Woman's Place?

Time marches on; civilisations grow and decay yet the sands do not entirely obliterate what has Gone before, and from this, the prophets and seers may toll us of the things to come. Women have never been the noble retiring creatures the fiery suffragettes would have us believe. The rebellious blood of our daring Anglo-Saxon for boars made this impossible, but there was a convention which decreed the time and the manner in which their initiative might be given full play. Conventions have now been thrown to the winds with a cheerful abandon. The modern maiden flirts, smokes and drinks in the most carefree manner and amazing fashion. Having burst the shackles her traits were bared to the searchlight of human analysis and she proved to know no moderation. Merely to prove her independence, her strongth, her courage, her foresight, her ability to [unclear: uncel] over the feeble male, her enthusiasm knew no bounds. She had her say, did her deed and proved that some of her kind were superior to some of the self-elected superior sex; then, with a feminine lack of logic, concluded that this applied to all her sex, The nation has paid the price of her folly. Our University in common with all institutions of society has suffered for the excesses of the female species and the placid complacence of the male homo genus.

Any suggestion that women have no part to play, nothing desirable to offer, nothing acceptable to give and are entirely a cancer feeding on the lifeblood of our academic institutions is the raving of on egoist, blinded by the glaring inconsistencies of the sad reality of our enfeebled society. That the influ nee and activities have far exceeded those which in the interests of society are desirable, is incontestable. Reform in our colleges is necessary, and the sooner this reform is commenced the sooner will our colleges begin to take their natural position as the leading institutions of culture, scientific-research and academic knowledge in our dominion. The term student would then designate a seeker after truth and knowledge, and not be a badge of supposed dishonour, a seducer of women or the seduced of men.

The University, apart from the education of the intellectual cream of youth, should fulfil three functions; firstly that of preserving and imparting the knowledge which past generations of scholars have been enabled to accumulate; secondly to act as a [unclear: centre] of research, for the solution of vital social and scientific problems finally to provide same of that elementary training which is considered desireable for those students entering the professions.

Women may or may not be considered worthy of inclusion amongst those who index the knowledge of past generations and add to its store, according to the philosophy of the reader. Some of our best students are women; but the gathering and increasing of the world's store of knowledge has been at the expanse of their feminine charm, the weakening of their bodies, and their unfitting for the serious problems of maternity and mothereraft. Women are able to give a different line of approach on scientific and social problems and this mode of page break approach should not be ignored; but the female mind is one of intuition and not reason. It was by the use of reason that nan developed-above and tamed the other [unclear: inb] bitants of the animal world. Women, mentally and psychologically, are unfitted for all but one profession-that one for which they are pre-eminently suited by nature, intuition and bodily function being almost entirely neglected by our University colleges viz. Marriage and motherhood.

The University cannot be oblivious to the needs of the community and should be the first to remedy any obvious defect in the administration of its functions thus giving a lend to a society which regards as specialists in every line of thought those who have suffered an education under its [unclear: tutelage.] The co-education of adolescents must lead to both sexes becoming less respectful of each other, the growth of [unclear: masculiness] in the female and effeminacy in the male. It is from this that the matriarchal state evolves and the edifice of future marital disharmony constructed.

It may be suggested that the knowledge accumulated by the mother may be handed on to the child. Although every case differs; as a rule, the mother has complete charge of the child's education till it is five years of ago, after which her influence gradually diminishes until when the age of twelve is reached it is negligible. That knowledge to be imparted and the manner in which it may be imparted is not obtainable at the constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand.

Immediate reforms which appear necessary to render our University Colleges something more than cramming houses are the seclusion of women from those colleges attended by males, a drastic revision of those courses which future female students will be permitted to take and in increase in those typos of courses which assist women in married life. This, it is suggested, would result in an increased virility in the masculine sex, the attainment of greater results from scholastic research, a general strengthening of those social institutions where graduates foregather and use their knowledge, and load to progress, future marital harmony and a more progessive and virile society.

[unclear: R.G.]

C₂₅OH.

Supper was served, and owing to the paucity of the attendance, some biscuits actually remained on the plates when "Salient" departed.

Rebecca.

In the last issue of Salient H. W. presented an inadequate and grossly unfair judgment of one of the best of recent films. He "based his criticism on the hackneyed plot and stock cast of characters; and could as easily have produced the same review [unclear: by] reading Daphne du Maurier's novel or the director's script. This flagrant example of the only too [unclear: common content] basis of judgment in film reviews move as to [unclear: wrath].

To review a film fairly, we should take a number of points into consideration; and the plot is the least of [unclear: these], Most' important is the director's handling of a given theme or story. John Ford has said that A great story is bound to come through in the telling. A director must know how to bring out the detail and the touches of action which the anther has used to [unclear: develop] character". He must select, in short, select skilfully and carefully from his material [unclear: to increase] or understanding of the springs of action in s character and create an atmosphere. If' he brings that extra genius of intuition to his task, we acclaim him master.

Such 13 Alfred [unclear: Hitchcock,] who directed 'Rebecca'. The foremost director in England today, he has done more than any living man to create a characteristically English film and to perfect what [unclear: Elizabeth] [unclear: Codhead] has [unclear: called the technique] of pure cinema, He has set his own limit in [unclear: one semi-thriller] type of film - Hitchcock has never produced a film that is socially, important. And theorist of his successes - 'The 39 Steps', 'The Lady Vanishes', and now [unclear: Rebecca], justifies the self-imposed restriction.

In [unclear: 'Jamaica Inn'], a venture into historical [unclear: romance,] the best scenes atmospherically those in which the coach journeys across the for [unclear: forbidding] moor prepares one for the first [unclear: glimpse] of the Inn itself, stark [unclear: against] the night sky. "bolted and shuttered against the stranger.

We grant H.W. - [unclear: for] argument's sake -a well-worn story, a stock set of character. But under Hitchcock's direction what a splendid film emerges; With the opening monologue of Rebecca, a atmosphere is established, which is [unclear: maintained] unerringly though never obtrusively, until [unclear: the climax]. The psychological formula of suspense is skilfully [unclear: as[gap — reason: illegible]] and the characteristic [unclear: Hitchcock] device of subjecting ordinary [unclear: people to the extraordinary circumstances] Hitchcock insists on the [unclear: nomality] of his characters, despite their environment. And he is a [unclear: pass master] in the delicate art of cramming a scene with [unclear: significance without overloading it.] Witness the scenes in [unclear: 'Rebecca' where the bride] breaks a china ornament; where Mrs. Danvers [unclear: insinuates] [unclear: that she lost the struggle] against Rebecca, and had better and everything, the beach on the night of the storm. These [unclear: are remembered.]

The [unclear: medium [gap — reason: illegible], secondly, is] photography, a [unclear: more] plastic medium than the [unclear: printed word, and an infinitely more] temperamental one. [unclear: The instances of effect gained] through magnificent photography in [unclear: 'Rebecca'] were, firstly, the [unclear: striking] glimpse of [unclear: Manderley] photographed through the windscreen of the [unclear: car] as Maxim drives his [unclear: young bride towards her] new home; and secondly, the lighting [unclear: generally] [unclear: in the scene in which] she visits the West wing. In this scene [unclear: particularly.] one [unclear: realized] how much of Mrs. Danvers' sinister appearance was [unclear: due, not] to make-up, but to skilful page break lighting and photography.

Again, there is the standard of acting to be taken into consideration. The outstanding performance in 'Rebecca was that of Joan Fontaine as the young and unsophisticated bride, a difficult role which she played magnificently. Laurence Olivier was better than I remembered him in previous films, giving a splendid interpretation of another difficult role.

A film director has a thousand stunts and devices at his hand with which to achieve effect. Much depends on the use to which he puts these and the selection he makes from them. I mention only the most outstanding experiment in 'Rebecca '—the long opening monologue with its photographic accompaniment. This daring beginning vindicated itself splendidly, because of the good photography, and the lovely quality of Joan Fontaine's voice.

We must consider these points in criticising a film. What the director does with his plot, not the plot itself, is what makes or [unclear: mars] the effect. And, judged thus, 'Rebecca' is one of the best films which I have lately seen.

Robert Frank.

Once More [unclear: into The] Breach ...

If Robert Frank's criticism of my review of !Rebecca' is meant merely to show that that film was art of a very high order it would seem to be unnecessary; if it was intended as a suggestion that the content of a film is immaterial, it is, with all due respect to its author, manifestly Absurd. Of the excellence of the production and acting in 'Rebecca' I had no doubts --I think- I made that quite clear but if I did not do so I regret it. However I have no apologies to make for having [unclear: emphasised], the trite nature of the characters with whose delineation and development the film is, after all, concerned.

Quite obviously the film is not ruined because its plot is divorced from reality and its characters false, it seems equally obvious that it would he improved were plot and characters be have some relation on to the conditions of actual life rather than to the fairy tale world of the novelist.

Alfred Hitchcock has done for the escapist film what Dorothy Sayers has done for the thriller, and in so doing he has created something which is entirely pleasing and enjoyable. But it is as [unclear: ridiculous] to talk of the "pure art" of Hitchcock as it would be to balk of the "pure art" of the Sayers [unclear: thriller--in both cases it is in fact a meretricious are where serve to] attract the [unclear: undiscerning] and to conceal the [unclear: essential banality] of its subject. We must reject the misleading analogy [unclear: between] the art of the cinema and poetry and [unclear: sculpture, and] realise that it is the function of the film to express characters and situations which are part of-real [unclear: life] and have some relevance to our present situation.

The film must becomes socially significant in this sense if it is to fulfil [unclear: its] enormous potentialities. Consequently we are bound to feel regret when a producer turns from the thousand and one [unclear: situations inherent] in the travail of our whole civilisations and [unclear: tctr.a] his [unclear: artion] in the fairyland of the thriller or escapist novel, H.W.