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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
SPEAKING FILM PROBLEMS.
THE EXPERIMENT WITH "ST. JOAN."..
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER
1 1927.
THE FESTIVAL OF THE VINE.
A COLOURFUL PAGEANT AT VEVEY.
LONDON COMMENT.
CERES AND BACCHUS, Next Wednesday Mr. Bernard The Festival of the Vine, which Shaw, Miss Sybil Thorndike, and dates from Roman times, is to be Mr. Lewis Casson are going to held at Vevey from August 1 to caduct a final experiment with August. 9, says a Home paper of the "speaking film," and they will mail week. It is a rare and ex- decide, as a result of that experi-pehalve affair, and has only been ment, whether to continue withheld three or four times in a cen- the projected filming of certain tury. The last was in 1906 and acones from "St. Joan," states the cast five hundred thousand francs Observer of mail week. One such (Swiss). Tha year it will be experiment has already been made something nearer a million francs. during the week, but no decision but the organisers hope to make has been reached.
ith success and at least to covor all expenses. Each citizen is asked to guarantee the sale of a certain number of tickets, and each, par- ticipant
"We have seen enough in our first trial," said Mr. Casson, in an Interview with the The Observer, to be convinced that there are vary great possibilities in the apeaking film'; but it cannot be stressed too much that the whole of our investigation from begin- wing to end must be laboratory werk. We are not trying so much to produce definite artistic results
the pageant provides his own costume. The organisa- tion is in the hands of an artist who is responsible for the general colour-scheme and effect:
The pageant always follows closely the old tradition, but brought up to date in detail. The
as to find out the laws of the pra-goddesses Pales (Spring) and duction of these films.".
Ceres (Summer), and the god This is the first occasion
Bacchus (Autumn) are ench' ac which Mr. Shaw has allowed anycompanied by their respective play or part of a play of his to be altars, priests or priestesses and Gimed. It is, one gathers, his attendants. Altogether 1,800 per-. eriosity about, and his interest sons will take part, some of whom in, the scientific novelty and the have been rehearsing since Janu- technique of "the nascent art,” na he has called it, that has led to his ary, for music and dancing are to active participation in the experi- much practice.
play important roles and need
nient.
As for his own view, Mr. Casson declares that his invention roused in him for the first time a vivid interest in the cinema. "The silent film," he said, "was not interesting to me, simply because it was silent. My interest in in the human voice, and when it be came possible for the film to re- produce speech as well as gesture, I became immediately interested." If the invention developed, as he thought it would. Mr. Casson nfessed that he would be very niuch tempted to go in seriously for film work. Already," he thought, that within the limita- tions imposed by the loud-speaker, the speaking film had reached a srprising level of excellence in technique. Wherever there was a loud-speaker there was nece3- sarily a certain amount of dis- tortion-though in that direction research is continuous, and in the end doubtless the whole problem of distortion would be abolished.
Our Ears Becoming Coarse?, "Sometimes, I think," he said, "that our ears are becoming
Water-colour sketches are made of the prize-winning costumes and of the pageant itself, and are kept in the museum 33 Here you may sec and compare at your leisure the pageants of
former centuries.
Napoleonic Memory.
records.
The great market-square of Vevey, large enough for Napoleon to have reviewed his troops there before marching them into Italy, makes an ideal setting for the festival, sloping as it does from the old covered market at the top to the chestunt-trees on, the lake- side. It took many carpenters many months to erect" the buye grand-stand which can sent over 13,000 people. All acats over thirty-three francs have a back- a comfort not to be despised on n bol August day.
Seat-holders will not only have the pageant to look at, but will also be able to let their eyes wan- der over one of the widest and most beautiful views in Switzer- land. Across the dreamy, translo. cent lake are the tortured peaks of the Savoy Mountains, like sorie CORTBE. We have almost ceased prehistoric waves of molten lava notice that there is a very much petrified in mid-air; to the left, difference between hearing a real the Rhone Valley, with its long, orchestra and listening to loud- sjeaker. Perhaps when the loud-green line at the end of the lake, above which the faint snow-caps speaker starts one feels for a g- of the Dent du Midi and other ment that there is nothing to be ricre distant giants seem to hang abore a soft blue haze like a
heard but a more or less
austere
pleasant noise, but after a timet.autiful mirage; to the right. the one accepts the new convention. long waterway to Geneva; and, While the whole thing is on a difbehind, the terraced vine-yards of ferent level, the car finds the Mont Pelorir. and the same relations of tones and quali-tower of St. Martin, dominating ties between the different instru-from amongst its great trees both ments as in a real orchestra. So, city and market-place, as well as with the human voice.
"But the voice has this great of which lie the British prisoners the flowery cemetery, in the mid t advantage over the orchestra: of war who died in Switzerland it сал adapt itself. to the after their release from Germany
picce during the war.
new conditions.
can.
The
I
J
town by heralds in medieval cos- tumes, hended by bands and ac- companied by officers of the Con-
A0 to speak, be reomhes- The Festival was duly preclaim- tratod. And it is to this pointed on the last day of May in twelve that our researches have so different parts of the straggling far been directed. We find that the technique of acting will have to be re-modelled. Whereas 0 the stage it is necessary to exfrerie with all the pomp and cere. aggerate, to act larger than life; for the Phonofilm we have understate that is, act with even
to
mony of the Middle Ages.
Vineyard Trouples.
less emphasis than people use in To the majority of people the normal life: Actors on the silent word. "vineyard" evokes a mental steen have found that the same picture of a pleasant hill-side, thing applies to gestures. The with gaily dressed fruit-pickers camera has keener eyes than any in sun hats piling purple and audience ever had,
golden grapes into picturesque Problem of Prompting.
mule-carts, but how many realise the never-ending toil demanded of "To rive a trival instance: we the vine-dresser by this very exact- have found that when we areing plant? The life of a small Swiss working in this new medium, the vineyard-owner is one of Incess- problem of prompting becomes ant labour and anxiety, and he cute. When plays are broadcast knows that a late frost, a land- from the B.B.C. studios, a script is slide, or a plague of insects may u rolled silently before the play at any moment rob him of all the ers, and thus prompting becomes fruits of his year's hard work. innecessary; but when you are The vineyards along the lower freing a camera that watches as slopes of the hills on the northern keenly as it listens there is a dif- shore of the Lake of Geneva are ficulty. Of course it rare for a held up in succeeding terraces by porson, as actors put it. to 'ry long grey stone walls, not always up; but it happens often enough cemented, and therefore needing that an actor hesitates. Some careful watching because of the times he is promated unobtrusive weight of earth pressing against ly by another actor; often enough them. The soil, too, slips down in he does not need even that help. On heavy rain, and has to be carried the phonofilm, the merest hesitaback into place on the patient tion is magnified so much that it is backs of the small owner and his almost enough to destroy the illu- family, for he cannot afford hired sion.
labour. The onslaught of insects. "That is the sort of problem weis so sudden that the whole family. are working on; in short, the pro- must work day and night to frust- blems of recording speech are all rate their designs. As to frosts our concera. How to reconcile and land-slides, these come under the technique of production and the category of "the Hand of photography which has grown up God," and must be borne with re- for the silent film with the de.
signation. mands of a speaking film, is a grave problem which will have to be studied carefully in the fu ture. At present It is not our con-
may well be that it will never be released.
"However that may be, I be- corn; we are simply making ex lleve firmly that the speaking film periments with the voice. Should we decide after next Wednesday has an interesting career to come; to go on with the experiment we it is good to have the opportunity shall make a film only of certain of investigating Its problems so excerpts from 'St. Joan' and it
scon."
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