NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES

Hokitika Guardian, 24 August 1929, Page 1

NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES

Mr Oscar Asche’s modernisation of £ Shakespeare is only one of many atj tempts being made at present to put old wine into new bottles. We must adapt the new cloth to the old gar--3 ment. A striking instance of this is seen in the effort being made by the k talkies to graft one man’s voice on r to another man’s presence. The image „ of a famous film star is to bo put on the screen accompanied by the voice r of a trained, elocutionist. The task , will not be easy, ahd null call for many cunning feats of synchronisaj tion. It used to be claimed for the [ movies that they talked all languages. At first it was thought that the talkies would only be able to speak in one tongue, but the Germans are making an attempt to make them talk in several languages at once. The parts will bo acted only once by those whd'*have’ already attained distinction as silen,t actors. Then the various forms of speech will be supplied by representatives of the different nations. The talkies will'thus become a kind of appendage to the League of Nations. It is probable that at first there wil be many mistimings and misfits, but the economy of this method is so great tlidb any aesthetic deficiencies are sure to be overlooked and eventually overcome. This thrifty diet of tinned tongues should suit the age of canned goods. Another attempt to meet present-day needs is -in the form of the elastic homestead. At Cologne an exhibition was opened recently of houses that grow with the requirements of their inmates on. the lines of the growing bookcases with which we abe already familiar. Many houses are at present so small that even the bookcase has very limited powers of expansion. The house will i\ow he able to swell visibly with the increased prosperity of its owner,. Butchers have been complaining that large joints are no longer saleable, because the modern kitchen and the modern gas cooker are too small to contain them with comfort. The expanding house will rise to the occasion and presumably the gas cooker will do the same. As the family fortunes rise the clastic home will be the outward and risible sign of increased prosperity. But fortunes have an ebb and flow, and to be entirely serviceable the •homes ought to be able to inflate or ] deflate as incomes rise and fall. The kitchen that swells to accommodate the Christmas joint ought to be able to shrink back to what our American friends call “normalcy’’ on the day after.