WHAT IS GENIUS?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21758, 24 March 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT IS GENIUS?

CAPACITY FOR HARD WORK PEEPS BEHIND THE SCENES BY JENNIE WAIN ' Very few of us have ever met a real genius, and fewer still are on familiar terms with one. And since Mother Nature only sprinkles an odd one here and there among thousands of just ordinary intelligent folk, there is always a sort of breathless admiration, and awed wonder when we actually come into contact with such. Be they poets, musicians, painters, writers, dancers, or singers, they command that adulation which may well bo envied by king or prince alike. But. when everything is boiled down, just what does genius amount to? Chiefly a tremendous capacity for hard work, and, what is even more important, an untiring attention to every trivial detail, which a lesser man in his hurry and impatience would pass by as being beneath his notice. 'The late Enrico Caruso had a marvellous range of voice among other characteristics, but it was his patient industry that bulit up that range, note by note, and the prodigious amount of work that he performed in the perfecting of his art. How many who have listened enthralled to the enchanting music of Kreisler, for instance, realise that he works like a demon throughout most of his waking hours, polishing a note here, and a cadenza there,— never, never satisfied that his work is gdod enough? And so on, and so on, through an interminable list of illustrious names.

The same applies to every branch of the arts, but perhaps most particularly to - screen work. It is this amazing attention" to detail that has made stars out of nobodies. Hard rehearsing results in easy performances, nnd it would astonish some cynics to take just one peep " behind the cameras," and watch some small scene, or perhaps half a scene being rehearsed over and over again, until the players are almost exhausted and sick to death of their " lines," which are beginning to sound senseless and parrot-like. Perhaps it is the " historical " parts call for most patient research on the part of the actor or actress concerned. When even every tiny mannerism. must, be as faithfully copied as is possible from the hunted-up stories of that particular period, it is worse than useless for . anyone who " can't be bothered," even to apply for the part. Beauty, brains, talent, outstanding personality, all go down like nine-pins before the onslaught of real genius, and it would appear that to be born with a talent for hard work is perhaps better than all the other talents rolled into one.