Celluloid Image

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31420, 13 July 1967, Page 8

Celluloid Image

Cinema and television audiences in a dozen countries this year will see “ a light-hearted treatment of New “Zealand’s tourist attractions”. The thought should provide some consolation, if not wry amusement, to the stay-at-home New Zealand population, struggling to make both (balance-of-payments) ends meet. The “serious” elements of society frequently decry the frivolous entertainment served up to such audiences; but what New Zealander will not welcome the news that the frothy “Amazing New Zealand” has won awards at film festivals in Seattle, Venice, and Marseilles? Perhaps it does not give a realistic picture of this New Zealand and these New Zealanders, and certainly it does not help the foreigner to understand our present worries over wool prices, unemployment, and the other unpleasant facts of economic life. If it did, it probably would not have won such acclaim at festivals, and it certainly would not have earned its place on the film screen or the television screen in so many countries. Anyway, is New Zealand’s present financial plight of such great interest to foreigners, most of whom have known hardship much worse than ours? Even if a superb documentary were produced on such a dull subject, would it be any more typical of the “real New “Zealand” than a “light-hearted treatment of New “ Zealand’s tourist attractions, with a general theme “of contrast”?