MOTION PICTURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14586, 24 January 1911, Page 6

MOTION PICTURES.

POPULAR WITH THE PUBLIC.

"THE POOR MAN'S UNIVERSITY."

It would be difficult to discover in New Zealand to-day a single person who had not heard of the moving picture. Were it possible to add yet another question to the long list to be submitted' to a longsuffering populace at the taking .of the census we would find that a large majority of tho inhabitants of tho Dominion had witnessed a cinematograph performance, not once but many times. The advent of the animated film has teen comparatively recent, but its advance in public favour has been meteoric in all parts of the civilised world.

About 15 years ago there was to be found in one of the distant States of America a travelling showman whoso principal asset was a magic /.lantern, which lie conveyed from place to place on a small waggon drawn by a single horse. The fever of ambition burned hot in his veins, and ho thought he saw in store for the stereopticon machine and moving picture the most proi missing of futures. Being short'of capital, he approached a friend who was the manager of a certain opera, house, but his offer of . a half share in exchange for the necessary coin of the realm was curtly refused. The friend is still holding Ms position aa manager'.of'the opera house to-day, wuile the one-time travelling showman not many months ago advanced the huge sum of 300,000 dollars for the purpose of securing the sole rights of the moving pictures taken at the famous battle between a negro and a white man for the heavy-weight championship of the world. - Thus from humble beginnings has sprung one of the most . popular of present-day amusements, an amusement which is yet in its : transition stage and which ; gives promise of far greater developments in the near future. Human passions, hopes, and sorrows ■ are subjects far too large to be treated adequately in a few hundred feet of film, and it is probable therefore'that bofore many months have passed an ingenious brain , will have ; carried a , great invention yet another step nearer perfection. The concentration of the plot ; ; and the elimination of the little human interest details deaden the spirit of the story, and unless something / new is discovered the public, it is feared, will return to real flesh and blood plays. For the manager, the animated film has provided an easy method of amassing treasure upon earth, and for the actor it has created ■ what might practically bo called a new profession. Those who have taken up the work, and their number is increasing year by year, learn in a short time to realise to a surprising extent the expressive possibilities of gesture, and so at our local places of entertainment we are enabled to witness plays whose stories are faithfully told us without the aid of words, and in which the characters rival at times the most gesticulating Italian. The salaries paid in the moving picture world are naturally not as high as those obtaining on the regular stage, but they are distinctly good, and the actor has the advantage of being regularly employed. He also is enabled to say ' farewell to the continual travel and the horror of one night stands, which become almost intolerable towards the close of a long and strenuous tour, The most difficult phase of the work- is the fact that the story must be introduced, developed and brought logically to a dramatic climax and finale within the space of 3.5 or 20 minutes. The play must not run over 1000 ft of film, and if it does it suffers much in the same way as the majority of newspaper articles, and is cut down.

The thirst for knowledge in the Dominion to-day is greater than it has ever been, and nothing is better suited to satisfy the prevailing demand than the moving picture theatre. It is a wholesome and inexpensive form of entertainment which bids fair in the near future to become the poor man's university.