CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE CINEMA
" How Green Was My Valley " (Tatler).—" The Gay Parisienne " (Rialto).—" The Barber of Seville " (Academy).—" Chasing the Blues " (Non-Theatrical Distribution) THE revival of How Green Was My Valley is interesting, both as a story about Britain's coal-mining industry, and as a Hollywood venture into the near-realistic. The director, John Ford, had a Welsh
village built in, and the Welsh Eisteddfod chorus brought to California. This transplanting to Western skies, giving a sunny brightness to almost all exteriors, results in a literal loss of atmosphere. Occasional modest greyness would have worked wonders, being often thematically more fitting to the story. By telling almost half its tale in mute action with a reminiscing commentary, the film perhaps finds the means to justify a slight over-sureness of acting, gesture too adroitly timed. This is the more noticeable because of the honesty of purpose colouring the whole.
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It is in ballet and opera that we expect perfection of timing and gesture, and two current films give us both. The Gay Parisienne, with Leonide Massine, is a colour-film of the ballet. Considered with The Barber of Seville (released last week), it leaves us with the half- century-old problem : How far can cinema contribute to the older arts? Both these films suggest that it can contribute much, as the invention of the phonograph contributed to music ; it brought music to millions who otherwise would not have had it—but it was canned. The Gay Parisienne captures as much of the spirit of the piece as one expects a film of the kind to do. It is colourful, light, airy. In one respect this film may have strayed a little from faithful repre- sentation. While obviously Offenbach's piece is anything but slow, an element of breathlessness pervades it, as if film tempo rather than ballet tempo had got the upper hand. The Barber of Seville is an Italian offering, consisting of a sound- track of the opera, together with visuals, finely performed, in an orthodox stage setting. There is the least possible interference from the film-makers in this reputedly first film opera; primacy of opera is even emphasised by titles breaking up he film into Acts I, 2 and 3. Camera movement and cutting are unobtrusive, and should leave the work itself free for the enjoyment of the opera-goer who is in reach only of the canned commodity.
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The recent release of a C.O.I. documentary, Chasing the Blues, has most to say about the marriage of the older arts and film. Music, ballet, cartoon and ordinary film photography, all merge into a six- minute piece of artistic gaiety. And the theme? Paint your factory, brighten the place up, if you want increased output from workers in the cotton industry. Unless you are a factory manager, or a member of a forward-looking film society, you may not see it. But in a few years the industry will be making films like this to show to jaded
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