OPEN CONFESSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 January 1928, Page 3

OPEN CONFESSION

MR. SHAW AS “MOVIE FAN.” Mr Bernard Shaw recently spoke (says the “Manchester Guardian”) at a “trade show” of a series of films prepared by British Instruction Films —“Secrets of Nature” —at the Pavilion Theatre, London. “I am very fond of the movies,” said Mr Sshaw. “I am what is called in America a movie fan. Programmes, however, are very often not to my liking. You see, the whole business of entertaining the public—a very important and responsible thing—is in the hands of <the gentlemen whom we call the exhibitors, who keep all the picture palaces and select the films —except when they are selected for them by somebody else. You will admit that the men who discharge this extremely important function ought to be men of business, men of the world, and men of sense. Unfortunately they ar,e nothing whatever of the kind. The pictures attract a particular kind of man, who is not a business man, a man of the world, or a man of sense. He is an incurably romantic person. If you have ever been to what is called a' trade show and seen the exhibitors there, instead of saying, ‘Oh, yes, here are men of the world, quite ordinary persons,’ you stare and say, ‘Where on earth did these people come from?’ Their heads are full of the most amazing things. They believe that the public ai;e entirely occupied either with wild adventures of the most extravagant kind or —what they believe to be at least nine-tenths of the whole attraction— something they call sex appeal. They are full of sex appeal. You may take the greatest trouble to make the most beautiful and artistic film, but they say, ‘Where is the sex appeal?’ And if there isn’t any they simply won’t believe that people will go and see it. CHAPLIN AND MARY PICKFORD “You take one of these gentlemen and tell him, ‘Are you aware that large crowds go to hear the Dean of St. Paul’s preach, or that there is a building in Albermarle Street filled with people listening to scientific lectures, "or that there are large halls over the country crowded to hear political speeches?’ They will reply, ‘You needn’t talk to me about that. Where is the sex appeal?’ Well, where is the sex appeal about Dean Inge? As a matter of fact, the whole experience of the movies shows that sex appeal is a thing which you may neglect almost together. Who are the two most .universally attractive in the kinema.? I should say Mr Charles Chaplin and Miss Mary Pickford. There is no sex appeal in their films at all. If you could get a picture that was perfect in sex appeal it would be no use, for the reason that if it was made by a lady no lady would come to see it, and if it was made by a man no men would go to see it. But lyiiss Pickford is just as popular with women as with men, which completely disposes of the idea that the attraction is sex appeal. On the contrary, the one painful part of these things that always makes us pass it off .with a laugh or feel slightly indelicate is the thing which always has to be put in at the end to satisfy the exhibitors. “The film may be dramatic, entertaining, a wonderful sketch of character, but no exhibitors care anything about that—you must compel Miss Pickford to exhibit herself being passionately kissed by a gentleman. That is how you get a Pickford film off on the trade. Well, I find it extremely tantalising to see another gentleman kissing Miss Pickford. If you would procure me the opportunity of kissing her I might enjoy it, but when anothei* gentleman is doing it I simply feel indelicate. If I had any prospects at my age of attracting the beautiful ladies of the film I should not like to kiss them with a large audience looking on. “No,iit is a mistake. The really interesting films are independent of sex appeal. You will find before long that, owing to the general dissatisfaction, these embraces will have to be cut out. If you don’t want to bore the public you must give them some sort of variety.

LOVE OF NATURE. “The films which are to h® shown to the exhibitors who have been attracted here by the promise of a speech from me would be called by some people educational or instructional films. That description not only chokes off the trade exhibitor, but the whole world. Nothing would induce me to see an educational film but, on the other hand, I do want to see an interesting film. We are going to show you a genuine piece of moving sex appeal—how a flower falls in love, how it opens its arms’ and invites embrace. What we are trying to persuade people is not to give z a programme consisting entirely of these things, but, then, in an ordinary programme consisting of several pieces you will find it much more attractive to have one or two numbers of this kind which appeal to the very strong love of nature that exists in English people. The trade exhibitors know nothing about all this except sex appeal, but we want to show them that it takes all sorts of people to make a world, and they have gone on imagining—these exceptional and romantic men—that the whole world is full of the same kind of people. The truth is that in many ways the exhibitors are very exceptional and morbid in their tastes, and ought to see a doctor. There is ( so much excitement in the programmes they give that at the end of two hours spent in a. picture palace they could not show you anything which would rouse the slightest emotion.”