THE ENGLISH FILM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 259, 24 June 1932, Page 4

THE ENGLISH FILM

It has become a f ashion among many of our patriotic citizens to decry everything American, reserving always their choicest invective for the American film. And, no doubt, in order to give added force to these protests, there has been a corresponding exaggeration in the adulation heaped on the productions of British studios.. Neither the criticism nor the adulation is neeessarily wrong. It is the extreme to which each has been pushed by the purblind patriot that has made it pointless. Therefore it is refreshing to note that at least so far as British productions are concerned, a more rational attitude is being taken up by those who see in the cinema great potentialities both cultural and industrial — at once a powerful instrument for education and enlightenment and an amazing means of national advertisement. America has always understood and used the film as a selling agency and has exploited to the very limit its opportunities for impressing American culture on the world. But what of Eng- | land ? Has she used this medium | for transmitting abroad what is | best in the English heritage and the English gift to mankind? Unfortunately, the high hopes that have been entertained for j the English motion-picture inI dustry have not yet been fully realised and in the opinion of some, the industry has failed most noticeably in the very field ! where it could be most useful. J Undoubtedly the English motion picture industry has made marked progress, but with the wonderful material at its disposal, there is justifieation for the feeling that it has not yet realised the potentialities which are at its command. The chief complaint against the English cinema is that it tends to be a London cinema, and "West End London at that" — to confine itself to one or two classes of society, and to exploit over-much the comedy of bad manners. Much of the drama so screened, though amusing enough at times, is purely superficial; its people are often either fribbles or wasters. Producers have failed, says an English critic, not to produce clever pictures, but to interpret the spirit of their own people. Not long ago the stage drama, now largely emancipated, was under almost coinplete thrall to this convention; London ruled the art, and a successful play was a play in which butlers presented letters on silver salvers and mistresses rang languidly for tea. There are those of course, who prefer excessive sophistication to excessive syncopation, but either prescription is harmful in large doses. The American "smart 'alec" type, has its English counterpart in the suave sophisms, which some of the younger English playwrights have given as material to the British screen, but neither type is properly representative of national thought and feeling. Undoubtedly, the Americans had a considerable advantage in this business of producing pictures, but while there is a tremendous leeway to make up on the technical side, the British producers have at their command, the most wonderful legacy of history and great literature which the world Can show. It is here that their failure is most manifest for it is their competitors who have so far shown the most real appreciation of this legacy. As an instance, a film like "Disraeli," English of the English, and starring an actor who though he may be paid in American dollars, is an Englishman of Englishmen, was produced and screened by Americans There are many other instances, and while the English producers have already done something in the same direction,

overmueh of their effort appears so far to have been devoted to the strictly modern atmosphere of West End drawing rooms. In English literature, in England herself, there is a much wider and greater sphere which the screen could bring to the wideflung millions of the British peoples. The smart novel of to-day is about a class that forms only a tiny percentage of the people of England, and the huge popularity of "The Good Companions" showed how ready the public was to turn from this dreary artificiality and this convention of impropriety to the teeming, yeasty life of the- people. The success of "Hobson's Choiee" on the screen is a companion illustration. It is an example of the infinite opportuni--ties that await the scenario writer and the producer in the English provinces. Another complaint against the English film is that its taste in dialogue and situation is sometimes questionable, and it is disquieting to read that for this reason some Scottish houses have threatened to pay fines for not showing their quota of English pictures ratkir than screen what is provided. The industry is being asked whether it is to continue work in a limited field, or whether it is prepared to create a real English art, in which not only national culture and history, but Imperial achievements, will be represented. Consider England's history, local and general; Shakespeare's plays; the great novels; and all the records of Empire-building and exploration. The themes are numberless and superb in their opportunities. If she is to be understood by her children, to say nothing of strangers, Britain must use this medium with enterprise and lmagination.