SIR,—I chanced to pick up a copy of your current
isiue over the weekend and was some- what amused to read Michael Croft's letter on film censorship,
It was the type of letter I should have prob- ably written myself some twenty years ago, when I first ran foul of the British film cen- sors, for I too have had scripts turned down by them because they considered them to he of too controversial a nature for public exhibition.
Michael Croft appears to think that all low-budget films are shoddily made, and, like most people who have little or no knowledge of the production of films, he apparently seems to be under the inieression that only expensively mounted films can be any good.
Nothing could be farther from the truth than this, for sonic of the world's finest films have been made on a 'shoe-string' budget.
The people who for the most part write, direct and produce British films today are completely divorced from reality. They live in a world of their own and have lost touch with the common people.
I remember the first film I ever wrote and directed myself some fifteen years ago. It was made on a 'shoe-string' budget needless to say, so I could not afford to have expensive sets built in an equally expensive film studio.
Instead I filmed most of the action in the actual surroundings I'd written the script around. It was a common doss-house, and I shall never forget how most of the professional actors I used turned up their elegant noses when they found put what kind of place it was. since then, and I have made quite a number of other films—all of them low-budget films, incidentally, for that is the only way I can retain my freedom to express myself without having to how to the dictates cif those who control the industry today.
It may interest Michael Croft to know that the less money spent on a film, the better the chance is for a writer and director to work without too many restrictions.
It is common sense after all, for, if several hundred thousand pounds arc involved in the production of a film, it is natural that those Who pay the piper should wish to call the tune.
I can see no hope for the future of British films until this is realised, and the few worth- while writers and directors now making high- priced films for the big companies will have the sense to break away and start making the kind of films that they want to make instead, of the 'epics' that they are at present so busy making.
To my way of thinking, a film should he the product of a single mind. and just so long as continue making films, I shall take good care that it remains so with me.—Yours faith-
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