Film Societies Unknown And Unappreciated By The Mass Of Movie-Goers

It would be reasonable to assume that a good 30 per cent. of grown people in a city such as Wellington, go to the movies less than once a week. It would be fair to say also, that of this enormous film-going public only about one person in 400 has. as his source of films, anything other than the commercial cinema.

Films are produced on such a mass scale that the public is overawed by their quantity and rarely stops to consider and appreciate their quality. People seldom see a movie with the intention of discussing it, as they would a book or a musical composition: they go to the cinema only to be entertained—to experience sensations in a unique manner and to utilise it as a form of escapism.

The movie as an art form is neglected; possibly people are ignorant that the movie is a form of art.

Certainly in this city it appears so. Only one person in four or five hundred is a member of some film society or group. Hence, it is probably accurate to say that about 5 per cent. of Wellington's film public is openly interested in the movie from an aesthetic and technical viewpoint.

In Wellington alone however, there are numerous cultural and educational groups which cater especially for people interested in the art and science of the movie.

To name three of these groups would not be incongruous here Firstly, the Wellington Film Society regularly screens first rate films—"Kameradschaft," "Battleship Potemkin." "The Birth of a Nation"—and also holds discussion meetings and a winter film school, at which prominent film authorities lecture. Secondly, there is a series of lectures on aspects of the film given by Catherine de la Roche, undoubtedly the doyen of New Zealand film critics. Finally, in the University itself, there is a film society which endeavours to screen important yet seldom seen films, films of documentary importance, foreign films and others.

The total output of these, and other groups combined (per annum) would represent at least one movie a week, 52 weeks of the year. There is in fact, operating side by side with the commercial cinemas and with a multitude of movies—seven-tenths of which constitute rubbish—a handful of organisations which attempt to present the film to the public as an art form.

It is an unfortunate fact, that these groups-are generally unknown to the public. This is so, primarily, because people do not want to appreciate films as films, and secondarily, people are unwilling to have their screenings arranged, to pay a subscription and to go out of their way to see good films. It is obvious enough: the public would prefer to read a shilling paperback rather than a novel by Wells or Huxley; it would prefer to see 15 seconds of Bardot's bosom rather than sit through 10 000 feet of cinematic artistry on celluloid.