WORLD HISTORY IN PICTURES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17469, 1 June 1922, Page 11

WORLD HISTORY IN PICTURES.

PILM PRODUCER'S PLANS. Mr D. W. Griffith, the great film producer, arrived in England early in April. Ono of hia reasons f.or visiting England is to try to interest people in a. scheme for the production of eight or ten historical films, each 12 reela in length, which are to be a kind of pictorial history of the world (snys tho London "Times"). The plan has already been thoroughly discussed in America, and-Mr Griffith is hoping to interest people in England, France, Germany, and other European countries in this ambitious scheme. 110 estimates that each picturo of this series is to cost from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 dollars (about £340,000 to £453,000 at current rates). During the journey from Southampton to London Mr Griffith discussed with our representative the growth of tho film industry and his * own Bharo in it. Ho confessed that his own method of producing films was not by any means an original one. Ho was the first producer to create films tho action of which was modelled on books rather than on plays. Previously it had been tho custom for tho action of a film to bo continuous, like that of a theatrical play. That obviously gavo tho producer a limited ecopo, and Mr Griffith conceived tho idea of breaking off the action in order to ehow something else that was happening at the same momont or afterwards. In this way films were made much more interesting and powerful, and this method of "switching off" is now in almost universal uise.

A Hint from Dickens. "I invented that idea.," said Mr Griffith, "but it was not by any means my own. I discovered it in the works of Dickons. Ho has always been my favourite author, and it was the reading of his works that convinced mo of the effectiveness of tiU3 policy of 'switching off.' It is to bo found throughout his works. He introduces a multitude of characters and incidents, and brcak3 off abruptly to go from one to another; but at the end he cleverly gathers all the apparently loose threads together again, and rounds off the whole. It occurred to me that that method would be far more suitablo to films than the straightforward system from plays which was then in vogue, and I put it into effect. I was not {hen an independent producef,' and rry employers were horrified at tho idea; but I went home, reroad ono of Dickens's novels, and oame back next day to tell them they could either niako use of my idol or dismiss mo. They did not dismiss mo, and the system was begun. "There is another thing I o've to Dickens, ■rad that ia tho discovery that tragedy and comedy can, with care, be mixed to make- a homogeneous whole. I have always taken care to introduce a very slight leaven of comedy into even my mo3t tragic productions, and I think I was the first film producer to daro to do such a thing. It was Dickens, however, who taught me to do it. In his books comedy alternates with drama, and I think that the idea is worthy of adoption in films as well.

America and the War. "Personally, I think that Dickens, Carlyle, Shakespeare, and Tennyson—but especially Dickens--did more lo bring America, into the war than all the propaganda tliat was carried out. These authors had sown the seeds o£ sympathy and understanding, and at the crucial moment it was the great British heritage of literature that decided the issue. I myself heard someone give as a reason for enlistment that he could not bear the thought of a German enemy walking where 'Little Nell' had trodden. "The character of Little Nell may seem exaggerated to the English, but she possesses essentially feminine qualities that appeal to us in the United States, and to me in particular. Ariel even if she does not resemble a living sirl I think that she does represent just what a girl ought to be. "Much of the wo"k of Dickens was modelled on FieMincr, and I tliink that the V=t idea of the position of the fdm in these days can be given with the help of a compnris-.n that involves Fielding. It sn-rns to me that tho 51m at the present time is relatively in precisely the same position «3 the Encrlish novel was before Fielding began to write. T e are now wailing for a man with the genius of Dickens and the instinct for film 'production." Our representative asked Mr Griffith the immediate object of his vi=:'t. and he said that ii was in connexion with the scheme for making a film history of the world. "Tho nlm." ho adric-1. "nsca n nnivprssl lair'uase, and is, therefore, h suitable medium for the exposition of a universal history. In this '■"-■ vi industry it :'.s hoped to sn've a thorough funeral ide;i of the whole history of the world. It is not to be by onv means an outline.' I have a great belief in the power of the film in the education of the world, jind I regret that so far this enormous power -las only been used for the creation of 'slapstick' compiles and foolish boy and girl adventures The pictures are to consist of dramatic incidents bnsed on facts, and. if the scheme matures, ail of them will befn'ken at the actual spots at which the evenis harjT>ened._ This, of course, would eventually necessitate my visiting Enekind for the purpose of producing sections of the films."