The Past, Present, and Future of Films

THE first scene to be photographed by a motion-picture camera, invented by Edison in 1893, was a certain mechanic in the Edison works, engaged in sneezing. This short and

comic scene—for the mechanic was a born jester—was eminently suitable for the fifty feet of film, which was all it was at first possible to handle. Although the kinetoscope earned the popularity it deserved, it was a tantalizing toy, for it was enclosed in a box and only one person could enjoy it at a time. It was not until 1896 that a screen projector was invented.

In Europe, Mr. Messel tells us in his admirable historical sketch, the film was also a great success. But in 1897 this new industry received a " slap in the face," for at a charity bazaar, favoured by the aristocracy of France, where it had been decided to have a cinema as a special attraction, the film caught fire and the temporary building, in which the bazaar was held, together with about a hundred and eighty of the flower of France, were burned to the ground. After this disaster the film was not considered a suitable entertain- ment for " nice " people. It took several years for the

cinema to recover from this social rebuff. But before the War the coloured Delhi Durbar film had been shown in England, Sara Bernhardt had graced a French screen and in Italy Quo Vadis had been made. With the War the

production of films in Europe came to a standstill, which is the chief reason for the small output of European films to-day.

In America the film industry developed along more peaceful lines. When the music hall public began to tire of the screen " turns " of trains in motion, boxing matches or babies at their food, the story film was introduced. At the same date, in 1903, there was another interesting and amusing experiment in the film world, known as Hale's Tours :-

"Hale's Tours and Scenes of the World took the form of an entirely novel side-show. It was esconced in a theatre of its own ; a small building which simulated a railway carriage down to the motion of the wheels and the placement of the seats. There was a uniformed attendant at the door. He wore a peaked cap and brass buttons, and took the part of ticket-collector. At the far end of the hall, for such in truth it was, a changing panorama of scenery was projected before the audience. It was a moderately successful illusion of travel. . . . The Tour depended for its success on the railway-carriage atmosphere."

The cinema theatre materialized out of the Hale railway coach.

Mr. Messel covers a considerable amount of ground in his book. He expounds a rather improbable theory to account for the peculiar lack of subtlety in the sentiment expressed in American films. He thinks that the cowboy of the Wild West typifies the American race, and that the whole psychology of American films is based upon the idea of the wild he-man

who, after making his pile, is rewarded by getting his girl. Although Mr. Messel has nothing very new to say about films, This Film Business is excellent reading, written with

genuine enthusiasm, and his descriptions of films, for instance

of the great Russian masterpiece Potemkin, have never been better done.

Mr. Ernest Betts sets out to write a forecast of the future of films. He touches upon so many subjects in connexion with the cinema in his book—necessarily lightly, for the book is less than a hundred small pages in length—that he does not expand fully any one of his many interesting ideas.

As an artistic medium, the film, in his view, has a great future. At present, however, the medium is equipped with a technique far in advance of the creative idea which should lie behind it.

" We have a means of expression presented to us before the desire to express, the orchestration before the music, the telescope before the star. What we want is creation itself, the moving picture, characters in action, rhythm, architectuie and design in motion, drawn out into lines, gathered into form and shadows, and hung out in splendour. Mankind moving about in order."

Mr. Betts emphasizes the moral and ethical influence which the cinema exercises—a subject which has never been scientifically investigated. He attacks the American film

-on the ground-that it has J6-gtoped-thnworlilIefth rotten *lees.

...— By a strength of purpose which is staggering, and its -one superb virtue, it has flung at us year by year, in unendiUg deluge, its parcel of borrowed stories and flashy little moralities." He does not give sufficient credit—where credit is certainly due—to Ainerican teChnique and efficiency of production.

In 2028, we are told, .most houses will be equipped with a telefilm apparatus; which Mr. Betts thinks will probably be used for Goverrunentpropaganda purposes ; the film will play a prominent part in education, and we shall have posters something like. this : " Newton may have a headache, but there is no reason why you should have one. Laws of gravita- tion now showing. Also next week. Thursday's Revolution in Mexico, relayed pre-televisually from Vera Cruz." Mr. Betts looks forward to the day when we shall be able to ice " mumps in slow motion " !

Heraclitus is an entertaining little book, full of sparkling and original ideas, which should stimulate_ Wardour Street to a more serious consideration of the artistic and moral aspects of the film industry.