his new drama, "The Animator," wherein he has contrived to embody the murder of Calmette of the "Figaro," by Mme. Caillaux, and that of Jaures, by Vilain. One half of the seats on the first had been distributed to the Socialist militants, whilst admittance was refused to some of the bourgeois Press. A compensation for these equivocal productions is the fact that two plays, "The Raving Soul" and "The Wild Girl," by Francois de Curel, the greatest and most unpopular of French dramatists, are on in the theatres. Both these plays deal with the origin. and evolution of humanity. Here, though, the public only flock to the temple of higher art, as in both dramas there is shown an essential factor of Darwinism. ' , To satisfy their after-war hysteria the common people have to content themselves in the countryside with the apparition of the "Madonna," and in Paris with the cinema and the expectation of wireless Press messages from Mars to the Eiffel Tower.