CZECH FILM FESTIVAL IN LONDON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 421, 18 July 1947, Page 33

CZECH FILM FESTIVAL IN LONDON

(By

a London Correspondent

ONDON’S prominent position as an international film centre was stressed recently by a spectacular event. Britain celebrated the Czechoslovakian Film | Festival, the first event of its type to be held in that country. Its importance was emphasised by ‘the fact that the Deputy-Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, Zdenek Fierlinger, headed a deputation of high-ranking diplomats, executives, artists, and technicians of the nationalised Czech film industry. All in all, about 50 delegates were guests of | the British Government, who were no. less prominently represented. Among those present at various functions were | Ernest Bevin (Foreign Secretary), Sir | Stafford Cripps (President of the Board ) of Trade), Herbert Morrison (Lord Presi- | dent of the Council), and George Tom- | linson (Minister of Education). The Festival was sponsored by the) British Film Institute, which under its | director, Oliver Bell, was largely responsible for the organisation, but all the | branches of the film industry, the British | Film Producers’ Association in particular, | contributed to the success of the occa- | sion. F The real significance of the visit lay | in the Exhibition of the first films made | in Czechslovakia since liberation. The films were shown at the New Gallery, one of London’s most prominent firsttun theatres, by courtesy of J. Arthur Rank. The premiere was put over in the traditional manner with brass band, film stars, both British and Czech, photographers, bright lights and speeches of welcome. The four representative productions screened were Warriors of Faith, a ‘lavish period picture in Agfa-colour, set in the time of the Hussite wars with a strong patriotic appeal;, Men Without Wings, telling the story of the gallant resistance movement with great economy, a vivid picture of the sufferings under Nazi occupation; The Stolen Frontier, a reconstruction of the Sudeten crisis, told with great realism; and The Warning, with the oppression of Slovak peasantry by Hungarian aristocrats as its theme. Distinguished by their high quality, too, were the shorts shown during the Festival. The puppet films and cartoons, photographed in Agfacolour, compared with the best of Disney’s work.

Speaking of the Czech film industry, Mr. Fierlinger said: "Our new nationalised film industry is now only developing its creative potentialities, but those who rightly understand the position and tasks of Czechoslovakia, situated in the very heart of Europe, will find. in these films a*sound effort to express the national | and State individuality, an cers tae for creative progress and a strong will to realise in practice high human aims. We know that these examples of the work of our industry are only a be- | ginning, but we are convinced that soon we shall be able to present the British public with work artistically more outstanding."