FOR BETTER FILMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

FOR BETTER FILMS

BRITISH INSTITUTE CONTROLLING GOOD POINTS The Home Secretary in England recently offered his blessing on belialf uf the Government to the proposed National Film Institute, which, after two years of investigation and inquiry, has been recommended by a voluntary icommission an English writer states. Its report handles the immense problem in a comprehensive way, and enthusiasts arc not without hope that the institute (towards those expenses are to be allocated 5 per cent, of the Sunday Cinema profits now devoted to charity) may do for the films what the British Broadcasting Corporation has done for wireless. It is not before time that this Government move has been taken. Britain iis almost alone in the world in having made no real effort to control the film and promote its various uses as a contribution to national well-being. Practically all other countries have sought to mould the new force to national needs. Heaven forbid that England should copy the propagandist methods of Russia, but skilfully handled the film might well be made to serve the State and the Empire, the writer adds.

Potentially it is a powerful instrument of union between the self-govern-ing Dominions, all of which offer film material of unrivalled quality. As for the colonial possessions of the Crown, the need for an efficient organisation is sorely felt by administrators. The backward races within the Empire can indeed gain more and suffer more from the film than the sophisticated European, because of them the power of the visual medium is intensified. The conception of white civilisation which they are receiving from third-rate melodrama is an international menace, yet the film is an agent of social education which could be as powerful for good as for harm. India is producing films which are as yet far from good, but which might become works of beauty, while many of her peasantry are as simple and illiterate as African tribes. What is needed —and the commission lays special emphasis upon this—is production and selective distribution, controlled by a body with experience, authority and discernment.

In more advanced countries with civilisations more comparable to our own some form of permanent central organisation has in most cases been established. Japan vigilantly protects her youth against the * influence of

Western films, and compiles a national film library showing the history, the traditions and the social life of her people; in Italy, Signor Mussolini invites the Ministers of State to cooperate in the production and exhibition of films illustrating the greatness and destiny of Italy; the German Reich demands the exhibition of one German film for every foreign film shown, and has created an institute whose object is to improve the taste of the nation by the selection of the best films produced at home or abroad; France appoints within her Ministry of Fine Arts a permanent commission which “shall take into consideration the whole of the national interests involved, and more particularly the conservation of national customs and traditions”; in America, Yale University produces films illustrating the great events of American history, and Harvard films recording the personalities and work of the leaders of American research.

The proposed new institute in. England would, of course, have to feel its way carefully and guard against a narrow uniformed nationalism, but time is on its side, and with enlightened control, it might well exert a constructive influence, educate public taste and stimulate critical appreciation. It may be that the whole standard of film production may bo raised through its efforts. It has a wide and constantly widening field in which to operate. “Bing” Crosby got his nick-name because he was the loudest shoutor of “Bing, Bing” when playing cowboys as a kid.

Richard Arlen, Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert and George Bancroft all celebrate their birthdays during September. Arlen was born on the first, Chevalier on the 12th, Miss Colbert on the 13th and Bancroft on the 30th of the month.