Abstract
MR. LINDGREN'S pamphlet "The Cinema" (English Universities Press, Ltd. 4d. net) well maintains the standard set in this Handbook for Discussion Groups series, and should serve as a useful basis for discussion of various aspects of the cinema, including the Report of the Board of Trade Committee on Tendencies to Monopoly in the Cinematograph Film Industry, of which little has been heard since its publication. This particular aspect is indirectly touched by one of the subjects listed for discussion, but in the brief compass of nineteen pages Mr. Lindgren contrives to supply a good deal of background and to indicate most of the broader issues involved, such as the possibilities of the cinema in scientific research, education, the recording of history, the promotion of international understanding and the field of public information. He touches succinctly on the general problems of the entertainment value of the cinema, its influence and the question of censorship, where in two brief paragraphs he brings out the essential weaknesses and dangers inherent in censorship, and incidentally supplies adequate justification for the attempt to stimulate further discussion of the whole problem. There is an eminently practical note in the whole pamphlet, and if a word of criticism is called for, it is that the bibliography, even within the limits set, might have been improved.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Cinema. Nature 155, 359–360 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155359d0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155359d0