FILM CENSORSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 136, 6 December 1926, Page 9

FILM CENSORSHIP

EMPIRE CONSIDERATIONS

INDUSTRY IN THE WEONG HANDS

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 20th October. lii view of the fact that British films form an important subject of discussion at the Imperial Conference, "The Times" discusses tho matter in its editorial columns. The newspaper contends that there is ample evidence not only of the need for a clearly expressed and vigorously enforced Imperial film policy, but of an increasingly insistent public demand for it. The writer goes on to discuss tho principles which may afterwards be applied in accordance with varying conditions. '' There must bo a decision on the subject of censorship. Most censorships make themselves ineffective and ridiculous by pursuing a policy of particular exclusions—of saying that the expression of certain opinions, the portrayal of certain scenes, or, in the case of the stage, the speaking of certain words, shall be forbidden. For two reasons this is a dangerous method. "First, it results in tho exclusion of genuine and serious work of art on grounds of irrelevant dotail; secondly, no damnatory list can provide for tho fertility of human naughtiness. By such a method artists are thwarted and discouraged, but ingenious tricksters, who pride themselves upon being able 'to got round. any regulation, aro undeterred. It is, thoreforo, wise to make no attempt to defino what is Imperially undesirable, but rather to agree upon what is Imperially desired —that is" .".to establish a standard, varying with local conditions, rather than to write with a'pen of righteous futility an expurgatorial index. The first requirement of a film is that it. represent with truth and sincerity what its audience bolieves that it represents. If this could be said of overy picture shown within the Empire, tho problem of Imperial distribution would have gone far towards being solved. It is a requirement which has the advantage of being definite and clear, but which permits to censors a necessary local discretion. NO DECEPTION. \ "What a primitive negro will receive as gospel about white women will -be. taken in more sophisticated quarters with a grain of salt. What is to the negro a dangerous lie may be relatively harmless nonsense,to the adult population of England, and what, to experienced men and women, is so obviously fantastic that it does them no injury, may be noxious stuff to children whoso imagination is easily fired. All people, young and old, black and white, would be greatly safeguarded if the films they ,saw fulfilled tho conditions WO have suggested, and the scope of artists would not bo restricted. It demands, as a guiding principle, that a picture shall not deceive thoso to whom it is shown. Particular Governments would remain free to apply it in accordance with their knowledge of tho people or peoples, for whom they arc- responsible. "This, is a first rule of censorship. !Another is that tho censors themselves should be, even at considerable expense men of culture, who are capable of exercising a wide discretion, whose taste is a rule in itself, who will be content not to apply' the same hard-and-fast regulation' to artists as to tricksters, and who do not labour under the delusion, common ia censors, that evil is confined to sexual and criminal offences. Innumerable pairs of scissors aro feverishly, though unsuccessfully, active in defence of the. sixth, the seventh, and the eighth "Commandments, but the glory of the picture theatres largely consists in breaches of the tenth. What i. needed is not an exclusion of particular scenes because they represent drinking, dancing, or merrymaking, of which specialised reformers may disapprove, but a general war upon tho covetoii3ncss, the extravagance, and, above all, the emotional falseness o._ the films. It is of some i importance that a censor should ask j himself whether the subject of a film is suitable or unsuitable for particular audiences, though here, as the history of stage censorship has shown, he is treading upon dangerous ground; it is of far more importance that he should j ask whether the film treats its subject with reasonable faithfulness or de- I iiberately distorts it. GREEDY MEN OF STRAW. "Imperial production must be encouraged, not with the object of obtaining annually so many miles of Imperial film, but with discrimination. Whilo there ought to bo no hesitation about excluding films altogether _ from countries where their influence.is dangerous, and while th. advisability. of keoping all children untlcr a certain ago out.of picture theatres.ought tj> bo serious]v considered, exclusions and negations "alone will not carry the industry forward or raise the quality of its products. It is necessary, to discover or create an incentive to good work, ■to call attention officially to pictures of exceptional merit, to reward experiment, and, most important of all, to grant, or induce tho banks to grant, "credit facilities to manufacturers who are prepared to forgo immediate profits for tho sake of gradually accumulating does the British film industry more harm than the presence in it of greedy men of straw. In their hands a great part of it now roan. They, thirl; .hoy know what tlie public wants to-dnv; .in any case, they nro. prepnicd to" Ramble on it. But they neither .'now nor care whut better things the public may be induced to want to-mor-row It'is one of the first requirements of a film policy to eliminate thorn :nnd to put in their place men of substance, imagination and responsibility." " 33, Fleet street.