Film Club for Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

Film Club for Auckland

Repertory Idea ENTHUSIASTIC MELBOURNE Why not a film club tn Aucklandf The proposal is being taken up with enthusiasm in Melbourne. The idea is to apply the idea of "repertory," so well known in regard to drama . to films. One of the objects is to witness especially interesting films of British, Continental or American origin, which, for one reason or another, are not likely to be shown commercially. Other countries have their film clubs. In France, the membership of the club is 15,000. These 15,000 people are not “high-brows,” conscious of their mental superiority over the populace that enjoys the commercial film. They

are to a great extent students who are keen to see how other countries are meeting the difficulties of screen drama by technique that is constantly adapting itself to changes in the desires of the public.

The founders of the Melbourne Film Club believe that neither the infant Australian industry nor the Australian public should be left without opportunity to see how countries other than America

are tackling the problems of picture stories. Australia will be served best, not by our producers trying to meet their competitors on ground already chosen, but by developing methods which will challenge competition by their very difference (says the Melbourne “Herald”).

There are many Australians who, realising that this country must sooner or later enter the moving-picture lists, are ambitious to learn one or more of the severely technical departments connected with the work ahead. Amateur photographers wish to know the mysteries of camera work in films: writers desire technical instructions in scenario writing: others are ambitious to act. One of the functions of a successful film club abroad is to group these aspirants and secure for them skilled instruction. Undoubtedly the same would apply here.

In all art. it is true that "we needs must love the highest when we see it-” But we must be given opportunity to 3ee It. Good film pictures are rare. The new club designs to procure, through its agent and affiliations with similar institutions abroad, moving pictures that will educate as well as attract. We have long passed the time when we can turn up our noses at this class of entertainment. dismissing it as suitable only for the unthinking. It is a growing influence in the community. Every improvement in the class of picture made is a benefit to the people as a whole. Such improvements are likely to follow movements like this new Film Club. At the worst the club will provide its members with pleasant entertainment; at its best it will be a widening sphere of influence, a focus for good taste in picture entertainment.