TALK ON FILMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 283, 3 December 1935, Page 9

TALK ON FILMS

ROTARIANS ADDRESSED PROGRESS FILMS HAVE MADE CRUDE BEGINNINGS TO PRESENTDAY TALKIES. Mr. C. P. Brown was the speaker at yesterday 's luncheon gathering of members of the Wanganui Rotary Club. He gave an interesting and comprehensive survey of the progress made m motionpicture films, iracing the reproduction of sound, by the process discovered by Edison, down to the present-day talking film. ‘lt is a subject that leaves a great many men completely unmoved, and 1 confess tnat my own interest in it dates only from the formation of the local Film Society,” said the speaker. “One is apt to connect it witn blaring headlines, intimate personal pars about Fatty Arbuckle and Mae West, bellowing voices with an American accent inviting you to super-amaze-ment at all sorts of prodigies and silly puzzles On the programmes. But there is a lut more in it than tl/.t. It is set down in the life of Thomas Alva Edison that when he had brought his phonograph to something ]ike its present form he realised that to complete the idea he should have an attaciiment fu-r synchronised moving pictures, and he set out to make such a machine; and he did, in fact, make an efficient kiiretuscupe, as it was called, io be used only by one person at a time, but he refused to throw the image on a screen for general entertainment and did nut patent his c-wn invention. The two machines jnoved along different paths for 30 years but when the moving picture was fully developed and commercialised, Warner Bros, tried the experiment of adding talking apparatus to their moving piui jres, attained immediate pu-puiar success and amassed several fortunes. Crude Beginnings. ”1 can remember the first phonograph brought to New Zealanu, an elaborate affair set in the centre of a large stage that wheezed out ‘Mary had a little lamb’ and gave us scraps, of speech by (1 think) \V. E. Gladstone and others, and reproduced a speech by the local mayor. 1 can also remember the first moving pictures. About a dozen people at a time were admitted to a rented shop and were shown a gruesome representation ot the beheading of Alary Queen of Scots, crudely coloured so far as 1 can remember, and showing rivers of blood and the bystanders dipping Vht’ir handkerchiefs in it to keep as souvenirs. There wcie comics, too, in those days showing actors doing the most marvellous acrobatics. “In the beginning and for over 20 years tih-e aim of the makers of film was to record what was placed bftfore the camera and more consideration was given to actors and scenery than methods of presentation. Pictures were another form of theatrical entertainment and commercially successful as such. During the war Europe stoud still, but in America some developments took place. Buch pictures as ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ showed the possibility of better things—an almost symphonic method of story construction, and the power of suitable cutt’ng and interrupted continuity and the intelligent use of the distortion of the camera. The Americans also produced 'Oinc very line open-air pictuies and some good comedy—more or less polmned; but they also developed the ‘star’ system because they found it paid. And it is now generally agreed tnat this has been the biggest obstacle to the true development of tho film. It is natural and agreeable to go to the pictures because one loves to see the languours of Juan Crawford or to hear tlie voice of Maurice Chevalier; but to make the names of the actors and the amount of money spent on a film the test of its attractions it to approach from the wrong end. It is to discuss persons, not things or ideas. “About 1920 a German picture called ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligar’ made a profound sensation. Instead of using the camera to record faithfully what was placed in front c-f it the directors worked through, photographic effects and broke with photographic realism. It brought the mind of the spectator into play psychologically. Wherever possible the design and layout of the set enhanced the dramatic content or meaning of the scene. The prisoner, seated crusslegged on the floor was the centre to which ail lines of th-e painted fluorpattern converged. The stool upon which the official-bound town cierk was sealed was at least six feet high, symbolising both bureaucracy and the difficulty that Caligari had in obtaining attention. The lighting was also arranged in complete co-operation with the architects. According to modern taste a lot of this was overdone and reminds one of the excessive use of the pathetic fallacy in century old verse; but it was at any rate a step in advance. In 1925 another German film called ‘The Last Laugh’ made another nufablc contribution. It was to well arranged that, in those silent days, it was possible to follow it without titles of any kind, a remarkable example of filmic unity, centralisation of purpose and perfect continuity. Here the static-nary camera was abandoned and it was shown that all sorts of effects could be magnified and varied in all conceivable ways by moving the camera itself, vertically, horizontally, retreating and approaching. Big Advance in the Soviet “But the biggest advance was made at this time by the Boviet directors. The Btat-e had there developed the industry for purposes of propaganda and education and the directors were freed of the pressure of capitalist producers to show profits. It is not strange, therefore, that they developed a different line of approach. Most film construction had hitherto proceeded from a consideration, firstly, of tihe arrangement of actors and settings and secondly of the camera as a recording instrument. Tho Soviet directors began their approach with an analysis of the film itself. The raw material—the clay in the hands of tire potter —was the film strip bearing the photographically recorded images; and the composing consisted in the act of piecing these strips together in different orders and in different lengths in order to seize the imagination of the spectator and guide him through a series of emotions. They approached the complete film as a composer -approaches a symphony. In addition

they realised the extreme value of the film’s capacity tu split up time and space and to recreate them in new form. When these ideas had begun to circulate in the film world they discarded or put into the background, the elaborate provision of actors and scenery and took as tiheir basis qrdinary scores of ordinary people but varied things up in such a way ns to produce the must complete emotional effect. Many of you saw Turk Sib when it was shown by the. Film Society here, you will remember that it centred round the building of a railway across a desert and had very few artificial scenes. Yet by its motion of light, shade, comedy, trag-edy, it pioduced the effect of pre epic poetry and left its audience in excellent mood. Even the censor fell H, but he jut the mood down to a doe of Bulshivisin and banned it as too dangerous to be shown to New Zealanders. If he h.yd examined his emotions more carefully he would have realised that h« had had a dose of good po’etry. “And then came Warner Bros., who, as 1 have told you, first produced talking pictures. The addition of the voice to film effects turned the industry back to lines parallel to the stage, cut off one country from another through the language difficulty and so hindered the development foreshadowed by Mr. Hotha. No one can deny the immense development that has taken place in the last few years and there are films being produced to day that rank high. Filins like ‘Les Miscrables,’ ‘Cavalcade,’ and ‘Escape Me Never’ (to mention three recently seen) all have unity of construction and powerful dramatic effect (though the audience put on its hats and coats ns Charles Laughton as Jauvert was shown going through the mental agony of deciding whether he would arrest bis prey or commit suicide). “In conclusion, may J express the view that irrespective of the type of production, the fundamental construction of t'ne film governs the extent to which it exerts its influence for good or evil. By that I mean that the introduction of speech has necessarily transformed the film into a natic-nal medium, its distribution being confined to those countries which speak the tongue of its country of origin, whereas the silent film was universal in its appeal. Forecast of the Future. “Looking into the future, I feel that dialogue will vanish and, in its place, we shall have sound and music weaved together and forming an integral part of the moving images, all creating a perfect unity as easily understandable in Burma as in Buxton. Dialogue has meiely driven the film cIG-scr to the stage, and, at the present moment, we are being entertained by perfectly motionless pictures in which characters hold lengthy conversations according to stage traditions, and in doing so. hold up the Jilin. \\ herons, the true function of the film is to narlatc witfl pictures only, pictures as free as the air, knowing no iniscophonic restrictions, and governed only by the genuis of the person who assembles tho strips, out of which he creates rhythm—pictorial rhythm which has practically vanished since dialogue entered. I cannot emphasise too greatly, the importance of movement, in the film. It is its very life blood, and its present anaemic condition is due almost solely to the tact that dialogue compels • the film to be static. Pictures are universal; sound is universal; music is universal; speech is national, and a dictator of tempo, hence the existing position. Among the few heralds of the film of the future is ‘ Mickey the Mouse, together with the strange creatines gliding about in Walt Disney’s ‘Silly Symphonies.’ They possess rhythm, and are inseparable from the soundmusic which accompanies their antics. And they are as universally popular as the silent films of old, and infinitely more moving and imaginative. A comparison between ‘Mickey and Felix,’ the cartoon king of silent days, makes one realise how sound intelligently used, can advance the film as much as dialogue, conventionally introduced, can destroy it. And so, when the sound film has found its feet and stood firmly upc-n them, instead of upon everybody elsc’s toes, we may expect universal appreciation of this great medium, togethen with it is hoped, a fuller understanding of the power of the film to influence mankind towards a real internationalism, which can only be achieved by such*a virile ambassador as the film.”