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The Review of Reviews. 



artistic effects than can be obtained from the 

 Cinema film. But it is not Art that draws the 

 multitude. It is Life. The Cinema show repre- 

 sents Life as it is lived to-day — Life caught in. 

 the act of living-, and made to reproduce itself 

 before the Cinema crowd. All kinds of life — 

 life real and life faked, life savage and life civi- 

 lised, the life of the desert and of the poles, the 

 life of animals and birds and insects, the wonder 

 and glory of Niagara, the sublimity and terror 

 of the Atlantic in storm, the pomp and panoply 

 of glorious war and of wars by no means glori- 

 ous, the stately splendour of Royal pageants — 

 every phase of the life of man from the cradle 

 to the grave the Cinema presents to the cro\\d. 

 This endlessly varied and constantly changing 

 living pnnorama of the world," and of all the 

 things that live therein, attracts the multitude 

 by its novelty and holds them by its interest. 



That is the good side of the Cinema. It has 

 another side. It is no more an unadulterated 

 boon and a blessing to men than is the news- 

 pnper, which it much resembles. Much of the 

 spectacle provided at many Cinemas is mere 

 sensational spectacle, and some of the pictures 

 are as bad as the piffling drivel that fills so 

 many of our cheaper comic papers. But even 

 here, where coarseness is often substituted for 

 humour and vulgarity for wit, the Cinema show 

 is no worse than many comic prints, and it 

 makes the same kind of appeal to the same 

 kind of people. Thanks to the rules of the Film 

 Manufacturers' Association the plague of filthy 

 living pictures has been stayed. Some of the 

 films arc suggestive, but none are obscene. The 

 Cinema show may be vapid, it may be silly, it 

 is seldom unclean. For which we may well be 

 grateful. 



EVE-Pr.EASING, MIND-TICKLING, TIME-WASTING. 



Taken at its worst, the Cinema provides 

 millions of men, vvomen, and children with a 

 means of spending their leisure hours more 

 pleasantly than they used to do ten years ago, 

 with less incitement to extravagance and to vice 

 than either the public-house or the music-hall. 

 The Cinema may be, and often is, a temptation 

 to spend time pleasantly which ought to be 

 devoted to study or to social service; but, as all 

 police authorities attest, it has diminished 

 drunkenness and immensely facilitated main- 

 tenance of law and order in the streets. The 

 chief fault that can be found with the Cinema 

 is that it is too stimulating. The rapid and con- 

 stant succession of moving pictures leaves no 

 time for reflection. You see life as from the 

 window of an express train. You have not even 

 opportunity to recollect the impressions of the 

 scene. The Cinema public is like a child whose 



only literature is picture books ; it is apt to be 

 satisfied with looking at the pictures and never 

 learns to read. The approach to the mind is 

 solely through Eye-gate ; the approach by Ear- 

 gate' is entirely neglected. The Cinema 

 challenges, but does not fix attention. It excites 

 wonder; it does not allow time for reflection. 

 "It is an eve-pleasing, mind-tickling, time- 

 wasting thing," say its critics. To which I 

 reply : Maybe so, maybe not ; but it draws. 

 Is it not possible to utilise what there is good 

 in it, and to leave out what there is bad in it, so 

 as to make the Cinema useful for instructing. 

 inspiring, and saving the people? 



AFTER THE PRINTING PRESS, THE CINEMA. 



When Gutenberg invented the art of printing 

 it was some years before the Catholic Church 

 recognised the immense possibilities that lay 

 behind the printing press. The Christian 

 Churches of our day, including in that term all 

 those who consider that they ought to do what 

 they can to improve the condition of the human 

 race, have not yet appreciated the Cinema. 

 They regard it rather as a kind of dangerous 

 and illegitimate rival to their Sunday services. 

 They have not discovered that it may be utilised 

 for their own ends. Here and there a wide- 

 awake minister or energetic mission may have 

 used the living pictures, but taken as a whole 

 the Churches have nothing to do with the 

 Cinemas any more than they have with the 

 music-hall or the theatre. This divorce between 

 those who seek to exploit the desire of the 

 people to be amused and those who desire to 

 reach the public for its own good can be 

 explained historically in the case of the 

 Churches and the Theatre; it is witliout justifi- 

 cation in the case of the Churches and the 

 Cinemas. The Cinema is free from almost every 

 objection that the Puritan brings against the 

 Theatre. It is cheap. There is no special appeal 

 to the carnal lusts which war against the soul. 

 It does not entail late hours. There are no 

 drinking bars at the Cinemas. But neverthe- 

 less the Churches as a body onlv notice the 

 Cinemas in order to object to their opening their 

 doors on Sundays. 



NATIONAL CINEMA SUNDAY MISSION. 



I w^ant to show them a more excellent way. 

 Instead of shutting up the Cinemas on Sunday, 

 let them enter in and take possession of the 

 vast field which the Cinema public offers them. 

 In brief, what I propose is that there should 

 be instituted at once a National Cinema Sundav 

 Mission for the utilisation of the closed Cinema 

 palaces for ethical, educational and evangelical 

 purposes. What scheme of Church Extension 



