"LE CINEMA"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 93, 27 July 1943, Page 7

"LE CINEMA"

FILMS FOR THE TROOPS A SHOW AT NKW CALEDONIA "Sometimes I take a stroll around while the show is 011, and from near the screen one sees against, the black baekeloth of the tropical night the pin points of light from hundreds of cigarettes shining like so many glow-worms." This is a sentence from a Avord picture given by an officer of the Army Education Welfare Service, when on a short visit to the Dominion recently, of one of the number of cinema shows given regularly in the open air for the. benefit of New Zealand troops at New Caledonia. He said there were three Hi-milli-metre picture plants and a mobile J 35-millimetre machine. The 35-milli- | metre projector, which was taken to various parts of the island in turn, was mounted on a truck and, behind wa.s towed a trailer lit ted with a generator to supply the power for the plant. The A.E.W.S. organised and ran the picture programmes on behalf of the National Patriotic Fund Board, Avhicli, in addition to the provision of projection equipment., had arranged with the Film Exchanges Association of New Zealand for'supplies of fil'.rs to be sent regularly. Through the cooperation of tfie American service authorities, the New Zealanders also had the use of Ifi-millimetre films specially provided in the reduced size for the American services. Such features as "The Glass Key" and "The Commandos Strike at Dawn" have been shown recently,' so it Avill be gathered that these films are really up to date. The A.E.W.S. officer Avas enthusiastic about the service given by the National Patriotic Fund Board in this and in other directions, especially in view of the shipping difficulties. He also placed a high value on the screenings as a means of entertaining troops. Apart from these slioavs and the. performances by the Kiwi Concert Party, another enterprise financed by the Patriotic Board, he said, there was little else offering in the entertainment line.

No Reserved Seats A portable scrccn i.s part of the equipment which accompanies the mobile cinema. Sometimes this is erected, on iron pipes, sometimes it is strung up between trees, but in one spot it is: dispensed with entirely, for a white-washed wall of a bakery serves equally as well. As for the audiences, they range in size from 250 in some, parts of the island to 2000 in others. Troops are brought in for distances of up to 30 miles in trucks and are taken back to camp again alter tlie show. The men bring boxes, ground sheets and blankets; officers have their folding stools. But there, is no ceremony,. and there are no reserved seats. The open air is the theatre, and the sits back from the scrccn in a semi-circle.. The programmes .usually consist of a couple of shorts and a feature him, the show lasting about two hours. The French and native population look forward to the different shows as much jis the troops. "Le cinema," they call it, and they are. always represented in the audiences. Although the luxury of theatre, supper in the snack bar and a taxi alter the show are but memories to the men at New Caledonia just now, there will probably be many who in after years will look back with a great deal of pleasure to the shows held in the open when they were on service in the.. Pacific. As for the natives, well, they will probably iind life less interesting when the free "Le cinema" is no more.