Prejudiced Film Criticism ?
Sta,—Having read your film critic's review of. Ruy Bias and noted her 1' untamable personal prejudice " against M. Jean Marais, I feel prompted to ask what may, I fear, be considered a personal question. It is, whether a critic's judgement or his prejudices are what should guide us, and whether, since so many film reviewers appear to belong to the fair sex, their " fairness " is really to be relied upon ? Most of- the film's female critics appear, for some reason, to have a more or less allergic attitude to M. Jean Cocteau's art and to M. Jean Marais' inter- pretation. The masculine mind appears to find stimulation, to judge once more from recent reviews, from both. With great respect to your reviewer, I would suggest that, if she finds it so particularly difficult to review the films in which he (M. Marais) appears (and having read her
review one must not, think, underrate her difficulty), it would be .preferable that she should abstain from criticising "a fine actor" altogether, rather than exposing him, and us, to her untamable
-prejudices.-1 am, Sir, yours faithfully, HENRY MAXWELL. Carlton Club, 69 St. James's Street, S.W.1.
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