Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 5. April 28th, 1948

[Film in N.Z. by Brian Bell]

As five people have signified interest in Mr. Brian Bell's article entitled "Film in N.Z." we present yet another instalment.

Types of Films

Love:

This seems to have been the most predominant theme of films during the last thirty years. In fact, it has been the habit of producers to include this ingredient as part of the box-office formula, regardless of whether love is appropriate to the particular film. In this way many good films have been ruined by having "love-interest" thrust into them. Love, as represented by the bulk of US films is a very stereotyped and conventional affair. It is not represented in a very matter of fact objective way, but seems to consist of a combination of thick sentiment, surreptitious erotism, and romantic symbolism.

The sentimentality is obvious, the erotism is surreptitious in the sense that verbal reference or blunt awareness rarely marks the screen performances, and the symbolism is plainly evident in the shape of moons, chairs, and oozing orchestras accompanying the embraces whether they occur on a sofa, or in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

(b) Miraculous or Absent-Minded Conception

There is a hackneyed sequence where a wife informs her husband that she is going to have a baby, and the husband expresses amazement. This suggests that either the wife has a large circle of male acquaintances, or American contraceptives are extremely unreliable. The first inference would not be intended by the producer, and the validity of the second would be vehemently contested, so we must conclude from this that the film is neither representing nor suggesting actuality.

Horror:

The literary material from which macabre films could be made is very plentiful, but unfortunately it seems to have been neglected. Poe, M. R. [unclear: James], and Blackwood, for instance, could provide the material for some outstanding films dealing with the supernatural. The commercial horror film has vulgarized the idea; and so we get people having their humdrum lives brightened by a weekly thrill from clutching hands and mechanical promenading monsters.