The Great Movie Stars 2 [antikvár]

Introduction The coming of Sound to the motion-picture medium killed it as a means of almost effortless international communication. Hitherto, it had been a simple matter to shp in titles in the appropriate language. Once it became clear that audiences wanted Talkies, Talkies and nothing but Talkies, there was -because of the primitive dubbing techniques -nothing for it but to abandon the foreign markets. The American industry - by far the most powerful - for a while made simultaneous foreign-language versions of some of their films. This was not an expensive practice (obviously, the same sets were used) but it was a time-consuming one - and certainly the financial returns did not justify it, especially when (because of the Depression), some countries raised tariffs on foreign goods. In time, most countries accepted dubbing, and the smaller countries - where the cost of dubbing was not justified by the takings -accepted the use of sub-titles. The only country to go in for dual-language versions in a big way was Germany. The German companies made films in German, EngUsh and French. The English versions were abandoned because they could not compete in Britain or the US with American movies; but until the war the Germans made simultaneous French versions of their important films. Similarly there were occasional co-productions between Italy and France, with each version filmed separately. The rift between the European and American industries was almost complete. The US continued to dominate world markets; but European films were not expected or welcomed in the US. For one thing they were mainly bad (Hollywood had poached from Germany, for instance, almost every filmmaker of note); at first they talked far too much; and many of them featured new players unknown to American audiences. The common language between Britain and the US did not help much, because British films were slow and invariably of inferior quality - for which, ironically, Hollywood was partly to blame: the quota system inaugurated by the British government meant that British cinemas needed a supply of cheap pictures and the Hollywood companies were glad to cash in by producing them in Britain - not only for the money, but to protect their product in that country. The producers concerned were not necessarily traditional Hollywood people sent to Britain, but sometimes entrepreneurs who could not get a foothold in Hollywood. Since its inception the film industry had been, and still is, marked by the sharks and charlatans attracted to it; but they almost buried the British film industry in the 30s. A few people, notably Michael Balcon and Alexander Korda, kept it alive. In France, the situation was worse, for it attracted people not capable of getting a foothold in Britain, let alone Hollywood. Some of these people were refugees from Hitler; others were men who had departed their own minor industries in Eastern Europe. That the French cinema survived is due to a few men whose creative genius could not be denied - artists who made films for France and for the world. The first of these, chronologically, is René Clair, with his eariy Talkie comedies; then, more marginally. Marcel Pagnol. Later, four French films, still memorable, came to mean something abroad and above all others opened the market for French films, at least in New York and London. These were La Kermesse Héroique, made by Jacques Feyder, a Belgian-born director who had worked in Hollywood; Mayerling, directed by a Russian, Anatole Litvak, who went to Hollywood; Un Carnet de Bal, directed by Julien Duvivier; and La Grande Illusion, directed by Jean Renoir. Flushed with success, and with due regard to the language-barrier, the French industry by 1939 confidently expected to gain a fair share of the world market (it would never be great: in 1938 France produced 120 films to Hollywood's 550 - at an average cost of $75,000, compared with Hollywood's $1,500,000). There was little competition from the other European industries, most of which aped the American product with indifferent results. Russia was occupied with propaganda. So, by and large, was the German industry. The Third Reich maintained cinemas and distribution facilities in New York and London, but the films were recognized for what they were and not welcomed. The ftalian industry was equally under the dominance of the government - but its films were mainly escapist and not of a quality to compete with the limited market for foreign films in London or New York. After the war, Hollywood was as strong as ever, fn Britain, the war brought some sort of national pride to the fore and the quality of movies improved; after the war, Olivier's Henry V brought tremendous prestige and