The Cinema
" Black Magic." At the Polytechnic Theatre SEVERAL travellers have written recently about the island of Bali, in the Dutch East Indies. It has been described as an earthly paradise where native life continues happily unspoilt by Western influence. The Dutch have built roads, but there are no railways, no trams, no hotels. The people cultivate their rice-fields and amuse themselves with dancing and cock-fighting. Black Magic shows all this, . but its atmosphere is not purely idyllic. A village is stricken with plague, and the villagers blame an old witch who is- supposed to be in league with the goddess of death. Her cackling laugh savours almost too strongly of the correct traditions of melodrama, but she certainly looks the part and the exorcising ceremony arranged by the village priest is a curious episode, vividly reproduced. Two young girls, " trance dancers," are exposed to fumes from a brazier, and presently, with lolling heads, they begin to sway and posture, while from a circle of men comes a monotonous accompaniment of voice and drum. The priest also goes, into a kind of trance—and at last the witch is found dead.
One weakness in the film is that it does not reveal very clearly what this magic means nowadays to the islanders. The native acting is excellent, but a slight suggestion of make-believe clings to the whole story, partly because there is scarcely any reference to the economic or political basis of Bali society. The rich landscape, with its temples and its palm-trees, has a certain air of crumbling disorder, rather as though the islanders were living in a dream of the past. However, the landscapes are charming, full of warmth and sun, and the native types and gestures and expressions are photographed with rare skill. I should have preferred a simpler narrative and a more coherent impression of the island's daily life ; but anyone who likes travel pictures will find here many delightful moments.
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