The Film Between Art and Skill
Charles Lorico

The film industry is not merely an economic production like sugar, butter, or coal; it also has an artistic form. It is growing along the principles of the true art suited to the democratic age, because it combines technical skill in science with excellence in acting. It did not come as the fruit of one mind's effort but as the result of the collaboration of many; and beyond that, it has its political and social value.

From the purely artistic point of view we see that countries such as Russia and France have not contributed an ample share to the international film market, yet they have films to show probably equal to what America and Britain possess. The credit for what America and Britain have gained goes back to the fact that the English language, with its various idioms and diverse expressions, is the language current in speech over a very wide range in Great Britain, the United States of America, all the British possessions and colonies, and India — where many languages exist, though English is the most widely accepted of them, even among the most ardent Indian nationalists, and is the chosen tongue of many Indian novelists and poets — and finally it is used in South America, where for commercial reasons

it is almost everyone's second language. The aim of the American film industry in its early days was to obtain a very large capital, and thus the best American films arose, being immediately saleable.

British films, on the other hand, arose from the ideals of young men thinking in their secluded rooms. What distinguishes Britain from all the world is what are called instructional films — or living pictures — among them "Desert Victory" and "Western Approaches," and, in a broad sense, like Noël Coward's story, giving examples of wartime. These films did not appear because there was a demand for them, but because intelligent young men like John Grierson, Harry Watt, and Cavalcanti wished to produce them and sold the idea to institutions one would never think of, such as the British Post Office, or the gas, light, or coke companies, or the contractors of the British public utilities, who allot funds for the best and newest British instructional films.

Ordinary British films before the war were of various sorts: some were serious to a most astonishing degree, some middling, and some poor. Those among them that won approval — as is the case with a Hitchcock film — were those that relied on

the instructional method. Hitchcock adapted the plots of his stories from Edgar Wallace or John Buchan and made them arresting by taking up in his treatment all the fine, familiar matters of real life, striking the sensitive chords in a way that makes a man feel his heart truly stirred, as though the event had actually happened. So he photographed real streets and real railway stations and avoided sets. The best film he made in America was "Shadow of a Doubt," in which he followed the same method.

The hope truly to be sought in the British films to come lies in these fundamental matters — not in the manner of displaying stars, or in showing off a technical skill of one uniform pattern, nor in box-office receipts and other such things that involve no sound intellectual understanding.

A Princess of Ethiopia
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to the hospital for mental diseases at Asfuriyeh in Beirut — that hospital which her father founded when he was head of the ladies' society that took part in building it.

This lady was distinguished by an attractive and respected personality, and by self-denial. Everyone acknowledges her services and thanks her for the great efforts she made throughout all these years.

Jewelry

Some designs for new jewelry were displayed at an exhibition in London a few days ago, and the jewelry itself is expected to appear on the markets very soon. All the kinds of precious stones in the world were used in composing the new designs, including diamonds brought from Africa, rubies from Burma, sapphires from India and Ceylon, and tiger's-eye stones from Australia.

Gold was used in the making of these ornaments, finished in red, yellow, green, crimson, and white, and platinum was used along with it as well.

British artists and jewelry designers have concentrated all their care on producing beautiful jewelry, particularly earrings, bracelets, and brooches. Among the exhibits, too, is a design for a bracelet made of platinum and containing more than a thousand diamonds; its price is estimated at several thousand pounds, and it is counted the most valuable of the exhibits.

Also shown were a design for an earring and another for a brooch, to be made of platinum and of yellow and red gold and adorned with rubies and diamonds, and a design for a "bird of paradise" — a bird made of crimson gold, its feathers studded with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, standing on a flower made of gold with rubies at its center.

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