THE CALL OF THE FILM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 276, 22 November 1927, Page 6

THE CALL OF THE FILM.

Literary people in Great Britain are beginning to take the motion picture film seriously, and to consider its possibilities. In characteristic vein Mr. Bernard Shaw discusses the fondness of exhibitors for what they call sex appeal. He apparently . imagines that the romantic could be cut out of the pictures, and that they would still draw large crowds, but he is handicapped by being constitutionally incapable of appreciating romantic love. He instances the crowds who flock to hear Dean Inge, and to listen to lectures and political speeches, where there is no element of romance. The comparison is singularly infelicitous. People go to the pictures for relaxation, to St. Paul's for edification, to lectures for instruction, and to hear political speeches from perversity. Mr. Shaw might as well advocate ■the elimination of the hero and heroine from the novel as advocate the removal of all love themes from the pictures. Educational films, such as nature studies and trips through factories, have their place in the programme, but it would be impossible to fill in a whole session with serious matter. Education may be served in another direction by the staging of good historical films. In such local films as "Rewi's Last Stand" and "The Te Kooti Trail" we have admirable instances of what can be done in this direction. One of the most difficult things in education is to make history a living theme and to enable people to reconstruct the past. We are all too apt to judge th© past by the present, and to look upon other ages as benighted because they have not attained the advanced status of what has been called the Tin Elizabethan Age. The moving. picture, if properly filmed, can give us even a better idea than a pageant, because it need not confine itself to great historical incidents, but can reconstruct the everyday life of the people. We gather from th© two Maori films we have mentioned a vivid idea of what th© Maori War meant to the scattered settlers of that time, and they enable us to realise th© Maori point of view. Historical films need not eliminate the element of. romance, and they could be cleverly woven round a well-constructed plot. Just as there are times when people get a little weary of routine and require light relaxation, so there are times when people get more than a little tired of the over-emphasised American films, and would welcome something a little more serious and making some appeal to th© intellect. Programmes 6eem to run so regularly on the triangle of the scenic, the comic and the sensational. Much in history and literature could be interpreted and popularised by means of films, and Mr. Bernard Shaw rightly stresses the need of greater variety on the screen. The moving picture can _ sometimes do more to make the past live than whole pages of print, and it seems a pity that more films are not produced of an historical nature W.M.