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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 3. 1966.

"High art"

"High art"

One criterion seems to be whether or not a film falls into the High Art category. Thus The Silence without Bergman's signature may have been extensively cut or even banned, but since this director is a darling of the foreign film cultists, and since the censor seems impressed by this fact, the film got by in the form it was screened.

Professor Munz did a small disservice by pandering to this notion in an otherwise excellent review of the whole situation. His cursory dismissal of Killen With a Whip and Lady in a Cage (Hollywoodish. luridly tilled, hence unworthy) was certainly unjustified.

The latter film in particular may have been an interesting effort, with Olivia de Havilland trapped in her house elevator while hoodlums take over. Similar situations have provided plots for several excellent films. Richard Lester's The Knack hardly rated a mention despite its Golden Palm award at Cannes.

The recent remake of Octave Mirbeau's Le Journal d'une Femme de Chambre by the great Mexican (b. Spain) director Luis Bunuel was also ignored. But this is possibly the most exciting film on the list. Quoting one critic; "... scathingly destructive: relentlessly Bunuel's victims (hypocrisy, injustice, the bourgeoisie) are pared to the bone. But Bunuel's message is. by implication, positive and deeply humanist." The fact that it is banned in Kiwiland comes as no great surprise.