FRENCH KINEMATOGRAPH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18875, 30 May 1923, Page 7

FRENCH KINEMATOGRAPH

INDUSTRY LANGUISHING. LONDON, May 16. Mr Edwin Geach, of the Union Theatres, Limited, has concluded a Continental tour. He informed a newsjftper representative that the kinemato graph business on the Continent was in a parlous condition. He was surprised to note that the Continent was showing 75 per cent, of'British and’ American films, owing to the practical cessation of local production, due to lack of capital. France before the war was one of the world’s greatest and most popular film producing countries. Mr Geach discussed with Irencli producers the possibility of supplying toe Australian market, as was. done before the war. He informed them that the only hope of revival was the stabilisation of the finances, and the renewed popularity of the French films. Kinematograph theatres in Australia, even in the suburban area, compared favourably with the French, Italian, and Belgian ones, which are invariably smaller. Mr Geach is studying the English kinematograph theatres and music halls, with a view to improving entertainment in Australia. Mr and Mrs Geach travelled by aeroplane from Brussels to London. There .was an appalling contrast between the devastated French war zone and the smiling English fields.