Moscow film festival

By MONICA WHYTE
MOSCOW

OR two weeks Moscow has

been in the grip of fever. For
two weeks snatches of conversa-
tion in buses, cafes and stores
almost inevitably dealt with
films. For two weeks, day and
night, hundreds of fans and
autograph hunters besieged the:
Moscow hotel, eagle eyes strain-
ing to catch a glimpse of favor-
ite actors, actresses and direc-
tors.

The occasion was the Fifth
International Film Festival held
in Moscow under the theme
“For Humanism in Cinema Art,
for Peace and Friendship Among
Nations.”

A total of fifty-seven coun-
tries participated. Over eight
hundred thousand people came
to see the films, including the
thirty-six entered in the feature
film competition.

French film director Yves
Ciampi discussing the festival
said: “The Cannes Festival is
splendid but its above all a
festival of businessmen, produc-
ers and distributors (which, of
course, is also necessary.) Great
connoisseurs get together in
Venice, which is very good, but
an atmosphere of snobbishness
prevails there. The festival in
Moscow is called the genuine
festival of film makers, and also
a holiday for the most diverse
people who are fond of cinema.”

More than any other festival,
Moscow provides a showcase
for films from countries which
have only fledgling film indus-
tries. Peru, Algeria, Pakistan,
Cambodia, Iran, Tunisia, Cuba,
to mention a few, all entered

films in competition. Naturally,
many of these films were not up
to the standard of those coun-
tries with many years in film
making. But, the festival gives
them not only a chance to
measure how far they have
come, but also to see how far
they have yet to travel.

The Peruvian film “No Stars in
the Jungle” directed by Armando
Godoy was one of the surprises
of the festival. Told in flashback
form, the film explored episodes
in the childhood and life of a
hired killer, mercenary and ad-
venturer. One scene: A ragged
urchin from an _ overcrowded
slum is shining the shoes of two
businessmen. Their conversation
is about housing and deals with
the need of moving out to the
suburbs, so their children will
have more space and sun. And
one needs at least four bedrooms
because he has three children.
The slum kid listens to their talk
in a kind of minute wonder and
incomprehension and at the
same time resentment. Though

overly long and drawn out, the |

film fully deserved the gold
prize for best film from an in-
fant industry.

It must be said that this festi-
val did not have one of those
standout films which everyone
agrees unanimously is tops.
Generally the festival is regard-
ed here as undoubted proof of
the steady advance of film art in
the socialist countries. Before
the results were announced, the
most discussed, as possible con-
tenders for the Grand Prix, were
the Soviet, Hungarian, Czecho-
slovak, Bulgarian and Yugoslav.
The only other possible was
Britain’s “A Man for All Seas-
ons.” The final decision of the

jury was to split the top award
between the Hungarian entry
“Father,” and the Soviet “Jour-
nalist.”

Istvan Szabo’s “Father” is the
story of a boy who loses his
father at the end of the war and
gradually builds up a hero-myth
around his memory. The boy
grows into an adult and instead
of impressing the children with
his imaginary tales of his father,
he now impresses his girl friends.
In nineteen fifty-six, in the midst
of chaos, he enters university.
Unexplained questions and con-
tradictions torment him. Even-
tually he tries to find out what
kind of a man his father really
was. He was not a demigod, but
a short, balding individual,
neither a hero or a partisan, but
a man, not merely a myth, an
image, a fetish. The boy begins
to realize that he must live on
his own strength to be worthy of
his father’s human dignity. To do
reverance is only human, the
film says, but it is not enough
to build on, because it distorts
real life and hides the truth from
man.

The chairman of the feature
film jury, Sergei Yutkevich, said
in part about Sergei Gerasimov’s
“Journalist”:

“It seems to me to be extre-
mely important that in the film
the spiritual growth of our
working class is depicted, that
moral norms of life which not
so long ago.seemed an ideal,
have become the natural content
of everyday living. The director
was able to tell his story un-
hurriedly, in detail, in a genu-
inely novel manner.”

The two-part film deals with
the development of a young

journalist, Bath, in his contacts
with villagers in the Urals and
with more sophisticated people
abroad, in Geneva and Paris.
Utilizing contacts between the
Soviet hero of the film and an
American newsman, the director
attempts to explore the man of
two worlds, two different ways
of thinking and two different
moralities and views on life and
mans duty.

The best actor award was
given to Paul Scofield for his
portrayal of Thomas More in “A
Man for All Seasons.” Sandy
Dennis won the best actress
prize for her role of a young
teacher in a New York slum
school in “Up The Down Stair-
case.”

Two Vietnamese films shared
the top prize in the documen-
tary section of the festival. Can-
ada won an honorary diploma
for its film of a volleyball game
between the United States and
the USSR.

A competition for the best
children’s film was a new feautre
of the festival. In this category
a Soviet-Japanese co-production
“The Little Fugitive’ took top
honors.

Perhaps the most popular
feature with foreign visitors was
the retrospective showing of the
film classic productions of the
Soviet film industry over the
past half century. Eisenstein’s
“Potemkin,” Pudovkin’s “The
Mother,” and Dovzhenko’s
“Earth,” are world famed. But
this was a chance to become
acquainted with other films
which have not been as widely
shown abroad and which demon-
strated graphically the develop-
ment of Soviet film art.

The Circle—Maugham’s acid diluted

HE Shaw Festival at the
Court House _ Theatre,
Niagara-on-the-Lake, is run-
ning a fifth successful year of
top-notch professional produc-
tions of Bernard Shaw. The 375
seat, converted court house the-
atre ran its first 1967 play,
“Arms and the Man” to packed
houses. And Edward Gilbert’s

direction of Douglas Rain as the |

Swiss mercenary, Bluntschli, and
Martha Henry as the romantic
Bulgarian Raina, far from disap-
pointed their capacity audiences.
The Shavian sparkle, wit and
devastating satire against the

glory of war was captured with —

insight and skill.

So with high expectation I
went to see Shaw festival’s
second, non-Shavian production,
Somerset «Maugham’s “The
Circle.” Expectations were fan-
ned.by the knowledge that Can-
ada’s famed Kate Reid was to
star as Lady Catherine.

Why I was sadly disappoint-.

ed after being entertained for
two hours by top actors work-
ing through a competently
humorous play is difficult to
say. Certainly I didn’t expect
the brilliant political-social in-
sight of Shaw from Maugham.

- KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES

August 4, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE —Page 6

The story of Lady Kitty, as she

returns -with Lord Portius to
visit her son after thirty years
in exile from British high society
only to find her daughter-in-law
preparing to repeat her romantic
‘ dash from the stultifying atmos-
phere of the Champion-Cheney
Estate, is an entertaining light
satire on the English ruling
class. Yet even the acid of
Maugham’s satire hardly etched
| any traceable pattern on the
' consciousness of the audience.

Without knowing the pro-
cesses which created this pro-
duction, it’s dffiicult to single
out why it didn’t quite come off.
Acting? Kate Reid is an artist.
She has the presence and ease,
total command of the stage ne-
cessary to fulfill the role of the
dissipate’ aristocrat, Lady Cath-
erine. But even though the aud-
iance anticipated and aplauded
her every entry and exit, there
was a bit too much swagger in
her walk, something over-done
in facial expressions, little
things which weakened her per-
formance and made her more of
a dissipated American bour-
geois than English aristocrat.

How ever slight Kate Reid’s
weakness, it was underlined by
director Paxton Whitehead’s in-
sistence to present her lover,
Lord Portius (played by Leslie
Yeo), as a creature whose Eton-
Oxford origins are completely

lost after 30 years of dissipa-
tion in Italy. The particularness
of Maugham’s barbs are dulled
by Whitehead’s gver-play of the
generalities of situation comedy.
The funniest scene was the
farce of Portius’ card game.
The most underplayed scene, the
important dialogue between
Elizabeth (played rather un-
evenly by Susan Ringwood) and
Lady Catherine regarding the
role of women in aristocratic
society.

A number of other details
contributed to Whitehead’s poor
emphasis in direction. The sets
don’t meet the conception of de-
signer Maurice Strike. The cos-
tumes (except for Kate Reid’s)
were unimaginative (it’s hard to
accept millionaire English lords
wearing unpressed, _ ill-fitting
tuxedos). Even as small.a detail
as a china tea-pot instead of a
silver set expected in that so-
cial milieu can contribute to a
ragged-edged production.

But the audience apparently
bought their $3.50 tickets to
laugh and be amused. For that
pelasure they were awarded
thanks mainly to Maugham and
Kate Reid. For those who ex-
pect a little more from the high
potential of Shaw Festival, I ad-
vise you wait and invest in
tickets. to ‘Major Barbara”
which opens August 16 at Court
House Theatre.

—Charles Boylan.

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