The Times (24/Jan/1950) - Films of the past: British Institute's season of revivals
(c) The Times (24/Jan/1950)
FILMS OF THE PAST
BRITISH INSTITUTE'S SEASON OF REVIVALS
Proverbially all the best work is done on the quiet, and certainly nothing could be quieter than the way in which the British Film Institute has gone about its business of collecting for preservation in its library films of recognized merit. Now, for the first time, the institute, which has no cinema of its own, has been given the opportunity of showing in the cinema of the French Institute at South Kensington some of its well-known silent films and modern documentaries. Every Wednesday until at least the end of March members of the institute will be invited, together with their guests, to assess for themselves the value of the library to students and historians of the cinema.
Each programme will contain a full-length silent film. There will, for example, be an early Frank Capra picture, Long Pants, which was made in 1927; a revival of Mr. Anthony Asquith's Shooting Stars; and a second view of The Battle of the Coronel and Falkland Islands, which was made in 1927 by British Instructional Films with the help of the Admiralty.
It is not easy to imagine any subject better suited to treatment on the screen than the two engagements of Sturdee and Craddock with von Spee. The German victory at Coronel is shown first, and then the British victory when Admiral Sturdee sailed 7,000 miles in a month to meet von Spee off the Falkland Islands. Both engagements were isolated, decisive, and strategically clear-cut; one was a consequence of, and an answer to, the other. Because of this the narrative is naturally balanced and dramatically complete. Besides its historical importance the film has the inherent excitement of a bird's-eye view of two fleets in action. Among other films to be presented are Mr. Harold Lloyd's Safety First, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger, Mr. Merian C. Cooper's Grass. Cecil Hepworth's Coming Thro' the Rye, the Russian picture Earth, and M. Jacques Feeder's L'Atalantide. The documentaries will include several experiments in colour, design, and technique by Mr. Norman McLaren.
