ART AND CRAFT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 484, 1 October 1948, Page 19

ART AND CRAFT

THE ART OF THE FILM. By Ernest Lindgren, Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, S the motion picture an art form? Expert opinion seems to be divided. Miss Lejeune, of the London Observer, whose standing as a film critic is recognised even in tHese remote and uncultivated regions, put the case for the negative with characteristic pungency just a year agoEither a mechanised entertainment can be an art or it can not. In my opinion it can not, and it makes no odds whether the further illusion of voice is added to the first illusion of movement in the still photogtaphs of actors on the screen. It is not within the power of electrical engineering or mechanical contraption to create. They can only reproduce. And what they reproduce is not art, even though it may contain the irdividual work of many artists. These are strong and persuasive words and it takes Mr. Lindgren about 200 pages to reveal the essential fallacy in that kind of reasoning, but’ The Art of the Film is a good deal :more than the author’s statement. of faith. For the general reader, indeed, it will be the earlier chapters rather than the later philosophical speculations which will prove most interesting. Mr. Lindgren has sub-titled his book "An Introduction to Film Criticism," and as ‘a plain man’s guide to the various processes of film-production-script-writing, photography, acting, editing, and the rest-nothing quite so lucid and systematic has been produced before. The author is, in fact, excellent both on analysis and synthesis. He manages to resolve the complexity of the modern film business into its individual techniques, explains these simply but comprehensively, and then by a judicious arrangement of his material shows the orderly integration of these processes, So far as order and method go, the only criticism that might be

made is of the separation of the chapters dealing with film editing and the art of the film. It seems probable that both these chapters would have gained in effectiveness had "they been dealt with in immediate sequence (or in combination) instead of being separated by about 70. pages dealing with sound, photography, film music, and acting. As it is, these two sections represent a certain reduplication of example ard argument, since the author believes (along with Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Carl Dreyer and many others) that film art derives largely from the manipulation of visual images, ie., editing. The principal weakness of the book, however, arises from the same faculty for exposition which serves the reader so well in the more factual sections. Mr. Lindgren is so careful to cite chapter atid vefse that there is not nearly enough of Mr. Lindgren. There is hardly a single authority on the film who is not quoted, and quoted most carefully and appositely, but there is too much quotation. Mr. Lindgren, who has been actively associated with the British Film Institute for 14 years and who was the first Curator of the British National Film Library, has had enough experi- ence to speak with authority. He is a good advocate, but he would be better as an expert witness. The Art of the Film, however, is a first-class manual for those who wish to take an intelligent interest in the cinema. It is well printed and the illustrations have been admirably

selected.

Jno.