PICTURE SHOWS AND CENSORSHIP.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14523, 27 November 1912, Page 8

PICTURE SHOWS AND CENSORSHIP.

Tho Christchurch City Council had bo. foro it on Monday night a suggestion from tho St. Albans Ladies' Guild that picturo shows should bo "subject to "strict censorship," and after somo discussion referred tho matter to the By-laws Committee. Ia England and America, and generally round tho world, similar requests havo met with varying treatment. That thero havo been abuses in connection with picturo shows may bo admitted. Even in New Zealand, where pictures reach us after a process of selection, wo have had films exhibited that would have been much better suppressed. We have seen pictures of hangings shown as part of Wild West and other dramas. Wo havo had nearly every variety of crime. Wo havo had in some otherwise admirable pictures, mainly of French origin and depicting hunting, reproductions of tho death agonies of unfortunato beasts, of beasts torn to pieces by vultures, and revolting-looking pictures of tho killing and skinning of wild creatures. Thero was ono drama —and in this caso tho story was starred by a municipal picturo venture, ostensibly undertaken to

" purify " tho picture business —in which a husband was shown leaving his wifo at the timo of tho birth of her child, indulging in debauchery, and finally committing suicide, with his head over a table towards the spectators, bo that every horror of the death agony was shown with a realistic power that may havo been admirable from a histrionic standpoint, but tho effect of which, magnified on tho screen, was intensely repulsive. In America and in France this sort of thing was carried to extremes, and it was said by those concerned with tho production of moving pictures that

"you cannot mako them too gory for "the public." But tho eaner-mindod publio did revolt, and tho leading film producers have found it advisable to set up their own censorship. In America tho leading film-producing firms saw that for tho protection of thoir very valuable interests it would bo necessary to combine against thoso who would pater to tho lower elements of tho population, and also to restrain any tendency in their own houses to overstep a strict limit. The result was. that they set up a very strong censorship, which has condemned and prevented the issuo of a large number of their own films and film dramas. In London an official censorship was sot up with Mr Redford, so long tho censor of tho drama, at its head. Australia has been considering tho quostion, and Mr Flowers, on behalf of tho State | Government, proposed to introduce a j rather drastic set of regulations to meet tho case. Tho Australian proprietaries pointed out to tho Minister that their business involved a capital of two millions, and that they could' not carry on under the conditions he proposed to impose. The result of tho representations is shown in a set of "compromise" regulations, referred to in our cablos this morning. There are obvious difficulties in tho way of setting up local censors, but tho demand for somo kind of publio control, hero aa elsewhere, will become irresistiblo unless proprietors themselves respect public opinion and exorcise the most rigid supervision and selection over tho pictures they exhibit.