GERMAN PICTURE PALACES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 17779, 30 January 1920, Page 2

GERMAN PICTURE PALACES.

FLOODED WITH OBSCENITIES. GOVERNMENT TO TAKE FIRM STAND. LONDON, lan. 27. The Daily Chronicle's Berlin correspondent states that one of the earliest Government measures after the revolution was the abolition of the censorship It had unfortunate results in the cinema world owing to the extraordinary vogue of so-called Aufklarungs films, of which the ostensible purpose was to warn the German youth against erotic tendencies. Since the removal of the censorship the picture palaces have been flooded with masked obscenities, which the newspapers describe as a sea or mud. Public agitation is so great that a movement against the whole film industry is threatened, and the Government is introducing universal cinema censorship, enabling the authorities tc refuse to license any film calculated '<> excite base instincts. The judges will include as officials leading artists, writers, and also men and women of experience in training the young. The cine ma. manufacturers say that the Bill will kill the industry, and are thoroughly organised for a. fight. The biggest combination, known as the UFA. Company, has a capital of sixty million marks, and owns seven factories and fifty picture palaces.