The Cinema

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 12

The Cinema

Sir, —As a footnote to Mr Boyes’s excellent article on the deficiencies in distribution of high-quality films, it is worth mentioning the fate of two excellent French comedies which I saw in Christchurch before Christmas. These films, Philippe de Broca’s “Chinese Adventures in China” and Louis Malle’s “Viva Maria,” have so far been denied further exhibition in the main centres, in spite of their appeal’s being greater than that of a good many films which are given priority because of their national origins. It is gratifying, however, to know that “The Party’s Over,” which Mr Boyes listed as yet another “lost film,”,is to be given its first screening in an independent theatre at the end of this week. If only money talks in the film world, then it. is up to the arbiters of tr.te to let the independents show “first-runs,” equally important that the public support the independents and show that there is no financial loss in a regular supply of good films.—Yours, etc., NEVIL GIBSON, President, V.U.W. Film Wellington, April 11, 1967.