THE CINEMA.
IT TALKS AND MOVES.
I RAVE just been to-a demonstration of what are- generally called "talking films," though a more exact word, "Phono-
fllms," has been coined by Dr. Lee De Forest, the inventor of this particular device. Vague rumours of fresh inventions for talking films have always disturbed me, for I fancied I saw in them a menace to the proper development of cinematography, and the evolution of a proper technique of film-acting. We have been afflicted with many densely-titled and badly-acted films : I was afraid that if these same titles came to be spoken mechanically instead of written, bad acting would be encour- - aged and bad producers confirmed in their evil ways of making films as though they were stage productions.
But I have seen and heard some half-dozen Phonofllms, and my prejudices and misconceptions about talking films have been transformed into enthusiasm and interest, for it is obvious at the very first sight and hearing that these sound- pictures have functions and applications, that they contain elements for delight and instruction foreign to my favourite " movies."
It is important that it should not be thought for a moment that Phonofllms are any crude combination of ordinary film and gramophone record, such as have been shown formerly. Dr. De Forest's invention is far less complex and far more mysterious than that. A Phonofilm is an ordinary film of standard size on which is printed a photographic record of the sound accompanying the picture. A tiny band of hori- zontal stripes of many widths runs down one margin of the film : • the stripes are the equivalents of sound vibrations. When the film is projected, the intensity of an infinitesimal beam of light is varied as it falls on a photo-electric cell by the passage before it of the " stripes," and the variations prOduce currents which are magnified, then amplified, and are -finally thrown out- as an exact reproduction of the original sound by loud-speakers ; the quality of the sound is that of ' the most perfect transmission of wireless music. The human voice_particularly is• as clear as anything gramophone records
have yet produced. The question of synchronization of sound and picture does not really arise since the sound is part of the film.
It was a most uncanny and delightful experience, sitting at-the back of a great empty theatre, to see and hear a little film of Fokina performing the Swan Dance. I have seen many dances on the screen with an orchestra playing against the rhythm of the dance, and they have invariably seemed quite silly. But there was nothing silly here : it was just like seeing the ballerina herself. Immediately I thought : " If only they had had this invention in time to have taken a film of Marie. Lloyd singing, then I might have seen her." The recording of the artistry of our best comedians, singers, dancers and so forth is the most obvious and first use to which this new device should be put. It is not merely a question of recording them for posterity (yet how gladly to-day we would welcome such ghosts of Jenny Lind or of Caruso or Dan Leno !). Many of the great exponents of particular arts appear perhaps only once in a year for one or two performances in the capital of any given country. Now Phonofilms could, for instance, have carried the great voice and equally admirable presence of Chaliapine to every little town and village in the country, whereas actually he has only been heard once this year in one spot. But it is not only artists who could be broadcasted visibly as well as audibly : the great disadvantage under which politicians have so long laboured through being unable to be in two places at once will be removed. Imagine, during a political crisis or before an election, how they might by this means visibly pour out eloquent promises, explanations and exhortations to interested or antagonistic knots of electors simultaneously all over the country ! Even should the crowds that their shadows were addressing try to howl them down, they would still be at an advantage, for the operator of the film merely by turning on a little more current to the amplifiers could make the politician roar louder than any herds of Bashan in concert ! Then, the application of this new process to the bi-weekly News Gazettes which form so constant a feature of all cinema programmes might be a considerable improvement : these photographs of the massed bands at Wembley, for - instance, would have been all the better had the music of the bands been given us as well, and the illustrious Generals who make dumb speeches to congregations of Boy Scouts would lose nothing in interest if we might be allowed to listen in as well as look on. The scope of educational films can also be valuably extended by the use of the voice : the moving pictures which are already doing so much good in assisting children to retain what they are taught would gain enormously in effect if accompanied by a carefully prepared lecture by an eminent authority on the subject. And, finally, it seems an obvious economy and simplification to issue ordinary film-dramas in future with a suitable musical accompaniment printed on them, thus relieving at once the agonies of cinema pro- prietors in trying to get an insufficiently-rehearsed orchestra to synchronize both the rhythm and the nature of the music they play with the action of the film-story, and the agonies of the audience when the orchestra fails to do so, and goes on playing a dirge when a wedding-march would be more appropriate.
All these applications of sound-pictures have, of course, nothing to do with art : no one would claim, for instance, that wireless broadcasting was " art." It and Phonofllms and the new gazettes are mere reproduction. But I suggest a use for these sound-films which might well be half repro- duction and half art : that is a Phonofilmed opera. It would be -already something to broadcast both moving pictures and music as they actually are seen and heard in the opera house, but it might be much better to photograph only the voices and the orchestra and to juxtapose an original film, composed on the vast and impressive lines of The Niebelungs, neatly synchronized with the music : a dream-picture to tell the story of the opera imposingly. The advantage of having slender Isoldes and Brunhildas to look at as well as heavenly voices to listen to would be enormous.
It has become a delicate business to detect a new aesthetic value since the obliging firms which invisibly repair our torn garments announced in their multiple windows that they are the exponents of a " new art." And cinematography to-day no longer needs to be so hailed. But it is nossiblt to speculate on what Fhonofilms may have to offer us of unique beauty. While it is clear that any play given just as it would be on the stage may be quite perfectly, save for colour, presented by their means, original Phonofilm plays will tend to differ visually from stage plays because of the greater spatial boundaries of the film. Realism will be more easily obtained ; there can be real trees in Arden instead of painted trees. Personally I do not see how Phono- film plays can ever be anything but another kind of stage play, for the very use of dialogue in drama tends to hold the actors in one place, and therefore destroys the freedom of movement, so like that of the ballet, which distinguishes the " silent " films and gives them their peculiar aesthetic. A tremendous service to cinematography will, however, be rendered. Those types of " movies " which prove capable of adaptation to filmphonography without any visual or dramatic loss will simply prove themselves bad films, for in good films the silence is as much a convention as the free movement, and spoken conversation which must be heard
• or read to make the action comprehensible is unthinkable in such true films as The Street. Imagine Chaplin talking ! " His whole talent is immediately wasted. Let Felix the Cat ' begin to miaou, and you turn him into just a common cat,
whereas he is, in fact a most uncommon creature. I think,
therefore, that—far from being a disaster for the " silent " film—this interesting invention should help to dispose of the bad producers of bad films who have never been able, and never will be able, to do anything but give us idiotic and thin substitutes for Drury Lane melodrama on the screen. And so I salute these enjoyable talking films as I saluted broadcast plays and wireless concerts, because some- thing is being added to our capacity for enjoyment and experience, and no one is a button the worse off.
IRIS BARRY.
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