FILM AND THE STUDIOS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 25

FILM AND THE STUDIOS

•ftK ESPERANTO BOOM Huch tuis been published. here amd elsewhere, about the value of gsperasto to talking pictures, and Utc greet fillip that the •universal ’ language should give to the new films. In the main, the repressed Up inions have been those of sundry American producers, directors, and writers who have a habit of dashing into print on the slightest provocation, with screen comment and prediction. However, their ideas are to be p~tt to the test. Fred Niblo, a prominent director, has begun s:ork on a film with an Esperanto talking sequence. Consequently, the tin e has come for serious consideration of Us possibilities. Will Esperanto dialogue internationalise "talkiesf” On the available evidence it sectns hardly likely. People cannot be expected to learn Esperanto simply for the purpose of "going to the pictures’ * so, for all practical purposes, it may be surmised that Esperanto films will be limited to Esperanto audiences. Bence the position becomes merely a shade more complicated, and in reality, Xiblo's new production increases by one the number of languages in which talking pictures are made. rendering itself incomprehensible to a vast stetion of the world's population.