16 AUGUST 1935, Page 3

One Hundred Per Cent. Cinema • M. Rene Clair, the

French film producer, in an interview in Tuesday's News Chronicle, announces his intention Of making a picture which will be " 100 per cent. cinema." He is undoubtedly right in saying that the cinema has hitherto been far too dependent on the traditions and methods of the stage theatre, and has too seldom u§ed a technique which is essentially proper to the cinema, and the cinema only ; and that the coining of the talkies has tended to bind it still more to the ,conventions of the three-dimensional stage. sonic respects, however, it has always done its proper work, News-reels could ,, be produced by no agency but the films. Pictures .of scenery and travel and of movement across large landscapes could not be otherwise made ; and the Wild West films of Hollywood, in their more spirited scenes, are true to their, medium. Mr. Walt Disney has, gone further. In the sphere of pure artistic invention he has achieved results which are and exclusively cinematographic. He has given a lead which admits of infinite further exploration.